The strategic impact of social networks on the online gaming industry : strategic use of technology

• Autor(a) principal: Sousa, Sofia Taveira de
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/15671
• topic: Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

This dissertation focuses on assessing the strategic potential of social networks by answering the following research question: Is there any strategic impact of social networks on the online gaming industry? In order to analyze the strategic potential of social networks for online games, we identify the main factors that online players consider as crucial for them to keep playing. These factors can either be related to the game’s strategy itself, such as all the details, graphics and ambiguity present in online games, or to the social interaction that games enable their members through the creation of communities and communication channels, or to other reasons like the opportunity of playing different roles from real life. After developing a list including all factors that keep players retained to online games, we formulate three hypotheses. Hypothesis 1 states that players keep playing online due to the game’s features themselves such as its strategy and graphics, while Hypothesis 2 states that it is the social connectivity present in online games that makes players keep retained to the game. According to Hypothesis 3, on the other hand, players keep playing online due to other reasons such as the possibility of playing different roles from their routine. The three hypotheses are tested in a survey that we conduct to a sample of online players, in which respondents are asked which of the features included in the three hypotheses they consider as crucial to keep playing. They mention that the existence of social interaction in online games is indeed a retaining factor to keep playing. This allows us to confirm the hypothesis that players keep playing online due to the social connectivity present in the games, namely Hypothesis 2 The social connectivity that players consider as crucial for playing online is mostly provided throughout social networks to online games. According to the resource-based view theory, social networks are valuable, rare, non-substitutable and potentially imperfectly imitablesources of sustained competitive advantage in the online gaming industry. As they have the potential of giving an online gaming company a competitive advantage towards its rivals, social networks can also have a strategic impact on the online gaming industry.