Professional Virtual Communities (PVC) inside networks of firms

Over the past few years, viewing social groupings as “Virtual Communities” (VC) has become increasingly popular because of the emergence of Internet and advanced Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The first part of this poster proposes to clarify the definition of the VC concept by introducing the new concept of VC developed by ECOLEAD, called Professional Virtual Communities (PVC). Based on PVC´s features defined by ECOLEAD, the second part of the poster develops an analysis on how virtual interactions can occur in co-located or distant networks of firms. As a result of this analysis, the PVC has to respect conditions to exist and also to be successful in both co-located and distant networks. The third part of the poster shows under which conditions PVC can succeed and be driving forces for networks of firms.