Social media has transformed the nature of communication and simultaneously given rise to paradoxesirresolvable situations where contradictory elements co-exist. These paradoxes are pervasive, and they can jeopardize consumer welfare because they are difficult to navigate. In this conceptual article, we argue that the principles of wisdom provide a unique and constructive lens through which to view the social media landscape with the aim of maximizing well-being. We illustrateThe first five authors led the writing and development of this manuscript. The remaining five contributors are listed alphabetically.
This article theorizes how a social enterprise builds, strengthens, and legitimizes community among marginalized people. Prior work investigated social enterprises and community-led social enterprises, or social enterprises rooted in community culture. Missing are perspectives on the roles of social enterprises in community creation and support among marginalized individuals. This qualitative interpretive study draws on ethnographic and netnographic data collection of the social enterprise Familyship; marginalized entrepreneurs developed a social enterprise to address a particular social problem, thus helping other marginalized people to address their constraints and collectively legitimizing a new meaning of what family is and does as a community. The study finds five overarching themes—namely, informing, protecting, connecting, supporting, and normalizing—that characterize Familyship’s process of building, supporting, and legitimizing a community among marginalized individuals. I discuss these findings with regard to contributions to theory on social enterprise and institutional voids, as well as social enterprise and online communities.
Gift giving is an important element in various cultures, systems, and dyadic relationships. Multiple facets of gifting, mainly relational, have been examined in the realm of consumer research. In the context of a non-commercial elderly-student home share program, 'Housing for Help', this study extends our understanding about the progression of relationship types and exchange dynamics in the field of gift giving. Drawing on Sahlins' (1972) model of kinship distance and reciprocity as well as Belk and Coon's (1993) agapic love model, this study explores how strangers transform their transactional market exchanges into close family-like relationships and friendship bonds, by engaging in strategies of material and non-material gifting. The gifting strategies follow a spiral of reciprocity, which consists of material gifting, and non-material gifting, such as sharing of interests, telling & listening, shared experiences, learning from and caring for each other. The contribution is a temporally extended model that considers both the longitudinal emergence and reformulation of relations between alternating givers and recipients. This study also provides insights into the broader context of marketing and public policy: addressing the importance of aging in place, the wellbeing of elderly through social connections, and the disruption of current care solutions.
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