Research

In 2013, the University Research Priority Program (URPP) Social Networks was founded with the aim of fostering research in, on and with social networks. In this URPP, we examine relationships between social structures and economic behavior with a focus on complex, networked systems. This interdisciplinary program investigates social networks by combining elements from economics, sociology, information technology, mathematics and physics.

Society forms the context in which enterprises, organizations and individuals operate. Decisions and actions are fundamentally influenced by their social context. In turn, enterprises, organizations and individuals shape the social context they are living in. The importance of values for human behavior is beyond dispute. Values serve societal goals and enable individuals to cope with their social conditions. It is, therefore, quite surprising to see the extent to which this issue has been neglected by researchers in the area of business administration. This past neglect has made it essential to investigate the impact of social networks on the formation, prioritization, stabilization and change of values. Overview Research Projects

The establishment, use, and replacement of resources in enterprises are significantly affected by network structures. Although this topic is highly relevant to business administration, there is still a need for clarification. How do network structures affect and are affected by individual and collective consumer behaviors, ranking algorithms, and firms’ innovation activites? How do they affect the use of resources in strategic enterprises and in the economy overall? Overview Research Projects

Research within this pillar has the general aim of investigating the role networks play for consumers and revealing the basic mechanisms behind the formation of attitudes, preferences, values and opinions. Overview Research Projects