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The growth of online social network sites and their conceptualization as affinity spaces makes them well suited for exploring how individuals share knowledge and practices around specific interests or affinities. The purpose of this study is to extend what is known about highly active/key actors in online affinity spaces, especially the ways in which they sustain and contribute to knowledge sharing.

This study analyzed 514 discussion posts gathered from an online affinity space on disease management. This study used a variety of methods to answer the research questions: the authors used discourse analyses to examine the conversations in the online affinity space, social network analyses to identify the structure of participation in the space and association rule mining and sentiment analysis to identify co-occurrence of discourse codes and sentiment of the discussions.

The results indicate that the quality and type of discourse varies considerably between key and other actors. Key actors’ discourse in the network serves to elaborate on and explain ideas and concepts, whereas other actors provide a more supportive role and engage primarily in storytelling.

This work extends what is known about informal mentoring and the role of key actors within affinity spaces by identifying specific discourse types and types of knowledge sharing that are characteristic of key actors. Also, this study provides an example of the use of a combination of rule mining association and sentiment analysis to characterize the nature of the affinity space.

This paper aims to advance information and communication technologies (ICT) adoption research and practice by examining and understanding the emerging ICT adoption in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from a dynamic process perspective using actor-network theory (ANT).

This study employs a qualitative approach to investigate how services SMEs are constantly engaging in ICT adoption for improving business performance. Two rounds of interviews were conducted with 26 interviewees. Data collected from the unstructured and semi-structured interviews were analysed to understand the dynamic adoption process, actors involved and their interactions.

The findings reveal the recursive and dynamic nature of the emerging ICT adoption process and the constant interactions and negotiations of various actors. Underpinned by the key concepts of ANT and validated by the empirical data, a framework is developed to depict the stages of dynamic process of emerging ICT adoption, the actors involved and the associated key activities.

Qualitative research is interpretive in nature and the size of the sample used is limited. These limitations require caution for the generalization of the findings. The framework can be further validated across a wider population using mixed methods combining qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Emerging ICT adoption has moved from a simple adopters’ participation process to involving various actors that constantly interact and influence the process. SMEs manager can be influenced by and influence the technology advancement. As a result, SMEs need constantly interact with various human and non-human actors to keep up with the new ICT development and benefit from the emerging opportunities.

The research focuses on the emerging ICT adoption in SMEs from the dynamic process perspective using ANT. It advances ICT adoption research and practice by developing a framework to depict the dynamic and interactive nature of ICT adoption process, and the actors involved and their interactions in the adoption process.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are involved in emerging information and communication technology (EICT) adoption by concentrating on the adoption process and the role played by various actors in the process. Information and communication technology (ICT) adoption research, especially in SMEs, has moved from a simple adopters’ participation process to involving diverse actors that continually interact and influence the process. SMEs need to constantly interact with various human and non-human actors to keep up with the EICT adoption. However, this has proved difficult.

This study adopted a qualitative method to examine the dynamic process of EICT adoption in service SMEs in the UK, and deployed both unstructured and semi-structured interviews in two separate rounds with 26 participants drawn from Crunch Online Database and Luton Business Directory. The participants include managers, customers, government agencies, SMEs consultants and information technology (IT) vendors, with the help of purposeful random sampling.

The study develops a framework informed by actor network theory (ANT) concepts and found that using ANT to examine the process of adoption helps to unveil the recursive nature of the process and the roles of actors which vary from one stage to another. The finding reveals that adoption of EICT is not straightforward; rather, it is evolutionary and dynamic, and small business managers’ play an important role in the process amidst other actors influence. The framework supports businesses of all types. Although ICT applications are influenced by diverse actors including IT experts, customers and vendors, the decision of SME managers regularly shape the values and beliefs of other actors if adequate information are conveyed by the numerous actors. Therefore, adoption of EICT is embraced faster by organizations, especially small businesses, if diverse actors are committed in conveying the right information to the key actors, thereby helping them to make adequate decision, and streamline their business processes.

This study is limited by its focus and other factors. Studying the opinions of small service UK SMEs limits the power of generalizing the identified causal relationships; therefore, extended measures are required on accounts of environmental, cultural, geographical and sectorial differences. While some errors seemed unavoidable when measures appear subjective and prone to common error biases, the study advised on recognizing the overriding influence of the roles at each stage of the adoption process to be proactive in committing resources.

