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The rise of e‐mail and other computer‐based communication technologies has enabled members of global organizations to collaborate and exchange information to an uprecedented degree. The term “on‐line community” (OLC), coined in the early days of computer networking, is now being applied to groups of employees with common professional goals and interests who seek to add value by extending themselves virtually. However, the performance of these corporate OLCs has not always kept pace with their lofty aspiration. To find out why, Arthur Andersen’s Next Generation Research Group, in cooperation with Anheuser‐Busch, The Mutual Group, and Shell US, studied 15 very different OLCs. Among the questions we sought to answer were: how successful are OLCs in achieving their state purpose? What distinguishes a truly successful OLC? What are some pitfalls that everyone is encountering? This article presents findings and lessons learned from our in‐depth interviews with the organizers of these virtual groups.

“If the study revealed any universal truths in leadership development today, it is that the process should be transparent. Only by sharing the ‘rules of the game’ can an organization unleash the leadership potential of its employees.”

This article presents a new way of thinking about assessing the value of online communities. The author examines both the different kinds of communities and the specific ways in which these communities might be evaluated. Three concepts are important to measuring the value of these communities: the incremental value a community generates, how to determine community membership, and the importance of converting visiting members to using members.

The authors explore the outcomes of health-care professionals' participation in a vendor-hosted online community by combining qualitative and quantitative data collected in two separate studies. The authors aim to shed light on the potential value outcomes of community participation covering the reduction of service costs by professionals' community participation.

The authors explore the outcomes of health-care professionals' participation in a vendor-hosted online community by combining qualitative and quantitative data collected in two separate studies. The authors also introduce GABEK® as a unique method of qualitative empirical content analysis. In the quantitative study, the authors refer to customer survey data and transactional data.

The results show that participation in online communities by professionals emerges as a dual concept, consisting of both help-seeking and help-providing behaviors. These behaviors in turn facilitate the creation of economic and relational value, as well as influencing the perceived usefulness of the online community, resulting in higher satisfaction with the community among the participating professionals. Customer survey data and transactional data were gathered from a major medical equipment vendor hosting an online community, and those data confirm that participation also decreases service support costs to professionals by reducing the number of necessary service visits by the vendor's service technicians.

The resulting model of participation and corresponding benefits in an online community for health-care professionals reflects and informs current developments in the health care industry.

The combination of qualitative as well as quantitative studies relying on the data of a world leading medical equipment vendor hosting an online community provides unique and innovative insights into participation and value creation within B2B communities.

The purpose of this research is to develop and test a sense of consumption community measurement scale. The concept is examined in an exploratory study in the context of the perceptions of customers of financial services firms.

This research consults the marketing, banking, psychology, and public policy literature. A sense of consumption community scale is tested for validity via exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Scale reliability analysis is also conducted.

The result is a second‐order construct composed of the first‐order constructs, camaraderie and communality, and social capital. The construct is found to be a means of measuring the strength of consumers' perceptions of consumption community. Additional evidence of its practical value is demonstrated in four findings. First, partial support is found that men perceive a greater sense of community than women. Second, there is a positive relationship between age and perceived sense of community. Third, no significant relationship was found between the various types of financial institutions and customers' sense of consumption community. Fourth, an identical finding was obtained for the relationship between sense of community and longevity. And fifth, this research also documents limitations of the Sense of Consumption Community Construct due to the exploratory nature of this research effort.

The scale formulated in this research is the first to measure a sense of community among the customers of financial institutions.

Multiple intelligence, cognitive thinking, and sensory theories provide the framework for understanding how to improve learning and learning environments for students. Research involving the use of a multimodal video game to enhance student learning is discussed. It is proposed in the chapter that multimodal and multiplayer video games make use of sensory-rich interactions to engage users, create meaningful experiences, and often facilitate communication between people located all over the world. Multiple learning theories are addressed and evaluated in order to bring to light issues and areas for investigation when designing technology-rich learning environments. Implications of the findings in relation to connections with gaming technologies, capacity for community building, and next steps for investigating ideal designs for 21st century learning environments are discussed.

The rapid and well‐known evolution – considered by many observers to be revolutionary – from industrial society to knowledge society, defined by the importance of knowledge creation processes, is showing the relevance of the social capital of organizations. This study seeks to contribute to the development of this new concept. First, presents the theoretical background of social capital. Second, based on an intellectual capital approach, tests the situation of social capital in some Spanish companies, with a reference to the international landscape. The findings of the research support the convenience of the development of an integral framework for the management of intangibles that create future benefits, considering the relations with several social agents. Concludes by proposing a model of intellectual capital that expressly includes social capital.

The relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance (FP) is a much-researched topic in academic arena. Recent studies disclosed that intellectual capital (IC) significantly impacts the success and survival of organizations. Moreover, theoretical assertions confirm that competitive advantage (CA) mediates the association between IC and FP. This has opened up new dimensions for the study. Therefore, this study aims to develop a theoretical model, first, to specify these relations and, second, to explore the mediating role of IC and CA on the relation between CSR and FP in the context of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Hypotheses are tested through a survey conducted on 384 SMEs in Rajasthan state. A structured questionnaire having 38 variables was used, and collected data are subjected to confirmatory factor analysis. Structural equation modeling was used to validate the measurement model and to test the mediating effect.

The findings indicate a weak positive relation between CSR and FP. The empirical data provide supportive evidence that IC has a profound impact on CSR and FP relationship. Specifically, it was noticed that the mediating role of CA on this relationship was not as reflective as described in the literature.

The limitation of this study is that it is limited to one country, more specific to one geographical area of a country; therefore, findings of the study cannot be generalized in terms of its implications to other regions and countries.

Very few empirical studies have analyzed the mediating role of IC and CA on the relationship between CSR and FP. This study is expected to enable scholars and practitioners to have a more definite and direct understanding of the implication of IC and CA in association between CSR and FP.