Harkins, Andrew (2014) Essays on social networks, information and organisations. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

In the first chapter of this thesis I bring two well-known concepts from sociology and network science into the literature on network games, by microfounding the notions of the k-core and coreness. I show that these concepts arise naturally out of a simple threshold game played on a network. I also analyse the stability properties of equilibria, borrowing ideas from evolutionary game theory. The Pareto dominant equilibrium is shown to be unstable and prone to unravelling, so vulnerable nodes in the network are identified. This model can be applied to technology adoption decisions within firms and user engagement in social networks.

The second chapter focuses on how firms manage public beliefs about the value of their product. I use a ‘Bayesian persuasion’ approach to investigate how they might optimally design a publicity campaign to maximise sales. The optimal campaign will depend on the accuracy of private information, with more broadly focused campaigns preferred when consumers are less certain of their valuation. I also look at how the behaviour of external reviewers influences this decision. Reviewers have varying standards to pass their test and so I analyse the optimal reviewer in this context, highlighting cases where buyers can prefer softer reviewers than sellers.

The third chapter unites these themes by examining how the internal structure of the firm influences its ability to adapt itself to the external environment. Following Herbert Simon, I assume that a major obstacle in this task is insufficient attention to the relevant information. Since attention is a costly and scarce resource for employees, I examine how their endogenous allocation of attention impacts the organisation’s performance. I follow the ‘team theory’ approach to show that more broadly defined tasks exhibit inertia in decision making, also relating this to recent empirical results regarding how CEOs allocate their attention.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Marketing -- Econometric models, Game theory, Social sciences -- Network analysis, Social networks -- Economic aspects, Computer networks -- Economic aspects
Official Date:	September 2014
Dates:	Date Event September 2014 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Economics
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Dutta, Bhaskar ; Sgroi, Daniel
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	ix, 109 leaves : charts
Language:	eng

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