Management of group knowledge and the role of E-WOM for business organizations

In recent years there is an increasing usage of on line technologies from a group and managerial point of view. As a consequence, the availability of user-generated contents is growing rapidly, due to the new and easy tools provided by these technologies, which enable group participation, group knowledge sharing, and connectivity among group members. This chapter introduces a conceptual model of group knowledge in business organizations. The most important result is the analytical framework to explore group knowledge investigating the influence of group variables and the role of E-WOM - Electronic Word Of Mouth. In the first section, the authors discuss the frame structure approach to the topic of group knowledge and describe the content and organization of knowledge extrapolated from published literature. Following that, they represent a theoretical model for explaining the group's dynamics to question the possible role of E-WOM. At the end, directions for future studies are suggested. The chapter presents three main objectives: (1) the contribution to the body of literature of organizational and group knowledge relevant for researchers; (2) the development of a conceptual approach of group knowledge; (3) the investigation of scientific inquiries regarding the role of E-WOM in relation to the conceptual approach. The approach introduces a new framework applicable both as a tool for enhancing the understanding of group knowledge and as a useful guide to future research on knowledge as a whole. The content discussed herein attempts to establish the building blocks toward the development of a theory of group knowledge.