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The purpose of this paper is to create an organized picture of the current understanding of social media-based value creation and business models.

Following the process model presented by Fink (2005), a systematic literature review of academic journal articles published between 2005 and 2014 was conducted. The research was grounded on the theoretical foundations of service-dominant logic.

This study offers detailed descriptions and analyses of the major social media mechanisms affecting how value is created in social media-based value networks and the kinds of impact social media can have on present and future business models.

The study is limited to academic research literature on business organizations, excluding all studies related to public and non-profit organizations.

Attention is given to developing an in-depth understanding of the functions and concrete value creation mechanisms of social media-based co-creation within the different organizational processes (e.g. in product and service development and customer services) and to updating the related practices and knowledge.

This study provides new insight into the challenges related to research models and frameworks commonly used for observing value creation, thus highlighting the need for further studies and updates.

This chapter deals with teaching and learning knowledge creation in higher-education institutions (HEI) via collaborative writing. The challenge of HEIs is that teaching should build capabilities that enable learners to make use of and advance academic knowledge while simultaneously developing skills relevant for the future work life. In practice, teaching at university is often disconnected from authentic work life and the tasks are far more simplified than those in the future jobs. Therefore, to address the challenge HEIs face, this chapter focusses on knowledge creation, expanding it from bounded-learning communities to online communities in social media. In online communities, it is intrinsic to act and think globally, as demanded by the new imperative. This chapter portrays the case of one knowledge management course at an HEI in which the syllabus included collaborative writing for both a bounded-learning community and the online community of Wikipedia. The student group was multidisciplinary and multicultural, with both classroom learning and distance learning options available. The research material, analysed with qualitative methods, consisted of pre-course and anonymous post-course feedback surveys, as well as learning diaries. The results show that although prior to the course many students held a prejudice and lacked knowledge about social media as part of knowledge management, they expressed they had had eye-opening learning experiences because of the expanded learning community from the traditional bounded to the online community. Based on the results of the study and the experience of teachers, recommendations are given for developing learning activities of knowledge creation in HEIs.

The circular economy (CE) model is seen as an alternative model to the linear economy models, which seem to be reaching their physical limits. The CE business model aims to reuse materials and decrease the need for virgin materials. This requires the implementation of a reverse supply chain, close collaboration between actors, as well as well-organized logistics. For this reason, the CE companies have typically high demand for digitalized processes and the utilization of data on both operational and business development dimensions. Also the utilization of big data collected from the companies’ business environment can provide new opportunities for business development in CE. Despite the fact that utilization of data collected from the business environment and operations enables data-driven approaches for various decision-making functions in companies, many companies still struggle to figure out how to use analytics to take advantage of their data. In the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in particular, the managers are facing difficulties with ever-increasing amounts of data and sophisticated analytics. Indeed, prior research identified several kinds of barriers to the effective utilization of data in SMEs. Still, research on data-driven decision-making remains scarce in CE context. This chapter presents a case study consisting of seven cases, all representing SMEs operating in the field of CE in Finland. In the case study, the barriers and practical challenges for data-driven decision-making in CE SMEs are investigated. Based on the case study results, this chapter proposes that utilization of data, lack of resources, lack of capabilities, and regulation are the main barriers to data-driven decision-making in CE SMEs.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the use of Twitter in business as a medium for knowledge sharing and to crowdsource information to support innovation and enhance business relationships in the context of business-to-business (B2B) marketing.

This study uses a combination of methodologies for gathering data in 52 face-to-face interviews across five countries and the downloaded posts from each of the interviewees' Twitter accounts. The tweets were analysed using structural topic modelling (STM), and then compared to the interview data. This method enabled triangulation between stated use of Twitter and respondent's actual tweets.

The research confirmed that individuals used Twitter as a source of information, ideas, promotion and innovation within their industry. Twitter facilitates building relevant business relationships through the exchange of new, expert and high-quality information within like-minded communities in real time, between companies and with their suppliers, customers and also their peers.

As this study covered five countries, further comparative research on the use of Twitter in the B2B context is called for. Further investigation of the formalisation of social media strategies and return on investment for social media marketing efforts is also warranted.

This research highlights the business relationship building capacity of Twitter as it enables customer and peer conversations that eventually support the development of product and service innovations. Twitter has the capacity for marketers to inform and engage customers and peers in their networks on wider topics thereby building the brand of the individual users and their companies simultaneously.

This study focuses on interactions at the individual level illustrating that Twitter is used for both customer and peer interactions that can lead to the sourcing of ideas, knowledge and ultimately innovation. The study is novel in its methodological approach of combining structured interviews and text mining that found the topics of the interviewees' tweets aligned with their interview responses.

Big data is a buzzword of our times, and yet the awareness of what big data is, how it permeates our daily lives, and how it is applied either in the policy-making process or in the business sector remains relatively low. From a different perspective, while specialists, that is, practitioners and researchers, dealing with the technical facets of big data successfully uncover new features, new domains, and new opportunities related to big data, there is a need of evaluating and examining these findings through the lens of social sciences and management. This chapter offers an insight into key issues and developments that shape the broad and multi-directional big data debate. To this end, the content of the book is elaborated and the key findings are highlighted. In this way, this chapter serves as a very useful guide into the question of how big data is applied across issues and domains and how it is valid and relevant to all of us today.