MASTER THESIS – Small Business and Entrepreneurship
HOW SOCIAL VALUE IS CREATED USING
SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS
by
Mathijs Hoek
Small Business & Entrepreneurship MSc
University of Groningen
Faculty of Economics and Business
June 2015
Supervisor: D.J. Langley
Words: 12.138
Abstract
Table of contents
1. Introduction ... 4
2. Literature review ... 6
3. Methodology ... 12
4. Case description ... 19
5. Results ... 24
6. Discussion ... 33
7. Conclusion ... 38
References ... 41
Appendix 1 Interview guide owners ... 44
Appendix 2 Interview guide users ... 46
1. Introduction
This research will help understand how companies operating a social media network create
social value and what types of social values are created.
In recent years, there has been an increase in organizations that are claiming to be a social
organization with a profit motive. These organizations are a hybrid form between social- and
commercial entrepreneurship. Well known examples of this type of organizations are Uber
and AirBnB who claim to be a part of the sharing economy, the peer-to-peer market, which
has a social character but these organizations seem solely focused on profit. In fact, this
shows that the boundaries between the two forms of entrepreneurship are blurred and more
complicated than it might appear (Dees, Elias, & Bowie, 1998).
The creation of social value is traditionally linked to social entrepreneurship but it does not
mean commercial entrepreneurship cannot create social value. The term social
entrepreneurship has taken a variety of definitions (Dees, Elias, 1998) but the main distinction
with commercial entrepreneurship can be found in the value creation. In commercial
entrepreneurship, social wealth is a by-product of the economic value. Whereas in social
entrepreneurship the main focus is on social- rather than economic value creation
(Venkataraman, 1997).
Social media networks (SMN) are a type of technology that has the potential to create large
amounts of social value due to their fast growth and high amount of users. Therefore this
research will focus on the social value creation in SMN. The first SMN launched in 1997 and
there are currently thousands worldwide that support a spectrum of practices, interests and
users (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). SMNs have a strong social element and the designers decisions
have profound implications on the outcomes of a particular SMN (Kane, Labianca, &
Borgatti, 2014) and hence the social value that is created.
particular organization. Therefore this research will identify the social value that is created
with SMN and which elements of the SMN support the social value creation.
This research is part of a master thesis research group focused on social value creation in
SMNs. In this case study research MijnTuin.org (MijnTuin), a SMN focused on gardening,
will be examined. MijnTuin is focused on Dutch and Flemish gardeners and has over 70.000
users.
The present research will contribute to managers’ interest as a mean to better understand how
and what social value organizations can create with the use of SMN technology. Being able to
understand how social value is created can be of interest to current and aspiring entrepreneurs
aiming to create social value. For commercial entrepreneurs the identification of the social
value that is created with SMN can be used for different purposes such as marketing, public
relations and corporate social responsibility.
To conclude, this thesis will help understand how organizations use social media networks to
create social value. Therefore, the following research question will be addressed: How do
2. Literature review
This section of the paper will discuss the key concepts that are relevant in this research. First,
social entrepreneurship will be discussed to understand the difference with commercial
entrepreneurship in terms of motivations and social value creation. Second, as we understand
who creates the social value the current knowledge on the topic will be discussed. Third,
SMNs will be discussed, as this is the context in which the social value creation is examined.
At last, the theoretical gap will be identified and the sub-research questions will be presented.
2.1 Social entrepreneurship
In this research the study of entrepreneurship is interesting as Schumpeter (1934) identified
entrepreneurially driven innovation as the crucial engine driving the change process in a
capitalist society (Shane & Venkataraman, 2000). In addition, entrepreneurship is also found
to be a mechanism through which temporal and spatial inefficiencies in an economy are
discovered and mitigated (Kirzner, 1973). By leveraging these inefficiencies commercial
entrepreneurs aim at creating profitable operating results in private gain (Austin et al., 2006).
However, in the absence of private gain, the existence of temporal and spatial inefficiencies
and areas being neglected by the state, social entrepreneurship is an important mechanism to
support activity in these areas (Di Domenico, Haugh, & Tracey, 2010). Therefore the next
section will discuss the phenomena of social entrepreneurship.
The capability to leverage resources is not unique to social entrepreneurship (Chell, 2007) but
is a characteristic of all types of entrepreneurship. As social entrepreneurship is largely
embedded in the field of entrepreneurship there are similarities but also differences. One of
the key differences is that commercial entrepreneurs primarily focus on economic returns
while social entrepreneurs focus on social returns (Austin et al., 2006). However,
Venkataraman (1997) concluded that social wealth is a byproduct of the economic value
creation process in entrepreneurship. This contrast between economic and social return is
thus overstated as commercial entrepreneurship can both benefit society with the introduction
of new and valuable goods, services and jobs which can have a social impact (Austin et al.,
2006). Similarly Dees, Elias, & Bowie (1998) found that businesses have expanded into social
sector domains and created innovative business organizations with social purposes. Hence,
entrepreneurs might be motivated by profit but it does not preclude other motivations (Shane,
Locke, & Collins, 2003) such as a socially driven motivations.
