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Social media utilization in business-to-business relationships of technology industry firms
Abstract
Even today, it is a fairly common argument in business-to-business companies, especially in traditional industrial companies, that social media is only useful in the business-to-consumer sector. The perceived challenges, opportunities and social media use cases in business-to-business sector have received little attention in the literature. Therefore, this paper focuses on bridging this gap with a survey of social media use cases, opportunities and challenges in industrial business-to-business companies. The study also examines the essential differences between business-to-consumer and business-to-business in these respects. The paper starts by defining social media and Web 2.0, and then characterizes social media in business, and social media in business-to-business. Finally, we present and analyze the results of our empirical survey of 125 business-to-business companies in the Finnish technology industry sector. This paper suggests that there is a significant gap between the perceived potential of social media and social media use with customers and partners in business-to-business companies, and identifies potentially effective ways to reduce the gap.
... Metode penelitian yang digunakan dalah kuantitatif penelitian dengan survei sebagai instrumen penelitian. Penelitian kuantitatif yang mengkaji penggunaanmedia sosial telah umum digunakan di masa lalu studi, misalnya, penelitian oleh (Michaelidou et al, 2011;Kahar et al, 2012;Jussila et al, 2014). Pemilihan metode penelitian yang telah diuji dalam penelitian sebelumnya adalah penting untuk memastikan validitas dan reliabilitasnya instrumen yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini. ...
... Percakapan produk tinggi ini di sosialplatform media terkait erat dengan kesuksesan dari kinerja bisnis. Ini penting untuk semua bisnis karena memungkinkan perusahaan untuk mengambil pendekatan yang berbeda ketika berkomunikasi dan mendengarkan konsumen mereka (Jussila et al, 2014) Namun variabel kecemasan pemilik usaha pada media sosial juga mempengaruhi kinerja bisnis di media sosial karena pemilik bisnis yang peduli dan mudah khawatir tentang konsumen dan dengan demikian akan memberikan pelayanan yang baik kepada konsumen. Pandangan ini tentu berbanding terbalik dengan jenis penjualnya di media sosial yang tidak terlalu peduli dengan mereka konsumen. ...
... Misalnya, Peneliti menjelaskan bagaimana sosial media membantu klub sepak bola untuk terhubung dengan penggemar mereka sehingga mereka menjadi lebih dikenal di seluruh dunia (Fenton, 2018). Studi lain tenntang penguatan merek sebagai alasan paling umum mengapa perusahaan menggunakan media social (Jussila et al, 2014). Dalam penelitiannya bahwa 91% perusahaan menggunakan media sosial untuk mendapatkan hal baru pelanggan. ...
Penggunaan media sosial di era digital saat ini dianggap penting karena membantu masyarakat berkomunikasi dan berbagi informasi secara online. Tidak mengherankan bahwa kemudahan berbagi informasi dan berkomunikasi melalui media sosial berdampak pada peningkatan banyak aktivitas online, termasuk aktivitas berbisnis. Fenomena ini menginspirasi peneliti untuk mengungkap peran media sosial di Indonesia untuk kegiatan bisnis dengan mengetahui faktor-faktor yang dapat mempengaruhi pengikut atau fans media sosial menjadi pembeli. Dengan mensurvei pengguna media sosial, 546 data dikumpulkan dari pengusaha media sosial dan pembeli media sosial. Analisis data menunjukkan ada cukup bukti bahwa media sosial telah digunakan untuk berbisnis. Frekuensi penggunaan media sosial memiliki hubungan yang kuat dengan pengguna yang menggunakan media sosial untuk membeli produk atau melakukan bisnis. Kaum muda, seperti mahasiswa, cenderung menggunakan media sosial untuk berbisnis melebihi mereka yang memiliki tingkat pendidikan yang lebih tinggi yang mungkin sudah memiliki pekerjaan tetap. Analisis regresi berganda telah menghasilkan model penggunaan media sosial untuk berbisnis yang memperlihatkan lima faktor utama yang mempengaruhi kepuasan dan kinerja berbisnis di media sosial.
... More specifically, by aligning market demands with corporate identity, SME executives make meaning of a particular type of social media and related application decisions. Although the requirements for communication and collaboration within a company and across company boundaries can be similar [179], data underline significant differences in the use of specific tools for firms wholly acting either in B2C or in B2B markets and products. For B2B Table 3 Tendential relation between the perception of features and steadiness of use behavior according to the interview data. ...
... contexts, the use of business networks prevails, whereas B2C companies are primarily oriented toward networking channels or make intense use of influencer communities, photo sharing, and product and service assessment tools. Major reasons for the adoption of Xing and LinkedIn within small, complex business contexts that commonly lag behind in their social media uptake [13] include the characteristic features [179], such as ease of handling and customizability, which infuse leaders' comprehension of these technologies. The lacking use of social networking media, especially in external B2B settings, is likely due in large part to the anticipatory perception of the consequences of a negative reputation or failure to protect confidential information [179][180][181]. ...
... Major reasons for the adoption of Xing and LinkedIn within small, complex business contexts that commonly lag behind in their social media uptake [13] include the characteristic features [179], such as ease of handling and customizability, which infuse leaders' comprehension of these technologies. The lacking use of social networking media, especially in external B2B settings, is likely due in large part to the anticipatory perception of the consequences of a negative reputation or failure to protect confidential information [179][180][181]. Interestingly, even if SMEs have considerable experience with social media, they suffer from "lock-ins" [182] and refrain from using certain platforms due to increased related application effort caused by a lack of platform compatibility. ...
... However, WOM in B2B could differ. First, compared to interactions in the B2C sector, interactions are more intense in B2B (Jussila et al., 2014), as there are fewer organizations involved in business transactions. Second, B2B transactions involve a far wider range of stakeholders in purchasing processes (e.g. ...
... financial analysts, purchasing agents, etc.), leading to a field of study specific to B2B marketing called organizational buying behavior. Third, for industrial products, there is more emphasis on physical and functional (Jussila et al., 2014), with B2B markets associated with greater uncertainty and involving more complex and dynamic technological offerings (Arvidsson and Melander, 2020;Colliander and Dahlen, 2011;Lee and Watkins, 2016). Therefore, industrial professional purchasing personnel tend to cautiously acquire plenty of product information and relevant knowledge in their area before making buying decisions . ...
... (I) This also shows the use of hard vs soft measures by analysts in evaluating vendors when spreading WOM. The "human side" seems just as important as the facts and numbers of performance, the physical and functional (Jussila et al., 2014), which tends to be strongly associated with B2B. Further, analysts were not only gate-keepers of information to the clients, but they would also work closely with the tech-vendors to enable the flow of information and solutions on the vendorside as well. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to address these questions. Word-of-mouth (WOM) is increasingly important in business-to-business (B2B) decision-making. Yet, research on this topic is rather limited, and often borrows from business-to-consumer (B2C) WOM literature. The question remains as to whether these assumptions realistically occur in B2B WOM. Specifically, this study explores the following questions: What value does B2B WOM have? Why do social media influencers in B2B engage in WOM? What type(s) of social media influencers spread WOM in B2B?
Design/methodology/approach
To address these questions, this study adopts a qualitative research strategy. This study focuses on industry analysts in information technology markets who often influence the buying decisions of customers through their expertise and recommendations of technology solutions. Based on interviews with these influencers, this study explicates B2B WOM, an area the authors know much less of in comparison to B2C WOM.
Findings
This study reveals differences in who spreads WOM within B2B, their roles, key features of their content and how they spread WOM. Second, this study demonstrates the types of actors spreading WOM in B2B in relation to the type of WOM and how it actually influences B2B markets.
Originality/value
This study broadens the current definition of WOM and, specifically, showcases WOM not only as amplifying messages but as a means to co-create the market itself with vendors and clients. This research offers several contributions to the B2B WOM literature and influencer practice.
... Early-stage of cocreation Commitment and its implications Early-stage of the internet-based platforms and social media use During this period, there was limited understanding and research in terms of value co-creation or co-creation within the B2B context (Vargo and Lusch, 2011) This led to a new research agenda and business practice in shared resources and co-creation in the following years until present (Chowdhury et al., 2016) Commitment and its implications were another obvious research area that gained traction (Ganesan et al., 2010) Another early development was the internet-based B2B platforms (Chakravarty et al., 2014) and social media usage in B2B contexts (Jussila et al., 2014) Chowdhury et al. ...
