History of Social Networks: From the Era of Bartering to the Collaborative Economy

Abstract

This article aims to provide a historical overview of the notion of a network and its effects in the realm of management. Originally deriving from the technical sphere with graph theory in mathematics, the concept of a network has progressively been extended to the social sphere where its ramifications have been the sharing of social capital. As technology has developed in terms of transportation and communication, social networks have gradually structured the economy more and more by increasing trust and thus reducing the uncertainty involved in trade. Today, these social networks have taken on a new dimension through social media, based in internet platforms that bring together billions of anonymous people in the collaborative economy. Despite all these developments over the centuries, networks still have the same universal function: they are sustainable structures for collaboration with intermediaries that guarantee trust.