It seems that the motivation of entrepreneurs and hence the boundaries between social- and
commercial entrepreneurship are becoming blurry and less dichotomous (Dees, Elias, et al.,
1998). As a result companies are positioned along this continuum ranging from purely social
organizations and on the other end purely economic enterprises (Austin et al., 2006; Dees,
Elias, et al., 1998). However, it could also be argued that there are two continuums. The first
continuum is from purely economic profit to no economic profit generation whereas the
second continuum is from pure social value to non-social value generation. For example, a
commercial childcare organization’s primary goal might not be the creation of social value
but can be an outcome of their search for profit. Conversely, a company focused on creating
social value can create social value while simultaneously making a profit to sustain their
business. Therefore, the differentiation between the two values might only hold if one clearly
dominates the other (Kroeger & Weber, 2014).
2.2 Social value
From the above discussion it becomes clear that both commercial- and social entrepreneurs
can create social value. In this section social value will be discussed to better understand the
concept.
A central theme in the description of social entrepreneurship is the creation of social value i.e.
the desire to benefit society (Austin et al., 2006; Peredo & McLean, 2006) by stimulating
social change or meeting social needs (Mair & Martí, 2006). In this thesis the definition of
Felicio et al. (2013) will be used who defined social value as “a necessary good or service
generated by organizations with a social purpose e.g. promoting community development,
fairer policies or dealing with a variety of social problems“.
The creation of social value is characterized by innovation, the creation of something new and
not simply the replication of existing practices and activities (Austin et al., 2006). However,
this narrow view excludes the social value creation in traditional organizations such as
healthcare or education that is not per se new or innovative. A broader perspective is taken by
Mair & Marti (2006) who state that value is created by combining resources in new ways and
involves the offering of a service or product.
Social value can be created at different levels. In a case study research Korsgaard & Anderson
(2011) identified three levels: societal level, community level and personal level. These levels
enable the classification of social value by its scope. In the next paragraphs an example of
these levels will be given.
the loans are given on individual projects. This creates a shared sense of obligation and
solidarity in the community (Mair & Martí, 2006). On a societal level the role of women
changed as loans are exclusively given to women. Furthermore, the success of the Grameen
bank sparked interest throughout the world to lend more money to people in the developing
world (Zahra et al., 2009).
2.3 Social media networks
As SMNs become more prominent in peoples daily lives their ability to create social value is
tremendous among other things due to their ability to grow fast and draw in large amount of
users. Therefore the aim of this research is to understand how SMN technology creates social
value. In this section SMNs will be discussed and how non-social value is being created using
them.
Social media networks (SMN) emerged as a new class of information technology within
e-business, business that is being conducted over the internet (Amit & Zott, 2001). These SMN
are becoming more prominent in people’s everyday life (Adler, 2014). Assumingly the most
recognizable brands applying this technology are Facebook (1,44 billion monthly active
users), Twitter (302 million monthly active users) and LinkedIn (187 million monthly active
users) and organizations are increasingly using this technology to support a spectrum of
practices, interests and users (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).
Ellison and Boyd (2013) defined SMN by the essential features: (1) uniquely identifiable
profiles; (2) publicly articulate connections; and (3) streams of user-generated content.
However, Kane et al. (2014, p. 279) argue that a different terminology is needed to include
the platform technologies as “much of the activity may occur outside the website, but the
platform continuous to be positioned in the middle”. Therefore, they propose an updated
definition of SMN defined by four essential features, these are “(1) Unique user profiles; (2)
access to digital content through, and protect it from, various search mechanisms provided by
the platform; (3) can articulate a list of other users with whom they share a relational
Within this social network users have a profile that contains information from various sources
such as user-supplied content, content provided by other users and system provided data
(Ellison & Boyd, 2013). In addition, automatic and passive records of the user’s activity can
be added to this profile. Furthermore, the content on the platform is no longer restricted by
means other than viewing the profile of other user (Ellison & Boyd, 2013). Content on the
platform can be obtained from content streams that are automatically filtered by the network,
which is referred to as news feeds. In addition, content can be accessed through search
mechanisms with algorithmic search capabilities (Kane et al., 2014).
The social and non-social value that is being created in SMNs is under considerable control of
the platform’s designers as they are making decision on the SMN elements and the
characteristics of the ties in the SMN (Kane et al., 2014). For example, Twitter suggests
accounts the user might want to follow and thereby attempts to influence the amount of ties of
the user. In addition, on Twitter users ‘follow’ each other whereas on Facebook people
become ‘friends’ which has an influence on the characteristics of the network.
