Harvard professor Mikolaj Piskorski's research-based social media business development model

Purpose ‐ The paper aims to present an interview with Mikolaj Piskorski, Associate Professor in the Strategy Business Unit at Harvard Business School, and one of the first researchers to write about the underlying economic, social and strategic drivers that make social networking important to strategists. Design/methodology/approach ‐ The interview discusses his research-based insights that emphasize the importance of designing a network that enables transactions that would not occur otherwise, transactions of high value to both companies and individuals. Findings ‐ Social networking that creates increased competitive advantage actually empowers customers to do things that they previously could not do or could not do easily or inexpensively. Practical implications ‐ Social networks can potentially remedy the social failures and transaction failures that occur when an interaction that would benefit both parties fails to occur. A useful way of framing the problem to be solved looks at how to develop a social network platform that benefits stakeholders and how to develop a social strategy that benefits the sponsor. Originality/value ‐ The key lesson: identify the strategic issue that you are trying to solve and what kind of transactions you can enable for customers that could create value for them and for your company, but which are not taking place. Then plan how social networking can enable these transactions to have more value.