Opinion Maximization in Social Networks: An Inverse Optimization Perspective

Liu, Yilu; Xue, Bo; Yao, Yiming; Zhang, Qingfu

doi:10.24963/ijcai.2026/256

Opinion Maximization in Social Networks: An Inverse Optimization Perspective

Yilu Liu, Bo Xue, Yiming Yao, Qingfu Zhang

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Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Main Track. Pages 2300-2308.

https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2026/256

Keywords

Search: Combinatorial search and optimisation
Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Constraint optimization problems

Abstract

Given a social network ? with n nodes and m edges, the opinion maximization (OM) problem aims at identifying k (k ≪ n) opinion leaders to maximize their opinion propagation in ?. Despite its significance and prevalence, existing OM methods often struggle to strike a satisfactory balance between theoretical performance and practical efficiency. This paper provides an inverse optimization perspective for OM by reformulating it as an opinion minimization (OMin) problem, whose objective function holds succinct expression and desired properties. Then, we introduce a bounded estimation scheme (BES) that can estimate the objective function of OMin with bounded error in Õ(kn+m) expected time, thereby making the optimization for OMin more efficient. To further enhance the optimization efficiency, a decomposition-based decremental estimation algorithm (DDEA) with a near (1-1/e) approximation ratio in Õ(kmn) expected time is specifically designed for OMin. Extensive experiments on real-world social networks of varying scales demonstrate the effectiveness of BES and the superiority of DDEA.

Yilu Liu, Bo Xue, Yiming Yao, and Qingfu Zhang. 2026. Opinion Maximization in Social Networks: An Inverse Optimization Perspective. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI-26. IJCAI, 2300–2308. https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2026/256

@inproceedings{ijcai2026p256,
  title     = {Opinion Maximization in Social Networks: An Inverse Optimization Perspective},
  author    = {Liu, Yilu and Xue, Bo and Yao, Yiming and Zhang, Qingfu},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth International Joint Conference on
               Artificial Intelligence, {IJCAI-26}},
  publisher = {International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization},
  editor    = {Diego Calvanese},
  pages     = {2300--2308},
  year      = {2026},
  month     = {8},
  note      = {Main Track},
  doi       = {10.24963/ijcai.2026/256},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2026/256},
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Opinion Maximization in Social Networks: An Inverse Optimization Perspective
AU  - Liu, Yilu
AU  - Xue, Bo
AU  - Yao, Yiming
AU  - Zhang, Qingfu
T2  - Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI-26
PB  - International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization
PY  - 2026
SP  - 2300
EP  - 2308
DO  - 10.24963/ijcai.2026/256
UR  - https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2026/256
ER  -