An Incentive Scheme for Non-cooperative Social Networks under the Independent Cascade Model

In this paper we analyze influence maximization for noncooperative social networks under the Independent Cascade Model. We propose a model of noncooperative nodes and prove some interesting properties of this model. Based on this, we further develop a game-theoretic model to characterize the behavior of noncooperative nodes, and design a Vickrey-Clarke-Groves-like scheme to incentivise cooperation. An advertiser can resolve the negative effect of noncooperation with our proposed solution. Evaluation on large social networks demonstrates the importance of cooperation and the effectiveness of our proposed incentive scheme in maximizing influence. We also discuss the budget allocation between seed nodes activation and incentives to non-seed nodes.