Journal of the Association for Information Systems (2025)
Capturing the “Social” in Social Networks: The Conceptualization and Empirical Application of Relational Quality
Christian Meske, Iris Junglas, Matthias Trier, Johannes Schneider, Roope Jaakonmäki, Jan vom Brocke
This study introduces and validates a concept called "relational quality" to better understand the social dynamics within online networks beyond just connection counts. By analyzing over 440,000 messages from two large corporate social networks, the researchers developed four measurable markers—being personal, curious, respectful, and sharing—to capture the richness of online relationships.
Problem
Traditional analysis of social networks focuses heavily on structural aspects, such as who is connected to whom, but often overlooks the actual quality and nature of the interactions. This creates a research gap where the 'social' element of social networks is not fully understood, limiting our ability to see how online relationships create value. This study addresses this by developing a framework to conceptualize and measure the quality of these digital social interactions.
Outcome
- Relational quality is a distinct and relevant dimension that complements traditional structural social network analysis (SNA), which typically only focuses on network structure. - The study identifies and measures four key facets of relational quality: being personal, being curious, being polite, and sharing. - Different types of users exhibit distinct patterns of relational quality; for instance, 'connectors' (users with many connections but low activity) are the most personal, while 'broadcasters' (users with high activity but few connections) share the most resources. - As a user's activity (e.g., number of posts) increases, their interactions tend to become less personal, curious, and polite, while their sharing of resources increases. - In contrast, as a user's number of connections grows, their interactions become more personal and curious, but they tend to share fewer resources.
Host: Welcome to A.I.S. Insights — powered by Living Knowledge. I’m your host, Anna Ivy Summers. Today, we’re diving into a fascinating study that rethinks how we measure the value of our professional networks. It’s titled "Capturing the “Social” in Social Networks: The Conceptualization and Empirical Application of Relational Quality".
Host: With me is our expert analyst, Alex Ian Sutherland. Alex, welcome.
Expert: Great to be here, Anna.
Host: So, this study introduces a concept called "relational quality". What's that all about?
Expert: It’s about looking past the surface. This study suggests that to truly understand online networks, we need to go beyond just counting connections or posts. It developed four measurable markers—being personal, curious, respectful, and sharing—to capture the actual richness of the relationships people build online.
Host: That brings us to the big problem. When businesses look at their internal social networks, say on platforms like Slack or Yammer, what are they usually measuring, and what are they missing?
Expert: Traditionally, they rely on what’s called Social Network Analysis, or SNA. It’s great at creating a structural map—it shows who is connected to whom and who the central hubs are. But it often overlooks the actual substance of those interactions.
Host: So it’s like seeing the roads on a map, but not the traffic?
Expert: Exactly. You see the connections, but you don't know the nature of the conversation. Is it a quick, transactional question, or is it a deep, trust-building exchange? Traditional analysis was missing the 'social' element of social networks, which limits our ability to see how these online relationships actually create value.
Host: So how did the researchers in this study try to measure that missing social element?
Expert: Their approach was to analyze the language itself. They looked at over 440,000 messages posted by more than 24,000 employees across two large corporate social networks. Using linguistic analysis, they measured the content of the messages against those four key markers I mentioned: how personal, how curious, how polite, and how much sharing was going on.
Host: And what did this new lens reveal? What were the key findings?
Expert: First, they confirmed that this "relational quality" is a totally distinct and relevant dimension that complements the traditional structural analysis. It adds a whole new layer of understanding.
Host: You mentioned it helps identify different types of users. Could you give us an example?
Expert: Absolutely. They identified some fascinating profiles. For instance, they found what they call 'Connectors'. These are people with many connections but relatively low posting activity. The study found that when they do interact, they are the most personal.
Host: So they’re quiet but effective relationship builders. Who else?
Expert: On the other end of the spectrum are 'Broadcasters'. These users are highly active, sending lots of messages, but to a more confined group of people. They excelled at sharing resources, like links and documents, but their messages ranked the lowest on being personal, curious, and polite.
Host: That implies a trade-off then. As your activity level changes, the quality of your interactions might change too?
Expert: Precisely. The study found that as a user's number of posts increases, their interactions tend to become less personal and less curious. They shift from dialogue to monologue. In contrast, as a user's number of connections grows, their interactions actually become more personal and curious. It shows building a wide network is different from just being a loud voice.
Host: This is where it gets really interesting. Alex, why does this matter for a business leader? What are the practical takeaways here?
Expert: The implications are significant. First, it shows that simply encouraging "more engagement" on your enterprise network might not be the right goal. You could just be creating more broadcasters, not better collaborators. It’s about fostering the right *kind* of interaction.
Host: It's about quality over quantity. What's another key takeaway?
Expert: It helps businesses identify their hidden influencers. A 'Connector' might be overlooked by traditional metrics that favor high activity. But these are the people quietly building trust and bridging silos between departments. They are cultivating the social capital that is crucial for innovation and collaboration.
Host: So you could use this kind of analysis to get a health check on your company’s internal network?
Expert: Absolutely. It provides a diagnostic tool. Is your network fostering transactional broadcasting, or is it building real, collaborative relationships? Are new hires being welcomed into curious, supportive conversations, or are they just being hit with a firehose of information? This framework helps you see and improve the true social fabric of your organization.
Host: So, to recap: looking beyond just who's connected to whom and measuring the *quality* of interactions—how personal, curious, polite, and sharing they are—paints a much richer, more actionable picture of our internal networks. It reveals different, important user roles like 'Connectors' and 'Broadcasters', proving that more activity doesn't always mean better collaboration.
Host: Alex, thank you so much for breaking down this insightful study for us.
Expert: My pleasure, Anna.
Host: And thank you to our listeners for tuning into A.I.S. Insights, powered by Living Knowledge.
Enterprise Social Network, Social Capital, Relational Quality, Social Network Analysis, Linguistic Analysis, Computational Research