Kane et al. (2014, p. 282) argue that these design decision will “homogenize user behavior in
common ways and likely will have profound implications for the formation and outcomes of
the networks that emerge on particular social media platforms”. Only a few individuals make
the design decisions that impact a large group of people. In the real world this is more
difficult if not impossible and is therefore unique for SMN. However, the concept of
perceived performance argues that ultimately users determine how they use a product or
service and may not always be outcome intended by the designer (Norman, 1999). Hence, the
design decisions are not necessarily wholly restrictive to the designer of the SMN.
2.4 Theoretical gap
The literature above has shown that we can place organizations along two continuums, from
purely economic profit to no economic profit generation and from pure social value to
non-social value generation. Thus, both non-social and commercial entrepreneurs can create non-social
value. So far the literature has been able to broadly define social value but lacks the
understanding to measure and thus compare social value. Measuring social value can provide
more insight in the efficiency of social value creation by organizations. A first step in the
development of a measurement method is the identification of social value within a particular
sector or industry. For the purpose of this research SMNs are the focus as they have the
potential to create tremendous social value by their fast growth and user size. So far it has not
been researched what social value SMN is creating therefore the first sub-research question is:
Sub research question 1: What forms of social value creation does the organization support?
Understanding the social value that is created by the organization is the first step in this
research. The next step is to understand what SMN elements create this social value. Hence,
the second sub-research question will help understand how this social value is created with
the use of SMN.
3. Methodology
This project tries to contribute to the field of Information Systems (IS) by providing a better
understanding of how social value can be created with the use of SMN. As this is a relatively
underdeveloped field of literature the knowledge generating process “theory development” is
most suitable for this objective (Aken, Berends, & Bij, 2012). Therefore the observation of
the phenomenon will consist of a case study research. In the next section the criteria for the
case selection are given. The second section of this chapter will discuss the data collection,
data analysis and the quality control.
3.1 Case Selection
For the selection of the case, criteria were set up by the research group that allows for future
cross-case analysis and ensures that the organization is creating some social value.
To ensure that the selected case fits within the IS domain and that the organization actually
uses SMN in the core of the business the organization’s (1) main business must be conducted
over the internet and (2) the use of the internet must be in line with the SMN definition of
Kane et al. (2014) given in chapter 2.
Value is created in entrepreneurial and innovative companies (Austin et al., 2006) not in
companies that are simply cost cutting or replicating what other companies are doing. Hence,
the organization (3) must be entrepreneurial and (4) innovative, not simply cutting cost.
The mission is what distinguishes social and commercial entrepreneurship (Austin et al.,
2006), this will help identify organization that are creating social value. Therefore, the
company (5) must have had a social mission at the founding of the organization. This social
mission can include promoting community development, fairer policies or a variety of other
social problems (Felício, Gonçalves, & da Conceição Gonçalves, 2013).
3.2 Data collection
In this research primary data and secondary sources are used. The collection of primary data
is done through a single case study with the use of semi-structured in-depth interviews and an
analysis of the SMN. Secondary resources consist of research papers and other literature.
The Semi-structured in-depth interview method is used to guide the conversation between the
interviewer and the interviewee and to allow the interviewee to discuss everything they deem
important (Emans, 2004). Furthermore, by using semi-structured interviews the interviewer
can have an open perspective and tailor the questions to the context of the interview in order
to better understand the concept.
For the interviews an interview guide is developed to increase the reliability between the
interviews and to decrease the researcher’s bias (Emans, 2004). The interview guide gives
guidance to the researcher and ensures that all topics are discusses. In collaboration with three
master thesis researchers, who work on a closely related research question, the interview
guide was developed. For the development of the interview guide the method of Emans
(2004) was used.
First, based upon the research questions and the literature review the main goals for the
interview were defined. Second, the information needs were defined as conceptual variables.
Third, raw variables and indicating variables were added to the interview guide. Fourth, based
upon these variables the format for the questions was decided, this was mostly open ended
without field coding as the answers were difficult to predict. At last, the format for note taking
was made. The interview guide for the owners can be found in appendix 1.
The first interview guide was developed to interview the owners of the case company. Based
upon the interviews with the owners an interview guide for the users of the SMN was
developed. This interview guide is primarily focused on the social media aspects of the
platform, the non-social and social value creation. The interview guide for the users can be
found in appendix 2.
as the second researcher. The interviews with the users of the SMN took place on the 12
thand
16
thof May 2015 in Ingen and Emmeloord respectively. With permission of the interviewees
the interviews were recorded on a voice recorder. The recordings were used to write the
transcript of the interview and to ensure completeness. The interviews were conducted in
Dutch and therefore the transcripts are also in Dutch. The transcripts of the interview can be
found in appendix 3.
In total 5 interviews were conducted. Three interviews were with the owners of the
organization. As there are no other employees this is the maximum amount of interviews
possible. In addition users of the network were interviewed. The first user was self-selected
and the second user was selected using purposive sampling.
