Stimulate social interaction between consumers: a network-oriented framework

It appears networks arise in every sphere of human activity (Batten et al., 1996). This article focuses on social networks in which consumers are embedded. Despite the widely acknowledged significance of consumer networks, social network theory has rarely been integrated into marketing theory (Reingen, 1994). This peculiar absence will be addressed in the following. First, a marketing view will be proposed extending the classical dyadic relationship view to a triad. Furthermore, an aggregated marketing model will be outlined that views word of mouth not only as an output variable, but as variable that can be influenced. Implications are given in order to initiate, stimulate and control social interaction between consumers excluding mass communications