Tag archieven: conceptual paper

Knowledge sharing within virtual communities of practice

Geplaatst op door
“In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge”.
(Nonaka, 1991, p. 96, Harvard Business Review: pdf file)

During my master ‘Information and Knowledge Management‘ at the VU University, I attended the course ‘Knowledge Management Scan’.Within this stream, I wrote a scientific conceptual paper about the social influences that exist within electronic networks of practice and how these influences can affect members’ attitudes towards knowledge sharing on those virtual communities. Since I think the developed model and underlying logic can be interesting for scholars as well as practitioners, I will describe the paper’s key findings and propositions.

Abstract:
Although a significant number of studies devoted attention to communities of practice and members’ motivations to share knowledge within these networks, little is known about the social dynamics within virtual communities of practice and how they influence members’ attitudes towards knowledge sharing. This study integrates social influence theory and social capital theory to construct a theoretical framework that tries to enhance understanding how the virtual community’s social capital can act as antecedent for the social influence processes of compliance, identification and internalization. These influence mechanisms, in their turn, affect community members’ attitude towards sharing knowledge within the network. As such, the paper tries to lay a conceptual foundation for future empirical research, which can be relevant within the fields of knowledge management and social psychology.
Lees verder →

Social influences on purchase intention within virtual consumer communities

Geplaatst op door

A social capital perspective

During my master ‘Information and Knowledge Management‘ at the VU University, I attended the course ‘Interactive Marketing’.Within this stream, I wrote a scientific conceptual paper about the social influences that exist within virtual consumer communities and how these influences can affect the purchase intentions of  community members. Since I think the developed model and underlying logic can be interesting and useful from various perspectives, I will describe the papers key findings and propositions.

Abstract:
A significant number of studies have focused on the buying behavior of consumers within online environments. Despite the large numbers of virtual communities focused on consumer-related objectives, little is known about the effects of these communities on consumers’ purchase intentions. Past studies primarily examined virtual community participation, but little is known how community members influence others regarding purchase decision processes. This study integrates consumer influence theories and social capital theory to construct a model for investigating how social capital within virtual consumer communities affects normative and informational social influences, which in turn affect consumers’ purchase intentions. By developing a theoretical model and proposing an online survey design strategy, it lays a foundation for future empirical support. The implications for research and practice and future research challenges are discussed.
Lees verder →

Social network influences on technology acceptance

Geplaatst op door

A matter of tie strenght, centrality and density

Edit: this paper has been published and presented during the 23rd Bled eConference. The paper can be downloaded here.

During my master ‘Knowledge and Information Management‘ at the VU University, I attended the course ‘E-business and information management’.  Together with my team members Sophie Haverkamp and Fariha Mahmood, I wrote a scientific conceptual paper of the causal relation between social network characteristics and the technology acceptance. Since I think the developed model and underlying logic can be interesting for various persons, I will describe the papers key findings and propositions. The complete paper can maybe become published, so I cannot offer it completely yet.
Abstract:

Prompted by prior research to augment understanding of the social influence concept with the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study examines the social network influences on the individual technology acceptance. Since it is believed that individuals’ opinions and behavior are influenced by their network, an analysis of that network may help to provide some explanations on the technology acceptance. However, as social network characteristics are group-level characteristics and the TAM model is on the individual level, there is a need for a mediating variable that translates group-level characteristics into individual-level characteristics. This research will explain that this mediating variable is the subjective norm concept. The research proposes three social network characteristics (tie strength, density and centrality) and examines their influence on the subjective norm within a group. As a result, this research deepens the subjective norm antecedent by examining the social network influences on the concept, while eliminating the theoretical tension that can exist between models related to the individual level (TAM) or the group level (social network). Theoretical and managerial implications derived from the developed model are discussed.
Lees verder →