Sustainable Online Communities Exhibit Distinct Hierarchical Structures Across Scales of Size

26 Pages Posted: 5 Apr 2017 Last revised: 15 Oct 2017

See all articles by Yaniv Dover

Yaniv Dover

Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Jerusalem School of Business Administration; Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Center for the Study of Rationality

Jacob Goldenberg

Reichman University - Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliyah

Daniel Shapira

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Date Written: April 4, 2017

Abstract

Online communities exist in many forms and sizes. Yet, there is limited insight into why some online communities are sustainable, while others disappear. We find that in order to maintain sustainability, online communities exhibit a typical hierarchical social circle structure that balances cohesiveness across size scales. We develop a method that maps social groups (circles) across size scales, from the level of small network cliques to the level of the whole community. We then use this method to map 10,122 real-life online communities, with a total of 134,747 members, over a period of more than a decade. We find that there is a “stability valley” that marks a range of mapping profiles in which communities preserve sustainability. Moreover, it turns out that mapping profiles based only on the first 30 days of a community’s lifetime can predict the community size up to ten years in the future.

Keywords: social networks, online communities, heirarchical social structure, network stability, network sustainability, cohesiveness

JEL Classification: D85, C61

Suggested Citation

Dover, Yaniv and Goldenberg, Jacob and Shapira, Daniel, Sustainable Online Communities Exhibit Distinct Hierarchical Structures Across Scales of Size (April 4, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2946010 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2946010

Yaniv Dover (Contact Author)

Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Jerusalem School of Business Administration ( email )

Mount Scopus
Jerusalem, 91905
Israel

Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Center for the Study of Rationality

Feldman Building
Givat-Ram
Jerusalem, 91904
Israel

Jacob Goldenberg

Reichman University - Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliyah ( email )

P.O. Box 167
Herzliya, 4610101
Israel

Daniel Shapira

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev ( email )

1 Ben-Gurion Blvd
Beer-Sheba 84105, 84105
Israel

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