The following people were interviewed for this research:
Owners of Mijntuin
Mr. Gekiere is the community manager of MijnTuin, which includes among many things
solving community problems, responding to user emails, writing blog posts and also
maintains the external contacts. In addition, he is also an active member of MijnTuin. After
studying at the horticulture school and doing some gardening related jobs he became a
webdeveloper. From 2004 onwards he has been self-employed as an internet service provider.
Mr. Cammaert is the main developer of MijnTuin and he is responsible for building new
features and solving problems with the website. As a youngster he worked for his farther as a
landscaper during the holidays. While living on his own he lost his interest in gardening but
regained it when he moved to a new place with a garden.
Users of MijnTuin
User 1 is a female, living in the center of the Netherlands. She has been using the platform
daily since she joined 2 years ago.
User 2 is a male, 24-year-old student from the Netherlands who uses MijnTuin for his role as
site manager at the local scouting and for his interest in gardening. He has been using
MijnTuin on a daily basis for 1.5 year.
In addition to the interviews the SMN was analyzed to identify the elements of the SMN and
find examples to support the interview findings. The first step in the analysis was to access
the SMN and to create an account and profile. Second, the methods to interact and to change
or add plants were tested to understand their functioning. Third, to support the findings in the
interviews with examples the SMN was searched with the internal search tool.
3.3 Data analysis
The analysis of the data is done through a within-case analysis that is done by reading and
coding each interview and interpreting the results. The findings in the interviews are
compared with the use of a coding scheme to look for patterns and similarities. In addition
another researcher reviewed the codes to ensure no codes were missing.
Table 1.
Coding scheme
Category
Sub-category
Information
Sharing knowledge
Learning
Helping / being helped
Questions
Ideas and inspiration
Encyclopedia
Information
Community
Positive / Cosy atmospere
Friendship
Offline
Satisfaction
Interest and passion
Reasons to use MijnTuin Social part
Show of
Share and like
Difference with other SMN
Why use MijnTuin
Trust
Miscellaneous
Discussion
Gardening more
Flanders / Netherlands
Ecological impact / better world
Zadenbib
A prerequisite for the evaluation of validity and reliability is the controllability (Aken et al.,
2012). To ensure the controllability of the report the research steps are described in detail.
This enables other researchers to replicate the research and to evaluate the other criteria in the
report.
Reliability is concerned with the consistency of the results. To control for the reliability
various methods are used. The results are reliable when they are independent of the
researcher. So to control for the bias of the researcher Thomas van Goruchem attended the
interviews with the owners of MijnTuin as an additional master thesis researcher to limit the
researcher’s bias. The additional researcher ensured that the topics were discussed sufficiently
by asking additional questions, for example to further understand the social value creation.
The interview guide also ensured that the interviews were structured and standardized which
limits the bias of the researcher. Furthermore, Thomas van Goruchem was consulted to
analyze the codes to assure no codes were missing in the interview transcript.
A couple of steps were taken to increase the reliability of the research instruments.
Triangulation, the use of multiple sources to obtain data, has been used (Yin, 1984). In this
research both the owners and the users of the SMN were interviewed. The Emans interview
guide was used to take a structured approach for the interviews. Documenting all information
further increased the reliability of the case study. Voice recordings were used to make
word-by-word transcripts of the in-depth interviews. In addition hand-written notes were made
during the interviews, meetings with the supervisor and peer students as well as research
notes.
The circumstances in which the interviews are conducted can influence the interviews. Hence,
the interviews with the owners were conducted in a separate room to limit the chance that the
interviewee’s answers influence the responses of the other interviewees. The interviews with
the users were at their own premise to make them feel at ease.
4. Case description
Based upon the criteria discussed above MijnTuin.org (hereafter MijnTuin), which translates
to my garden, was approached and was willing to participate in this research. MijnTuin is a
social network for gardeners found in 2011 by Mr. Gekiere, Mr. de Weirdt and Mr.
Cammaert. The company is located in Deinze, Belgium.
The company operates SMNs in 4 different languages (see table 2.) that are independent of
each other. Thus community members of MyGarden.org cannot interact with members of
MijnTuin.org. The SMN can be accessed via the web or the mobile applications for iOS,
Android and Windows Phone. In addition there are two mobile applications dedicated to
identifying plants and bugs & diseases.
Table 2.
Overview of SMNs
Url
Language
Users (2-06-2015)
http://www.mijntuin.org
Dutch
70.561
http://www.mygarden.org
English
46.899
http://www.monjardin.org/
French
7.250
http://www.mojazahrada.org/ Slovakian
1.328
In the next section a brief description will be given of the elements that comprise the
MijnTuin SMN.
