Network

By:

James Knight

James is a lead editor for Invezz, where he covers topics from across the financial world, from the stock… read more.

Updated: Aug 20, 2021

Ad disclosure

Invezz is an independent platform with the goal of helping users achieve financial freedom. In order to fund our work, we partner with advertisers who compensate us for users that Invezz refers to their services. While our reviews and assessments of each product on the site are independent and unbiased, brands may pay to appear higher up our table rankings or place ads in specific areas of the site. The order in which products and services appear on Invezz does not represent an endorsement from us, and please be aware that there may be other platforms available to you than the products and services that appear on our website. Read more about how we make money >

1. A group of consumers for whom the utility derived from the consumption of certain goods or services increases as additional consumers purchase the same goods and services. Networks emerge if these particular goods or services have little or no value in isolation, but generate more value when more consumers use the same goods and services. A market characterized by such properties is called a network market in which there exist positive consumption externalities termed network externalities. A typical example of a network market is telecommunications. 2. A model of the interconnections within a set of consumers or firms. A network is described by a set of links that determine which consumers or firms are connected. As examples, connections can describe which consumers know each other, or which consumers are customers of a firm. Networks can be used to describe any economic or social situation in which there is a structure to the interaction of individuals. See also private network; public network.

Reference: Oxford Press Dictonary of Economics, 5th edt.