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192 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol. 7, 2015

role in the rapid spread of the structural holes theory in Business & Economics. Since 2004, the
main diffusion path extends in the field of Business & Economics, and the topics are even more
in-depth and diverse.

Table 5. Works about structural holes theory in the diffusion main path
Publication Research
No. Title Author
year area
398 Structural holes: The social structure of competition Burt R S 1992 SO
394 The contingent value of social capital Burt R S 1997 BE

390 The gender of social capital Burt R S 1998 SO
382 The social capital of French and American managers Burt R S 2000 BE
385 The network structure of social capital Burt R S 2000 SOT

354 Structural holes and good ideas Burt R S 2004 SO
Social networks, the Tertius lungens and orientation involvement in
349 Obstfeld D 2005 BE
innovation
Activating cross-boundary knowledge: The role of simmelian ties in
219 Tortoriello M 2010 BE
the generation of innovations
Better with age? Tie longevity and the performance implications of
105 Baum J A C 2012 BE
bridging and closure
Not all bridging ties are equal: Network imprinting and firm growth
106 McEvily B 2012 BE
in the nashville legal industry, 1933-1978
Introduction to the special issue: The genesis and dynamics of
103 Ahuja G 2012 BE
organizational networks

Main path is only the trunk of the innovation diffusion process, whereas the main path
components can add significant branches and leaves on the diffuser trunk and show the complete
context of the diffusion, which is equivalent to add the background and reference to the
development trunk. Therefore, the main path components reveal more specific structure of the
evolution and more detailed portrait of the process of innovation diffusion than the main path.
Moreover, the recent emerging research themes may become the leading topics of a specific area in
the future, and thus they are very worthy of attention (Han, Zhou, & Liu, 2013).
The lowest traversal weight of citation in the main path is 0.01, which is the threshold to
obtain the main path component. The result includes only one main path component. It contains a
complete main path, which is an extension of the network of the main path, as shown in Figure 5.
Main path component consists of 55 vertexes and citations with the traversal weight no less than
0.01. The vertexes with higher traversal weight are the key articles, which play the leading role to
the trend and the process of knowledge diffusion. In Figure 5, the greater the vertex is, the higher