Faculty of Management Research Workshop - Christine Moser, VU University

PRACTICE MAKES CAKES: HOW ENTREPRENEURS ENGAGE IN ONLINE SOCIAL PRACTICES
CHRISTINE MOSER, VU UVIVERSITY

In this qualitative study of an online community of cake designers, we investigate how entrepreneurs engage in online social practices. We show how passive and active online social practices connect to entrepreneurial activities, and distinguish between practices with a community focus, and practices with a business focus. We then develop a process model, where we theorize about how the different practices might be interlinked. We contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by showing how entrepreneurs through their online social practices make intentional or unintentional use of abundant but often underexploited online community resources, such as knowledge. We provide a new perspective on entrepreneurship¬, where we highlight the role of online communities. This is important, because it helps to understand how entrepreneurial processes evolve in online environments. In addition, we contribute to the practice literature by providing a micro perspective of online social practices. Particularly, our distinction between passive and active online social practices provides us with a deeper understanding of how practices unfold at the micro level. Moreover, we advance the nascent literature on online social practices. Extending the field to include online social practices is an important step in pushing its boundaries and connect with present-day organizational challenges that the online world often presents.
 

Christine Moser is an Assistant Professor of Organization Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In her research, she focuses on offline and online collaboration and knowledge sharing in social networks. In addition, she is interested in how food (waste) is organized. Her research has been published among others in New Media and Society, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, and Information Systems Journal. She is a guest editor for Organization Studies and has recently co-edited a volume of Research in the Sociology of Organizations.

Please contact faculty.administration@city.ac.uk should you wish to attend