Favoritism or equality: difference analysis of users' utilization of academic social networks for top research corporations

Abstract

PurposeAs an important platform for academic communication and knowledge acquisition, academic social network (ASN) has attracted worldwide researchers. The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the differences of corporation researchers in ASN utilization from the two aspects of social performance and academic performance.Design/methodology/approachApplying knowledge-based theory, this paper decoupled ASN into social network and academic network and measured utilization of users by social performance and academic performance. Hypotheses were proposed from the perspectives of research areas and corporate reputation. In the part of empirical research, the top 92 research corporations were selected as the sample, and relevant metric data from the member profile pages on ResearchGate was collected for comparing analysis to explore their utilization characteristics.FindingsThe results show that users of different research corporations have certain favoritism in their utilization of ASNs. Science and technology-oriented corporations are better in comprehensive social performance and academic quality. Science-oriented corporations are better at utilizing the interactive functions. However, neither social utilization nor academic utilization, technology-oriented corporations perform well.Originality/valueThis paper focuses on corporation researchers, who have started to embrace ASNs but whose behaviors were less studied. The research paradigm is an expansion and enrichment of the dual network decoupling theory in the field of ASN research. It also deepens the research on ASN utilization of corporation researchers and could give references for ASNs to improve service for corporation users in different research areas.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-12-2019-0389

Robustness of open source community multi-project knowledge collaboration network based on structural hole theory

“…When no direct connection exists between two or more individuals in the network, it creates a structural vulnerability, which widely exists in many types of networks (e.g., social, innovation, knowledge, collaborative and information networks) [ 25 ]. The development of structural hole theory remains driven by the need to understand how entities benefit from the competition of social networks and their cross relationships.…”

Investigating users' sustained information seeking on academic social networking sites

“…First, providers of ASNSs are suggested to broaden academic services ranging from information recommendations to encouraging active information seeking and use. Traditional ASNS services highlight recommending useful academic information such as influential authors, papers, projects, answers and questions relevant to the research interests of researchers (Deng et al, 2019;Jeng et al, 2017;Lee et al, 2019;Yan et al, 2020). Unfortunately, they have not underscored the importance of sustained information seeking among researchers on ASNSs.…”

Framework for using online social networks for sustainability awareness

“…This awareness of sustainability can be the effect of both formally planned and executed initiatives carried out by different organizations, such as public administrations, NGOs and private companies (Yan et al. , 2021), or deliberate or unintended access to information related to sustainability posted by individuals.…”