Social Media, Interfacing Brands in Relation to the Social Media Ecosystem

Much of the existing research in social media has been directed at examining the consequences of the interactive nature of the evolving medium and communication issues, with little to say about the impact of this medium on brands. Drawing on Fiske's relational model, this current chapter examines the interface between social media and brands, particularly on the breadth and the dimensions of the level of engagement. Social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, are revolutionising the way companies market their products. New means of interaction and dialogue are used in part because of the inherent structure and features of these social media platforms. The chapter concludes by discussing the implications of the analysis for understanding of new terminology in the evolving marketing environment.

The Corporate Social Network (CSN) in SME's

The authors intend to demonstrate that corporate social networks (CSN) are a very efficient tool for SME's and start-ups, since their early launch. They will immediately create an interactive structure and a culture of collective intelligence. The chapter aims at revealing how SMEs or start-ups are able to capture the opportunities provided by CSNs, perceived as proximity social networks. The research investigates if the use of CSN at the launch of the SME promotes the development of a collective intelligence culture, but also if several CSN may coexist within the same structure according to the needs encountered: “above-the-flow” approach (dialogue, exchanges) or “in the flow” approach (integration of workflow and document). The authors strongly believe that CSN has to be introduced by a web entrepreneur at the early stage of creation of his start-up, because it supports the scaling of the business, allowing the creation of a knowledge sharing culture, making the knowledge available inside the company.

Role of Internet in the Development of Medical Tourism Service in Tunisia

Medical tourism is gaining importance through the last decades thanks to internationalization. in this area, internationalization has been facilitated by the internet revolution that enables instantaneous transmission of text, audio and visual data as well as graphics, which makes the medical consultation distance shorter and moreover reliable. a state of the art on internationalization, medical tourism and digital marketing has been presented. Furthermore, the authors, through a rich case study of the International Medical Embassy, examined the role played by the different digital marketing techniques in the development of medical tourism services in an emerging country such as Tunisia. based that, theoretical as well as practical recommendations are presented.

E-Reputation in Web Entrepreneurship

E-reputation is what you say, what you do and of course how others perceive all of your actions. As an entrepreneur, knowing what your customers think about you is crucial. But managing it is way more than just hiring someone to be active on some social platforms. It implies the definition of a real strategy as well as hiring specific resources to successfully manage its reputation online. By presenting what e-reputation is, what are its main components, how to measure it and what tools exist, this chapter wants to give to web-entrepreneurs the key elements in order to manage their e-reputation efficiently.

Lean and Digital

This study focuses on “BuyerNetwork.net,” an online social networking website which brings procurement and supply chain professionals together on a digital-sphere for the purposes of interacting on work related communications and gathering information about supply chain products, operations and industry specific updates. It is aimed to explain the concepts of digital entrepreneurship and lean startup concepts with a literature background and on a case study. In the proposed case study, BuyerNetwork.net's establishment process is examined.

A Cultural Taboo

The recent arrival of American gourmet-style food-trucks to the streets of France is transforming consumer behaviour. In France, a nation whose culture has traditionally experienced food as a blend of ‘art, pleasure and leisure,' the perception of Anglo-Saxon food-trucks as ‘junk food' is now being challenged. A new generation of re-conceptualized food-trucks are catering to French consumers - who still demand high-quality food but who are willing to try a new format. Communication via social networking sites (SNS) has acted as a catalyst for changing food consumption. Information about food-trucks is shared digitally across communities of interest, drawing attention to the marketing power of contemporary consumers. These ‘micro-communities of food' have created social groups that now congregate in the streets of France rather than in traditional, sit-down restaurants. This study explores the food-truck trend that is emerging in France with the intention of putting forward a new framework that identifies the factors which influence the purchase of food-truck products in France.

Brand Reputation in the Facebook Era

The vitality of the Internet highlights the research relevance that online reputation studies are acquiring. Most available research suggests that online reputation might also be managed (Online Reputation Management, ORM). However, technology development has given consumers a digital fingerprint and impact on a brand reputation. Therefore, brand reputation management is eventually limited to some tools. A literature review was conducted to pay attention to the most important emerging research topics on the field and to identify interesting research areas.

Entrepreneurial Initiative to Develop a Web-Based Knowledge Hub

Extracting, use and reuse of knowledge from academic specific environment (embedded knowledge of interactional processes as intangible asset) is becoming a challenge for actionable knowledge initiatives to enhance academic expertise based on educational technology. This chapter addresses a web entrepreneurial initiative concretized in a knowledge hub, whose architecture is articulated on four dimensions of any business model innovation: content-new activities, structure-new linkages, context-new markets and governance-network partnerships. The multi framing hub construct, enhancing new knowledge creation and protection, aims at facilitating the capitalization upon academic-business partnerships and further instantiating the multiplication effect through upgrading knowledge-based environments. Its methodology ambition – to become a self-sustainable platform – will allow an experimental adjustment of the self-learning capability in order to monitor and develop mechanisms for early diagnosis and to adjust the dissonances arising from interactional process in building new knowledge.

The Role of Business Model Development in the Ex-Post Creation of Online Entrepreneurial Opportunity

This research aims to tap into the largely opaque origins of opportunities in the online context by exploring the role of business model development as a key for the creation and configuration of the mental and social infrastructure necessary for the emergence of online entrepreneurial opportunity. Tracing the sources of online entrepreneurial opportunity reveals that successful online entrepreneurs claim to proactively manage their environment in terms of unfolding actions which result in the enactment and creation of entrepreneurial opportunities. Based on this real life contention and the emerging view of entrepreneurial opportunity, this chapter aims to achieve a deeper understanding on the creation of online opportunities through a quantitative study empirically testing the link between business model development and online entrepreneurial opportunity as creation in order to shed light on how business model generation shapes the way entrepreneurs socially co-create opportunities in the online context.