1) The document discusses a study analyzing the impact of network affiliation on brand awareness for third sector organizations' websites. It examines how structural characteristics and network embeddedness impact online awareness. 2) The study uses a sample of 146 Italian third sector organization websites. It develops a linear regression model to test hypotheses about how factors like website age, size, content frequency, and network connections relate to monthly website traffic. 3) The results support hypotheses that greater involvement in the blogosphere network and higher page rank and website size lead to higher brand awareness as measured by monthly website traffic. The implications are that third sector organizations should interact more with online communities to generate brand awareness.

1. Third Sector Organizations and the Web 2.0
An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of
Network Affiliation on Brand Awareness
Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi
Faculty of Management and Technology
Master of Science in International Management
Andrea Vanini
StudentID 1450725
A.A. 2010/2011
Advisor: Professor Clodia Vurro
Discussant: Professor Angelo Russo

2. The Third Sector Trust and Branding The World Wide Web Model Development Results Conclusions
1.The Evidence
In Italy, third sector organizations
have yet to exploit the
opportunities offered by the
internet with regards to generating
brand awareness.
Third Sector The Internet
Research Purposes
 Understanding recent trends in the third sector and in the internet contexts;
 Studying determinants of online brand awareness for third sector organizations websites;
2.From Evidence to Curiosity
Which are the reasons? How are
they structured?
May they share common drivers?
Which are the most recent trends?
?
Third Sector The Internet
3.From Curiosity to Research
In light of the recent changes
occured both in the third sector
and in the web environment, how
can third sector organizations gain
awareness through the internet? In
a word, which are the
determinants of online brand
awareness for third sector
organizations websites?
Third Sector The Internet

3. The Third Sector Trust and Branding The World Wide Web Model Development Results Conclusions
The Objective
The Role in the Economy
The Origins
Private Sector
Private Utility
Private Organizations
Information Asymmetry
Public Sector
Social Utility
Public Organizations
Median Voter’s Theory
Non-profit
AutonomyVoluntary
Third
Sector
DemocracyOrganized
State & Market Failures
Social Utility
Current Perspectives
The Third Sector is constituted by privately held, democratically structured entities that share the ultimate principle of
not distributing profit. These, autonomously and voluntary pursue social utility by either providing private goods in
response to market failure, or by satisfying the needs of a beyond-the-median voter in response to governmental
failure.
Source: reworked from Potůček (1999) , Hansmann (1986) and Weisbrod (1975)

4. The Third Sector Trust and Branding The World Wide Web Model Development Results Conclusions
Competition Dynamics
An new input-based perspective
Third Sector organizations are private entities that autonomously pursue social utility and that remunerate their
factors of production (capital and labour) primarily with the maximization of the social utility itself.
Thus, the drivers through which organizations attract capital and labour (donations and volunteers) are necesarily
different compared with public and private sectors’ ones.
The number of social issues requiring support has
prospered, while volunteers participation rates among
countries remained steady.
Third sector organizations used to rely upon public
contributions, but these are set to sharply diminuish in the
forecoming years.
Donors turned into more attentive philanthrophic givers:
when they assess to which organization to donate, their
criteria are stringent.
Competition
on Input
Provision
Labour
Capital

5. Donors Criteria
Stimuli and personal determinants have influence on the charity choices of donors
The Thrust of Trust
Third sector organizations have to gain donors’ trust in order to be eligible for donations: increase perceived quality,
reduce cost of search, match the right potential donors.
An effective way they can do so is “building a brand”.
The Third Sector Trust and Branding The World Wide Web Model Development Results Conclusions
Perceptual Reactions
Emotional & Psychological
Perceptual Noise
Portrayal
Fit with Self
Trust & Awareness
Image & Reputation
Perceived Quality
Cost of Search
Missions Distances
Analytical Approach
Balance Sheet Ratios
Administrative Efficiency
Governance Quality
Sustainability of Activities
The scarce availability of reliable data on many small to medium third sector organizations balance sheets (if they really have one) makes the
analytical approach not applicable in our reference country, Italy.

