Studying Paths of Participation in Viral Diffusion Process

TL;DR

This paper introduces a conceptual model of viral diffusion with four participation stages, studies behavioral paths in virtual social environments, and finds that shortcuts often lead to final actions, indicating a dynamic rather than linear process.

Contribution

It presents a new four-stage participation model for viral diffusion and analyzes behavioral paths, highlighting the prevalence of shortcuts in virtual social settings.

Findings

Participation increases likelihood of final action

Most users follow shortcuts rather than full stages

Viral diffusion is a dynamic, non-linear process

Abstract

Authors propose a conceptual model of participation in viral diffusion process composed of four stages: awareness, infection, engagement and action. To verify the model it has been applied and studied in the virtual social chat environment settings. The study investigates the behavioral paths of actions that reflect the stages of participation in the diffusion and presents shortcuts, that lead to the final action, i.e. the attendance in a virtual event. The results show that the participation in each stage of the process increases the probability of reaching the final action. Nevertheless, the majority of users involved in the virtual event did not go through each stage of the process but followed the shortcuts. That suggests that the viral diffusion process is not necessarily a linear sequence of human actions but rather a dynamic system.