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While the significant role of external environments in shaping the implementation of building information modeling (BIM) as a systemic innovation in construction projects has been increasingly acknowledged, little is known about how heterogeneous projects concretely interact with each other to facilitate or inhibit the advancement of BIM implementation practices in the "conservative" construction industry. Drawing on a social contagion perspective, this study explores how the contagion effects through participant- and attribute-based ties among construction projects differently impact project-level BIM implementation practices via the interproject learning and competition processes. The proposed propositions are tested using an industry-wide longitudinal data set of BIM-based construction projects within the construction industry in Shanghai, China. After controlling for the effects of related organizational and project characteristics, the results show that, compared with the attribute-based contagion effects, which are primarily related to the interproject competition process, the participant-based contagion effects primarily related to the interproject learning process generally play more substantial roles in impacting project-level BIM implementation practices within interproject networks. The results further provide evidence that the participant-based contagion through the ties of project owners is more substantial than that through the ties of project contractors, and that the magnitude of the attribute-based contagion varies in different sizes and types of projects. As an exploratory effort of using longitudinal data to empirically characterize how project-level BIM implementation practices are contagious through different types of interproject ties from a social contagion perspective, this study contributes to a deepened understanding of how heterogeneous construction projects interact with each other through interproject learning and competition processes to facilitate or inhibit the advancement of innovative practices in the industry. The findings reinforce the need to regard BIM implementation practices in construction projects as complexly socialized activities and provide insights for policymakers and practitioners in developing strategies to facilitate the in-depth implementations of BIM and related innovations in the "conservative" project-based construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a vignette methodology, this study examined reactions to same-gender versus other-gender flirtation in a sample of 445 German young adults: 320 participants with a heterosexual orientation and 125 participants with a lesbian or gay (LG) orientation. Even in LG-friendly societies as Germany, receiving advances from someone of the same gender might still evoke heterosexuals’ homonegativity. Another factor that might influence heterosexuals’ reactions to same-gender flirtation is the fear of being misidentified as LG (social contagion concerns). Contrary to hypothesis, results provided little evidence to classify heterosexual participants’ reactions to same-gender flirters as homonegative. Firstly, heterosexual participants showed the same degree of negative affect and avoidance behavior in the same-gender flirtation condition as LG participants did in the other-gender flirtation condition. Only positive affect scores were somewhat lower for heterosexual participants in the same-gender flirtation condition compared to LG participants in the other-gender flirtation condition. Secondly, when anti-LG attitudes and social contagion concerns were considered together, only social contagion concerns contributed to explaining variance in heterosexual participants’ response to same-gender flirters. Specifically, the impact of social contagion concerns on heterosexual participants’ avoidance of same-gender flirters was mediated by (lacking) positive affect, but not negative affect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a social contagion model with group interactions on heterogeneous network, in which the group interactions are represented by incorporating higher-order terms. The dynamics of the proposed model are analyzed, revealing the effect of group interactions on the system dynamics. We derive a global asymptotically stability condition of the zero equilibrium point. If the parameters enhancement factor and transform probability meet the condition, the social contagion will eventually disappear. The bifurcation behavior arising from group interactions is investigated, when the enhancement factor exceeds a threshold, the system undergoes a backward bifurcation. This implies that R 0 < 1 does not guarantee the disappearance of social contagion, we also need to control the initial values of social contagion at a lower level. The optimal control strategies for the model are provided. Moreover, the numerical simulations validate the accuracy of the theoretical analysis. It is worth noting that the group interactions lead to the emergence of a bistable phenomenon, in which the social contagion will either fade away or persist eventually, depending on the initial values. • The simplicial SIS social contagion model with delay is proposed on heterogeneous networks. • The dynamics of the model are analyzed, revealing the effect of group interactions on the system dynamics. • An optimal control strategy is proposed for the model, incorporating group interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]