Towards Social Networks Integrated Domain-Specific Business Directories

Abstract

This research work relates to the paradigm of business pages hosted on social networking sites, as they are increasingly gaining attention among business organizations as a potential source of their community outreach. However, the social networking sites whilst offering several necessary community services, are currently lacking the support for the domain specific features of specific types of organizations such as research and innovation laboratories, educational and training institutes and many others. Undertaking a design science research approach, we investigate the stated problem in more detail in a specific type of organizations termed as Innovation Laboratories. As a result, we propose designing domain specific business directories while simultaneously integrating them with the business pages hosted on existing social networking sites. We demonstrate the feasibility and application of our proposed model through a web-based tool named as “SIDIL - Social networks Integrated Directory of Innovation Laboratories”. The tool has been evaluated by the experts running Innovation Laboratories and found effective in achieving its objectives. As a conclusion, we present a motivation towards designing next generation of online and integrated business networking platforms.