Network Science

3Network Centralities

3.1 Introduction

One of the most common objectives of network analysis is to understand the relationships within an interconnected structure, composed of customers, companies, agencies, countries, employees, banks accounts, students, or any set of entities that are correlated. The main goal is to identify how members of the network can influence others. Influence is a form of power, suggestion, or domination. Depending on the type of interconnected structure, influence can take many different shapes and have different strength levels.

Influence is the capacity that one customer has to induce others to follow them in a specific business event, like churn or product adoption. In social structures such as universities and schools, influence can take many forms. In these networks, power is often the strongest form of influence. One particular member of this social structure may be able to affect others in different ways in terms of opinions or actions, depending on the type of subject.

In business scenarios, influence is usually recognized in the context of particular events. One customer can influence another customer in a particular business event. Let us say that first customer decides to make churn. Perhaps, they can influence their peers to also make churn afterwards. Indeed, that would be the worst type of business influence for a company. On the other hand, another customer may purchase or start consuming a brand‐new product and later they can influence ...