Relational Embeddedness, Herding, and Tie Persistence

Recent studies on social network structures have focused on tie persistence as a distinct outcome in a tie life cycle. Tie persistence refers to continuity of a network tie across at least two consecutive time periods. We contribute to this body of knowledge by empirically comparing the influence of relational embeddedness and herding on tie persistence. We find that while both the mechanisms increase the likelihood of tie persistence, their co-presence creates a substitution effect. We find that individuals prefer to rely on relational embeddedness of a tie than following the crowd. Lastly, we also demonstrate the distinctiveness of tie persistence from other tie-related outcome by estimating the same effects for tie restoration. We discuss the implications of our findings for literature on social ties.