TY  - CHAP
AB  - Purpose This study investigated the association between structural conditions and social incentives and their effect on the ethnic composition of mobile social networks. Regarding structural conditions, we examined the role of the ethnic group’s size, socioeconomic status, and heterogeneity of the city in which the business was located. Regarding social incentives, we investigated the social diversification hypothesis, which expects that residentially and socially segregated minority groups will take advantage of mobile communications to diversify their mobile communication ties with outgroup members.Methodology/approach Two data sets were used. The first was the aggregation of the mobile communication patterns of business customers as measured by one of Israel’s mobile phone operators in April 2010. The database included 9,099 call data records. The second was a data set of the social characteristics of 103 Israeli cities from the Israeli Bureau of Statistics. Both data sets were merged according to the place of residence of each customer.Findings Israeli Arab businesses in homogeneous Jewish and mixed cities operate in an environment with more structural opportunities to create outgroup ethnic ties than Arab businesses in homogeneous Arab cities. Jewish businesses in ethnically mixed cities have more outgroup mobile ties than comparable businesses in homogenous Jewish cities.Implications We expand previous models and suggest a structural diversification approach in which ethnic mobile social networks vary across homogeneous and ethnically mixed cities. These variations result in different social incentives as the diversification approach assumed, as well as different structural conditions, as the structural approach indicates.
VL  - 10
SN  - 978-1-78560-381-5, 978-1-78560-380-8/2050-2060
DO  - 10.1108/S2050-206020150000010007
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S2050-206020150000010007
AU  - Arie Yossef
AU  - Mesch Gustavo S.
PY  - 2015
Y1  - 2015/01/01
TI  - Interethnic Ties via Mobile Communications in Homogeneous and Ethnically Mixed Cities: A Structural Diversification Approach
T2  - Communication and Information Technologies Annual
T3  - Studies in Media and Communications
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 175
EP  - 203
Y2  - 2024/05/10
ER  -