Using social capital as a conceptual framework for Professional Virtual Communities formalization

This paper presents the first step of a research work which aims at predicting the propensity of Professional Virtual Communities (PVC) to create temporary alliances of business. This work is starting from the observation that up to now these business oriented communities lack a conceptual framework for analyzing this issue in a theoretical way. Our approach consists in developing such a conceptual framework using Social Capital as a structuring element. This paper shows how to improve the formalization of PVC by revisiting and using Social Capital concept.