Kyosuke Tanaka
I'm an Assistant Professor of Management in the Department of Management at Aarhus University in Denmark [CV (pdf)].
This page follows the webpage philosophy by Steven Goodreau: "Better minimal but current than fancy but years out of date." It is hosted on GitHub — Theme by orderedlist
Last updated on
RESEARCH
Kyosuke (pronounced KYO-s-kay ) studies the nature and future of workplace relationships. He uses experiments and field data to address research questions (see my dissertation (pdf)).
Current Research Projects:
- Developed an R package imaginarycss [source] to quantify imaginary network motifs between observed and perceived networks, in collaboration with Sima Najafzadehkhoei & George G. Vega Yon
- Examining the role of formal and informal structures in realized interactions in teams and organizations
- Quantifying an individual ability to effectively navigate their social network
- Examining how and why people misperceive and miss communication links in communication networks
- Investigating cognitive representations of "who bullies whom" in school classrooms
Seriously Unserious Project:
PUBLICATIONS
Peer-reviewed Articles
Tanaka, K., Zhang, K., Foote, J., Lee, S., & French, D. C. (2025). Bully-victim network perceptions of bullies, victims, and peer observers. Social Networks, 83, 62–78.
We examined how self- and peer-reported bully-victim relationships overlapped as a function of the sex of bullies and victims, friendship ties, and relational schemas. Using network data obtained from 438 fifth-grade students in 13 Indonesian elementary school classrooms, we found greater agreement when bully-victim relationships occurred between non-friends. When self- and peer-reports disagreed, peers identified more instances of boys engaging in bullying than girls, as well as more cross-sex than same-sex bully-victim relationships.
Tanaka, K., & Vega Yon, G. G. (2024). Imaginary network motifs: Structural patterns of false positives and negatives in social networks. Social Networks, 78, 65–80.
We developed a theory and method to examine dyadic patterns of true and false positives and negatives in cognitive social structures (CSS). Using the method, we found mutual omission and commission (termed "completely false") could occur in CSS data. This mutual case is especially more prevalent in proxy reports than self-reported ties.
Tanaka, K., DeChurch, L. A., & Contractor, N. S. (2020). The impact of network acuity on information sharing under communication delays in space multiteam systems. Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress.
We examined how effectively space crew members and mission support can share information as needed in their communication network under different communication delay conditions. Our results show that network acuity (i.e., an individual ability to leverage their perceptions of the network to route information effectively) among crew members is higher than mission support, especially under communication delays.
Tanaka, K., & Horvát, E-Á. (2019). (Un)intended consequences of networking in individual and network-level efficiency. Applied Network Science, 4(77).
Whereas the benefit of creating a new contact directly goes to you, increasing communication frequency with your existing contact can benefit your partner or neighbors. Our findings are fairly consistent based on our simulations of networking approaches on a diverse set of real-world communication networks.
Tanaka, K., & Horvát, E-Á. (2018). Networking strategies and efficiency in human communication networks. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Complex Networks and Their Applications (COMPLEX NETWORKS 2018), 258–270.
Using data-driven computer simulations, we study the effect of networking strategies on efficiency in communication networks. We found there is a clear trade-off between the studied networking strategies and efficiency.
Report
Ackland, R., & Tanaka, K. (2015). Development impact of social media. WDR 2016 Background Paper.
In this paper, we assess the impact of social media on social and economic development, using an analytical framework that draws on social networks and social learning. We particularly highlight the use of social media in developing countries.
Statistical Software
Najafzadehkhoei, S., Vega Yon, G. G., & Tanaka, K. (2026). imaginarycss: Tools for studying imaginary cognitive social structure. R package version 0.1.0. [source on GitHub]
The imaginarycss package provides functions to measure and test imaginary cognitive social structure (CSS) motifs, which are patterns of perceived relationships among individuals in a social network. The package includes tools for calculating motif frequencies, comparing observed motifs to expected distributions, and visualizing motif structures. It implements the methods described in Tanaka and Vega Yon (2024).