Transformations  in
Business & Economics

SOCIAL INNOVATIONS DURING UNPRECEDENTED CRISES: THE ROLES OF CROWD WISDOM, ECHO CHAMBERS, AND SOCIAL TRUST⁷
Khaled Saleh Al-Omoush, Carlos Lassala, Mutaz M. Al-Debei, Samuel Ribeiro-Navarrete

ABSTRACT: This study investigates the roles played by echo chambers and the wisdom of the crowd in social innovation during unprecedented crises such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic. It also examines the impact of social trust on echo chambers, crowd wisdom, and social innovation during unprecedented crises. Using an online questionnaire, 432 members of Facebook pages and groups in Jordan provided data which were analysed using PLS-SEM. The results demonstrate that the wisdom of crowds has a significant positive impact on social innovation, that echo chambers significantly negatively affect social innovation, and that social trust significantly affects media echo chambers, the wisdom of the crowd, and social innovation.

KEYWORDS:  social media, echo chambers, the wisdom of the crowd, social innovation, social trust.

JEL classification:  H12, O35, O36, Q55.

⁷Acknowledgments:  The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Chair ‘Entrepreneurship: Being student to entrepreneur’-Grupo DACSA-Universitat of Valencia.