Social networks in cultural industries

Although cultural industries can benefit from social networks in many ways, few Spanish studies examine the extent to which firms within this economic sector actually use such networks. This study's objective is to investigate the role of online social networks in Spanish cultural firms. The study begins with a literature review on cultural industries and social networks. Then the study proceeds to a Delphi analysis that draws upon experts' opinions. Results reveal a predominance of utilitarian uses over expressive ones, as well as an overriding use of proactive motivations rather than reactive ones within the context of cultural firms' use of social networks. The study confirms the profitability of these networks and the transfer of influence or power from providers to the consumers of cultural goods and services

Bucking the trend: An agentive perspective of managerial influence on blog’s attractiveness

Blog management is central to the digitalization of work. However, existing theories tend to focus on environmental influence rather than managerial control of a blog’s attractiveness at a microlevel. This study provides an agentive account of the adaptive behaviours exerted by the bloggers through the ways they use contents of their blogs to locate and harness their structural network positions of a blogosphere. We collated individual characteristics of 165 bloggers who blogged about economics, and then analysed the ways they maintained the contents of their blogs. We used network analysis and monomial logistic regression to test our model predictions. Our findings show that in contrast to less attractive blogs, bloggers who are mindful of their peers’ contents as a means of maintaining network positions attract a significantly higher level of traffic to their blogs. This agentive perspective offers practical insights into how nodal preferences can be reversed in blog management. We conclude the paper by discussing contributions to theory and future research

Facebook in teaching: strengths and weaknesses

Purpose – The use of online social networks has experienced a vertiginous increase in the last few years, and young people appear as the key players in this trend. Immersed, educated and raised in the middle of technology, the new student generation is one of digital natives. Instead, lecturers are digital immigrants, but the authors have the responsibility to turn a technology which can be a distraction into a teaching tool. Facebook is an example of Web 2.0 technology that owns a huge potential in the field of education. The purpose of this paper is to show the teaching experience with the Facebook social network in human resource management degree subjects, for the purpose of highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was carried out among university students in order to reach the goal. A total of 191 students were asked to give their opinion about the use of Facebook in teaching, achieving 125 valid answers. Findings – Facebook can positively impact on the performance of students, who are satisfied with the experience and think that the information obtained in Facebook can improve their training. More negative attitudes towards Facebook appeared among those students who had not used it. Originality/value – The paper summarises the strengths and weaknesses of Facebook through a literature review and assesses them via a survey

A Review for the Online Social Networks Literature (2005-2011)

Although Online Social Networks (OSNs) such as MySpace, Facebook, and Youtube are still under development; they have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices. There are hundreds of OSNs, with various technological affordances, supporting a wide range of interests and practices. However, impact of OSNs is increasingly pervasive and numerous researchers worked on different aspects on social networks. There is no research work for identification and classification of this literature. So, the purpose of this study is to presents a literature review for research works in OSNs. The review covers 132 journal articles published from 2005 to 2011. The reviewed articles classified OSNs literature into four distinct categories: the “Application”, “Survey and Analysis”, “Concept”, and “Technique”. The findings of our study reveal that “applications” were the most frequently category has been considered in the literature. Also, the subject of social networking is somehow overlooked in developing and under-developed countries. This review will provide a source for anyone interested in discovering research trends in social network sites literature, and will help to simulate further interest fields in the area. Keywords: Social network sites (SNSs), Online Social Networks (OSNs), Social media, Social networking

DUENDE: Docencia Universitaria en Dirección de Empresas

El uso generalizado de Facebook como red social en la que compartir opiniones, información y recabar amistad o apoyo está introduciéndose también en el ámbito docente, ya que se puede ayudar a los estudiantes en el transcurso de las asignaturas, compartir información entre compañeros, notificar eventos de interés para la materia de estudio, etc. En esta memoria se expone nuestro trabajo con la red Facebook en asignaturas de grado, que ya comenzó el curso pasado. Se trata de contrastar si las conclusiones obtenidas en el pasado curso se reafirman o no para extraer recomendaciones que orienten el uso de Facebook como herramienta de enseñanza/aprendizaje

University students and online social networks: Effects and typology

Immersed, educated, and raised amid technology, the new student generation is formed by digital natives. The use of online social networks (OSNs) has soared in recent years, and students are among those who have adopted them more enthusiastically. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze how students' academic life is shaped by the use of such networks. After providing a review of the literature on OSNs and their influence on students, this study presents the results of a survey that proved helpful to assess students' opinions in this regard. A typology of students based on their perceptions of OSNs is provided. The findings suggest that students value the positive aspects of OSNs to a much greater extent than they value the negative aspects of OSNs

Branding in a Hyperconnected World: Refocusing Theories and Rethinking Boundaries