This work is of value to practitioners and academics, as it provides further insight into ICT adoption framework by showing how the diverse actors guarantee EICT adoption in small service(s) businesses. This is relevant given that SMEs have limited knowledge of new ICT and understanding diverse actors and their roles in the adoption process would enhance their knowledge of the analysts in the context of new technology adoption and to cope with EICT continually amidst of the roles of actors in the adoption process. The framework serves as an analytical instrument in explaining ICT adoption process and its outcomes characterized by conflicting views.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the notion of thin crossing points from a social network perspective and to outline the concrete networking strategies that enable salespeople to foster mutually valuable resource exchange (i.e. to thin crossing points) across a selling ecosystem.

The authors integrate extant theoretical perspectives to advance a conceptual framework of sales-related networking across three key actors in a selling ecosystem: intraorganizational selling actors and actors in customers and external partner organizations.

Thin crossing points are defined as figurative transaction points at the boundary between organizations or organizational subunits at which actors engage in mutually valuable resource exchange in the process of value cocreation. To thin crossing points with key ecosystem actors, salespeople must adapt networking strategies considering the time and trust constraints inherent in a network relationship. Such constraints inform the most advantageous network centralities (degree, eigenvector and betweenness) and actions to impact key network properties (tie strength, contact diversity) that enable salespeople to efficiently develop social capital and thus to optimally thin crossing points across a selling ecosystem.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first social network-based exploration of salespeople’s role in thinning crossing points with key ecosystem actors. It advances a novel conceptual framework of sales-related networking strategies that foster social capital development and optimally thin crossing points across a selling ecosystem.

Movies critics believe that the diversity of Iranian cinematic genres has decreased over time. The paper aims to answer the following questions: What is the impact of the continuous cooperation between the key nodes on the audience's taste, uniformity of the cinematic genres and the box office? Is there any relationship between the importance of actors in the actors' network and their popularity?

In the artistic world, artists' relationships lead to a network that affects individuals' commercial or artistic success and defines the artwork's value. To study the issue that the diversity of Iranian cinematic genres has decreased over time, the authors utilized social network analysis (SNA), in which every actor is considered a node, and its collaboration with others in the same movies is depicted via edges. After preparing the desired dataset, networks were generated, and metrics were calculated. First, the authors compared the structure of the network with the box office. The results illustrated that the network density growth negatively affects box office. Second, network key nodes were identified, their relationships with other actors were inspected using the Apriori algorithm to examine the density cause and the cinematic genre of key nodes, and their followers were investigated. Finally, the relationship between the actors' Instagram follower count and their importance in the network structure was analyzed to answer whether the generated network is acceptable in society.

The social problem genre has stabilized due to continuous cooperation between the core nodes because network density negatively impacts the box office. As well as, the generated network in the cinema is acceptable by the audience because there is a positive correlation between the importance of actors in the network and their popularity.

The novelty of this paper is investigating the issue raised in the cinema industry and trying to inspect its aspects by utilizing the SNA to deepen the cinematic research and fill the gaps. This study demonstrates a positive correlation between the actors' Instagram follower count and their importance in the network structure, indicating that people follow those central in the actors' network. As well as investigating the network key nodes with a heuristic algorithm using coreness centrality and analyzing their relationships with others through the Apriori algorithm. The authors situated the analysis using a novel and original dataset from the Iranian actors who participated in the Fajr Film Festival from 1998 to 2020.

The prevailing literature argues the need for “new” skills to deliver energy-efficient buildings. The concept of new skills, however, has not been subject to empirical investigation. This paper aims to provide insight on the required new skills, and their development and application, for the successful delivery of energy-efficient school retrofit buildings.

The research employed a case study approach of a school retrofit building project in the early stages of the adoption of energy-efficient measures. Through the application of the socio-technical network approach (STNA) as the data collection and analysis framework, data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations and a review of relevant organisational documentation and were analysed using thematic coding.

The findings reveal key actors (i.e. the local authority, energy contractors and school end-users), their principal interests and the required communication, project management, energy management, technical and research skills during their interactions in the successful delivery of the school retrofit building project. The results further reinforce the crucial role of the local authority in driving energy performance improvement of school buildings.

This study demonstrates empirical evidence of the principal actors and skills required for the delivery of energy-efficient school retrofit buildings, contributes to new theoretical insights at the identification of key micro-level development of construction skills through the project network and evidences on how the STNA can be mobilised in construction skills research.

This paper presents a novel analysis of the UK food supply chains (FSC) within selected food product categories to reveal the drivers and changing patterns of the UK FSC structures. It demonstrates how the dynamics of different food sectors are changing and how structural changes are affecting the activities of actors within the FSC – an area which is not significantly addressed in the academic literature.

