Virtual Relational Capital for business development.

Abstract

Digitalization has brought new opportunities for companies to employ new tools for business development Digitalization has allowed the creation of new tools but also new ways for organizations to manage their relations in a virtual way, leading to a “virtual relational capital”. The COVID-19 pandemic has further enhanced such a process. The theory of intellectual capital has been developed by underlying the contribution that such intellectual resources should promote for a more sustainable society and a broader concept of worth and shared value beyond one firm’s specific interest. Starting from these premises, our paper wants to deepen the concept and role of virtual relations in shaping the new relational capital and how it can contribute to business development. A structured literature review of the most recent literature ranked on the Scopus dataset allowed us to select and analyze a sample of 20 papers. A research framework has been developed, and the articles were coded using the Nvivo software to assess them under different lenses. Even if the selected sample is limited, results underline the presence of multiple research methodologies conducted in several countries around the globe. Several stakeholders are engaged in and benefit from such relations, including individuals but also institutions and other groups, like virtual communities. Several advantages are recognized, of both social and economic types. Even if some barriers are mentioned in the use of such technologies, virtual relations seem to provide companies with new exciting and profitable ways to engage their stakeholders with the use of technology, opening up to new opportunities and business models.