Course Outline: Social Network Analytics

Course code: AN/IM707

Credit:3 , Elective Course
Area: Information Management

Program: PGDM
Term V Academic Year 2021-22

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Instructor(s) Name Dr. Purva Grover Click or tap here to
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Room no. 408 Click or tap here to
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Email purva.grover@imi.ed Click or tap here to
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Phone (Extn no.) Click or tap here to Click or tap here to
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Meeting Hours By Appointment Click or tap here to
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1. COURSE DESCRIPTION

Networks are everywhere, some of the popular networks are social media, communications, financial
transactions, and other ties. This course covers the fundamentals of networks, their properties and
different types of networks. Some of the business applications which can be solved using social network
analysis are: identifying influencers in the networks; finding unusual patterns in banking transactions;
identifying optimum routes for deliveries; identifying locations for warehouses and delivery centers;
transmission of messages across the networks and page ranking algorithms.

Students will work with network data and will analyze data using Python. The course involves lots of
hands-on exercises. The core of the course will comprise the essential tools of network analysis, from
descriptive analysis at the node level and network level followed by diagnostic analysis of the network for
detecting the fraud. The course will also discuss cascading behavior in networks which help us in
stimulating viral marketing among people. The course will also cover two use cases of prediction in
networks, link prediction and collaborative filtering.

COs >>
2. COURSE OUTCOMES (COs)
COs and POs >>
After going through the course, the students would be able to: COs, POs and CECs >>

Course Outcome 1 (CO1): Collect and describe network data.

 Course Outcome 2 (CO2): Understand and apply social network analysis basics for solving business
problems.

Course Outcome 3 (CO3): Recommend solutions by analyzing network data.

COs >>
COs and POs >>
COs, POs and CECs >>

3. MAPPING OF THE PROGRAM OUTCOMES (POs) AND COURSE OUTCOME (COs)

Course Outcomes
(COs)
Program Outcomes (POs)
CO CO CO3
1 2

PO1: Student should be able to write well organized and grammatically correct
business reports and letters.

PO2: Student should be able to make effective oral presentations.

PO3: Student should be able to demonstrate critical thinking skills by 3 3

understanding the issues, evaluating alternatives on the basis of multiple
perspectives and presenting a solution including conclusions and implications.

PO4: Student should be to demonstrate problem solving skills by 3

understanding and defining the problem, analyzing it and solving it by
applying appropriate theories, tools and techniques from various functional
areas of management.

PO5: Student should be able to illustrate the role of responsible leadership in

management.

PO6: Student should be able to identify social concerns and ethical issues in
management.

PO7: Student should be able to identify challenges faced by the organization at

the global level.

PO8: Student should be able to take decisions in the global business

environment.

4. PEDAGOGY

In the classes we will apply the techniques introduced in the associated lectures, using real network
datasets, analyzed using Python. Each class will provide a guided introduction to the techniques,
which will then be continued independently in (formative) problem sets, for which answers will be
provided. Each session includes the lab, hand-on exercises using software anaconda and library
networkx. Laptop is essential, students are requested to bring the laptop in every session.
Software: Python

5. COURSE EVALUATION COMPONENTS (CECs)

Project Presentation & Report : 25 % (Mid Term Review – 10; End Term - 15)
Quiz : 10%
Practical Exam - Lab : 30 %
End Term exam : 35 %
COs >>
6. MAPPING BETWEEN COs, POs and CECs COs and POs >>
COs, POs and CECs >>

Course Evaluation Components (CECs)

Project Quiz Practical End Term
COs POs
Presentation Exam - Lab exam
& Report
CO1 PO3  
CO2 PO4 
CO3 PO3 

7. RESOURCES
7.1 Textbook

Newman, M.E.J. (2010). Networks: An introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

7.2 Reference Books

Scott, J. (2017). Social Network Analysis. Los Angeles: SAGE. 4th edition.
Easley, D., and Kleinberg, J. (2010). Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a highly
connected world. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Szabó, G., Polatkan, G., Boykin, P. O., & Chalkiopoulos, A. (2018). Social media data mining
and analytics. John Wiley & Sons.
PM, K. R., Mohan, A., & Srinivasa, K. G. (2018). Practical Social Network Analysis with
Python. Springer International Publishing.
Kilduff, M., & Tsai, W. (2003). Social networks and organizations. Sage.
Wasserman, S., & Faust, K. (1994). Social network analysis: Methods and applications.
Cambridge University Press (1994)
Fu, X., Luo, J. D., & Boos, M. (Eds.). (2017). Social network analysis: interdisciplinary
approaches and case studies. CRC Press.

