Social Media Research: A Review of Academic Research and Future Research Directions
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paper_title: Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media

paper_content:

The concept of Social Media is top of the agenda for many business executives today. Decision makers, as well as consultants, try to identify ways in which firms can make profitable use of applications such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Second Life, and Twitter. Yet despite this interest, there seems to be very limited understanding of what the term ''Social Media'' exactly means; this article intends to provide some clarification. We begin by describing the concept of Social Media, and discuss how it differs from related concepts such as Web 2.0 and User Generated Content. Based on this definition, we then provide a classification of Social Media which groups applications currently subsumed under the generalized term into more specific categories by characteristic: collaborative projects, blogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds. Finally, we present 10 pieces of advice for companies which decide to utilize Social Media.
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paper_title: The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success

paper_content:

The bestselling bible for social media is now completely revised and updated! The Social Media Bible, Second Edition (www.TSMB2.com) is the most comprehensive resource that transforms the way corporate, small business, and non-profit companies use social media to reach their desired audiences with power messages and efficiency. In this Second Edition, each of the three parts - Tactics, Tools, and Strategies - have been updated to reflect the most current social media trends. Covers all major new software applications, including features and benefits, in detail Lists more than 120 companies integral to the social media industry with updated data, products, services, and links Includes advanced topics like measuring social media return on investment (ROI) and how to develop and implement the Five Steps to Social Media Success strategy plan Includes dozens of social media ROI case studies Author is a widely acknowledged social media authority with numerous media appearances and speaking engagements The Social Media Bible, Second Edition gives you a fully up-to-date toolbox to revamp your marketing strategy and create new opportunities for growth.
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paper_title: 18 DEVELOPING OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE: A Community-Based Analysis of Research

paper_content:

Open source software (OSS) creates the potential for the inclusion of large and diverse communities in every aspect of the software development and consumption life cycle. However, despite 6 years of effort by an ever growing research community, we still don’t know exactly what we do and don’t know about OSS, nor do we have a clear idea about the basis for our knowledge. This paper presents an analysis of 155 research artefacts in the area of open source software. The purpose of the study is to identify the kinds of open source project communities that have been researched, the kinds of research questions that have been asked, and the methodologies used by researchers. Emerging from the study is a clearer understanding of what we do and don’t know about open source software, and recommendations for future research efforts
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paper_title: Role of social media in online travel information search

paper_content:

Social media are playing an increasingly important role as information sources for travelers. The goal of this study is to investigate the extent to which social media appear in search engine results in the context of travel-related searches. The study employed a research design that simulates a traveler's use of a search engine for travel planning by using a set of pre-defined keywords in combination with nine U.S. tourist destination names. The analysis of the search results showed that social media constitute a substantial part of the search results, indicating that search engines likely direct travelers to social media sites. This study confirms the growing importance of social media in the online tourism domain. It also provides evidence for challenges faced by traditional providers of travel-related information. Implications for tourism marketers in terms of online marketing strategies are discussed.
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paper_title: Information systems outsourcing: a survey and analysis of the literature

paper_content:

In the last fifteen years, academic research on information systems (IS) outsourcing has evolved rapidly. Indeed the field of outsourcing research has grown so fast that there has been scant opportunity for the research community to take a collective breath, and complete a global assessment of research activities to date. This paper seeks to address this need by exploring and synthesizing the academic literature on IS outsourcing. It offers a roadmap of the IS outsourcing literature, highlighting what has been done so far, how the work fits together under a common umbrella, and what the future directions might be. In order to adequately address the immense diversity of research on IS outsourcing and outsourcing in general, we develop a conceptual framework that helps us to categorize the literature. In particular, we look at the research objectives, methods used and theoretical foundations of the papers. In identifying the major research objectives, we view outsourcing as an organizational decision process and adapt Simon's stage model of decision making. This allows us to identify five major sourcing issues, from which at least one is covered by each academic article. These are the questions of why to outsource, what to outsource, which decision process to take, how to implement the sourcing decision, and what is the outcome of the sourcing decision. In analyzing the literature, we identify and structure the main explanatory factors and theoretical relationships within each of these sourcing stages. Based on our discussion of the research objectives, theoretical foundations and research approaches taken in the literature, we show how the various research streams hang together and we come up with a number of implications for research. Moreover, we identify a number of emerging sourcing issues. We believe that research on these "new" phenomena such as offshore outsourcing, application service providing and business process outsourcing would benefit from 'standing on the shoulders' of what has already been accomplished in the field of IS outsourcing.
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paper_title: An analysis of the AIS basket of top journals

paper_content:

