Researchers employ four versions of the social network concept: A social network is seen as a set of socially constructed role relations (e.g., friends, business partners), a set of interpersonal sentiments (e.g., liking, trust), a pattern of behavioral social interaction (e.g., conversations, citations), or an opportunity structure for exchange. Researchers conventionally assume these conceptualizations are interchangeable as social ties, but important discrepancies appear, especially for non-ties. Investigating the interplay across the four definitions is timely because emerging tools of computational social science — wearable sensors, logs of telecommunication, online exchange, or other interaction — now allow us to observe the fine-grained dynamics of interaction over time. Cutting-edge lenses allow us to move beyond reified notions of social ties (and non-ties) and instead directly observe and analyze the dynamic and structural interdependencies of social interaction behavior.

Kitts, James A. “Beyond Networks in Structural Theories of Exchange: Promises from Computational Social Science” Advances in Group Processes. Vol 31, 2014.