These functions, together with net_reciprocity(), are used jointly to measure how hierarchical a network is:

  • net_by_connectedness() measures the proportion of dyads in the network that are reachable to one another, or the degree to which network is a single component.

  • net_by_efficiency() measures the Krackhardt efficiency score.

  • net_by_upperbound() measures the Krackhardt (least) upper bound score.

net_by_connectedness(.data)

net_by_efficiency(.data)

net_by_upperbound(.data)

Arguments

.data

A network object of class stocnet, igraph, tbl_graph, network, or similar. Internally any of these will be coerced to an efficient implementation. For more information on possible coercions, see e.g. manynet::as_stocnet().

Value

A network_measure numeric score.

The object also carries the measure it computed, the range its values can fall within, and whether and how those values were normalized. These are shown as a one-line header when the object is printed. Where a measure offers a choice between several ways of counting the same thing, it also carries the variant it used. All can be retrieved with attr().

Efficiency

A perfect hierarchy is a tree: every node but the root has exactly one superior, and there are no ties to spare. Krackhardt's efficiency asks how close a network comes to that, by counting the ties it carries in excess of the minimum needed to hold its components together, as a proportion of the most excess ties it could possibly carry: $$E = 1 - \frac{|E| - \sum_i (N_i - 1)}{\sum_i \left(M_i - (N_i - 1)\right)}$$ where \(N_i\) is the size of weak component \(i\) and \(M_i\) the number of ties possible within it. A tree or forest scores 1, and a complete network 0.

References

On hierarchy

Krackhardt, David. 1994. Graph theoretical dimensions of informal organizations. In Carley and Prietula (eds) Computational Organizational Theory, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Pp. 89-111.

Everett, Martin, and David Krackhardt. 2012. “A second look at Krackhardt's graph theoretical dimensions of informal organizations.” Social Networks, 34: 159-163. doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2011.10.006

Examples

net_by_connectedness(ison_networkers)
#> # Connectedness, normalized [0, 1]
#> [1] 1
1 - net_by_reciprocity(ison_networkers)
#> # Reciprocity, normalized [0, 1]
#> [1] 0.209
net_by_efficiency(ison_networkers)
#> # Efficiency, normalized [0, 1]
#> [1] 0.574
net_by_upperbound(ison_networkers)
#> # Least upper boundedness, normalized [0, 1]
#> [1] 1