Predicting eBook purchases of heterogeneous social groups in a social network site using network metrics

This study examines users social influence on e-book purchases within a social network drawing on the structural equivalence model. Structural equivalence holds that higher social influence levels exist among socially equivalent people (Burt, 1987). Using structural equivalence, network users were classified as either equivalent or inequivalent. Given that measurement data on social relationships among people within a network are often limited, to assign users to groups, link estimation utilised product choices to calculate network measures. With that framework, purchasing behaviours were predicted using various algorithms. Consistent with structural equivalence, the findings demonstrate that the average accuracy under the various algorithms is significantly higher in equivalent than inequivalent networks. Finally, comparing results with and without the network measurement variables suggests that failing to consider social equivalence may mislead prediction results by overestimating the social influence effect in low equivalent groups or underestimating the effect of high social equivalent groups.