Profile
Types of content
A user of MijnTuin can post and share various types of content. In these content types users
can mention other users that are in their network. In table 3 an overview is given of the
various content types, sub types and a description.
Table 3.
Types of content users can create
Type
Sub type
Description
Posts
A string of text that can be complemented with
a photo.
Photos
• Single photo
• Photo album
A single photo with a description or an album
with multiple photos.
Questions
• Garden related
• Identify plant
• Identify bug or
disease
Users can ask other users garden related
questions, to identify their plant or to identify a
bug or disease they have photographed.
Notes
• Note
• Recipe
• Task
• Blog
Users can use more words in a note than in a
post. The notes are categorized as a note,
recipe, task or blog post, the format is the same.
Plant
information
Users can add or change the text and
characteristics of a plant.
Plant encyclopedia
Content
The first four content types in table 3 can be used to have interaction on. Users can reply to
the content or give the content a like on MijnTuin. The other content type, plant information,
can be edited by all users. When a user discusses a plant in one of the other content types, the
system will automatically link this underneath the plant information that is being discussed.
Notifications
If a user has a like or comment to his or her posts a notification will be given on the website
as well as via email. Similar, if a user replies or likes a post of another user a notification will
be given with every interaction.
Private messages
With private messages users can send messages to other users on MijnTuin. Messages can
only be send to one person and can only include text. Users are not prohibited from having
contact trough other means such as email.
News feed
Users can view the activity of other users is their news feed or by visiting the user’s profile.
When a user is logged-in the news feed is the first page they visit. Users can filter their news
feed by choosing to display all activity on MijnTuin, what activities are popular or the activity
of the users in their network.
Add plants to profile
Users can add plants to their MijnTuin garden list to show other users the plants they own and
to receive personalized updates from MijnTuin with regards to garden maintenance.
Add plants to wish list
Users can also add plants to their wish list or indicate that they are willing to exchange or give
away seeds, seedling or plants to other users.
Case criteria
Although certain criteria were examined prior to the interview some of the criteria had to be
evaluated after the interview. In the next section the organization and the criteria will be
discussed.
Table 4.
Activity log
Type of activity log
Description
Answered a question
User answered a garden question
Identified a plant
User identified a plant via the website or the Plantifier app.
Added a plant to
his/her garden
User added a plant to his or her garden to show others his collection
of plant and receive garden activities updates.
Added a plant
User created a new plant.
Changed a plant
User edited the description or characteristics of a plant.
Added a photo
User added a photo to his or her profile or to a plant.
Is now following
User is following a user or a brand page.
Is looking for
User has added a plant to his or her wish list.
Liked
Like a post or photo of another user.
Took part in a
competition
list of relational connections), see who their connections are following and traverse their own
connections (view and traverse).
To understand the organization’s entrepreneurial, innovative nature and its (social) mission it
was necessary to interview the owners. During the interviews all 3 owners highlighted the
innovative character of the company. Gekiere said “if I see that Google launches something
new we can add that tomorrow” and “the fact that we do not have a business plan that we
need to follow means we can act fast”. Cammaert further stressed this, he said “if we get an
idea for a new feature I start working on that feature”. And on the question how they come up
with new features or ideas Cammaert replied, “from the community or our own input, we are
active [on MijnTuin] and notice what is missing or can be improved”. Similarly, de Weirdt
mentioned “we can adapt quickly that is our advantage” and “we come up with of something
... and we just make that without thinking to much”.
According to Gekiere the first idea for the SMN started with some people on Twitter
envisioning a website “where you could tell which plants you have and when there was a task
related to this plant you would be notified”. Cammaert added that they started MijnTuin to
‘help people with a plant they do not know’ and they wanted to make gardening accessible for
everyone. The project to build Mijntuin started as a side project and was not intended to
become a commercial business.
From the section above it can be concluded that the founders initially regarded the project as a
side project and did not have the intention to make it a business. Their purpose was social, as
they wanted to make gardening easy for everyone with their SMN. Mijntuin became a
commercial business when an external party wanted to advertise on their website and they had
to incorporate themselves. Consequently it can be concluded that the project was started as a
project with a social purpose.
5. Results
In this chapter the social values that are created by the case company and the SMN elements
that result in this social value creation will be presented. The first section will discuss the
forms of social value that the firm creates on an individual-, community- and societal level.
The second section will discuss what SMN technology is used to enable the creation of these
social values.
5.1 Social values
This section will discuss the social values that were found. In the analysis of the interviews 4
types of social value were found:
• Information - the creation of garden and plant information.
• Community - being part of a group of people with a shared interest in gardening.
• Friendship - creation of friendships between users.
• Push social norms - through discussion users can push social norms.
These social values are found based upon the interviews with the owners and users of
MijnTuin and the succeeding coding. In the discussion of the social values quotes from the
interviews will be used which are translated from Dutch to English.
