Work & Passion

Today I had another session with my thesis coach and after this session, I faced the following question: how can one estimate the market demand for an innovation? What happened before I came up with this question was this: me and my coach were discussing the concept of social contagion and how organizations can use this. I mentioned this concept in my previous posts but I will discuss this in more detail. My research is in full force and I am making progress in tuning all the constructs, which I will discuss more in posts to come. 

The central theme of my research is to develop our understanding of how social contagion comes about in relation to the consumer adoption of new products and how social networks play into this. In general, consumers do not make their needs and requirements explicit and then subsequently go and look for products to fulfill them. I argue that consumers are very aware of which products others around them are using. How many times have you heard your friends about their Iphone 4 and some other cool App they found.

Firms do not take this social process in account in their new product development activities, preferring to focus on the practicalities such as product functionality and design.

My research, which I want to carry on with after my graduation, interest is:

How information diffusion in online Social Networking Platforms within organizations influences demand patterns, word of mouth behaviors and knowledge sharing.

I am in the process of gathering data from two major Dutch organizations which have a Social Networking Platform (one build it themselves, the other had it built by a Social Business consultancy company) in use for their employees. I will use the gathered data to assess peer influence in adopting the Social Networking Platform, factors that influence knowledge sharing, how interpersonal influence affects the product adoption and word-of-mouth behaviors within organizations concerning new product diffusion.

Along the line of thought of Professor Sinan Aral of NYU: "Research on how information and behaviors spread through social networks can help us understand the productivity of information workers, peer-to-peer marketing strategies, and the success of health policies such as the containment of disease and smoking cessation."

Maybe I am biting off more then I can chew but it has my deep interest and as I am moving towards my graduation I am thinking of a way to make it my profession.  Any suggestions are more then welcome!! 

PS: the last time I told you all that I would make a list of everything I have done on that day relating which relates to my passions. Well here the things I managed to take a crack at today, this one relates to my graduation research:

• I finished the concept version of my survey for both organizations;
• I managed to get a interview at an organization which has the newest formula for exciting meetings (in Europe!);
• I made progress in writing this blog and explaining a little bit (without a picture still!) what keeps me busy as a person but the next post will be about something I love, which is Lifestyle!

All the best!

Stefanos