Homophily or Heterophily? The Janus Face of Collaboration Tie Formation: Evidence from Polyadic Interaction Network Analysis
Type: article
Abstract: As content creators strive to compete for limited viewer attention, they have been increasingly adopted collaborative content provision on digital content platforms. However, there remains a dearth of understanding about what antecedents drive collaboration tie formation. Utilizing 8,463 collaboration events involving 5,998 unique users retrieved from Bilibili, a prestigious digital creator platform, we construct a directed relational hyperevent model (RHEM) to capture the dynamics embedded in polyadic creator interaction network. We yield three key findings: (1) driven by the dynamic balance between resource complementarity acquisition and coordination cost reduction, homophily and heterophily effects coexist in the collaboration network; (2) structural features such as inertia and reciprocation are essential in predicting collaboration decision; (3) the virtual flow is hierarchical in nature, such that collaborations may go from higher-status to lower-status users, or vice versa. This study sheds lights on how to properly model polyadic collaboration network and offers valuable practical implications.
Institution: University of Georgia
Language: English
Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7222988109