Tie Decay and Dissolution: Contentious Prescribing Practices in the Prescription Drug Epidemic
研究揭示关系衰退与形成机制不同，发现医生间在有争议处方上的差异导致关系弱化或解体，但不影响关系形成，且争议性越强、信息越多，效应越显著。
Although a substantial body of work has investigated drivers of tie formation, there is growing interest in understanding why relationships decay or dissolve altogether. The networks literature has tended to conceptualize tie decay as driven by processes similar to those underlying tie formation. Yet information that is revealed through ongoing interactions can exert different effects on tie formation and tie decay. This paper investigates how tie decay and tie formation processes differ by focusing on contentious practices. To the extent that information about dissimilarities in contentious practices is learned through ongoing interactions, it can exert diverging effects on tie formation and tie decay. Using a longitudinal data set of 141,543 physician dyads, we find that differences in contentious prescribing led ties to weaken or dissolve altogether but did not affect tie formation. The more contentious the practice and the more information available about the practice, the stronger the effect on tie decay and dissolution. Collectively, these findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of relationship evolution as an unfolding process through which deeper-level differences are revealed and shape the outcome of the tie.