... Another early development was the internet-based B2B platforms (Chakravarty et al., 2014), electronic B2B markets (Janita and Miranda, 2013) and B2B social media usage (Jussila et al., 2014). During this time, there was a consensus and a mutual argument in B2B firms that social media is only useful in the B2C sector. ...
... During this time, there was a consensus and a mutual argument in B2B firms that social media is only useful in the B2C sector. Similarly, research on social media usage in the B2B division gained limited attention in the literature (Jussila et al., 2014). For a while, scholars had to wait a few more years for the electronic B2B market and social media research to gain traction and become accepted. ...
Purpose
In the past few decades, relationship management (RM) theory and RM strategies in business-to-business (B2B) contexts have evolved tremendously, driven by constant innovation. Hence, the purpose of this study is to understand the trends and evolution of RM and relationship quality (RQ) in B2B contexts and empirical insights on RM and RQ in B2B, which in turn would provide insights into trends and future research directions.
Design/methodology/approach
Grounded on the industrial marketing and purchasing group, this study adopts a critical systematic literature review to provide a comprehensive analysis of the past, current and future trends in empirical research insights of RM and RQ in B2B markets.
Findings
This study provides some novel insights into RM in B2B context by using a multidimensional approach to RM and RQ and analyzing prior marketing research from three perspectives: the evolution of RM and RQ in B2B context; prior empirical research; and practical business insights. Overall, these perspectives inform the development of an evolving side of RQ in B2B contexts, leading to some predictions regarding the future of RM in B2B markets.
Practical implications
The exploratory results of this study shed light on the key factors that drive RQ and the importance of RM in B2B markets in the digital age where customers still long for human interaction regardless of the prevalence of advanced technology.
Originality/value
In the wake of advanced technologies and particularly, B2B companies had to turn to virtual platforms and embrace digital transformation to establish and manage their customer relationships. Yet, managing relationships via digital channels has its own challenges for both B2B practitioners and scholars. This indicates that there is still a huge need for attuned RM strategies that align with the changing environments – mainly driven by technological advancement – in B2B markets.
... Early-stage of cocreation Commitment and its implications Early-stage of the internet-based platforms and social media use During this period, there was limited understanding and research in terms of value co-creation or co-creation within the B2B context (Vargo and Lusch, 2011) This led to a new research agenda and business practice in shared resources and co-creation in the following years until present (Chowdhury et al., 2016) Commitment and its implications were another obvious research area that gained traction (Ganesan et al., 2010) Another early development was the internet-based B2B platforms (Chakravarty et al., 2014) and social media usage in B2B contexts (Jussila et al., 2014) Chowdhury et al. ...
... Another early development was the internet-based B2B platforms (Chakravarty et al., 2014), electronic B2B markets (Janita and Miranda, 2013) and B2B social media usage (Jussila et al., 2014). During this time, there was a consensus and a mutual argument in B2B firms that social media is only useful in the B2C sector. ...
... During this time, there was a consensus and a mutual argument in B2B firms that social media is only useful in the B2C sector. Similarly, research on social media usage in the B2B division gained limited attention in the literature (Jussila et al., 2014). For a while, scholars had to wait a few more years for the electronic B2B market and social media research to gain traction and become accepted. ...
Purpose-In the past few decades, relationship management (RM) theory and RM strategies in business-to-business (B2B) contexts have evolved tremendously, driven by constant innovation. Hence, the purpose of this study is to understand the trends and evolution of RM and relationship quality (RQ) in B2B contexts and empirical insights on RM and RQ in B2B, which in turn would provide insights into trends and future research directions. Design/methodology/approach-Grounded on the industrial marketing and purchasing group, this study adopts a critical systematic literature review to provide a comprehensive analysis of the past, current and future trends in empirical research insights of RM and RQ in B2B markets. Findings-This study provides some novel insights into RM in B2B context by using a multidimensional approach to RM and RQ and analyzing prior marketing research from three perspectives: the evolution of RM and RQ in B2B context; prior empirical research; and practical business insights. Overall, these perspectives inform the development of an evolving side of RQ in B2B contexts, leading to some predictions regarding the future of RM in B2B markets. Practical implications-The exploratory results of this study shed light on the key factors that drive RQ and the importance of RM in B2B markets in the digital age where customers still long for human interaction regardless of the prevalence of advanced technology. Originality/value-In the wake of advanced technologies and particularly, B2B companies had to turn to virtual platforms and embrace digital transformation to establish and manage their customer relationships. Yet, managing relationships via digital channels has its own challenges for both B2B practitioners and scholars. This indicates that there is still a huge need for attuned RM strategies that align with the changing environments-mainly driven by technological advancement-in B2B markets.
... Although these firms' preferences for traditional face-to-face communication techniques is a key issue (Järvinen et al., 2012;Leek et al., 2019), other factors come into play, a point that can be illustrated by considering B2B SMEs' low usage of social media (Brink, 2017;Michaelidou et al., 2011;Shaltoni, 2017).Thus these firms often under-appreciate the value of social media and are uncertain about how it can support their brands (Michaelidou et al., 2011). They also often lack the required technical knowledge and resources, find it difficult to measure ROI and have problems adopting the newer business practices that social media requires (Järvinen et al., 2012;Jussila, Kärkkäinen, & Aramo-Immonen, 2014). Resistance from management and other key decision-makers can further inhibit digital marketing's use (Järvinen et al., 2012;Karjaluoto et al., 2015;Quinton et al., 2018), contributing to low levels of adoption in both B2B (Müller et al., 2018;Shaltoni, 2017;Taiminen & Karjaluoto, 2015) and SME settings (Camilleri, 2019;McCann & Barlow, 2015). ...
... The purchasing process is often longer and more involved, with B2B firms typically having fewer and closer customer relationships (Avlonitis & Karayanni, 2000;Coviello & Brodie, 2001). As a result, these relationships are characterized by greater cooperation and more emphasis on physical performance and personal selling (Jussila et al., 2014). ...
... These factors include the types and characteristics of customers, the nature of the competitive set, and various market and industry characteristics. In terms of customer factors, B2B sectors tend to include fewer and more knowledgeable customers (Avlonitis & Karayanni, 2000;Coviello & Brodie, 2001;Jussila et al., 2014), and involve longer, more complex buying processes (Avlonitis & Karayanni, 2000;Brink, 2017); while in SMEs, product ranges are often more limited, sometimes with more complex products serving niche segments (O'Dwyer et al., 2009;Reijonen, 2010). Taken together, these factors help explain the preference for traditional face-to-face sales and marketing practices in B2Bs and SMEs. ...
Despite the widely acknowledged benefits of digital marketing, many B2B SMEs have been slow to adopt these practices. These firms' characteristics and ways of working mean that digital marketing as practiced in B2C or in larger firms may be unsuitable. This paper aims to increase understanding about digital marketing in B2B SMEs, by examining the barriers they face and the digital practices that work for them. A qualitative research methodology is used to focus on these previously unexplored practices in small B2B firms operating with the oil and gas industry. The study identifies the internal and external factors linked to this B2B SME context that both influence and act as barriers to digital marketing practice. The distinctive pattern of marketing practices arising from this combination of factors and the limited role of digital marketing within it, are revealed. These insights extend the debate about digital marketing's use by showing empirically that a “one size fits all” ways of thinking about digital marketing is not appropriate for B2B SMEs. The implications for researchers and practicing managers are considered.
... The extant literature has largely defined SM as a means for communication, as a technology platform for marketing communications or a communications tool (Iankova et al., 2018;Leek et al., 2016;Lacoste, 2016;Swani et al., 2014;Andzulis to maintain and develop B2B relationships, both in national and international contexts (Drummond et al., 2018;Fraccastoro et al., 2021a). The instant nature of SM communication affords constant and immediate responses (Jussila et al., 2014), useful for building personal B2B relationships between actors across organisations (Sood and Pattinson, 2012). As a customer relationship management tool (Agnihotri et al., 2012), SM can enhance the exchange of information between network actors in a relationship (Itani et al., 2020;Enyinda et al., 2021;Fraccastoro et al., 2021b). ...