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the types of research published in the Association for Information Systems (AIS) basket of top journals.Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses bibliographic analysis to analyze all the articles that were published in the AIS basket of top journals over a ten‐year period, from 1998 to 2007. Articles were classified based on their paradigmatic and methodological approach.Findings – Although there is a common perception within the information systems (IS) research community that European IS research is mostly qualitative and interpretive, the bibliographic analysis reveals that the two European IS journals are not significantly different from their US counterparts. All six journals in the AIS basket are remarkably similar in terms of the types of research published.Originality/value – This article is one of the first to provide a comprehensive overview of the types of research published within the AIS basket of top journals. It provides a picture of ho...
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paper_title: 18 DEVELOPING OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE: A Community-Based Analysis of Research

paper_content:

Open source software (OSS) creates the potential for the inclusion of large and diverse communities in every aspect of the software development and consumption life cycle. However, despite 6 years of effort by an ever growing research community, we still don’t know exactly what we do and don’t know about OSS, nor do we have a clear idea about the basis for our knowledge. This paper presents an analysis of 155 research artefacts in the area of open source software. The purpose of the study is to identify the kinds of open source project communities that have been researched, the kinds of research questions that have been asked, and the methodologies used by researchers. Emerging from the study is a clearer understanding of what we do and don’t know about open source software, and recommendations for future research efforts
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paper_title: The Emergence of Interpretivism in IS Research

paper_content:

This paper investigates aspects of the history and current state of interpretivism in IS research. The emergence of interpretivism is explored through the identification of a network of IS researchers working in the interpretive tradition, through an examination of the role of mainstream and alternative IS journals, and through an analysis of the rhetoric used to support interpretive claims. The paper contributes to analysis of the development of the IS field as a whole, and provides some conceptual ideas and a reference point for further work in this relatively neglected area of research.
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paper_title: Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media

paper_content:

The concept of Social Media is top of the agenda for many business executives today. Decision makers, as well as consultants, try to identify ways in which firms can make profitable use of applications such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Second Life, and Twitter. Yet despite this interest, there seems to be very limited understanding of what the term ''Social Media'' exactly means; this article intends to provide some clarification. We begin by describing the concept of Social Media, and discuss how it differs from related concepts such as Web 2.0 and User Generated Content. Based on this definition, we then provide a classification of Social Media which groups applications currently subsumed under the generalized term into more specific categories by characteristic: collaborative projects, blogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds. Finally, we present 10 pieces of advice for companies which decide to utilize Social Media.
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paper_title: RFID RESEARCH: AN ACADEMIC LITERATURE REVIEW (1995-2005) AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

paper_content:

Academic research into radio frequency identification (RFID) has proliferated significantly over the last few years, to the point where journals (Production and Operations Management, International Journal of Production Economics, IEEE Systems Journal, and IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering) are producing special issues on the topic. In this paper, we present a literature review of 85 academic journal papers that were published on the subject between 1995 and 2005. We organize these studies into four main categories: technological issues, applications areas, policy and security issues, and other issues. All of the papers in the review are allocated to the main and sub-categories based on their main focus. Our analysis of these papers provides useful insights on the anatomy of the RFID literature, and should aid the creation and accumulation of knowledge in this domain. A comprehensive list of references is also presented. It is hoped that the review will be a good resource for anyone who is interested in RFID research, and will help to stimulate further interest in this area. The implications for RFID researchers and practitioners and suggestions for future research areas are discussed.
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paper_title: Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media

paper_content:

The concept of Social Media is top of the agenda for many business executives today. Decision makers, as well as consultants, try to identify ways in which firms can make profitable use of applications such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Second Life, and Twitter. Yet despite this interest, there seems to be very limited understanding of what the term ''Social Media'' exactly means; this article intends to provide some clarification. We begin by describing the concept of Social Media, and discuss how it differs from related concepts such as Web 2.0 and User Generated Content. Based on this definition, we then provide a classification of Social Media which groups applications currently subsumed under the generalized term into more specific categories by characteristic: collaborative projects, blogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds. Finally, we present 10 pieces of advice for companies which decide to utilize Social Media.
---
paper_title: Role of social media in online travel information search

paper_content:

Social media are playing an increasingly important role as information sources for travelers. The goal of this study is to investigate the extent to which social media appear in search engine results in the context of travel-related searches. The study employed a research design that simulates a traveler's use of a search engine for travel planning by using a set of pre-defined keywords in combination with nine U.S. tourist destination names. The analysis of the search results showed that social media constitute a substantial part of the search results, indicating that search engines likely direct travelers to social media sites. This study confirms the growing importance of social media in the online tourism domain. It also provides evidence for challenges faced by traditional providers of travel-related information. Implications for tourism marketers in terms of online marketing strategies are discussed.
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paper_title: Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology

paper_content:

