Social Networks and Trust

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

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2. Introduction: Embedded Trust

   Pages 1-30

3. Social Network Analysis and Game Theory: Basic Concepts and Assumptions

   Pages 31-52

4. A Game-theoretic Model for Control Effects in Social Networks

   Pages 53-91

5. A Stochastic Model for Information Diffusion in Social Networks

   Pages 93-123

6. Contracting in Information Technology Transactions: A Survey

   Pages 125-161

7. Buying a Used Car: An Experiment

   Pages 163-190

8. Summary and New Perspectives

   Pages 191-211

9. Back Matter

   Pages 213-271

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Social Networks and Trust discusses two possible explanations for the emergence of trust via social networks. If network members can sanction untrustworthiness of actors, these actors may refrain from acting in an untrustworthy manner. Moreover, if actors are informed regularly about trustworthy behavior of others, trust will grow among these actors.
A unique combination of formal model building and empirical methodology is used to derive and test hypotheses about the effects of networks on trust. The models combine elements from game theory, which is mainly used in economics, and social network analysis, which is mainly used in sociology.
The hypotheses are tested (1) by analyzing contracts in information technology transactions from a survey on small and medium-sized enterprises and (2) by studying judgments of subjects in a vignette experiment related to hypothetical transactions with a used-car dealer.

• Information Technology (IT)
• Nation
• Stochastic model
• calculus
• game theory

• Department of Sociology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

  Vincent Buskens

Vincent Buskens holds a masters degree in Discrete Mathematics and in Technological Development Science and graduated in Sociology in 1999 at Utrecht University. His Ph.D. research, which combines theory and applications from Sociology and Economics, was awarded with the prize for the best dissertation in economics in the Netherlands from the Royal Netherlands' Economic Association in 1998-1999. From 1999 to 2000 he worked as a visiting scholar at Stanford Graduate School of Business and at the University of Chicago. As of 2000, he works as a research fellow at the Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS), located at Utrecht University, The Netherlands

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