... For example, SM's potential as a collaborative tool has been illustrated (Georgescu and Popescul, 2015) particularly for value co-creation within a sales context (Andzulis et al., 2013) and to enable complex, collaborative co-created activities (Lipiäinen, 2015). Studies focusing on SM as a collaborative medium among B2B network actors (Wang et al., 2016;Jussila et al., 2014) indicate SMs ability to facilitate cooperative activities central to innovative research and development and open innovation processes (Shaltoni, 2017;Georgescu and Popescul, 2015). Particularly in a smaller firm context, the collaborative nature of SM permits interfirm collaboration across business relationships and between groups of network actors which strengthens the focal organisations' performance (Wang et al., 2016). ...
... For instance, Eurostat [15] reported that multinational companies in the European Union (EU) are creating values and interacting with both potential and loyal customers through social media. On the contrary, Ref. [16] found that only 30% of SMEs have taken advantage of this innovative tool for business performance. As a result, social media adoption can be vital for SMEs, which lack marketing and advertising resources [17]. ...
... The findings show that social media serves as an avenue for effective interconnectivity, creates space for agility and targeted marketing, and enhances their decision-making while building loyalty [54,89,90]. This study agrees with the results from [16,38], confirming that social media has a positive influence on business connectivity. In effect, social media is better used by SMEs to exchange ideas among disparate consumers to help improve the way business is conducted [91]. ...
Social media is gradually transforming diverse business ecosystems due to the limitless
capabilities they offer. Given this, emerging businesses across the globe are leveraging this innovation
to improve their operations. While the literature on the usage of social media by small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) is still emerging, the outcomes from existing research have not been coherent.
Amid this, limited empirical evidence has been adduced on the affordance of the technology for the
SME ecosystem in developing economies, particularly Ghana. Following this, this study aims to fill
this research gap by investigating the impact of social media usage on the long-term sustainability of
SMEs, specifically in Ghana. Using empirical data from 424 respondents who are representatives of
manufacturing SMEs in Ghana, using SmartPLS techniques, the study confirmed that, generally, social
media usage does not only have a positive impact on SMEs but drastically drives their motivations
towards resilience and sustainability. The results further revealed a positive and significant effect of
social media usage value creation, business connections and opportunities on SMEs’ sustainability.
This study contributes to knowledge of social media usage and sustainability from a developing
country’s perspective. This study offers several implications for theory and practice.
... The bank, which adopts new technologies and manages customer necessities, can only survive in the future because young generations have opined that there are more conveniences and benefits of ebanking. Jussila et al. (2014) evaluated the relationship between social media and its impact on Business-to-Business relationships. This study aimed to identify the opportunities for adopting social media to build business-business relationships. ...
Social Media Banking (SMB) is an electronic banking channel enabling users to perform their banking services and operations through social media. Most Indian banks use social media for advertisement, customer relations, and marketing communications of products and services, but only a few banks offer services related to social media banking. The main aim of this paper is to study the Bankers' perspective on Social Media Banking services provided by banks in India and the effect of demographic profiles. Primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire to achieve the above goal. The study considered selective public and private sector banks, and the significant variables were social media adoption in banks, benefits, and challenges of SMB. The researcher adopted a simple random sampling method to collect the data from 402 bank bankers who offer social media banking-related services to their customers, and the statistical tools used to attain the objectives of this study are the Independent sample t-test and ANOVA test. The study results from banking professionals whose banks offered SMB services showed a significant effect of demographic variables on social media adoption in banks and the benefits and challenges of SMB. The study's findings provide regulators and banks with insight into the benefits and challenges of social media banking, enabling them to implement a generalized framework and guidelines on social media banking. The researcher suggests to the banks that the benefits and challenges of social media banking pave the way to developing efficient and flawless models for their customers. At last, the study encourages customers to move towards social media for their relationship with banks and real-time grievance redressal.
... Several studies have shown that the utilization of social media by businesses is positively correlated with business development, marketing and finance. (Jussila et al., 2014)Social support on social media, such as endorsements, promotions, and access to new markets from followers, online communities, influencers, and business partners, plays an important role in the development of small businesses. This support is proven to improve their marketing performance and brand reputation. ...
This study examines the impact of growth mindset, product innovation, and social media utilization on business development and the role of social support as a mediating variable in MSMEs in Lalabata District, Soppeng Regency. This study used a quantitative approach with purposive sampling technique and involved 100 respondents. The data analysis technique applied was Partial Least-Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results showed that growth mindset, product innovation, and social media utilization all have a positive influence on business development. Social support also has a positive impact on business development. In addition, social support mediates the relationship between growth mindset, product innovation, and social media utilization with business development in MSMEs in Lalabata District, Soppeng Regency
... En ellas se evidencia un ambiente social capaz de propiciar el intercambio de experiencias y la disminución de barreras socioculturales e incluso geográficas. En las redes sociales las personas publican información con personas que pueden ser conocidas o extrañas [34]. ...
El propósito de este trabajo es explorar el uso de las redes sociales y el efecto en el desarrollo sostenible de la industria hotelera (MIPYME) en Ecuador, mediante el uso de redes neuronales artificiales. La industria hotelera establece contacto directo con los turistas y esto facilita la creación de objetivos estratégicos para obtener mayor rentabilidad, supervivencia y conocimiento que permita estar a la vanguardia. Para el desarrollo del trabajo se catalogaron como objeto de estudio 593 hoteles de la zona costera ecuatoriana (5 provincias), tomando como muestra representativa 93 hoteles. Como instrumento de evaluación se utilizó una encuesta a través de formularios GoogleForms. Los resultados obtenidos por el modelo construido a partir de la red neuronal, destaca que la variable relacionada con el uso de los medios sociales, tiene una influencia directa positiva y significativa en el comportamiento, responsabilidad y marca de la industria hotelera, lo cual puede ser una base sólida para lograr un turismo sostenible. Las conclusiones establecen que el posicionamiento de las redes sociales llevado a cabo por las empresas hoteleras ha tenido un profundo impacto en el turismo. Dado que el servicio ofrecido a los turistas goza de una excelente calidad. Este aspecto se destaca porque fue la interacción con mayor valor evidenciada. En el futuro, se pretende realizar un estudio de todas las provincias, segmentando el tipo de turista y el consumo para la búsqueda de patrones entre las recomendaciones que se hagan entre los usuarios utilizando para ello el lenguaje de procesamiento natural del habla.
... General trends for engagement in species content are not readily available. While this type of analysis has been explored in areas related to marketing (Jussila et al., 2014;Sajid, 2016), its planning potential is still underestimated in conservation science. ...
Introduction: There has been a gradual increase in studies of social media data usage in biodiversity conservation. Social media data is an underused source of information with the potential to maximize the outcomes of established conservation measures. In this study, we assessed how structured social media data can provide insight into species conservation through a species conservation plan, based on predefined actions. Methods: We established a framework centered on a set of steps that go from defining social media platforms and species of interest to applying general analysis of data based on data dimensions-three W's framework (What, When, Who) and the public engagement that posts received. The final and most important step in our proposed framework is to assess the overlap between social media data outcomes and measures established in conservation plans. In our study, we used the Brazilian National Action Plan (BNAP) for big cats as our model. We extracted posts and metrics about jaguars (Panthera onca) and pumas (Puma concolor) from two social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter. Results: We obtained 159 posts for both jaguars and pumas on Facebook (manually) and 23,869 posts for the jaguar and 14,675 posts for the puma on Twitter (through an application user interface). Data were categorized for content and users (only Facebook data) based on analysis of the content obtained and similarities found between posts. We used descriptive statistics for analyzing the metrics extracted for each data dimension (what, when, who, and engagement). We also used algorithms to predict categories in the Twitter database. Our most important findings were based on the development of a matrix summarizing the overlapping actions and dimensions of the data. Our findings revealed that the most prominent category of information for jaguars on Facebook was the sighting of wildlife outside protected areas, while for pumas, it was the trespassing of property by wildlife. From the Twitter dataset, we observed that the most prominent category of information for jaguars was: the sighting of wildlife outside protected areas, while for pumas, it was wildlife depredation by direct or indirect means. We found temporal trends that highlight the importance of categories in understanding information peaks on Facebook and Twitter. Discussion: When we analyze online engagement, we see a predominance of positive reactions on Facebook, and on Twitter, we see a balanced reaction between positive and negative. We identified 10 of 41 actions in the BNAP that might benefit from social media data. Most of the actions that could benefit from our dataset were linked to human-wildlife conflicts and threats, such as wildlife-vehicle collisions. Communication and educational actions could benefit from all dimensions of the data. Our results highlight the variety of information on social media to inform conservation programs and their application to conservation actions. We believe that studies on the success of applying data to conservation measures are the next step in this process and could benefit from input from decision-makers.
