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Colossal information is available in cyberspace from a variety of sources such as blogs, reviews, posts and feedback. The mentioned sources have helped in improving various business processes from product development to stock market development. This paper aims to transform this wealth of information in the online medium to economic wealth. Earlier approaches to investment decision-making are dominated by the analyst's recommendations. However, their credibility has been questioned for herding behavior, conflict of interest and favoring underwriter's firms. This study assumes that members of the online crowd who have been reliable, profitable and knowledgeable in the recent past will continue to be so soon.

The authors identify credible members as experts using multi-criteria decision-making tools. In this work, an alternative actionable investment strategy is proposed and demonstrated through a mock-up. The experimental prototype is divided into two phases: expert selection and investment.

The created portfolio is comparable and even profitable than several major global stock indices.

This work aims to benefit individual investors, investment managers and market onlookers.

This paper takes into account factors: the accuracy and trustworthiness of the sources of stock market recommendations. Earlier work in the area has focused solely intelligence of the analyst for the stock recommendation. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the combined intelligence of the virtual investment communities has been considered to make stock market recommendations.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Growing doubts about the reliability of professional analysts is making many investors hesitant to use the conventional approach to stock market investment. They are instead becoming increasingly attracted to an alternative strategy based on recommendations offered from members of virtual communities. Objective criteria are used to identify experts within such domains who have the potential to generate results comparable with major global indices.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The focus in this study is a model that predicts continuance intention of online multi-player games. In this integrated model, the social cognitive theory (SCT) lays out the foundation of two types of pre-use (pre-play) expectations, the flow theory captures the affective feeling with the game as a moderator for the effect from the two pre-use expectations, and subjective norm together with its associated antecedents cover a wide spectrum of social influences.

A questionnaire was designed and pre-tested before distributing to target respondents. The reliability and validity of the instrument both met the commonly accepted guidelines. The integrated model was assessed first by examining its measurement model and then the structural model.

The integration of cognitive, affective and social influence in this model explains a larger amount of variance compared to the competing models and existing studies.

Unlike a popular trend that studies predictors of online games from either cognitive or affect angle, the work looks at both together to study how their joint effect is related to continuance intention. This marks an important improvement as cognitive expectations derived from SCT captures the pre-use experience that may be influenced or swayed by sources including those that are inflated or incorrect. By studying flow as a moderator in conjunction with other sources of influence, the authors are able to further the understanding of how the pre-use expectations may be shaped by one's own experience.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the technical, marketing, and cultural differences between virtual communities in an industrially developing country, i.e. Bangladesh, and an industrially developed country, i.e. the USA.

A total of 33 virtual community sites from both countries were randomly selected and evaluated based on eight criteria relating to technical, marketing, and cross‐cultural aspects. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance and χ²‐square statistics to identify the similarities and differences between the two countries’ virtual community sites.

The study found significant differences between the countries in the use of graphics and images, the amount of advertisement and promotional messages, the choices of language, the inclusion of religious content, the frequency of message concerning group welfare, equality and loyalty, and the number of structured messages. The study also found some similarities in navigational efficiency and online product information. In conclusion, the research found gaps in the technical, marketing, and cultural aspects between virtual communities in the industrially developing and developed countries.

The research used only 15 Bangladeshi virtual community sites due to the limited number of sites in the country.

Recommendations are made to narrow the gaps and enhance the effectiveness of virtual communities in the industrially developing country. This will help web developers produce better virtual community websites and help marketers understand virtual community users from different countries and cultures. In addition, the present research method is useful to replicate similar research in other industrially developing countries such as China and India and thus provide insights for improvements.

The aim of this study is to provide a conceptual framework to explain how museums sustain intellectual capital and promote value co-creation moving from designing virtual environments to introducing and managing Big Data.

This study is based on archival and qualitative data considering the literature related to the introduction of virtual environments and Big Data within museums.

Museums contribute to sustaining intellectual capital and in promoting value co-creation developing a Big Data-driven strategy and innovation.

By introducing and managing Big Data, museums contribute to creating a community by improving knowledge within cultural ecosystems while strengthening the users as active participants and the museum’s professionals as user-centred mediators.

As audience-driven and knowledge-oriented organisations moving from designing virtual environments to following a Big data-driven strategy, museums should select organisational and strategic choices for driving change.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the educational and more specifically, the library and information opportunities afforded through virtual worlds such as Second Life.

The article provides an analysis of virtual world opportunities through a review of relevant literature as well as actual applications of virtual world platforms.

Virtual worlds have the potential to provide a rich learning and information environment. Despite what many see as limitations, virtual worlds can enhance the learning experience if problematic issues are addressed and if expectations are realistic. For libraries, a unique set of limitations are identified.

The limited availability of library presences in virtual worlds prohibits a full scale analysis of the success or otherwise of such projects. Future analyses of virtual worlds, in particular Second Life, will be useful if their pervasiveness increases.

Library managers are alerted to issues and problems surrounding an investment in virtual worlds.

This paper will prove useful to educators and librarians considering investing time and other resources in developing content in virtual worlds.

Drawing from recent work on online social networking and communities of consumption, the purpose of this paper is to explore, identify, and postulate key factors facilitating the growth and success of marketing in virtual worlds.

An empirical study was conducted employing netnographic evidence from three different virtual worlds and related user‐generated blog discussions.

The findings suggest mechanisms which enable virtual worlds to gain and maintain the interest of their users and therefore underlie successful marketer practices.

This is an exploratory study based on qualitative and ethnographic online research methods, and therefore the results are of a descriptive nature. The study was conducted to initiate the academic discourse about marketing in virtual worlds. As such, the paper believes that it can act as a reasonable starting‐point for future discussion.

The study suggests that traditional advertising has not proven to be a very effective way to exploit the special characteristics of virtual worlds. There is substantial potential in virtual worlds for new and innovative marketing methods that are highly engaging and take advantage of users' active role in virtual worlds. From the marketing point of view, virtual worlds can be especially used for connecting with customers, contributing to customer learning, and getting customer input.

The paper illustrates that virtual worlds have come to offer marketers new opportunities for engaging their customers into interactive and co‐productive marketplace exchanges. They uncover untapped potential, resources and creative means for building customer relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual model of how both the benefits and risks of social capital influence online knowledge sharing among virtual community members towards enhancing members’ relationship continuity and virtual community reputations. In addition, this study addresses the effects of complementary resources on knowledge sharing.

The structural equation modelling approach was applied to estimate the conceptual model by using survey data from virtual community members. A total of 626 valid questionnaires were collected.

The empirical results showed that most of the research hypotheses were supported. The benefits of social capital and complementary resources have a positive effect on knowledge sharing, thereby strengthening relationship continuity and community reputation. Furthermore, the risk of social capital has a negative effect on knowledge sharing, as expected.

A review of the literature reveals a lack of studies focusing on both the positive and negative influences of social capital on online knowledge sharing. This study therefore contributes to a comprehensive perspective for understanding online knowledge sharing in virtual communities.