BAR - Brazilian Administration Review

20

Authors: Letícia Fantinel, Eduardo Paes Barreto Davel

Sociability is quintessential to some types of organizations, such as cafes, clubs, sports associations, gyms, bars, nightclubs, and festivals. If sociability is broadly theorized and discussed in the Social Sciences, it is indirectly, fragmentally, and diffusely considered in Organization Studies. Our study aims to theorize on the centrality of sociability within organizations by developing the concept of sociability-intensive organization and by discussing its effects in terms of organizing and organizational space. We have produced three main conceptual axis: relation, experiences of space, and ambience. Based on an ethnographic study, sociability-intensive organizations are conceptualized from three organizing processes: the fabrication of spontaneity, the fluidity of spatiality, and the fertilization of dialogue. These processes emerge from the ethnographic interpretation and contribute to theorize sociability as a paramount key for understanding organizations.

24

Authors: Cláudia Rodrigues Maia, Guilherme Lerch Lunardi, Décio Dolci, Lívia Castro D’Avila

The evolution of Web 2.0 technologies and social media has changed the way online business is conducted. With increasingly popular social networks, the connections among Internet users emerge as an important source of information, allowing consumers to share their ideas, opinions, or even content on the web, in order to find better and cheaper products, originating a new type of electronic commerce, known as social commerce (s-commerce). In this context, price and trust stand out as two important factors influencing the decision to buy online. Thus, we aimed to analyze the effects of trust and competitive price on the purchase intention of Brazilian consumers in s-commerce. Through a survey conducted with 160 online consumers, we identified trust as the main predictor of consumer purchase intention in s-commerce followed by competitive prices. We also indicated a set of important antecedents of trust in the context of s-commerce. The study contributes to the literature surrounding the effects of competitive price and trust — and its antecedents — as important factors that influence the intention to buy in s-commerce, providing managers with some key elements they can use to improve their firm’s competitiveness in this new business environment.