A Systematic Review of Social Networking Research in Information Systems

Communications of the Association for Information Systems, vol. 36(1)

41 Pages Posted: 18 Nov 2014 Last revised: 31 Jul 2015

See all articles by Jinwei Cao

Jinwei Cao

University of Delaware - Accounting & MIS

Kamile Basoglu

University of Delaware - Accounting & MIS

Hong Sheng

Missouri University of Science and Technology - Department of Business and Information Technology

Paul Benjamin Lowry

Virginia Tech - Pamplin College of Business

Date Written: June 1, 2015

Abstract

Social networking applications such as blogs, instant messaging, podcasts, social networking websites (e.g., Renren in China, Vkontakte in Russia, Facebook), professional networking websites (e.g., LinkedIn), Twitter, and virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life) have become increasingly popular in the last few years. Because these applications have substantial implications for users, organizations, and society, online social networks (OSN) have gained attention from information systems (IS) researchers and grown steadily as a research area since 2004. However, to organize the accumulated research and encourage researchers to examine new and pressing issues in social networks, available knowledge needs to be synthesized and research gaps need to be addressed [Bandara et al., 2011]. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of publications about OSN published in major IS journals between January 2004 and August 2013 and provide an overview of the state of IS research regarding OSN. The objective of this study is to show the evolution of the existing IS research on OSN, to build a common nomenclature and taxonomy for this area of research, to identify theories used, and to provide a useful roadmap for future research in this area.

Keywords: social networking (SN); social networking applications (SNAs); social media; literature review; systematic review; social networks; social network analysis; social computing; information systems (IS)

Suggested Citation

Cao, Jinwei and Basoglu, Kamile and Sheng, Hong and Lowry, Paul Benjamin, A Systematic Review of Social Networking Research in Information Systems (June 1, 2015). Communications of the Association for Information Systems, vol. 36(1), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2525108

Jinwei Cao

University of Delaware - Accounting & MIS ( email )

Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics
Newark, DE 19716
United States

Kamile Basoglu

University of Delaware - Accounting & MIS ( email )

Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics
Newark, DE 19716
United States

Hong Sheng

Missouri University of Science and Technology - Department of Business and Information Technology ( email )

101 Fulton Hall,
301 W. 14th St.,
Rolla, MO 65409
United States

Paul Benjamin Lowry (Contact Author)

Virginia Tech - Pamplin College of Business ( email )

1016 Pamplin Hall
Blacksburg, VA 24061
United States

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