The study uses a sector mapping approach to analyse food product supply chains, associated industrial actors and institutional support players. Data sources include publicly available industrial reports, literature reviews and case studies involving semi‐structured interviews with key industrial players. The methodology involved an examination of relevant literature and government statistics to inform a set of “basic” maps detailing the structure of the UK FSC. Key actors were subsequently identified and interviewed and the data were combined with the “basic” maps to create a set of “current” maps of the structure of the UK FSC. A textual analysis of the data from interviews was then used to identify key trends and structural changes occurring within the UK FSC. These changes were used to inform a set of “future” UK FSC maps. Finally, the data from the interviews was analysed to identify key trends in UK FSC.

Use of a novel approach establishes the linkage between primary stakeholders, secondary stakeholders, supply‐chain processes, value chain activities and key industrial players in three product categories – dairy, fruit and vegetables and staples. Key findings include trends of consolidation of upstream actors, retailers moving into processing, Changing product architecture, demand for higher visibility and greater visibility driven by consumer demand for provenance.

This paper brings together fragmented literature from multiple sources, government statistics and data from key actors in the UK FSC to form a picture of the structure of the UK FSC. Where before, literature on the structure of the UK FSC was fragmented and outdated, this paper contains an up‐to‐date model of the current structure of the UK FSC that has been validated in accordance with expert opinion. Furthermore, this paper shows how the dynamics of different food sectors are changing and how structural changes are affecting the activities of actors within the FSC.

Innovation ecosystems (IEs) have attracted the attention of policymakers and researchers because of their potential to positively affect territories, creating shared value. However, due to the fragmentation of IEs, how this happens in different IEs has been explored only partially. This research aims to bridge this gap, aiming to support policymakers in understanding how to foster shared value in diverse IEs.

The paper identifies, based on the literature, two “drivers of aggregation” of IE's actors as key dimensions characterizing shared value in IEs, namely physical proximity and dominant issue. If these are combined, three archetypes emerge: Hub- and Chain-Driven, Place-Driven, Competence- and Issue-Driven IEs.Then, elements useful for understanding shared value creation in these archetypes are framed and studied in real cases.

Results reveal that aggregation drivers affect shared value creation, which differ among archetypes: in Competence- and Issue-Driven IEs alignment is challenged by the low physical proximity, which in Place-Driven IEs is high, but not enough to grant shared value; in Hub- and Chain-Driven IEs, the hub is the orchestrator, representing both a driver and a risk.

Differences in shared value creation processes relate to the set-up of the IE, which has relevant implications for policy definition. In Competence- and Issue-Driven IEs, policies at diverse levels align in funding and promoting the IE; in Place-Driven IEs, policies support anchors' development on-site; in Hub- and Chain-Driven IEs, policies, sometimes absent, should foster partnerships for projects for the territory, IE's enlargement and resilience.

Drawing broadly from the technology frame (Davidson, 2002) and organizing vision perspectives (Swanson and Ramiller, 1997) which consider the business value of information technology as resulting from actors' efforts to make sense of new technology, the study applies Ojala's (2016) business model framework to examine how different sets of actors understand the value of blockchain within the healthcare sector.

To include the perspective of different sets of actors, the research combines a systematic literature review to capture academic research, semi-structured interviews with blockchain experts, with an analysis of blockchain healthcare vendors.

The study finds a high degree of congruence between the perspective of different actors, with key sources of blockchain value concentrated around value proposition, particularly enhancing privacy and security; value capture, specifically cost savings, and value network, mostly enhancing data accessibility and reducing intermediation. Value delivery is the least emphasized value creation mechanism and concerns primarily improvements in supply chain transparency. Minor variations between actors' interpretations of value exist, mostly around the contribution of blockchain to support the value proposition and include the provision of social value, the creation of trust, supporting automation and improving employment.

Recognizing that the value of new technology is as much the result of actors' interpretations, as the objective outcome of its deployment, this study takes a multi-stakeholder perspective to examine blockchain's business value and highlights new aspects of value associated with blockchain deployments. The findings include a value outcome framework that allows systematic comparisons between blockchain implementations across contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the governance of regeneration projects, as part of the pan-German Social City initiative, examine the key actors engaged in delivery of renewal, and set out findings, before mapping the actors and governance models in regeneration in the area.

This paper draws upon the paradigm of governance to illustrate actors in regeneration, about which little has been written thus far. The paper draws upon interviews with these actors in Potsdam and uses the policy networks approach to examine where power, resources and function are allocated among the actors in renewal.

Though the community actor is an important conduit between the private sector and tiers of governance, in Potsdam the funding focus comes from private individuals and business, there is less scope for the community to act as manager of projects in renewal.

The role of community managers can be compared to other subnational, national or global regeneration programmes. In examining the strengths and weaknesses of this model, the findings are of value in comparable cases as well as to policy makers and practitioners. The role of communities in working with business and government can be replicated and learnt from in other cases.