Business Analysis of Digital Discourse for New Service Development: A Theoretical Perspective and a Method for Uncovering the Structure of Social Representations for Improved Service Development

Chasin, Friedrich

Abstract

Analysis of digital discourse in social networks can inform decisions about service design and align services with customers' needs and expectations. Using the theory of social representations (SRT) as a theoretical lens, I propose a method for the systematic analysis of the digital discourse in order to identify the core representations on which a service depends. I demonstrate the method by analyzing the social representation of electric cars on Wikipedia to derive implications for the development of a new service (NSD) for the electric vehicle (EV) domain. The work has three primary contributions: First, a novel instrument for the business analysis within the NSD process is proposed. Second, the study spurs research on the SRT in IS and provides support for the theory's applicability in the discipline. Third, a tool is presented, which practitioners can use to analyze social representations on Wikipedia in order to derive implications for NSD.

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