Social Network Structures and the Internet: Collective Dynamics i ...

Executive Summary

For the first decade after the introduction of the graphical browsers, the World Wide Web had been spotlighted as an ideal channel through which companies could engage in two-way communications with target customers. A number of articles and books, written either by academics or practitioners, supported such a view by characterizing it as an “interactive” medium, which would eventually end the era of mass marketing. These academics and practitioners, however, soon realized that the Internet would not wipe out all existing media, but instead would adapt to and find its place in the current media environment. New technology hype has gradually been replaced by a keen sense of reality, and managers in companies nowadays are far more conservative in evaluating the returns on their investments in interactive communication technology.