Innovation in hyperlink and social media networks: Comparing connection strategies of innovative companies in hyperlink and social media networks

Dorian Arifi; Bernd Resch; Jan Kinne; David Lenz

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0283372

Innovation in hyperlink and social media networks: Comparing connection strategies of innovative companies in hyperlink and social media networks

PLoS One. 2023 Mar 30;18(3):e0283372. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0283372. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Dorian Arifi¹, Bernd Resch^{1

2}, Jan Kinne^{3

4}, David Lenz^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Geoinformatics-Z_GIS, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
² Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States of America.
³ ISTARI.AI, Mannheim, Germany.
⁴ Department of Economics of Innovation and Industrial Dynamics, ZEW Centre for European Economic Research, Mannheim, Germany.

Abstract

This paper seeks to unveil how (geospatial) connection strategies associated with business innovation, differ between geolocated social media and hyperlink company networks. Thereby, we provide a first step towards understanding connection strategies of innovative companies on social media platforms. For this purpose, we build a hyperlink and Twitter follower network for 11,892 companies in the information technology (IT) sector and compare them along four dimensions. First, underlying network structures were assessed. Second, we asserted information flow patterns between companies with the help of centrality measures. Third, geographic and cognitive proximities of companies were compared. Fourth, the influence of company characteristics was examined through linear and logistic regression models. This comparison revealed, that on a general level the basic connection patterns of the hyperlink and Twitter network differ. Nevertheless, the geospatial dimension (geographic proximity) and the knowledge base of a company (cognitive proximity) appear to have a similar influence on the decision to connect with other companies on Twitter and via hyperlinks. Further, the results suggest that innovative companies most likely align their connection strategies across hyperlink and Twitter networks. Thus, business innovation might effect connection strategies across online company networks in a comparable manner.

Copyright: © 2023 Arifi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Commerce
Humans
Information Science
Social Media*
Social Networking
Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

The funder ISTARI.AI provided support in the form of salaries for authors JK and DL, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. However, ISTARI.AI assisted in the data acquisition process by providing the hyperlink data employed in this study, which is part of the webAI database by ISTARI.AI. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.