Knowledge Management and Innovation: The Role of Virtual Social Networks in Innovative Consumer Behavior

Abstract

The innovative consumer behavior involves the individual's propensity to adopt new ideas earlier than the other society members. In an environment full of connections between people, social networking become one of the main forms of information dissemination and knowledge creation. The communication mediated by computer broadens the horizons of the relationship between social actors, allowing the formation of m ore dense and complex networks. Such networks emerge in this way as strategic resources in the process of launching new ideas. Social networks made up of actors with different degrees of innovativeness are of particular interest because may allow knowledge management processes to collect new ideas and measure their acceptance, and serve as a test environment of ideas. Thus, this study aims to investigate aspects of consumer innovativeness (behavior conducive to innovation or acceptance of innovative products) and possible relationships with uses and participation in these networks. The work is based on the theoretical framework produced about social networking, inovation and consumer behavior. In our research, we found few articles dealing with the relation of those themes, and we consider the approach of this research proposal a differential. Given the theme's recency, we chose to use 20-item four-dimensional Motivated Consumer innovativeness (MCI) scale proposed by Vandecasteele & Geuens (2010). T he dimensions in the scale are: social, functional, hedonic and cognitive. The scope of research is quantitative exploratory, and data was collected using a s tructured questionnaire developed based on existing literature and research objectives. The sample is non-probabilistic, consisting of one hundred and twenty-seven students of unde rgraduate program in Management of a f ederal university located at Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Among the main findings, we can mention that the dimensions of the adopted scale were corroborated by using factor analysis. Although there are limitations in the study, correlations were found between the social dimension of innovativeness and information search in the networks and also the use of social networking information for the decision to purchase new products. We do not intend to generalize the results, but reveal the relationship between social networking and innovative consumer behavior in the enclosed scope of reality. Therefore, the relevance of this research is a pioneer and introductory way of re lating social networking and innovative consumer behavior, serving as the basis for upcoming studies that aim to deepen this research field.