Network Content and Complex Diffusion: Evidence from a Microfinance Intervention in India

• In Event: 3424 - Entrepreneurs, Managers, and Their Environments

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how network content shapes the speed of information flows and the diffusion of complex innovations, those requiring social validation from multiple sources for their adoption. Prior sociological theory and research have focused on tie-level and actor-level properties of networks, but have given insufficient consideration of how network content shapes information transmission. This study fundamentally advances the sociological literature, by showing that the speed and breadth of diffusion depend on the contents of network relations. I use panel data from an informational intervention among 49,561 people connected by multiple networks in 43 Indian villages over 30 months to demonstrate that network contents interacted to affect (i) the speed of information flows, and (ii) the speed and breadth of microfinance diffusion over time. I discuss the implications of these findings for studying network processes and information transmission.

Author

• Valentina A. Assenova, University of Pennsylvania