... The nature of the interactions between B2B business partners and B2C companies and its customers is another differential element, the communication can be characterised as being more direct and intense in the B2B sector, taking into consideration the smaller number of organisations involved (Jussila, Karkkainen& Aramo-Immonen, 2014). The B2B business philosophy is based on building trust and establishing a solid relationship between partners, the aim being conserving a database consisting of loyal clients. ...
... According to SME Corp (2018), only 19.7% of Malaysian SMEs have adopted online marketing effectively. Less than 30% of SMEs reported using web marketing on a global scale at the beginning of this decade (Jussila et al., 2014). Likewise, research on the factors influencing adoption of social media among SMEs is still in its infancy stage (Ahmad et al., 2019;Qalati et al., 2021). ...
In today's global economy, using online marketing and Internet has become an imperative move to improve business operations. However, due to limited technical diffusion and the fact that the majority of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia do not engage in research and development (R&D) activities, SMEs are still lagging behind in adopting this modern technology. Therefore, there is a need to investigate SMEs in terms of their extent of online marketing adoption and factors influencing their adoption of online marketing. A quantitative survey was conducted on 80 selected SMEs in Malaysia. The study found that the proposed framework could be used to assess the degree of online marketing adoption among SMEs. The adoption of online marketing among SMEs was rather high. Specifically, the findings demonstrated that compatibility, complexity and trialability significantly influenced adoption of online marketing. However, the adoption of online marketing was not affected by relative advantage and observability. This study further concluded compatibility was the most important factor which influenced SMEs in adopting internet marketing.
... Using IT to facilitate the dissemination of knowledge is one of the key strategies of the organization [54], e.g., creating knowledge through the social networks of organizations by sharing information via the internet, which is an effective tool for the sharing of knowledge among community members. Knowledge connection, knowledge creation and business results are essential to the formation of a learning platform, thus engaging members in learning [55] [56]. ...
Sustainability is essential for every business and organization, but how can it be achieved? This work is a study of sustainability based on the sufficiency economy philosophy, a valuable concept introduced by the Thai people. We apply it to the notion of sustainability in 400 agricultural community enterprise owners in Thailand, who participated in the study. An oblique rotation component analysis was performed, finding that the variables on the same side are related, and a confirmative component analysis with structural equation models was conducted. The results showed that the approach to applying the sufficiency economy philosophy among community enterprises consists of 11 components, as follows: 1) financial control, 2) planning, 3) member management, 4) morals, 5) prevention plan, 6) moderation, 7) knowledge and expertise, 8) market development, 9) care, 10) quality control and 11) value of investment. The confirmative component analysis with structural equation modeling was consistent with the empirical data. Agricultural community enterprises and entrepreneurs focus on the moral component, conduct business with honesty and avoid causing problems for others, value justice without taking advantage with diligence and adhere to moral principles in life, because all of the above will lead to sustainability in the future.
... The review of the literature in Appendix B illustrates studies that describe SM as being central to the development and maintenance of B2B relationships, whether that is in terms of key account management (Lacoste, 2016), opportunity creation through collaborative network activities (Drummond et al., 2018), relationship management (Sigfusson & Chetty, 2013), or for achieving network embeddedness during the internationalisation of firms (Fraccastoro, Gabrielsson & Chetty, 2021). SM can maintain relationships with buyers and suppliers through constant communication and immediate responses (Jussila, Kärkkäinen & Aramo-Immonen, 2014). In addition, SM has been positioned as a relationship management platform, and a resource to facilitate the exchange of information in relationships (Itani et al., 2020;Agnihotri et al., 2016;Enyinda et al., 2020;Fraccastoro, Gabrielsson & Pullins, 2021). ...
... Collaborating within networks as part of the identity development process is defined as the means through which entrepreneurs use SM to engage in collaborative activities with network members to become known and gain a favourable position within a network. SM has developed into a platform for collaboration (Jussila et al., 2014) creating opportunities for the development of new ideas and products through interaction processes (Drummond et al., 2022). Our findings support this literature where the entrepreneurs collaborated with other network members through joint promotions, cross-brand complementarities and reciprocal testimonials, as a means of enhancing their identity within the network. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how entrepreneurs use social media (SM) to develop their organisational identity within business networks.
Design/methodology/approach
A single embedded case study was used comprising a case firm entrepreneur and eight connected network actors within an artisan food context in Ireland. Data was collected using an in-depth interview complemented with content analysis of networked firms’ Facebook posts ( N = 1,652) over a three-year period.
Findings
This paper identifies four common network processes through which entrepreneurs can leverage SM to develop their organisational identity within networks. The processes are network relating, collaborating within networks, interacting with trends and connecting with community.
Research limitations/implications
Findings are limited to the Irish artisan food sector and explore identity development through a single SM platform. The applicability and variation of use of the processes across industries would serve to further refine the processes identified.
Practical implications
Practically, the four processes through which identity within a network can be developed using SM can help entrepreneurs to access and position themselves within business networks, gain access to resources and overcome the classic limitations of newness and smallness.
Originality/value
This paper provides a conceptual framework illustrating the processes involved in developing entrepreneurial organisational identity within business networks using SM. This paper adds to a growing literature that places interaction at the heart of identity development and responds to calls to further understanding of the process of identity development for entrepreneurial ventures.
... According to Jussila et al. (2014), it is a fairly common argument in business-to-business companies, especially in traditional industrial companies, that social media is only useful in the business-to-consumer sector. The perceived challenges, opportunities, and social media use cases in the business-tobusiness sector have received little attention in the literature. ...
... Thus, during this period, businesses were using the internet to inform their customers about products and services. However, with social media platforms, customers can give feedback to businesses about products and services whenever they want (Jussila et al., 2014;Atzori et al., 2020;Kingsnorth, 2017). This provided plenty of benefits to businesses and accordingly, they have advanced and updated their products and services according to the feedback from customers (Miller et al., 2016;Atzori et al., 2020;Kingsnorth, 2017). ...
INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF FAMILY BUSINESSES AND CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
... However, for various reasons, business-tobusiness practitioners delay digital media adoption [12] in day-to-day activities. First, severe reservations towards innovative technologies [13] ; second, doubts about their performance impact [14] ; third, concealing unawareness by C-level executives [6] ; fourth, perceiving digital media as of primary importance to individuals instead of organizations [15] . In addition, there is uncertainty about the definition of business development, the nature of underlying process phases of this often-disregarded cross-functional role, and the most efficient media combinations to develop longlasting buyer-vendor relationships [16,17] . ...
Purpose: The article examines the role of digital and, in particular, social media in business-to-business marketing in the international software industry. The authors responded to calls for empirical research on how these media impact buyer-vendor relationships and the conjunction of the marketing and sales processes, particularly the distribution of complex software solutions. This paper develops a digital framework and discusses the managerial consequences. Design/methodology/approach: The model arises by merging themes derived from literature, experts, and job descriptions. Mixed Methods included conducting semi-structured interviews across marketing, business development, and sales executives from buyers, vendors, and third parties of various industries, supplemented by a survey of 530+ executives. Findings: Multinational companies secure competitive advantage through agile business processes to improve buyer-vendor relationships in the digital era. Digital media enable vendors to interact continuously with buyers, gather intelligence, and foster mutually beneficial, trustworthy, long-term relationships. The objective is to prompt transactions and secure revenue streams. Research limitations/implications: The outcomes of this research center on North America, Western Europe (including the UK), and DACH (Germany-Austria-Switzerland), affecting the generalizability. Originality/value: The research is novel and bridges several gaps concerning industrial relationships in digitalization: it merges buyer, vendor, and third-party's perspectives on an international scale. It provides deeper insights into existing and new relationships by identifying relevant digital/social media platforms, the underlying usage motivation, and fundamental B2B processes. Finally, it equips practitioners with metrics to improve performance.
... Extant B2B research demonstrates the growing scholarly interest in B2B social media marketing. A review of the literature suggests that the adoption of social media marketing in B2B markets is driven by a variety of factors, including perceptions of social media usefulness and effectiveness (e.g., Jussila, Kärkkäinen, & Aramo-Immonen, 2014;Lacka & Chong, 2016;Steyn, Salehi-Sangari, Pitt, Parent, & Berthon, 2010), ease of use (e.g., Siamagka, Christodoulides, Michaelidou, & Valvi, 2015), individual factors such as commitment (.g., Guesalaga, 2016) as well as organizational factors such as organizational competence and innovativeness (e.g., Guesalaga, 2016;Michaelidou, Siamagka, & Christodoulides, 2011;Siamagka et al., 2015). A number of business outcomes have been linked to social media usage in B2B markets. ...