5.1.1 Information
The social value information is created at three different levels. At a personal level users and
visitors can obtain knowledge from the plant information and the knowledge that is shared by
other users in replies, comments or posts. The social value is also created on a community and
societal level in which the community as a whole builds an open encyclopedia accessible for
everyone.
Knowledge
“seeing other peoples knowledge is fun“ and that “all the knowledge that people share is
public for other people”.
Learning
A related aspect is the ability to learn from other users. Being asked what value people get
from using MijnTuin Gekiere he said “I especially want them to learn something from it” in
addition Cammaert mentioned “there are people who don’t know anything, they learn a lot”.
This was also confirmed by user 2 who stated that “my knowledge of plants increases
rapidly” and he added that through the identification app Plantifier “… it really sticks with
you, the next time I see a plant I’m immediately reminded of the name of the plant”.
Garden inspiration and skills
Besides the information and learning value, users of MijnTuin get inspiration out of the
network. According to Gekiere “a lot of people take ideas from it” and “it is an inspiration
forum that is created”. Similar, user 1 mentioned that they “exchange photos to see how other
people do things”. In response to the question ‘what other things’ she added, “how people
garden and how they have decorated and designed it [the garden]”. In the same way user 2
responded “that it is fun to see other people’s garden ... how their garden looks”. Similar, user
2 described how one user showed photos how one user trimmed his Willow (a tree) and User
2 had no idea that it could be done like that. Thus, his garden skills improved by viewing
other users garden activity.
5.1.2 Community
Another social value that is created is the feeling of belonging to a community of people with
an interest in gardening. This social value is created on a personal and community level. First,
on a personal level users experience the feeling of belonging to a community. Second, the
creation of a community is a value that benefits those that are part of the community.
Shared interest
motivation to join the network was because “I found something really specific which matched
my interest” and that the people are congenial. Furthermore, user 2 also highlighted that
“people come to the website with a certain interest, that interest is similar on the entire
website”.
5.1.3 Friendship
Another social value that is mentioned frequently is friendship. This value is created on a
personal level between the users that are involved in the friendship.
As user 1 mentioned she found a “circle of friends that fit me. It is congenial. You can select
them precisely because of the [shared] interest”. Further, she added, “I have contact with
some with whom I email about personal affairs” and she continued, “on a distance these are a
sort of friendships”. Cammaert highlighted that one of the reasons why people visit MijnTuin
even in the winter is that “people have got to know each other”. In addition, De Weirdt also
mentioned that there is “some form of friendship” on MijnTuin.
The next two sections, meeting offline and exchange of physical goods, can be an outcome
but can also strengthen friendship and the feeling of belonging to a community.
Meeting offline
As a result of the interaction on MijnTuin users are also meeting in person and are exchanging
physical items. Gekiere told, from his own experience, “I have a lot of plant in my garden,
some leftovers, I post them online and people come from far to get them”. A similar
experience was described by Cammaert who said, “2 or 3 years ago there was someone on
MijnTuin who had apples and pears that were ready to harvest” this user posted this on
MijnTuin and asked who was interested. Cammaert continued, “When I looked that person
lived a block behind me … and now every autumn I can go to these people and tell them I
come to get a bucket of apples”.
receiving seeds from a member of MijnTuin. When he was looking for a specific plant a
woman replied, “That is such and such plant” and she added “I even have some seeds and I
can send you some”. When user 2 gave her the address she send him the seeds free of charge.
5.1.4 Push social norms
The next social value that was found was the ability of the users to push social norms.
Through interaction and discussion in a community of like-minded people common norms
can emerge and can influence the norms of other users on certain topics. This social value can
have an impact on all three levels of society. On a personal level an individual can be
influenced and change norms. On a community level users can influence others to push their
norms, this can be on MijnTuin- or in their local community. As a result this norm can have
impact on a societal level.
The first step in changing the norms is the awareness of the problem or the need for change.
This is what Cammaert mentioned when asked what social values MijnTuin creates “we are
seeing that the nature is at brink of exhaustion” and “when people learn about this and are
being informed that is a bit of awareness”. To illustrate how awareness can influence the
debate and thus the norms Cammaert used the example of a user referring to the use of
Roundup (a selective herbicide that kills weeds). Some people are trying to inform these
users, ‘they explain why it is better not to use Roundup and why it is hazardous and what else
you can do’.
A search for ‘Roundup’ on the SMN showed an interaction
1in which one user explained that
he had forbidden the gardeners in their communal allotment to use Roundup. This shows how
individuals can have influence on a community level that can ultimately result in societal
benefits.
5.2 How SMN supports the social value creation
In the above section the social values information, community, friendship and pushing norms
have been identified. The next step in this research is to identify the elements of the SMN that
enable the creation of these social values. For the purpose of this research the website is
analyzed as the mobile applications do not include all the elements that can be used on the
website.
