A Systematic Review of Social Networking Research in Organizations

Interpersonal interaction applications, for example, online journals, moment emissaries, web recordings, long range informal communication sites like, Facebook, proficient systems administration sites (e.g., LinkedIn), Twitter, and virtual universes (e.g., Second Life) have turned out to be progressively famous over the most recent couple of years. Since these applications have considerable ramifications for clients, associations, and society, interpersonal organizations (SNs) have picked up consideration from data frameworks (IS) analysts and developed consistently as an exploration region. To sort out the amassed research and urge analysts to look at new and squeezing issues in SNs, accessible learning should be orchestrated and explore holes should be tended to.

Keywords: Social Networking Applications (SNAs), Social Networks (SNs), Social Media, Social Networking, Information Systems (IS).

I. Introduction

An informal community (SN) is “”an explicit arrangement of linkages among a characterized set of people, with the extra property that the qualities of these linkages all in all might be utilized to decipher the social conduct of the people included (Mitchell, 1969, p. 2). Sociology examine about SN was directed well before the innovation of the Internet. In any case, it is over the most recent quite a while that long range interpersonal communication applications (SNAs, for example, web journals, moment emissaries, informal communication sites ( Facebook), proficient systems administration sites (e.g., LinkedIn), microblogging (e.g., Twitter) have turned out to be progressively well known and caused the blasting of online informal organizations (OSNs). Such SNAs normally incorporate specialized devices that enable clients to catch, store, and present data/interchanges among clients and intelligent apparatuses that encourage communications among clients. Utilizing these apparatuses gave in SNAs, people can share data in the web based setting and shape SNs dependent on exchanges, interests, or connections (e.g., Boyd and Ellison, 2007).

All the more critically, SNAs can stretch out past physical limits and interface billions of users1. Therefore, SNAs have a solid effect on business as well as on social orders. In this manner, recognizing the multifaceted nature of SNs and directing a precise investigation is significant.

Given their effect, SNs speak to an intriguing territory for data frameworks (IS) analysts that has been developing relentlessly since 2004, and there have been scholarly paper calls from different outlets for more research on them. In 2007, noteworthy IS gatherings, for example, the International Conference on Information Systems and the Americas Conference on Information Systems out of the blue included tracks or minitracks about SNs.

In this investigation, we react to the above issues by efficiently auditing productions about SNs distributed in major IS diaries between January 2004 and August 2013 and review the province of IS look into with respect to SNs. We utilize a methodology like Zhang and Li’s (2005) and Zhang, Li, Scialdone, and Carey’s (2009) to sort and abridge the distributions. By building up a deliberate survey, we recognize the momentum inquire about center, remark on the advancement of the exploration, and feature territories that require further examination.

To that end, we answer the following research questions:

1. what subject topics are studied the most?,
2. what research methods are most commonly used?
3. what are the contexts of the studies?,
4. what are the theories used in social network research, and what are the dependent variables they seek to explain?

By answering these questions, we contribute to the IS field by bringing conceptual clarity to the rather complex and difficult to understand SN construct and, thus, build a foundation for future research.

The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we present background information on SNs. In Section 3, we describe the methodology we used to collect and analyze the publications, including a set of categorization schemes we adapted from Zhang et al. (2009). In Section 4, we describe the coding process. In Section 5, we present the categorized papers based on the schemes we adapted, discuss patterns that emerged from this categorization, and summarize the current status of IS research on SNs. Finally, in Section VI, we present opportunities for future researchers and conclude the paper.

II. Background

Defining Key Terms Used in SN Research

Each one of the watchwords collected is recorded in the papers in our accumulation and arranged these catchphrases to distinguish the most regularly utilized ones. The key terms most habitually utilized in SN look into were: social network(s), online informal organizations, virtual universes, online networks, virtual networks, interpersonal organization examination, internet based life, Web 2.0, and social processing. Shockingly, despite the fact that the papers we gathered utilized these terms every now and again, most did not give clear meanings of the terms, and numerous terms were utilized reciprocally. Consequently, we feel it is important to elucidate these terms’ definitions.

Social network(s) was by a wide margin the most every now and again utilized watchword in the accumulation. An informal organization is “”an explicit arrangement of linkages among a characterized set of people, with the extra property that the attributes of these linkages in general might be utilized to translate the social conduct of the people included”” (Mitchell, 1969, p. 2). Sociologists previously utilized this term during the 70s, and a lot of sociology look into about informal communities was directed well before the Internet’s creation. Truth be told, a few examinations in our gathering still centered around researching disconnected interpersonal organizations and their impacts on specific types of IS utilization (Bruque, Moyano, and Eisenberg, 2008; Sykes, Venkatesh, and Gosain, 2009). Nonetheless, a large portion of our gathered papers think about OSN, which are informal organizations in online situations.

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