Environmental Influences on Collaboration Network Evolution: A Historical Analysis
Peter R Williams, Zhan Chen

TL;DR
This study examines how major historical events impact collaboration networks in academia and entertainment, revealing long-lasting effects, differing sensitivities, and resilience patterns in network evolution.
Contribution
It provides a comprehensive analysis of historical influences on large-scale collaboration networks, highlighting distinct responses and resilience development over two centuries.
Findings
Historical events cause long-term network changes.
Node and edge processes respond differently to disruptions.
Academic and entertainment networks exhibit distinct resilience patterns.
Abstract
We analysed two large collaboration networks -- the Microsoft Academic Graph (1800-2020) and Internet Movie Database (1900-2020) -- to quantify network responses to major historical events. Our analysis revealed four properties of network-environment interaction. First, historical events can influence network evolution, with effects persisting far longer than previously recognised; the academic network showed 45\% declines during World Wars and 90\% growth during La Belle Epoque. Second, node and edge processes exhibited different environmental sensitivities; while node addition/removal tracked historical events, edge formation maintained stable statistical properties even during major disruptions. Third, different collaboration networks showed distinct response patterns; academic networks displayed sharp disruptions and rapid recoveries, while entertainment networks showed gradual…
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Taxonomy
TopicsCollaboration in agile enterprises · Business Strategy and Innovation · Innovation and Knowledge Management