5.2.1 Public interpersonal interaction
The public interpersonal interaction contributes to all 3 types of social value creation. First off
all, by replying to the content of another user the social value information can be created
through knowledge, learning, helping others, gaining garden inspiration and skills as well as
stimulate discussion. Second, by replying and receiving response users build relationships and
have interaction about a shared interest. As user 2 said when he posts something to Mijntuin
“there is always a response and I think that is the most fun social part”. And he mentioned,
“any response gives you a good feeling. The people on the website are polite people, it is not
like they give compliments to everyone”. Hence, the public interaction with the other users
contributes to the social value community development. Third, being able to reply to the
content of other users can spark the discussion and debate around certain topics. User 1
mentioned that they were able to turn around people from using pesticides. This has only been
possible by replying to the content of other people and having a discussion.
Users can have public interpersonal interaction on all content types, as discussed in table 2,
through replying or liking. The main distinction between replying and liking is that a like is a
button the user clicks to indicate that the user likes the other user’s content. In contrast, a
reply is a string of words that can result in further interaction. Users cannot like the reply of
another user.
The interpersonal interaction is different on MijnTuin in comparison to Facebook or websites
of news-outlet as discussed above. As Gekiere mentioned due to the lack of garden related
knowledge “the responses of people and the interaction is completely different [on
Facebook]”. This is similar to the comment of user 2 who said that the discussion is at a
higher level on MijnTuin. In addition, user 1 said that the interaction can be humorous, “there
is really quite a bit of laughter” and the atmosphere is cozy. She added, when new users first
join you often hear them say how nice it is on MijnTuin.
The interpersonal interaction that is different in comparison to other better-known social
media networks is the focus on garden questions and the identification of plants and bugs &
diseases. With a dedicated button in the top menu bar and two mobile applications questions
can be crowd sourced to the community. Users who have a need for help use this function to
ask a question. Cammaert mentioned that people help others and interact because “some
people enjoy their status”. Similar user 1 said she sometimes look to see if she can help
people. User 2 gave a different reason; he said he regards it as a sport to test his knowledge.
When people are being helped this may give them satisfaction as suggested by Cammaert who
said that people “as soon as you have experienced that [being helped] you feel immediately
connect to a group of people”. In addition, he mentioned that people help others and interact
because “some people enjoy their status”. According to Gekiere being helped contributes to
the trust people have in the community.
5.2.2 Private interpersonal interaction
5.2.3 User-generated content
The encyclopedia with plant information on MijnTuin is mostly user-generated, the owners
added the first couple hundred and a dataset from a grower was uploaded once. Users add
plants that are missing in the encyclopedia or edit existing information. The users are also
responsible for the moderation of the content. Gekiere said “people can report on every page
about wrong incorrect content and bad conduct”. They want the content to be open to edit for
everyone so that the information is not the vision of one author who might have a double
motive e.g. selling a product. Thus, Gekiere said, “by making it social everyone has a voice”
and “with regard to knowledge [contribution] everyone is equal to us”.
Both users mentioned the value of the information that is created. User 1 said “it is incredible
what an information there is that you can not find in a book”. She added that there are also
many mistakes in books that are being reproduced by other authors. The encyclopedia on
MijnTuin provides her a place to state that this was wrong or to change it. User 2 stressed the
value of the information that is generated, “all knowledge people share that is public for all
other is I think of great value ... just the general shared knowledge”. Thus, the user-generated
content is contributing to the social value information.
5.2.4 Profile
6. Discussion
Based upon the results from the previous chapter the main research question, how do
organizations use social media networks to enable the creation of social value, will be
answered. At the end of this chapter a model is presented which is a visual presentation of the
findings in this report.
6.1 Information
The plant information in the encyclopedia is user-generated content and can be created
without interpersonal interaction, users can independently add or edit the content. It was
found that there are 2 groups of people contributing to the user-generated content of which
one group does not use interpersonal interaction. The user-generated content is considered a
part of the SMN as it can be supported but does not necessarily involve interpersonal
interaction. Wiki like platforms, in which content creation is crow sourced, may support
social networking purposes but they do not have to involve interpersonal interaction (Kane et
al., 2014). However, as shown in the results, users can decide to add or edit user-generated
content based upon public interpersonal interaction.
In addition, the profile has a moderating role in the creation of user-generated content. User 2
indicated that he was motivated to write plant information to make his profile complete. This
motivation has not been discussed in the literature; this may be due to the unique structure of
the SMN in which users can add plants to their profile. However, the profile can be used to
signal to increase self-presentation and status in the SMN (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Thus users
can be motivated to add user-generated content to show how many plants they have in an
effort to raise status or to improve their impression in the SMN.
Besides user-generated content the interpersonal interaction between users is also directly
contributing to the social value information. For example by answering questions, showing
how they garden or share their experiences with a plant users create information that is of
value to other users.
user-generated content is enriched by the information of the interpersonal interaction
regarding the plant.