In B2B markets, vendor companies increasingly rely upon influential individuals in the digital environment to communicate information about their offerings to client organizations. Given the growing B2B digital engagement, cues that help to differentiate highly impactful digital influencers are crucial for vendor companies. Drawing from Stereotype Content Model, we analyze competence and warmth as relevant cues of digital influencers. Employing experimental studies, we examine how competence and warmth influence B2B purchasing managers' evaluation and selection of vendors' solutions. We find that the digital influencers' competence enhances purchasing managers' intention to buy the advocated vendor's offering. When compared with warmth, competence minimizes capability and relational concerns associated with the purchase decision. Further, we show that such effect of competence is prominent when manager-influencer identification is low. Our research advances knowledge on the characteristics of digital influencers that shape B2B purchasing managers' evaluation and selection of vendors. We identify concern-based psychological mechanisms underlying the effect of influencers' characteristics, and related boundary conditions. Our findings provide implications for digital influencers seeking to expand reach in B2B markets, and for vendor companies and marketing agencies in the selection of digital influencers.
... Thus, during this period, businesses were using the internet to inform their customers about products and services. However, with social media platforms, customers can give feedback to businesses about products and services whenever they want (Jussila et al., 2014;Atzori et al., 2020;Kingsnorth, 2017). This provided plenty of benefits to businesses and accordingly, they have advanced and updated their products and services according to the feedback from customers (Miller et al., 2016;Atzori et al., 2020;Kingsnorth, 2017). ...
In a family business, which is managed by kinship relations, the private
and business lives of family members are combined and not considered
separately. Accordingly, the family business is carefully investigated by
researchers as it has different administrative dynamics and an important
share in social and economic life. Especially large family businesses have
complex family structures that cause them to remain small. Nowadays,
technological advancements are increasing and spreading, and the most
effective way to grow and reach new customers is the usage of social media.
In this context, the family business must use social media platforms which
enable users to share experiences, information and thoughts in an online
environment such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc., to gain
awareness and reach new markets. Due to the effects of developments in
internet technologies, customers spend more time on social media platforms
and buy online. Therefore, the usage and management of social media in
family business are examined in this study.
... Articles such as Ahmad et al. (2021), Kim and Johnson (2016), and Jussila et al. (2014) identified new concepts and developed theory through non-experimental methods. Demek et al. (2018) described how the organization uses risk management processes to deal with social media risks. ...
Considering the organizations' increasing use of social media, many studies are being conducted in this area. Researchers are faced with a variety of research strategies depending on the nature of the research problem and data. If the right research strategy is not employed, the researcher will lose focus, and the time and effort spent will not necessarily serve the research objectives. When choosing a research strategy, the organization's characteristics should be taken into consideration; otherwise, it may lead to confounding interpretations of the findings. In this regard, the present study aims to introduce an appropriate research strategy for each maturity stage of the organization under study. To this end, using systematic mapping methodology, about 256 articles published within 2011-2021 were investigated, and the relationship between the types of research strategy used and the different stages of an organization's maturity in using social media was reported. Specifically, by synthesizing the social sciences research methodology framework and the social media stage of the growth model, a mapping was developed between the research strategies and maturity stages. Based on this mapping, it is expected that the appropriate strategy for research at the first maturity stage is exploratory, and for the second and third stages are observational and descriptive, respectively. When the organization moves to the fourth and fifth levels, archival and causal strategies are recommended for research. Using the results of this research, researchers will be able to identify the right research strategy for the maturity stage of the organization under study and develop the appropriate research design accordingly.
... Low social media "knowhow" creates a negative attitude among marketers toward the usefulness of social media platforms and hinders their adoption (Michaelidou, Siamagka, & Christodoulides, 2011). An additional concern is the likelihood of confidential or sensitive information leakage, which discourages B2B marketers from adopting social media (Jussila, Kärkkäinen, & Aramo-Immonen, 2014). Another interesting aspect for B2B SMEs is associated with the customer's social media adoption. ...
In business-to-business (B2B) settings, social media provide a novel context for investigating customer engagement. While B2B firms are increasingly investing in social media, there is limited understanding about the type of content to be published and how customers may react to their posts. The authors address these research gaps by developing a conceptual framework that relates posts’ brand personality dimensions (sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness) to customer engagement. Using data from a small-sized Chilean-Swiss consultancy firm accounting for 114 weeks of LinkedIn activity, the authors specify a VAR model with exogenous variables (VARX). Focusing on the cumulative elasticities, the study uncovers the engagement mechanisms of customers. The results show that an increase in impressions (exposure) leads to an increase in likes, clicks, and shares (perceptions), an increase in clicks leads to an increase in new followers (actions), and an increase in new followers leads to an increase in impressions. Furthermore, the results indicate that an increase in posts’ excitement leads to an increase in impressions and likes, an increase in posts’ competence leads to an increase in clicks, and an increase in posts’ ruggedness leads to an increase in new followers.
... Their social media significantly affect customers' behaviors and attitudes [45]. Firms use social media to gain support from their customers and business-to-business relationships [46]. Chinese firms progressively rely on social media to sustain their social linkages and perform their social actions rather than traditional methods [47]. ...
The increasing use of social media and its ability to aid small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to target large audiences at once has triggered to transformation in how SMEs perform their routine operations. Researches on social media usage and SME performance are comparatively novel and patchy; yet, researchers, managers, and policymakers have limited interest in investigating the construct specifically in developing countries. This study explores the relationships between social media usage and innovation capabilities to improve sustainable SME performance. This study grounded the theoretical model building on a resource-based view. An online questionnaire was administered to gather data and was further analyzed quantitatively. The proposed interlinks were assessed using a sample of 549 employees of SMEs using SmartPLS techniques. The results show that social media usage has a positive and significant direct influence on innovation capabilities and sustainable SMEs performance, and innovation capabilities also have a positive and significant direct impact on sustainable SME performance. In addition, findings reveal that social media usage can enhance sustainable SME performance when mediated by innovation capabilities and moderated by digital leadership. This study offers several theoretical and practical implications.
... Given the potential advantages and rising prominence, notably for marketing reasons, SME Corporation Malaysia (2018) observed poor adoption of social media by Malaysian SMEs at only 19.7%. Globally, social media adoption was reported by a tiny percentage (less than 30%) of SMEs at the start of this decade (Jussila et al., 2014). Additionally, studies on the factors impacting the adoption of social media among SMEs is still in the infancy phases (Ahmad et al., 2019;Ainin et al 2015a;Chatterjee & Kar, 2020;Qalati et al., 2021;Razak & Latip, 2016;Salo, 2017) particularly from the perspective of a developing country like Malaysia. ...
In light of the growing role of social media marketing in the success of businesses and its low adoption rate among small and medium enterprises (SMEs), this study aims to identify determinants of SMEs’ social media marketing adoption by considering the competitive industry as a moderator. Data were collected from 214 SMEs in Malaysia. Unlike extant literature, this study proposed a dual-stage analysis involving partial least squares (PLS) technique and artificial intelligence named deep artificial neural network (ANN). The application of deep ANN architecture is used to predict 91% of accuracy for the proposed model. The results showed that perceived relative advantage, perceived cost, top management support, perceived competitor pressure, and perceived vendor pressure have a significant impact on social media marketing adoption. Furthermore, the competitive industry moderates the effects of competitive pressure and customer pressure on social media marketing adoption. The results of the study extend the literature on social media marketing by illustrating the influence of technological, organizational, and environmental (TOE) factors on social media marketing adoption among SMEs concerning the extent of industry competition. The results of the study enable policymakers and managers of SMEs to understand the factors that influence social media marketing adoption in both competitive and non-competitive industries and invest effectively in digital marketing.
Establishing relationship with customers and creating value for customers are the roles of social media which have been recognized by all businesses recently. Nowadays social media has been seen as an opportunity for SME’s which can’t develop because of the lack of capital, human resources, marketing knowledge and technology etc. This study explores SMEs’ perspective on social media promotion effect with using correspondence analysis. The survey was carried out on 400 SMEs which operate in Sinop. The findings showed that SMEs have not fully utilized the importance of the social media as a marketing tool yet. Also, according to their descriptive characteristics, they have different perspectives on social media promotion effect.
