Platform Creation for Social Impacts: Diffusion of Social Innovation through Network Resonance

This study attempts to explicate underlying mechanisms in which new platforms emerge. By reframing knowledge diffusion in a social construction view, we propose that network resonance, defined as a process where knowledge dissemination and knowledge validation unfold simultaneously through tie formation, plays a critical role in the creation of platforms. Specifically, network resonance enhances the visibility of new ideas for social innovation, assists identity construction, promotes resource spillovers, and attracts participation beyond the boundaries. And this eventually creates the nucleus for new platform emergence. In this study, through the in-depth analyses of the platforms of social entrepreneurship in Korea, we specify how the platform creations are understood with the concept of network resonance.