The Architecture of Social Networks and the Diffusion of Innovations

Clicks: 1
ID: 314956
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal

Ranked #188 of 193 articles by views in The Review of Economic Studies

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 193 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Abstract For many technologies and behaviors, an agent’s benefit from adopting depends on his contacts adopting, and the benefit to his contacts of adopting depends on their contacts adopting. This paper examines how the architecture of these connections shapes the success or failure of the diffusion of innovations. We start with a standard model of diffusion with the key addition that some agents can coordinate their decisions. This captures the idea that people often talk and make decisions together with friends or family to adopt technologies. We show that insularity of connections, that is, the extent to which agents tend to concentrate their connections to a narrow set of other agents, determines contagion. However, whether insularity helps or hinders depends on the technology being diffused. For technologies that are valuable even without many contacts adopting, we find insular connections hinder adoption, but for technologies that are valuable only when many contacts adopt, insular connections facilitate adoption.
Reference Key
openalex_W7162400860 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Bryony Reich
Journal The Review of Economic Studies
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/restud/rdag052
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdag052
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.