The use of social networking sites (SNS) within professional contexts is increasingly prevalent, yet studies examining their impact within the real estate sector remain limited. In this study, using LinkedIn followers as an indicator of professional networks, we investigate the effect of professional networking on performance within the commercial real estate market. By leveraging an agent's LinkedIn followers, we introduce a novel measure of professional network into the real estate literature. Findings suggest that listing agents with a larger number of SNS followers tend to engage in more property transactions, achieve higher sales prices, and experience shorter sale times than agents with fewer SNS connections. Similarly, agents considered “active” on the SNS also perform better than agents that have an account but are not “active.” These findings persist after accounting for various agent, property, and location characteristics, suggesting that SNS can be a helpful tool for real estate agents in utilizing and expanding their professional network.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of social media on the performance of Seven Up Nigeria Bottling Company Enugu. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the extent to which facebook positively affects customer patronage of Seven Up Nigeria Bottling Company; examine the extent to which facebook positively affects corporate reputation of Seven Up Nigeria Bottling Company Enugu. The survey research design was adopted. A population of 63 staff respondents was used for the study. Questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. Both descriptive and inferential statistical tools were employed in the study. The descriptive statistical tools used for data analysis were frequencies, and percentage, while the inferential statistic used was simple linear regression to test the hypotheses formulated for the study. Findings of the study reveal that the key independent variable of social media tools exerts a significant positive effect on the performance of Seven Up Nigeria Bottling Company. The study concludes that social media tools should be embraced by the manufacturing organisations. The study recommended that manufacturing firms should endeavour to make online transactions convenient and ensure they have a wide range of products. Also they need to communicate appropriately with their publics to enable them have good opinion.
Purpose
Drawing on the social presence theory, this study aims to explore how supplier–customer social media interactions influence supplier observers’ trust in the customers and what mechanisms contribute to variation in trust experience.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 36 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Chinese suppliers using WeChat for business-to-business interactions. Data were analyzed in three steps: open coding, axial coding and selective coding.
Findings
Findings reveal that varied trust is based not only on the categories of social presence of interaction – whether social presence is embedded in informative interactions – but also on the perceived selectivity in social presence. Observer suppliers who experience selectivity during social and affective interactions create a perception of hidden information and an unhealthy relationship atmosphere, and report a sense of emotional vulnerability, thus eroding cognitive and affective trust.
Originality/value
The findings contribute new understandings to social presence theory by exploring the social presence of interactions in a supplier–supplier–customer triad and offer valuable insights into business-to-business social media literature by adopting a suppliers’ viewpoint to unpack the mechanisms of how social presence of interaction positively and negatively influences suppliers’ trust and behavioral responses.
Purpose
This study assesses the impact of innovation diffusion theory (IDT), technology readiness index (TRI) and technology acceptance model (TAM) on the actual use of smart learning. This impact also accounts for the country-digital culture by moderating the effects of resistance to change (RTC) and mediating the role of attitude.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors gather data from 301 respondents from various academic institutions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by operationalizing established theoretical constructs. The authors adopt a covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) approach.
Findings
The results reveal that IDT and TRI significantly and positively affect attitudes toward implementing smart learning. Besides, the attitude fully mediates the relationship between IDT, TRI constructs and behavioral intention (BI). Moreover, this study proves that RTC plays a major role in converging BI to place smart learning into actual use.
Research limitations/implications
The major limitation of the authors' work is that this work employs cross-sectional data from UAE only, and the data were gathered during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Practical implications
The stakeholders and administrators in government can benefit from the study findings to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the implementation of smart learning, which will contribute to achieving stakeholders and administrators' strategic objectives.
Originality/value
The originality of this work stems from the incorporation of IDT, TRI and TAM constructs in the case of smart learning in UAE in post-COVID-19 scenarios.
Purpose: This study intends to analyze the effect of competitor pressure and customer pressure on social media technology use and the
value of the business network and their implications for marketing performance. Research design, and methodology: A constructed
questionnaire was conducted with 90 respondents of MSME’s Business Actors in South Sulawesi Partial Least Square (PLS) analysis
was applied to analyze and verify all the data. Results: Competitor pressure has a significant effect on social media technology,
Competitor pressure has a positive and significant impact on business network accentuation. Customer pressure has a positive and
significant impact on social media technology. Customer pressure has a positive and significant impact on business network accentuation.
Social media technology utilization has a significant impact on Business Network Accentuation. Social media technology utilization has
a significant effect on Marketing Performance. Business Network has a significant effect on Marketing Performance. Conclusions: It is
an important thing for MSMEs to increase the use of social media technology to meet the demands of consumers and pressure from
competitors. The use of social media technology must be implemented effectively and efficiently so that it can be utilized as an effective
tool for distributing the value that own by a company to improve the company's marketing performance.
Keywords: Competitor pressure, Customer pressure, Social Media, Technology
The success of digital marketing among business-to-customer companies is undisputed, and many of the leading companies in many industries such as fashion and retail have not only embraced digital marketing, but are using it as a competitive advantage. In contrast, digital marketing in the business-to-business sector seems to still be in its infancy, even after several years. The characteristics of digital marketing in B2B industries have been researched for several years but still lack comprehensive guidelines for a successful implementation. Therefore, in this chapter, the authors present design guidelines for the successful implementation of digital marketing in the semiconductor industry. To this end, they describe a framework in the context of the B2B industry in terms of nine internal and external factors. Based on these nine factors which are translated to the automotive semiconductor industry, the authors derive digital marketing implementation barriers and a set of insights from which they formulate the six design guidelines based on exploration and exploitation capabilities.KeywordsDigital customer engagementDigital marketing barriersAmbidexterityExplorationExploitationAutomotive industryB2B digital marketing
Social media is constantly changing the business landscape across all economic sectors. Given this, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are leveraging this to give their businesses a new trend. In emerging economies, however, the rate of adoption and integration of social media among small and medium enterprises appears to have lagged due to a multitude of factors. Drawing on the technology organization and environment (TOE) framework, the purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting social media application adoption and their impact on SMEs’ sustainability in Ghana’s context. Data was collected from 430 managers of SMEs in Ghana using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using a PLS-SEM. Findings revealed that cost-effectiveness, customer pressure, employees’ competence, financial resource availability, and leaders’ support positively influence social media adoption, while social media adoption also impacts SME firms’ sustainability. A negative effect was, however, observed for factors like industry pressure, perceived complexity, relative advantage, and perceived compatibility. This study contributes to the rising deployment of social media by businesses to improve their competitiveness. The implications of the research are also discussed.
This paper investigates how entrepreneurs’ social media use affects the entrepreneurial reinvestment of the ventures. Drawing on the information-based view of entrepreneurship, we propose that social media use has an inverted U-shaped relationship with entrepreneurial investment due to the competing forces of information gathering and information processing associated with social media use. This relationship will be more prominent in ventures that are newly founded or in high-tech industries. Our empirical findings based on a large sample of Chinese private firms confirm the core assertions. This study provides important insights into the complex consequences of social media use for entrepreneurship activities.
Employee turnover is an issue of concern and thus remains a global phenomenon especially in a developing context. Considering the negative cost implications of employee turnover in organizational settings, the present study examines the effect of perceived organizational support and job satisfaction on turnover intention of banking staff in Nigeria and whether organizational commitment could play a mediating role in the relationships. A survey was carried out on 366 banking staff in Lagos-Nigeria with a view to obtaining data through questionnaire using simple random sampling technique. Data obtained was analysed through SPSS and Partial Least Squares (PLS-SEM). Findings of the study demonstrates that perceived organization support has negative significant effect on banking staff turnover intention whereas job satisfaction shows an insignificant negative effect on banking staff turnover intention. Results of the study also reveal that organizational commitment plays a mediating role in perceived organization support, job satisfaction and banking staff turnover intention relationships. Thus, organizational commitment is an important underlying mechanism that requires consideration while explicating the relationship between perceived organization support and turnover intention, even more important in job satisfaction and turnover intention relationship. The concluding parts include implications of the study, limitations of the study and suggestions for future studies.
