Sustainability of Online Social Network (Ties) - Working Paper Online!
Ines Mergel and I have just submitted our current working paper on the sustainability of online ties to the
Harvard U, Kennedy School of Government, Program on Networked Governance working paper series.
In the paper we are proposing a research design which we would like to implement in order to study sustainability of online communities // online social networks. This is very important to understand since a sustainable online community is among the critical assumptions in all types of Web 2.0 business models!
Sunshine in Lausanne, Snowcovered Mountains, and Grounded Theory
I took advantage of a great day today in Lausanne and did another long-distance run. I ran along the "coastline" of Geneva Lake until Cully and back. It was a nice run. At the end it amounted to 30k and it took me 2:15h. It was a nice and decent run on my way to all the upcoming triathlon events next year :-).
Right now, I am working on my latest research paper which is on "user entrepreneurship". What I am basically looking at is the question of why users of a product engage in entrepreneurial activities. My goal is to develop a process theory which describes the different steps users go through will inventing something new and setting up a business. I am drawing on a couple of theories such as
structuration,
social movement, and
entrepreneurship theory.
To do that properly I need to go back to my latest book. It is called "
The Discovery of Grounded Theory" and nicely outlines how researchers can build theory from data. It is a good book, I can recommend it!
