Theoretical Concepts of Social Networks and Group Formation: A Survey

Abstract — A social network is defined as a social structure of individuals, who are related (directly or indirectly to each other) based on a common relation of interest, e.g. friendship, trust, etc. Social network analysis is the study of social networks to understand their structure and behavior. The online social network field is broad, and any literature review can only focus on a selection of articles. The present article highlights recent research in the field and focuses on centrality, linkage strength, identity, trust, activity and benefits. By no means is this review comprehensive, but it should give practitioners some useful concepts to consider as they design social network based web applications. Thus the overall objective of the proposed survey is to come up with an aim to have the latest research and simultaneously discuss contributions of renowned researchers whose work created a revolution in the social networking area. The goal of the survey process is to produce new knowledge or deepen understanding of a same topic or an issue.