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Social Software & Strategy: A Review & Research Agenda

A couple of days ago, I commented on a research framework on social media by Kietzmann and colleagues published in the Journal of Public Affairs. I had another article sitting on my desk which was similar in scope. It’s been written by Haefliger and colleagues and served as the introduction to as special isssue of the journal Longe Range Planning. Haefliger and colleagues distinguish between strategy (value creation & value appropriation), technology (technology as a tool vs a mediator), and community (leadership & boundaries). Furthermore, they look at social software use from an internal and an external perspective. I find this structure more appealing and intuitive than the honeycomb presented earlier. A nice additional feature is the research agenda they produce. I’ve included both tables below.

Haefliger et al

Haefliger et al

Reference:

Haefliger, S., Monteiro, E., Foray, D., & von Krogh, G. (2011). Social Software and Strategy. Long Range Planning, 44(5-6), 297–316. doi:10.1016/j.lrp.2011.08.001

Unpacking the Social Media Phenomenon

I received a Google Alert to a new social media article by Kietzmann and colleagues yesterday morning. Having a brief look at it, I was intrigued by the social media honeycomb they produced with theories listed in each domain of functionality, including research questions that should be addressed in the future. You can find the honeycomb and the research agenda below. Trying to trace the development of the honeycomb, I came across another recent article by a similar set set of authors. Digging a bit deeper, I realized that the honeycomb has been around for a while. The earliest version I found was published by nform, a consultancy, in 2007. While the framework does not seem to be particularly innovative, I appreciate the authors’ effort to establish a research agenda for the field of social media. Let’s see if the suggested questions will be picked up by other researchers in the future or whether some of the combs will disappear or change over time.

References:

Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons, 54(3), 241–251. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2011.01.005

Kietzmann, J. H., Silvestre, B. S., McCarthy, I. P., & Pitt, L. (2012). Unpacking the social media phenomenon: towards a research agenda. Journal of Public Affairs. doi:10.1002/pa.1412

How to search the IS Senior Scholars’ Basket of Journals?

My supervisor asked me the other day to make sure I was aware of all articles in my field which have been published in reputable journals. He mentioned the IS Senior Scholars’ Basket of Journals when referring to reputable journals. The following journals belong to that list:

  • European Journal of Information Systems
  • Information Systems Journal
  • Information Systems Research
  • Journal of AIS
  • Journal of Information Technology
  • Journal of MIS
  • Journal of Strategic Information Systems
  • MIS Quarterly

While I am pretty sure I have collected articles from a wide range of disciplines and sources, some of which were from the list above, I hadn’t checked for consistency with the IS Senior Scholars’ Basket of Journals, so I started my search. As usual, I went right into the Ebsco database only to find out that about half of the journals weren’t covered by the subscription. I then tried searching for hints on where I could search all eight journals at once. An article by Chapman and Brothers states that ABI/INFORM Global and Business Source Premier are the databases providing the best coverage in the MIS field. Eventually, I came across the website by Dr. Venkastesh. It provides an advanced search interface for different combinations of the basket journals. This was pretty much what I was looking for. Dr. Venkatesh’s efforts are somewhat similar to what Anne-Wil Harzing does with her Journal Quality list with the notable difference that the latter addresses a different set of journals, namely in the fields of economics, finance, accounting, management, and marketing.

References:

Chapman, K., & Brothers, P. (2006). Database Coverage for Research in Management Information Systems. College & Research Libraries, 67(1), 50–62.

14 Things About Me @dw_p


14 Things About Me on Prezi

My PhD colleagues and I have tried Prezi, a newish presentation tool and an alternative to Power Point, a few times for formal presentations already. This is one of my first serious attempts. I used the presentation to introduce myself to students at the Business School Potsdam last semester. I was inspired by Brooke Ahrens, who provided a Prezi template for others to use.