Introduction to the special issue

Citation

Delerue, H. (2012), "Introduction to the special issue", Journal of Systems and Information Technology, Vol. 14 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/jsit.2012.36514baa.001

Introduction to the special issue

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Journal of Systems and Information Technology, Volume 14, Issue 2

The use of social media is becoming increasingly important. This Special Issue of The Journal of Systems and Information Technology presents a comprehensive picture of the recent developments in social media research as well as future challenges. In the first article that introduces this special issue, Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein demonstrate how “social media revolution” can be seen as an evolution back to the roots, since it re-transforms the internet to what it was initially created for – a platform to facilitate information exchange between its users.

This special issue presents papers relying on a diversity of data sources, including survey data (Choraria), interviews (Vuori, Holmes, Hopkins) and also online secondary data (den Besten). The papers also offer insight in fields as varied as small business, innovation, knowledge sharing, global corporation, online communities.

Relationships make social media social. Social media applications create a new platform for knowledge exchange and network development. In the second paper, Choraria determines the major factors that motivate the network members, either to obtain information or to provide information for the query posted over web sites. The author shows that the factors like user behaviour and ease of use play a significant role in members’ participation within community discussion forums.

Social media offers companies a variety of attractive business opportunities. For instance, social media could be a natural channel for extra-firm and intra-firm information collection. Den Besten proposes an interesting approach analyzing an example of the use of social media to sample ideas. In his study, Hopkins provides understanding of the phenomenon of online social networks, and in particular Facebook – in small businesses. He analyses social media as a resource for growth and adding value.

Two other papers look at how social media may improve innovation. Holmes et al., explore how individuals who run their own independent creative enterprise use social media. Mervi investigates how social media is used to enable innovative practices in company internal operations as well as with external stakeholders.

Despite their advantages and opportunities they offer to businesses, social media raises issues related to security. In the last paper, Wu He notes that social media sites such as Blog, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn can pose a variety of serious security risks and threats to unwary users and their organizations. The author provides some insights to help organizations to more effectively mitigate social media security risks.

These articles provide insight to the domains where researchers are seeking to advance knowledge about social media. We thank the referees for contributing for the selection of these papers and all authors of this special issue for fruitful cooperation.

Hélène DelerueGuest Editor