Social Network and Stakeholder Engagement, a developing match? A face to face between Italian and Chinese public universities
Interaction between Social Networks (SNs), blogs, websites, and other intenet-related technologies are mostly used to improve Stakeholder Engagement (SE). According to previous researches the universities use the new media tools, however in a traditional ways this underestimate their contribution in SE improving. The article, through exploratory research method, analyses the use of SN by Italian and Chinese public universities also by highlighting the SE’s process. Results reveal, for both countries, increasing attention to SE’s processes in decision-making systems. However, the study has shown how Italian universities achieve a more complete SE than Chinese universities, thus demonstrating greater awareness of the importance of their inclusion in their decision-making processes. Italian universities also manage SN more efficiently, both for news sharing and for data gathering useful to improving SE strategies. In conclusion, the study shows that, despite universities are fully awareness of the link between SN and SE, there is a strong need of improving within hoth countries.
Keywords: Public university, stakeholder engagement, social network, China, Italy.