Technological advances have resulted in a hyperconnected world, requiring a reassessment of branding research from the perspectives of firms, consumers, and society. Brands are shifting away from single ownership to shared ownership, as heightened access to information and people is allowing more stakeholders to cocreate brand meanings and experiences alongside traditional brand owners and managers. Moreover, hyperconnectivity has allowed existing brands to expand their geographic reach and societal roles, while new types of branded entities (ideas, people, places, and organizational brands) are further stretching the branding space. To help establish a new branding paradigm that accounts for these changes, the authors address the following questions: (1) What are the roles and functions of brands?, (2) How is brand value (co)created?, and (3) How should brands be managed? Throughout the article, the authors also identify future research issues that require scholarly attention, with the aim of aligning branding theory and practice with the realities of a hyperconnected world

Digital Self-Ownership: A Publicity-Rights Framework for Determining Employee Social Media Rights

Imagine an upandcoming company hires you as one of its first employees. Passionate about your employer, you put in long hours doing everything from marketing to accounting to event planning. You are also proud of your employer\u27s product, so you begin to publicize it to your friends through your social network accounts. (In fact, the company\u27s founder is also one of your Facebook friends.) You tell your friends about the product launch, invite them to marketing events, and eventually blog about your industry, amassing a significant social media following while creating buzz about your employer. But one day, during layoffs unrelated to your own efforts, you are fired. As you walk out the door, your supervisor asks you to return the office keys, your parking pass, and...administrative rights to your social media profiles. Can this be

Drei Studien zu Analyse und Management von Online-Konsumentenverhalten

Over the last two decades, the Internet has fundamentally changed the ways firms and consumers interact. The ongoing evolution of the Internet-enabled market environment entails new challenges for marketing research and practice, including the emergence of innovative business models, a proliferation of marketing channels, and an unknown wealth of data. This dissertation addresses these issues in three individual essays. Study 1 focuses on business models offering services for free, which have become increasingly prevalent in the online sector. Offering services for free raises new questions for service providers as well as marketing researchers: How do customers of free e-services contribute value without paying? What are the nature and dynamics of nonmonetary value contributions by nonpaying customers? Based on a literature review and depth interviews with senior executives of free e-service providers, Study 1 presents a comprehensive overview of nonmonetary value contributions in the free e-service sector, including not only word of mouth, co-production, and network effects but also attention and data as two new dimensions, which have been disregarded in marketing research. By putting their findings in the context of existing literature on customer value and customer engagement, the authors do not only shed light on the complex processes of value creation in the emerging e-service industry but also advance marketing and service research in general. Studies 2 and 3 investigate the analysis of online multichannel consumer behavior in times of big data. Firms can choose from a plethora of channels to reach consumers on the Internet, such that consumers often use a number of different channels along the customer journey. While the unprecedented availability of individual-level data enables new insights into multichannel consumer behavior, it also makes high demands on the efficiency and scalability of research approaches. Study 2 addresses the challenge of attributing credit to different channels along the customer journey. Because advertisers often do not know to what degree each channel actually contributes to their marketing success, this attribution challenge is of great managerial interest, yet academic approaches to it have not found wide application in practice. To increase practical acceptance, Study 2 introduces a graph-based framework to analyze multichannel online customer path data as first- and higher-order Markov walks. According to a comprehensive set of criteria for attribution models, embracing both scientific rigor and practical applicability, four model variations are evaluated on four, large, real-world data sets from different industries. Results indicate substantial differences to existing heuristics such as “last click wins” and demonstrate that insights into channel effectiveness cannot be generalized from single data sets. The proposed framework offers support to practitioners by facilitating objective budget allocation and improving team decisions and allows for future applications such as real-time bidding. Study 3 investigates how channel usage along the customer journey facilitates inferences on underlying purchase decision processes. To handle increasing complexity and sparse data in online multichannel environments, the author presents a new categorization of online channels and tests the approach on two large clickstream data sets using a proportional hazard model with time-varying covariates. By categorizing channels along the dimensions of contact origin and branded versus generic usage, Study 3 finds meaningful interaction effects between contacts across channel types, corresponding to the theory of choice sets. Including interactions based on the proposed categorization significantly improves model fit and outperforms alternative specifications. The results will help retailers gain a better understanding of customers’ decision-making progress in an online multichannel environment and help them develop individualized targeting approaches for real-time bidding. Using a variety of methods including qualitative interviews, Markov graphs, and survival models, this dissertation does not only advance knowledge on analyzing and managing online consumer behavior but also adds new perspectives to marketing and service research in general.Das Internet hat die Interaktion zwischen Unternehmen und Kunden grundlegend verändert. Die Etablierung eines interfähigen Marktumfelds bringt neuartige Herausforderungen für Marketingforschung und -praxis mit sich. Dazu zählt die Entstehung von innovativen Geschäftsmodellen ebenso wie eine Vervielfachung der verfügbaren Marketingkanäle und eine bislang unbekannte Fülle an Daten. Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht diese Herausforderungen in drei unabhängigen Studien