Valid measurement scales for predicting user acceptance of computers are in short supply. Most subjective measures used in practice are unvalidated, and their relationship to system usage is unknown. The present research develops and validates new scales for two specific variables, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, which are hypothesized to be fundamental determinants of user acceptance. Definitions of these two variables were used to develop scale items that were pretested for content validity and then tested for reliability and construct validity in two studies involving a total of 152 users and four application programs. The measures were refined and streamlined, resulting in two six-item scales with reliabilities of .98 for usefulness and .94 for ease of use. The scales exhibited hgih convergent, discriminant, and factorial validity. Perceived usefulness was significnatly correlated with both self-reported current usage r = .63, Study 1) and self-predicted future usage r = .85, Study 2). Perceived ease of use was also significantly correlated with current usage r = .45, Study 1) and future usage r = .59, Study 2). In both studies, usefulness had a signficnatly greater correaltion with usage behavior than did ease of use. Regression analyses suggest that perceived ease of use may actually be a causal antecdent to perceived usefulness, as opposed to a parallel, direct determinant of system usage. Implications are drawn for future research on user acceptance.
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paper_title: Understanding user participation in Australian Government Tourism Facebook Page

paper_content:

With Facebook being the largest social network site (SNS), can government use Facebook (FB) to increase citizen participation in delivering and promoting their services? This paper presents the case of government use of social media for tourism to provide a general understanding online government and user participation in the Tourism government FB page. This is a case study research into the government FB page of Tourism Australia. FB page wall posts and comments are analysed quantitatively using content analysis to determine what type of online participation is visible in these sites and what the agencies are trying to achieve. Further, the paper employed a spectrum of online engagement matrix to identify the type of engagement being attained by the page. Findings show that the page has successfully served as a platform for its audience to share their Australian experience and it is being used for the purpose of announcing, informing and involving type of online engagement. This is an example of a crowdsourcing endeavour where tourism experiences and stories and pictures are being sourced from public. The research contributes to gaining a better understanding of government FB phenomenon, in particular for Australian context.
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paper_title: An annotated bibliography of computer supported cooperative work

paper_content:

Computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) is a new multi-disciplinary field with roots in many disciplines. Due to the area's youth and diversity, few specialized books or journals are available, and articles are scattered amongst diverse journals, proceedings and technical reports. Building a CSCW reference library is particularly demanding, for it is difficult for the new researcher to discover relevant documents. To aid this task, this article compiles, lists and annotates some of the current research in computer supported cooperative work into a bibliography. Over 300 references are included.
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Title: Social Media Research: A Review of Academic Research and Future Research Directions

Section 1: Introduction
Description 1: Provide an overview of social media research, its importance, and the objectives and structure of the paper.

Section 2: Rationale for the Classification of Research Publications in Social Media
Description 2: Discuss the reasons for consolidating IS research and the criteria used to classify social media research publications.

Section 3: Background Paradigm
Description 3: Explain the different paradigms (positivist vs. interpretive) within social media research and their relevance.

Section 4: Research Method
Description 4: Describe the qualitative and quantitative research methods used in social media studies.

Section 5: Data Driven vs. Theory Driven
Description 5: Differentiate between data-driven and theory-driven approaches in social media research.

Section 6: Social Media Applications
Description 6: Identify and describe the most commonly studied social media applications in the research literature.

Section 7: Methodology
Description 7: Outline the methodology used to identify, select, and analyze the social media research papers included in this review.

Section 8: Analysis of Results
Description 8: Present and analyze the data collected from the reviewed papers, highlighting key trends and findings.

Section 9: Distribution of Articles by Background Paradigm
Description 9: Analyze the distribution of reviewed articles based on their background paradigms.

Section 10: Distribution of Articles by Research Method
Description 10: Discuss the distribution and trends of qualitative and quantitative research methods in the reviewed articles.

Section 11: Distribution of Articles by Theory Driven vs Data Driven
Description 11: Examine the proportion of theory-driven versus data-driven research among the reviewed papers.

Section 12: Distribution of Articles by Social Media Applications
Description 12: Analyze the frequency and usage of various social media applications in the reviewed research.

Section 13: Discussion
Description 13: Summarize the findings, discuss their implications, and address limitations of the study.

Section 14: Conclusions
Description 14: Provide a summary of the study’s main findings and contributions to social media research.

Section 15: Directions for Future Research
Description 15: Suggest potential research questions and areas for future investigation in the field of social media.