Consumer-to-consumer value within social networks

With the growth and ongoing popularity of internet-based social networking, consumers are finding new ways to connect and collaborate. This paper explores the value that consumers experience through social networks in a variety of contexts, both online and offline. Drawing upon two streams of marketing literature, one relating to perceived value as a multi-dimensional construct and the other to co-created value, this paper explores consumer perceived value cocreated within consumer social networks. Prior empirical studies provide evidence that consumers co-creating value within social networks not only experience forms of functional, affective, social and rational value, as identified in the literature, but also experience a form of connectedness and belonging specific to the social networking context. Value experienced by consumers as a consequence of their participation in social networks has previously been overlooked in much of the marketing literature.