6. The Value of a Brand
Brand improves perceived quality, promotes loyalty, increases revenues and margins, generates trust: unluckily, it
cannot be easily built in a day. Creating brand awareness represents the preliminary step for developing trust, and may
soon represent a binding stage for the survival and growth of many third sector organizations.
The Web Opportunity
The combination of generally low design costs and very high potential reach makes the online choice practically
mandatory for all the sectors nowadays, including the third one. Yet more, it represents an accessible tool for small
entities to engage with users, other organizations and potential donors, and to cope with the increased competition in
input provision.
The Third Sector Trust and Branding The World Wide Web Model Development Results Conclusions
Intense, active loyalty
Strong, favourable and unique
brand associations
Deep, broad
brand awareness
Offline Word of Mouth
Mass Media Advertising
Direct Marketing
The Web Opportunity
Available Branding Channels
Source: reworked from Keller’s Brand Resonance Pyramid (2009)

7. A read-only Web
We can view the first stage of the World Wide Web (Web 1.0) as a giant mall: shoppers have limited time and huge
number of store alternatives in competition with each other to capture their attention. The most popular websites
attracted surfers like the stores in the mall attracted shoppers: with a visible location and massive advertising.
Tags:
The Third Sector Trust and Branding The World Wide Web Model Development Results Conclusions
Website Website
WebsiteWebsiteWebsite
Website
Website
Website
Website
Website
Website
Website
Search Engine
Website
Website
Web
Web
Search Engine Positioning
(Primacy in Search Results)
Website Visibility Index
(Disseminate Hyperlinks)
1.0 Online Awareness Determinants
Get VisibleSource: reworked from Drèze and Zufryden (2004)
Visibilty Advertising

8. A read&write Web
The web today is much closer to a multifaceted platform in which the user represents the gravitational centre.
Internet traffic passes through social networks, in which trust rules relationships and interactivity plays an important
role. Getting visible is necessary but no longer sufficient to generate awareness in the current internet context.
Tags:
The Third Sector Trust and Branding The World Wide Web Model Development Results Conclusions
Facebook
Blogs
Wiki
Twitter
Search
Engines
Website
Website
Website
Website
Website
Website
Website
Website
Website
Website Website
Website Website
Website Website
Website
Website WebsiteWebsite Website
2.0 Online Awareness Determinants
Get Involved
Social Networks Trust Interactivity

9. The Research Question
In light of the dramatic transformations occurred both in the web environment and in the third sector, we aimed at
explaining the determinants of online awareness with specific regards to third sector organizations. Hereby we set
the hypotheses of the empirical model on which we base our investigation.
The Third Sector Trust and Branding The World Wide Web Model Development Results Conclusions
Reputation
Hypothesis 4
Amount and Reputation
of Bridges that a website
has settled with other
websites.
Content Recency
Hypothesis 3
Frequency of Content
Update, since the current
internet scenario rewards
content recency.
Hypothesis 1
Website Longevity (age), since
building a brand is a time-
consuming process.
Hypothesis 2
Website Size, since consumers
trust more the big organizations.
The Structural Hypotheses
We posit that the following structural characteristics of websites have
positive impact on online awareness.
Trust & Branding

10. The Research Question
In light of the dramatic transformations occurred both in the web environment and in the third sector, we aimed at
explaining the determinants of online awareness with specific regards to third sector organizations. Hereby we set
the hypotheses of the empirical model on which we base our investigation.
The Third Sector Trust and Branding The World Wide Web Model Development Results Conclusions
Public
Administration
Third Sector
Organizations
People
(Users, Donors,
Volunteers)
Other Third Sector
Organizations
The Network Hypotheses
We posit that the following network embeddedness measures of
websites have positive impact on online awareness.
Hypothesis 5
The Degree of Involvement of an organization in the third
sector Online Interorganizational Networks.
Hypothesis 6
The Degree of Involvement of a third sector organization in
the informal Online Public Administration Network.
Hypothesis 7
The Degree of Involvement of a third sector organization in
the informal Blogosphere Network.
Public
Administration
Websites
Third Sector
Organizations
Websites
Blogosphere
(People)
Other Third Sector
Organizations
Websites H5
H7
H6