With the advancement of technology and digital transformation almost everything is online. Social media business has become a trend in the modern-day industry. Business owners do not have faith in business digitization as they think it is expensive and time-consuming which cannot be substituted by approaches of conventional marketing. With the passage of time, internet marketing, digital transformation, social medial, and so on are becoming popular. Digital transformation has become meaningful but people do not know the importance of social media. The use of social media in the digital era and modern-day industry has become a concrete way of motivating the exchange of information within the social sphere. Social media has different aspects like people for expressing themselves, having fun, communicating, and many others. Social media are becoming popular with individuals and people are sometimes using them to benefit their own businesses. Social media is becoming a wide-range marketing platform for identifying consumers with improved aspects of business leading the band promotion benefits with the audience. Decisions at an early stage about the role of online media in business become one of the burning issues of modern industry which can benefit the business of the organization. The proposed study has presented the research in two-phase, the first one is to show the existing literature with different analyses, and in the second phase, the role of online media in business is evaluated through the Analytic Network Process. The results of the process showed better performance and applicability of the proposed approach.
As useful tools in delivering information services, social media could create a wide range of opportunities and reduce communication costs significantly. The present study set out to initially identify the potential roles of social media in information services using a systematic review procedure. Using the meta-synthesis method, the identified roles were organized in a conceptual model and then prioritized through Shannon’s entropy technique. The results showed that the operational, financial, strategic, user-related, and informing roles ranked first to fifth, respectively. In the last step, the results of a survey of 30 experts active in online information services were analyzed using the weighted average method to be compared with the findings of the systematic review. The order of prioritization of the roles and indicators from the experts’ point of view showed financial, user-related, strategic, operational, and informing roles, respectively. The prioritization of roles in Shannon’s entropy method was similar to the results from the perspective of experts in terms of strategic and informing roles. However, experts have come to understand more about financial and user-related roles for social media. The only factor that had the greatest difference in ranks between Shannon’s entropy method and experts’ opinions survey was the operational role, which ranked first in Shannon’s entropy method and fourth in expert scrutiny. The present study is one of the first attempts to identify the possible roles of social media in information services that can be considered a pioneering research by related researchers.
Meningkatnya pengguna media sosial di era digital sekarang ini telah menjadi sebuah pembahasan yang penting karena dilihat dari sisi kebermanfaatannya, sosial media membantu masyarakat berkomunikasi dan berbagi informasi secara online tanpa terbatas oleh jarak dan waktu. Sehingga masyarakat semakin bertransformasi, menciptakan hal-hal baru dan menemukan cara-cara yang baru dalam berbagi informasi. Sehingga hal ini juga mempengaruhi perilaku masyarakat yang mendapatkan kemudahan dalam berbagi informasi serta berkomunikasi melalui media sosial. Dan hal ini tentu saja berdampak pada meningkatnya aktivitas online. Salah satunya adalah aktivitas jual beli atau bisnis. Tidak jarang sosial media saat ini digunakan sebagai salah satu bagian yang penting dalam proses jual beli. Dalam konteks usaha mikro, kecil dan menengah di Indonesia, sosial media menjadi salah satu poin penting yang dipertimbangkan sebagai bagian dari strategi perusahaan dalam memasarkan produknya. Dengan harapan bahwa dengan semakin banyak orang yang melihat produk tersebut di sosial media, perusahaan dapat menjual produk lebih banyak. Dengan asumsi tersebut, peneliti ingin mengungkap peran media sosial di Indonesia dalam melakukan kegiatan bisnis dengan melihat apakah sebuah poin viralitas atau traffic dalam konteks media sosial yang digunakan oleh manajemen usaha mikro, kecil dan menengah dapat mempengaruhi tingkat penjualan mereka. Dengan melakukan studi literatur terhadap penelitian-penelitian yang meneliti bagaimana sosial media mempengaruhi proses bisnis, penjualan, dan keuntungan perusahaan tersebut. Secara umum, literatur yang dikaji memberikan bukti bahwa adanya peran penting sosial media sebagai alat untuk meningkatkan performa bisnis khususnya UMKM sebagai bagian dari ekosistem bisnis Indonesia. Secara umum, sosial media memberikan ruang untuk setiap konsumen membicarakan dan mendiskusikan tentang produk yang dijual oleh suatu perusahaan dengan menggunakan sosial media dan pendekatan e-WOM serta secara langsung akan meningkatkan spread dari informasi serta ketertarikan orang-orang baru yang secara umum mengubah dia dari konsumen informasi, menjadi fans, dan pada akhirnya menjadi pembeli yang melakukan transaksi. Sehingga pemilik bisnis dapat memanfaatkan sosial media dalam membuat, memaintain, serta mendorong fokus topik pembahasan produk yang ingin dijual kepada konsumen.
Despite various advances in international business and entrepreneurship literatures and increasing interest in speed of internationalization mainly among international entrepreneurship scholars, the relationship between the use of social media and the internationalization speed of the firm remains poorly investigated. This article presents the reflective construct “speed of use of social media” and proves its positive effect on the third order formative construct “speed of internationalization.” Furthermore, using multi-group analysis, the article demonstrates that this effect is moderated by the industry where the company performs (business-to-customer vs. business-to-business) and its export intensity, but not by the size of the firm. The results obtained open an interesting area for further research in the role of Web 2.0 and social networking in future knowledge management systems of international new ventures companies.
Purpose
In the current business context, deliberations concerning business-to-business relationships (business relationships) and their importance to business firms are increasing. The extensive research in this area over the past three decades had created a need to synthetize existing research. This paper explores the development of business relationships domain concerning (1) publication trend, (2) influential publications, (3) prolific contributors, (4) themes of research, and (5) future research directions.
Methodology/Approach
This study used the Web of Science core collection to identify influential articles, authors, journals, geographies, universities, and key research themes associated with business relationships. We developed a graphical analysis of the bibliographical material using VOSviewer. Network structures, including keywords co-occurrence and coauthorship analysis, further strengthened our understanding of this domain.
Findings
The findings showed a consistent increase in research on business relationships since its inception. The content analysis of the keywords revealed four dominant research themes: the role of information and technology in maintaining business relationships, value creation in business relationships, customer satisfaction and loyalty in business relationships, and inter-organizational trust and governance in business relationships.
Research Implications
This study provides a comprehensive view into research themes in business relationship area. The present study also helps researchers in identifying future directions of research in the business relationships area.
Practical Implications
The four key dominant themes identified in the study present key managerial insights. According to the research themes, business firms should embrace digital technological tools, collaborate with customers and other stakeholders, develop loyal customers, and implement relational governance mechanisms to develop long-term business relationships.
Originality/Value/Contribution of the paper
This study provides insight into the advancement of business relationships area by exploring the relevant body of knowledge, dominant research institutions, prominent topics, and future research possibilities. This includes articles published in top management journals from 1990–2020. This bibliometric study is a pioneering effort to map the domain of business-to-business relationships, wherein current insights and future research directions take center stage.
Social media and its impact on business-to-business marketing have received significant attention from practitioners and researchers. Social media has also impacted the selling process, and our research examines the extant literature to derive a deeper understanding of the area and identify directions for future research. This study reviews 115 articles on social media in business-to-business markets to understand sales and social media research within the social media domain. Using a multimethod approach, this paper classifies social media research in business-to-business marketing into four subject clusters: adoption of social media; use of social media in business-to-business marketing; social media and the selling process; and social media and marketing strategy. This study then reviews 29 articles in sales and social media research and finds that the research can be classified into usage, performance, and framework. Due to the limited research on business-to-business sales and social media, we also report on a survey that examined directions for future research. We hope that this article serves as an impetus for future research in this area.
This study examined social network trends in improving educational leadership quality and higher learning outcomes through systematic data analysis. Forward or backwards, the quality of human resources and scholarly output in the academic environment is closely related to social networking, which is increasingly becoming a phenomenon today. The researcher has carried out a series of data collection through electronic searches in several international publications in various scientific communication contexts to understand this. Furthermore, the analysis process includes understanding the study questions, coding, analysis, and in-depth interpretation to obtain valid and reliable study findings that answer this study's questions. Our e-search, especially on the Google Scholar data source, ERIC publications, and other online data sources from the 2010 to 2021 publications, was prioritized. Based on the discussion of results and observations of current social networking trends, it can be concluded that social networking brings benefits such as building social relationships, communication, keeping up with renewal, more personal relationships, more genuine connections, advertising, and other networking among educational leaders worldwide.
