Information Sharing in Social Networks: PhD Thesis Thomas Langenberg
1. Information Exchange in User Communities: A Study of Individual Level Determinants and Firm Level Effects in the U.S. Snowsports Industry Private Dissertation Defense by Thomas Langenberg June 14, 2007
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9. A firm’s ability to build absorptive capacity is - in parts - determined by its social integration mechanisms, but it is not yet known what they are A CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS OF ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION MECHANISMS: RESEARCH DESIGN source: Zahra, S. A. & George, G. 2002. Absorptive Capacity: A Review, Reconceptualization, and Extension. The Academy of Management Review, 27(2): 185-203 Firms differ in their ability to acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit novel information because they have different degrees of absorptive capacity (Cohen & Levinthal 1990) Despite extensive conceptual and empirical work on this construct little is known about the nature of social integration mechanism: what are they ? how or by what are they determined ?
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17. Alpine skiing is a particularly interesting subfield of U.S. Snowsports because of decreasing sales & participation but increasing firm creation activities Participation & Equipment Sales are Decreasing source: leisuretrends.com source: SIA Report 2005 Entrepreneurial wave in U.S. alpine skiing 30% of the currently competing ski firms in U.S. alpine skiing have been founded during the last 6 years. THE INDUSTRY CONTEXT: U.S. ALPINE SKIING
18. Skiing technology is relatively low-tech and thus makes it difficult for firms to differentiate themselves from competitors Differentiation along core design & construction principles source: www.skibuilders.com Differentiation along ski geometry/design parameters source: www.fischer-ski.com THE INDUSTRY CONTEXT: U.S. ALPINE SKIING Ski length Running length Camber Tip and tail width Waist width
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26. Finding: Emotional Commitment and Participation have a Positive Effect on an Individual’s Perceived Relevance to Information Exchange Descriptive Statistics & Pairwise Correlation Regression Results EMPIRICAL FINDINGS: INDIVIDUAL LEVEL DETERMINANTS OF USER COMMUNITY INFORMATION EXCHANGE
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30. Results: There is a statistically significant interaction effect between exposure to industry information and exposure to user community information exchange EMPIRICAL FINDINGS: USER COMMUNITY INFORMATION EXCHANGE & FIRM LEVEL EFFECTS