Propagation in Networks: The impact of information processing at the actor level on system-wide propagation dynamics Defended on Thursday, 17 December 2015

This thesis addresses the analysis of system-wide dynamics of propagation in networks. In order to understand such system-wide dynamics of propagation, an emphasis should be placed on the critical mechanism by which propagation takes place between actors on a micro level. This thesis puts forward the information processing view of propagation, a framework in which describes this mechanism using three distinct sub-processes of propagation; Radiation, Transmission and Reception. Decomposing the propagation mechanism into these three sub-processes yields a more detailed and methodologically stronger model of propagation, the RTR-model of propagation, which is better suited for capturing the complexity of the propagation processes in practice.

Agent-based simulations adopting this model show that distinguishing the three sub-processes of propagation is critical in order to: 1) understand the effects of interventions in the propagation process, 2) incorporate the heterogeneous behavior of actors, and 3) understand the role of network structure in propagation

Keywords

Networks, propagation, simulation, agent-based model, diffusion, contagion, mechanism, information processing, innovation, process


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