Virtual communities of enterprise value creation potential for regional clusters

The research examines regionally networked small business practices. A new concept Virtual Communities of Enterprise is proferred to explain the nature of knowledge sharing both interpersonally and online, and its potential for creating value for small businesses and their regions. Social capital emerges as an essential pre-requisite for accessing value.

Communities of enterprise: SMEs, ICT and regional development

Many regional economies have pursued a strategy of stimulating the development of regional clusters. Such clusters typically include small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as a core component of those economies. Effective cluster development in that context depends on SMEs sharing knowledge and generating innovation. ICT networks can be an important resource for this sharing and innovation. This paper proposes the concept of ‘Communities of Enterprise’ to conceptualise the relationships and communication patterns used in cluster development. This concept builds on theoretical understandings of information systems, clustering and regional development. The value creation potential of Communities of Enterprise, supported by ICTs is substantial, but only when the socioeconomic elements of regional clusters are understood. The Community of Enterprise approach addresses the fact that without an industry focus it can be difficult to engage and link SMEs from different industries, although this is where the greatest potential for value creation in regional clusters is to be found. This paper concludes by considering the relevance of Communities of Enterprise for understanding and researching eCluster development in the Australian regional context.

Disrupting girls in virtual communities of practice: discursive performativity as agency

In line with the work of feminists ‘post-linguists’ (Threadgold, 1997; Poynton, 1989; Lee, 1994) who seek to produce readings of texts which indicate the ways individuals are positioned to take up positions within discourses and thus come to constitute themselves as subjects of those discourses, this paper reports on how adolescent girls’ hypermedia design works to alter the conceptual repertoire of the individual and in doing so alters the individual’s subjectivity. By examining girls hypermedia design that challenges/resists male domination, I discuss their acts of uploading and hypermedia design in terms of Butler’s theorization of discursive performativity. I believe the adolescent girls employ a form of “linguistic agency” or “discursive agency” (Butler, 1997) that allows them to make use of a wide range of discursive practices that are nonlinguistic or not entirely linguistic. Because the girls were involved in a set of relationships over time, both inside and outside of school in both virtual and real time, within their communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991), they engage with particular areas of curricular knowledge—differently than boys—by showcasing their re-representations online. Consequently, this presents the possibility they may possess a joint enterprise and similar sense of identity. This paper puts forth the idea that within virtual communities of practice, new contexts emerge when disrupting girls/women can work in transgressive modes.

Communities of enterprise : developing regional SMEs in the knowledge economy

Purpose – This paper proposes the concepts of Communities of Enterprise (CoEs) and Virtual Communities of Enterprise (VCoEs) to describe business networking patterns in regional areas where there is no central organisational or industry focus and small and medium enterprises dominate the economy. Design/methodology/approach – Based on analysis of the literature this paper builds on theoretical understandings of knowledge management, clustering and regional development.
Findings – The concept of CoEs is most appropriate for regional areas characterised by many small enterprises in diverse industries. CoEs enhance development of regional clusters by contributing to their intellectual capital, innovation culture, value networks and social capital. The incorporation of ICT creates VCoEs which provide added potential by enabling regions to expand their learning potential through innovation.
Research limitations/implications – This paper provides a conceptual foundation for empirical research into regional network or cluster development using ICT.
Practical implications – Virtual Communities of Enterprise value creation potential is substantial but only when the socioeconomic elements of regional clusters are understood. The VCoE approach addresses the fact that without an industry focus it can be difficult to engage and link SMEs from different industries, although this is where the greatest potential
for value creation in regional clusters is to be found.
Originality/value – The Virtual Communities of Enterprise (VCoEs) concept specifically addresses the unique requirements of SMEs in regions. It has the potential to provide value for regions in a way few ICT based regional development initiatives have been able to achieve.

Virtual thievery : an insight into the criminal mind of virtual property thieves

Virtual worlds have become highly popular in recent years with reports of over a billion people accessing these worlds and the virtual goods market growing to near $50 US billion dollars. An undesirable outcome to this popularity and market value is thriving criminal activity in these worlds.  The most profitable transgression at the moment in virtual worlds is named Virtual Property Theft.  The aim of this study is to gain insight using an online survey, as to how thieves in these synthetic worlds conduct their criminal activities.  This survey asked questions on: thief profiling, how theft was conducted, times of criminal activity, which items are stolen and distributed, victim targeting and criminal profiteering.  This survey is the first to report an insight into the criminal mind of virtual thieves.  The results of this study will provide a pathway for designing an effective anti-theft mechanism capable of abolishing this criminal enterprise.