Knowledge sharing within virtual communities of practice

“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.
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Onderzoek: sociale invloeden binnen online communities/forums

Zoals ik al eerder bekend maakte, ga ik tijdens mijn opleiding Information & Knowledge Management een master scriptie schrijven over sociale invloeden binnen online communities. Virtual consumer communities welteverstaan: onafhankelijke forums waar veel over producten (aankoop, gebruik, etc) wordt gepraat (bijvoorbeeld Mobilyz, Aboutdj, Helpmij, Gamer forum, Hardware.info, etc.).

Een gedegen onderzoek valt of staat echter met goede data van een forum, en ik zou graag jouw hulp willen gebruiken in de zoektoch naar een relevant forum!
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Social influences on purchase intention within virtual consumer communities

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.
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