Start Date
11-12-2016 12:00 AM
Description
We present a model of IT-enabled social innovation. Our model draws on the theoretical lens of social shaping of technology and the role of villagers-turned-netrepreneurs, as reference actors in the context of rural e-commerce development. The model is built on stage-wise observations of intermediary roles that villagers play and how these roles enhance or decrease in importance in the biography of rural to e-commerce villages’ transformations across China in recent years. In this research-in-progress paper, we present a case study of Daji, China’s first “Taobao performance costumes town”, located in rural Shandong province. Our preliminary model prescribes three mechanisms− advancing, authenticating and attaching−that are enacted by reference actors in the process of negotiating rural e-commerce development and resurrecting heritage in their communities. Our model builds on conjectural discussion in recent IS research on the expanding role of the users in influencing the development of IT-enabled social innovations
Recommended Citation
Tan, Felix Ter Chian; Pan, Shan Ling; and Cui, Lili, "IT-Enabled Social Innovation in China’s Taobao Villages: The Role of Netrepreneurs" (2016). ICIS 2016 Proceedings. 9.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2016/Sustainability/Presentations/9
IT-Enabled Social Innovation in China’s Taobao Villages: The Role of Netrepreneurs
We present a model of IT-enabled social innovation. Our model draws on the theoretical lens of social shaping of technology and the role of villagers-turned-netrepreneurs, as reference actors in the context of rural e-commerce development. The model is built on stage-wise observations of intermediary roles that villagers play and how these roles enhance or decrease in importance in the biography of rural to e-commerce villages’ transformations across China in recent years. In this research-in-progress paper, we present a case study of Daji, China’s first “Taobao performance costumes town”, located in rural Shandong province. Our preliminary model prescribes three mechanisms− advancing, authenticating and attaching−that are enacted by reference actors in the process of negotiating rural e-commerce development and resurrecting heritage in their communities. Our model builds on conjectural discussion in recent IS research on the expanding role of the users in influencing the development of IT-enabled social innovations