Virtual Social Networks at the Base of the Pyramid: a proposed model for understanding Shared Knowledge

Informações

Código: MKT1664
Divisão: MKT - Marketing
Tema de Interesse: Tema 09 - Marketing: Inovação, Tecnologia e Interatividade

Autores

Daniel Finamore, Edgard Barki

Resumo

Social networks have been studied since the end of the XIX century (Durkheim, 1893;Simmel, 1908). In recent years the internet phenomenon has created the necessity tounderstand the characteristics and peculiarities of a social network in the virtual space (Wasko& Faraj, 2005; Chiu el al, 2006; Arvidsson, 2008). Virtual social networks create new kindsof relationships since they allow people to share information quickly and globally (Wasko &Faraj, 2005). In these virtual networks one of the behaviors that draw attention is thephenomenon of knowledge sharing (Monge et al, 1998; Lin, 2001). In other words, what arethe reasons for someone, without receiving any financial reward, to share information andknowledge? Based on some previous studies (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998; Wasko & Faraj,2005; Chiu et al, 2006), we identified four main motivations for people to share informationand knowledge in the internet arena: (i) structural capital reasons; (ii) cognitive capitalreasons; (iii) relational capital reasons, and (iv) personal motivations. Interestingly, financialrewards don’t appear to be one important factor to join and participate actively in a virtualsocial network. Another recent phenomenon that has been discussed in business literature isthe relevance of the so called Base of the Pyramid (BoP). Since the seminal article byPrahalad and Hart (2002) a lot has been studied about this subject. One of the issues that ariseis the differences in BoP consumer behavior when compared to the upscale social classes(Van Kempen 2004; D’Andrea & Lunardini 2005; Barki & Parente, 2010). Besides the lowerdisposable income, low self esteem and the importance of relationship seems to be importantdifferentiators that impact directly in consumption (Barki & Parente, 2010). Owing to thesedifferences, the main objective of our research is to better understand the differences betweena virtual social network and the ones focused on the BoP, especially regarding the reasons andmotivations to share content. We also want to focus on the understanding of whether extrinsicand intrinsic rewards play a significant role for BoP virtual networks. In order to achieve ourobjectives, we conducted a case study in a social network (Itsnoon) oriented to the Base of thePyramid, with 6,000 members and that stimulates a co-creation process, based on the idea ofknowledge sharing and financial rewards to its members. Based on our research, sixfundamental issues arose as important for creating and developing a virtual social network atBoP: Importance of a positive environment to attract users; easy and understandable ‘cyberspace’; involvement of the organization; involvement within the network, personal benefitsand rewards.

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