Federica Evangelista

How are decision systems changing? The contribution of social media to the management of decisional liquefaction

Abstract The liquidity of data, information and knowledge is influencing the relationships among social and economic actors through the definition of a new socio-technical configuration in which new rules influence individual behaviours and different standards determine the success of every type of actions and decisions. In this new contest, decision-makers should understand that traditional hierarchical approaches are no longer able to face the challenges imposed by an emerging relational configuration in which decisions cannot be imposed but emerge from the interactions among actors. Aiming at supporting the definition of more affordable models of decision, the study proposes a reading key for the ongoing evolution and proposes some reflections useful for the emersion of a conceptual framework more fitting with the emerging scenario. The proposed reflections aim at supporting decision-makers in the identification of key variables likely to assure competitive advantages in the emerging social configurations.

Small world theory and the World Wide Web: linking small world properties and website centrality

This qualitative paper aims to point out the incidence of small world characteristics in the World Wide Web. To this end, some theoretical implications of small world theory (SWT) are verified using information from focus groups and in-depth interviews administered to experts and users of the World Wide Web. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether it is possible to apply small world properties to online social networks while pointing out the key variables of website centrality in that context. Building on this, the paper traces possible contributions for better management of the World Wide Web in terms of the professional use of social media to facilitate information or product and service sharing. The results of the proposed investigation highlight some pivotal aspects of small world properties on the web, as well as on website centrality. The findings are relevant for the application of social media marketing (SMM) and search engine optimisation (SEO).

A Systems View of Companies’ Communication in Online Social Environments

ABSTRACT In order to enrich previous contributions interested in the identification of possible pathways to improve companies’ capabilities to better face the challenges imposed by increasing social and economic variety, this paper focuses attention on the role of companies’ communications in online social environments. Thanks to the adoption of systems thinking, the paper enlarges existing contributions on companies’ online communication by combining the research streams of signalling theory, capital need theory, and legitimacy theory. By building on a multi-disciplinary literature review, this paper identifies three variables to analyse the effectiveness of companies’ communication based on the use of social networks: the frequency, the instability, and the previous activities. Empirical research is proposed with reference to a sample composed by the 50 best performing European companies in terms of return on sales (ROS) (USD) in 2015 via the use of structural equation modelling (SEM). SEM is applied to explore the relationships among identified variables in companies’ online communication on Facebook and Instagram, and how those communications influence companies’ economic performance in terms of ROS.