Abstract
Business managers are recognising the potential of firm-initiated online communities to monitor user preferences, enhance brand awareness, advertise new products, and react to feedback. We explore the social organisation of such virtual communities via in-depth interviews with German online community managers about their daily work and their self-presentation. Norbert Elias's insights into long-term changes in self-constraint and self-expression in occidental societies serve as heuristic framework. We argue that online community managers' behaviour is typical of the trend towards informalisation, which can also be observed in for-profit relations.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | The Social Organisation of Marketing |
Subtitle of host publication | A Figurational Approach to People, Organisations, and Markets |
Editors | John Connolly, Paddy Dolan |
Place of Publication | London |
Publisher | Palgrave |
Pages | 171-192 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-3-319-51570-0 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |