Trust and Trust Building of Virtual Communities in the Networked Age

Understanding Trust in Virtual Communities

ICT Ethics and Security in the 21st Century ◽

10.4018/978-1-60960-573-5.ch001 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 1-26

Author(s):

Qing Zou ◽

Eun G. Park

Keyword(s):

Everyday Life ◽

Virtual Communities ◽

Future Research ◽

Trust Building ◽

Research Directions ◽

Technical Aspects ◽

Different Types ◽

Future Research Directions ◽

Context Dependent

With people participating in various virtual communities in everyday life, trust building between participants is significant and indispensable in order to maintain communication in both traditional and virtual communities. In particular, virtual communities provide a platform or network through which members can communicate with faster and more simultaneous interactions in invisible ways. Since the importance of trust in virtual communities has been widely recognized, trust as a complex, multi-faceted, and context-dependent concept has been examined by many researchers in several disciplines. In this chapter, the authors aim to examine the definitions and characteristics of trust in the context of virtual communities and discuss terms relevant to the concept of trust. Different types of trust are investigated. Issues, challenges and future research directions revolving around trust are discussed. In examining the concept of trust, this chapter focuses on social rather than technical aspects of trust and trust building in virtual communities.

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Optimizing Virtual Communities in Tourism to Facilitate Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Start-Ups and SMEs ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-1760-4.ch053 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1023-1041

Author(s):

Silvena Dencheva Yordanova

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Social Media ◽

Virtual Communities ◽

Future Research ◽

Decision Making Process ◽

Research Directions ◽

Future Research Directions

The chapter presents the essence of online/virtual travel communities and examines their current significance for SMEs. It presents types and characteristics as well as the most popular virtual travel SME communities and discusses ways of optimizing the development of SMEs by applying a strategy of virtual communities by selected hospitality SMEs. An eight step strategy to implement virtual travel communities by SMEs is elaborated. One of the main findings of the author is that virtual travel communities can be very useful for optimizing the development of SMEs by supporting all the stages in the decision-making process, focusing on pre-planning, making the decision and after the tourist and business visit stage. In order to understand how virtual travel community can optimize the development of SMEs, the author discusses tools for measuring the effectiveness of social media. Both future research directions and a conclusion are outlined.

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Optimizing Virtual Communities in Tourism to Facilitate Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Optimal Management Strategies in Small and Medium Enterprises - Advances in Logistics, Operations, and Management Science ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-1949-2.ch004 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 60-78

Author(s):

Silvena Dencheva Yordanova

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Social Media ◽

Virtual Communities ◽

Future Research ◽

Decision Making Process ◽

Research Directions ◽

Future Research Directions

The chapter presents the essence of online/virtual travel communities and examines their current significance for SMEs. It presents types and characteristics as well as the most popular virtual travel SME communities and discusses ways of optimizing the development of SMEs by applying a strategy of virtual communities by selected hospitality SMEs. An eight step strategy to implement virtual travel communities by SMEs is elaborated. One of the main findings of the author is that virtual travel communities can be very useful for optimizing the development of SMEs by supporting all the stages in the decision-making process, focusing on pre-planning, making the decision and after the tourist and business visit stage. In order to understand how virtual travel community can optimize the development of SMEs, the author discusses tools for measuring the effectiveness of social media. Both future research directions and a conclusion are outlined.

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