Proposition 1: The more interpersonal interaction that can be combined with the
user-generated content the more social value information is created.
In contrast, Cammaert mentioned that users also discuss garden related topics through private
interpersonal interaction. On a personal level this can create the social value information for
the users involved in the interaction. However, when users discuss plant related information
in private other users cannot interact, learn from or discuss this information and the
information cannot be combined with the user-generated content. Therefore, the private
interpersonal interaction has a direct negative effect on the creation of the social value
information.
6.2 Community and Friendship
MijnTuin is focused on a specific interest and people who become a member make a
conscious decision to join the SMN because of this interest. Both the owners and the users
mentioned that the shared interest among the users contributes to the creation of a community
feeling. It was repeatedly mentioned that the users on MijnTuin are congenial because of this
interest. The literature supports the statement that community feeling is created by a shared
interest as an online community is described as an internet-connected collective of people
with a shared purpose, interest or need who interact over a period of time (Ren, Kraut, &
Kiesler, 2007). In this particular case the social value community is created by the public
interpersonal interaction by which the shared interest in the community can be explored,
discussed and strengthened. The shared interest therefore has a mediating role in the
relationship between public interpersonal interaction and the social value community.
Private interpersonal interaction can have both a positive and negative effect on the creation
of community feeling. It was found that people visit each other to pick-up physical goods or
send them via the post. This is not exclusive to users who have strong ties (friendships) on the
SMN. To arrange the exchange of items users need private interaction to exchange personal
information. When the transaction between the users is completed their bond is strengthened
and trust increases. Hence, this example illustrates how the private interpersonal interaction
can have a positive effect on the community feeling.
The private interaction between users can have a negative effect on the creation of the feeling
belonging to a community as the users in the private interaction develop personal-bonds
instead of community-bonds. It this research it was found that user 1 uses private messages to
interact with other users, which she refers to as friend. Thus the private interaction is a mean
by which friends on the SMN communicate. In the literature it is found that the higher the
frequency of the interaction between users the stronger their relationship (McKenna, Green, &
Gleason, 2002). Thus the more private interaction users have the stronger their personal ties
become, which they call friendship. When people develop stronger personal ties they become
more connected to the individuals in the community than to the community itself (Ren et al.,
2007). The risk is that when friends leave the SMN that users who have a personal bond will
follow whereas those with a community bond stay (Krackhardt & Porter, 1986).
Proposition 2: The more private interpersonal interaction users have the stronger the
personal-bonds they develop and the weaker the community-bond.
6.3 Pushing the norm
6.4
Profile
In the interpersonal interaction with other users the profile provides a signal to other users. As
the results showed the profile picture is used as a signal to indicate whether a user is a
frequent user of the SMN or not. The user who is consuming or taking part in the discussion
uses this signal to weigh the value of other users’ contribution in the discussion. Indeed, the
disclosure of personal information can be a strong indicator for the helpfulness of a user’s
contribution to the discussion (Forman, Ghose, & Wiesenfeld, 2008). It should be kept in
mind that the interpretation of signals is subtle and subjective (Donath, 2007). However the
SMN can place the profile in context, if a user would further explore the profile of the user
the profile information and user’s history on the SMN can be used as additional signals. Thus,
the signals of the profile are used to interpret the value of the information in the interaction.
Proposition 3: a profile showing more user information has higher perceived helpfulness than
a profile showing less user information.
6.5 User motivations
To have interaction on a SMN content needs to be shared on which other users can respond,
without content there can be no interaction. Hence, there are motivations for users to share
content with other users and for other users to respond and start the interaction.
useful advice to others (Constant, Sproull, & Kiesler, 1996). This is similar as to why some
people are prone to answer the questions of other users or to interact in general. Indeed, the
more people participate in the discussion the lager the opportunity to earn status (Hippel &
Krogh, 2003).
The third moderator is the need for help. On MijnTuin or via the mobile applications 3 types
of questions can be asked. Questions are asked because users do not know- or are not certain
about something. Asking a question on the SMN enables the user to broadcast inquiries to a
wide set of ties when they do not know which person holds the information or when the
information is only accessible via weak ties (Morris, Teevan, & Panovich, 2010). Thus, if the
user would know which users hold the information this user could directly be approached in a
private message. Instead, with the focus of the SMN on the questions, it seems that users do
not know who in the community holds the information, which may be a result of weak ties in
their network.
Model
The above discussion of the findings on how the organization uses SMN enable the creation
of social value has resulted in the development of a model that is shown in figure 1.
Public interpersonal interaction
Private interpersonal interaction
Community
Pushing the norm
Friendship Information User-‐generated content Shared interest Good atmosphere Trust Satisfaction Profile information Social Value User motivation Self-‐image enhancement Status
Need for help
Figure 1. Model social value creation in SMN
