A Literature Review on the Business Impacts of Social Network Sites

Payam Hanafizadeh, Ahad Zare Ravasan, Ali Nabavi, Mohammad Mehrabioun.

Published on February 2012.

Social network sites (SNSs) such as MySpace, Facebook, and Youtube have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices. There are hundreds of SNSs, with various technological affordances, supporting a wide range of interests and practices. However, the impact of SNSs is increasingly pervasive, with activities ranging from economic and marketing to social and educational. Among the wide impacts of social network sites, they are, anecdotally, becoming increasingly important in today’s businesses. Thus, the purpose of this study is to present a literature review of and classification scheme for research works in business impacts of SNSs, with the aim of clarifying the ways SNSs impact businesses. The review covers 28 journal articles published from 2000 to 2011 and a few months of 2012. The 28 articles classified SNS applications in businesses into six distinct categories: the “marketing and advertising,” “knowledge management,” “social capital,” “relationship management,” “e-commerce,” and “economic model.” The findings reveal that “marketing and advertising” were the most frequently category has been considered in the literature. This review provides a source for discovering business impacts of social network sites and will help to simulate further interest in the area.

Source:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236152792_A_Literature_Review_on_the_Business_Impacts_of_Social_Network_Sites