11. The Model Variables
Taking into account the above mentioned assumptions, we hereby set the variables for the empirical model.
Interactions & Controls
 TSONetTraffic_PR
Traffic Exchange b/w TSOs * PR
 PagesPerYear
Number of Pages / Age
 Domain (.it, .org)
Dummy variable: .it, .org
 Province
Dummy variable: MI, BG, BS, etc.
 Facebook
Dummy variable: Y/N Profile
We performed Social Network Analysis
for the hyperlink-based networks above.
Each web link counts as 1 connection.
The chosen centrality measure is the
Eigenvector.
The Networks
 TSOs
Third Sector Organization Network
 CSSPs
Public Administration Network
 Blogosphere
People Online Community
The Structure
 Age
Website’s online presence in years
 Size
Number of indexed pages
 Frequency
Frequency of contentupdates
 PageRank (PR)
Google’s PageRank (from 1 to 10)
The Third Sector Trust and Branding The World Wide Web Model Development Results Conclusions
Dependent Variable
Monthly Website
Visitors

12. The Sample
146 Italian third sector organizations’ websites, retrieved from online regional database.
The Method
Linear Regression Model adopting a Stepwise procedure.
The Period under study
We collected data relative to the average 1-month web site activity, based on a sum of the unique visitors, in the
period May-July 2011. The underlying model can be represented by the following formula:
yi= β0∙INTERCEPT + β1∙AGE
i
+β
2
∙SIZEi +β3∙FREQUENCY
i
+β4∙PAGERANK
i
+β
5
∙DOMAIN+β6∙PROVINCE+β7∙TSOs
i
+ β8∙BLOGOSPHERE
i
+ β
9
∙CSSPsi + β10∙FACEBOOKi+β11∙TSONETTRAFFIC_PR
i
+ β
12
∙PAGESPERYEAR+ εi
∀i=1,…,N; for N=146
The Third Sector Trust and Branding The World Wide Web Model Development Results Conclusions
Blue refers to structural hypotheses, red to control variables, green to network embeddedness measures

13. The Model Results
The Regression yields a satisfactory value for the Adjusted R2: the independent variables that have a positive impact
on monthly web traffic performances for third sector organizations’ websites are: Blogosphere, Pagerank and Size.
H2 Website’s Size Supported
The bigger the website, the higher the amount of users who know of its exixtence;
H4 Amount and Reputation of Bridges Supported
The more and the better connections websites establish with other websites, the higher its brand awareness;
H7 Blogosphere’s Involvement Supported
The more a third sector organizations’ website is involved in the blogs’ network, the higher its brand awareness;
The Third Sector Trust and Branding The World Wide Web Model Development Results Conclusions
Variable Unstd. Coefficients Std. Coefficients Std. Error t Stat Sig.
Intercept -3.105,674 1.784,661 -1,740 ,084
Blogosphere 162,778 19,042 ,590 8,548 ,000
PageRank 1.027,122 446,455 ,158 2,301 ,023
Size ,078 ,039 ,119 2,005 ,047
Regression Statistics
R2 0,507
Adjusted R2 0,497
Observations 146

14. The Third Sector Trust and Branding The World Wide Web Model Development Results Conclusions
The Managerial Implications
From research results to strategic options:
The Strategies
Third Sector Organizations should intensively interact with existing online communities.
Generate Brand
Awareness among
Users, Donors,
Volunteers.
The Challenge
The Internet is at the forefront
of marketing activities aimed
at generating awareness in all
the sectors.
The Means
Online awareness depends upon
the degree of involvement of a
website with the Blogosphere, its
PageRank, its Size.
The Determinants
Participate
Individuate influent blogs and advocate
its own brand on the blogs themselves,
commenting and responding to users.
To Blog
Corporates use blogs to restore personal relationship
with customers and to renovate trust. Third sector
organizations may have to follow the same path.

15. The Third Sector Trust and Branding The World Wide Web Model Development Results Conclusions
Q&A

17. Sample’s Organizations
Public Administration Offices

18. Sample’s Organizations
Blogs