7.3 Online References (if any)

 Anaconda (Data Science Platform). URL - https://www.anaconda.com/
Python 3.7 documentation (https://docs.python.org/3.7/)
The Python Standard Library (https://docs.python.org/3.6/py-modindex.html)
Networkx 2.5 documentation (https://networkx.org/documentation/stable/tutorial.html)

8. SESSION PLAN

Session No. Topics Readings/Cases

1 Importance social network analytics in Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 of
business world Textbook
Elements of the network
 Nodes Additional Readings: Gupta, S.,
 Edges Armstrong, K., & Clayton, Z.
(2010). Social media. Harvard
Business School. (Product #:
510095-PDF-ENG)
2-4 Python Toolbox for Networks – NetworkX Chapters 6, 9.2 to 9.4 of
 Networks and their representation Textbook
 Adjacency matrix
 Edge list
 Directed networks Exercise: Airlines network
 Weighted networks
 Degree
Additional Readings: Monzani,
 Paths
L. (2020). A Note on Using
 Components
Social Network Analyses to
 Independent paths, connectivity, and Explore and Enhance Team
cut sets Effectiveness. Harvard Business
School. (Product #: W19729-
PDF-ENG)
5-7 Descriptive analysis - Node level measures Chapter 7.1 to 7.7 of Textbook
 Degree centrality
 Eigenvector centrality
 Closeness centrality
 Betweenness centrality Exercise: World Wide Web;
 Hubs and authorities Bank Centrality in Corporate
Networks

HBR Case Study - Sana Ansari,

Sumeet Gupta, Manojit
Chattopadhyay
Xoxoday.com: Customer
Engagement through Social
Media. Harvard Business
School. (Product #: W19308-
PDF-ENG)
8-10 Descriptive analysis - Network level Chapter 7.8 to 7.10 of Textbook
measures
 Size
 Density Exercise: Social networks
 Groups of vertices (Transitivity &
 Reciprocity)
11 Project Presentation Mid Term Review
12 Diagnostic analysis: Fraud detection
13-15 Cascading Behavior in Networks & Viral
marketing
 Diffusion in networks
 Modeling diffusion through a
Network
 Cascades and Clusters
 Role of Weak Ties
 The Cascade Capacity
16-17 Prediction - Link prediction
 Shortest path
 Small world effect
 Number of common neighbors
18-19 Prediction - Collaborative filtering
 Similarity
 Homophily
Additional Readings: Libert, K.
(2016), Your Network Structure
Matters More than its Size,
Harvard Business Review,
retrieved from
https://hbr.org/2016/02/your-
networks-structure-matters-
more-than-its-size
Exercise: RBC - Customer
dataset
HBR Case Study: Bell, P. C., &
Chandrasekhar, R. RBC: Social
Network Analysis. Harvard
Business School. (Product #:
W17348-PDF-ENG)
Chapter 19 of reference
textbook 2
Exercise: Twitter Network data
HBR Case Study: Srujana, H.
M., Chatterjee, S., Shakya, K.,
& Dinesh Kumar, U. (2015).
Science of social influence: HP
brandclout. (Product #:
IMB515-PDF-ENG)
HBR Case Study: Bendle, N. &
Wang, X. (2015). Social
Network Analysis: Who is
Promoting Net Promoter?
Harvard Business School.
(Product #: W15412-PDF-ENG)
Chapter 10.3 to 10.4 of
Textbook
Chapter 7.12 and 7.13 of
Textbook
HBR Case Study: Datar, S. M.
& Bowler, C. N. (2018).
Chateau Winery (B): Supervised
Learning. Harvard Business
School. (Product #:
119024-PDF-ENG)
 HBR Case Study: Venkatesan,
R. & Gibbs, S. (2019). Highly
Recommended: Collaborative
Filtering Gives Customers What
They Want. Harvard Business
School. Product #: UV7839-
PDF-ENG
20 Project Presentation and Report

9. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY & CLASS RULES

a) Plagiarism is the use of or presentation of ideas, works that are not one’s own and which are not
common knowledge, without granting credit to the originator. Plagiarism is unacceptable in IMI
and will invite penalty. Type and extent of penalty will be at the discretion of the concerned
faculty.

b) Cheating means using written, verbal or electronic sources of aid during an examination/ quiz/
assignment or providing such assistance to other students (except in cases where it is expressly
permitted by the faculty). It also includes providing false data or references/list of sources which
either do not exist or have not been used, having another individual write your paper or
assignment or purchasing a paper for one’s own submission. Cheating is strictly prohibited at IMI
and will invite penalty as per policies of the Institute .