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Dissertation Information for Joung Im Kim

NAME:
- Joung Im Kim

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Communication

SCHOOL:
- Stanford University (USA) (1986)

ADVISORS:
- None

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Inspected

Title: THE STRENGTH OF WEAK TIES: A CONCEPTUAL ELABORATION AT THE DYAD-LEVEL

Abstract: "This dissertation conceptually elaborates the strength-of-weak-ties argument advanced by Mark Granovetter (1973). Past research has not consistently found that weak ties play an instrumental role in obtaining useful resources. Chapter 1 discusses several issues that may contribute to inconsistencies in the findings. Chapter 2 conceptually analyzes three concepts central to this argument: tie strength, tie instrumentality, and bridgingness. In our explication of these concepts, we introduced two concepts overlooked in most earlier studies: dyadic personal networks and network accessibility. The concept of network accessibility describes the structure of nonoverlapping parts of dyadic personal networks, and is defined as the degree to which the dyadic partners provide each other with links to other people and potential access to their resources through personal networks. The concept, network accessibility, provides theoretical linkages in the strength-of-weak-ties argument, by giving a rationale for the negative relationship between tie strength and instrumentality.

In Chapters 3 and 4, four different content-specific communication phenomena (observed in three independent studies) were analyzed. The main conclusions from our empirical findings are: (1) intimacy is a more efficient measure of tie strength than frequency of contact or duration of acquaintance; (2) interaction by choice and interaction by chance appear to reflect different properties of interpersonal interaction (It is the former that reflects the level of intimacy); (3) people tend to use strong ties more than weak ties for instrumental purposes, but different measures of tie strength may be salient for different types of instrumentality; (4) network accessibility taps a different component of dyadic personal networks than communication proximity, and (5) network accessibility appears to be an important predictor of tie instrumentality.

To elaborate the strength-of-weak-ties argument, a chain of 88 theoretical statements delineating a generalized theoretical structure are presented in Chapter 5. These show multiple mechanisms through which the relationship between tie strength and tie instrumentality occurs. Both the ""instrumentality-of-strong-ties"" mechanism and the ""instrumentality-of-weak-ties"" mechanism are possible.

The dissertation concludes (Chapter 6) with a summary and a discussion of how this work fits in with past and desirable future research."

MPACT Scores for Joung Im Kim

A = 1
C = 1
A+C = 2
T = 1
G = 1
W = 1
TD = 1
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:31:01

Advisors and Advisees Graph

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Students under Joung Im Kim

ADVISEES:
- Christy M. Alarcon - University of Hawaii (2001)

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- Michael Cress - University of Hawaii (2006)