WhatsApp é um dos aplicativos mais populares no mundo e possibilita a criação de grupos para diferentes propósitos. Assim, investigar as motivações intrínsecas do indivíduo para o uso dessa mídia social pode colaborar no entendimento do comportamento online. Nesse sentido, este artigo tem por objetivo verificar a influência da participação em grupos na aceitação e na intenção de usar o WhatsApp. Para tanto, foi realizada uma survey com discentes de uma instituição de ensino superior. Foram utilizados dois modelos teóricos: o da teoria unificada de aceitação e uso da tecnologia II – UTAUT II (Venkatesh, Thong, & Xu, 2012) e o nível de participação em grupos (Bronstein et al., 2016). Os resultados demonstraram que a participação em grupos influencia positivamente a expectativa de desempenho, a influência social, a motivação hedônica e o hábito. A intenção de uso do WhatsApp é impactada, de forma positiva, pela expectativa de desempenho, expectativa de esforço, motivação hedônica e hábito.
Purpose of this study is to provide a framework which helps to understand how a business-to-business company can use the social media to ‘strategize’ by making other business actors share meanings about the position this company wants to occupy. We use LDA topic modelling on a large sample of tweets (N = 1,059,731) by 16 business-to-business companies. We first analyse the official tweets sent by the official account of a company and compare them to the non-official tweets shared by other Twitter users and mentioning that company. We analyse gaps between the vocabulary and subjects identified in the corpus of official and non-official tweets and discuss the strategizing action of a company through social media. Findings shows the importance for business-to-business companies to consider the halo effect generated by social media as part of their omnichannel strategy and carefully monitor the amplification, confirmation or mitigation effect generated by actor networks shared meanings so to continuously align their intended strategic position.
Social media is becoming more and more attractive to Web users. However, the majority of social media services do not have a clear business model. Typically an innovative idea gives birth to a service, which people can use free of charge. The most common way to create revenue is via advertisements: Google ads appear in many services. In the long run, however, social media has to adopt alternative means for making money. At the moment there are a few alternative business models, of which four larger themes are reported: Crowd-sourcing, revenue sharing between services and users, developing and selling underlying technologies, and adopting social media tools and approaches for professional use. Some examples of these approaches already exist. The report also identifies and defines some core concepts of social media, as well as investigates various phenomena co-occurring with social media, namely user activeness, identity, copyrights, mobility, trust, and side-effects. These phenomena should be kept in mind when designing and launching social media products and services.
Market Research is often accused of failing to provide the insights sought by our clients, and in an increasingly complex society we are challenged to embrace a different model of thinking with different principles at its centre. We believe that a Web 2.0 research platform and a social network approach offers marketing research new tools to meet the challenges of the future. The paper identifies a number of trends that may well provide fertile ground for marketing researchers to develop new approaches. The open source movement will not only affect the way that we think but the very methodologies that we use. The emergence of Web 2.0 offers us an array of collaborative tools with which to develop new research approaches to explore the rapidly changing social and media environment. At the same, the rapid growth of online social networks has fuelled the already rich research literature on the importance of studying humankind in 'tribes' or 'groups'. We argue that the combination of social computing tools and an understanding of social networks will allow us to build new types of research communities, in which respondents interact not only with the researchers but with the clients and most fertilely with each other. Moreover as we examine these types of networks we will become increasingly better able to handle multiple sources of data, and be as comfortable with these new forms of user generated content as we are with the traditional data collection tools of the last fifty years. We believe that these social software tools and trends provide the blueprint for researchers to build new types of 'participatory panels' or 'research communities' and we describe our experiences in developing such a community.
The purpose of this report is to round up current literature and other published sources on harnessing web 2.0 for business-to-business marketing and add an empirical perspective on the subject from Finland. Web 2.0 means technologies that enable users to easily communicate, and organize, create and share content. By web 2.0 tools, we mean blogs and podcasts, social networks, communities, content aggregators and virtual worlds. Based on the literature review we present pros and cons of every tool for marketing purposes. Among the examined Finnish industrial firms the utilization of web 2.0 is still low, but blogs, wikis and video sharing raised some interest. Overall, web 2.0 provides firms with benefits still largely unexplored, and we believe that the importance of internet marketing will continue to grow. (working paper can be found at: http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/isbn978-951-42-9120-3)
The Internet and its increasing usage has changed informal learning in depth. This change has affected young and older adults in both the workplace and in higher education. But, in spite of this, formal and non-formal course-based approaches have not taken full advantage of these new informal learning scenarios and technologies. The Web 2.0 is a new way for people to communicate across the Internet. Communication is a means of transformation and knowledge exchange. These are the facts that cannot be obviated by the organisations in their training programmes and knowledge management. This special issue is devoted to investigating how informal learning changes or influences online information in Social Web and training strategies in institutions. In order to do so, five papers will present different approaches of informal learning in the workplace regarding Web 2.0 capabilities.
This article presents a model of how social influence processes affect individuals' attitudes toward communication media and media use behavior. The model integrates two areas of research. One body of work posits that media use patterns are the outcome of objectively rational choices. These choices involve evaluating communication options and selecting an appropriate medium to match the communication requirements of the task. The second perspective is social information processing theory (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978). This approach proposes that attitudes and behaviors are partially determined by information embedded in the social context. The synthesis of these perspectives asserts that media characteristics and attitudes are in part socially constructed. Furthermore, attitudes are influenced by attributions based on observations of one's own past behavior. This model is shown to explain a wider range of existing empirical findings. Also, new propositions are derived to guide future research. This social construction model of media use has significant implications for the design, conduct, and reporting of future research in organizations.
This paper argues that social media metrics should be captured as customer investments in marketers’ social media efforts and that applications considered in concert with performance objectives drive the choice of metrics. Motivating this approach are the “four c’s” that drive consumer use of social media. These include the connections consumers make with each other, the user-generated content they create, their consumption of other users’ content and their control of their own online experiences. Social media metrics that are linked to three broad social media performance objectives are identified for eight general categories of social media applications and the paths managers have for improving social media effectiveness that rely on using these metrics are discussed.
The concept of Social Media is top of the agenda for many business executives today. Decision makers, as well as consultants, try to identify ways in which firms can make profitable use of applications such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Second Life, and Twitter. Yet despite this interest, there seems to be very limited understanding of what the term “Social Media” exactly means; this article intends to provide some clarification. We begin by describing the concept of Social Media, and discuss how it differs from related concepts such as Web 2.0 and User Generated Content. Based on this definition, we then provide a classification of Social Media which groups applications currently subsumed under the generalized term into more specific categories by characteristic: collaborative projects, blogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds. Finally, we present 10 pieces of advice for companies which decide to utilize Social Media.
The increasing importance of the Internet in most domains has brought about a paradigm change in consumer relations. The influence of Social Networks has entered the Customer Relationship Management domain under the coined term CRM 2.0. In this context, the need to understand and classify the interactions of customers by means of new platforms has emerged as a challenge for both researchers and professionals worldwide. This is the perfect scenario for the use of SEMO, a platform for Customer Social Networks Analysis based on Semantics and emotion mining. The platform benefits from both semantic annotation and classification and text analysis, relying on techniques from the Natural Language Processing domain. The results of the evaluation of the experimental implementation of SEMO reveal a promising and viable platform from a technical perspective.
Purpose
To explore the factors that affect the implementation of Internet technologies and to what extent the size of the company, as an organizational factor, influences that process.
Design/methodology/approach
According to the innovation adoption theory, it was found that Internet adoption in firms is a process with different stages where a company is in one of a number of development stages depending on some variables related to organizational factors, such as the availability of technology resources, organizational structure, and managerial capabilities. The paper identified empirically different stages in the Internet adoption process and linked them with those factors. It analyzed questionnaire‐based data from 280 companies, applying factor and clustering analysis.
Findings
Four main groups of companies were found according to their stage in the adoption of Internet technologies. The paper established that, contrary to the literature suggestions, the size of the company does not have any effect on the availability of these Internet technologies but it does for managerial capabilities. The smaller the size of the firm, the greater the possibilities of using external advice in adopting Internet technologies, because small firms usually have fewer managerial capabilities. In the mean time, a more sophisticated technology development was identified in larger firms.
Research limitations/implications
As in all empirical research, the characteristics of this study limit the applicability of the findings. First, the study concentrated in businesses that already were using Internet technologies, because they have registered their domain name. Consequently, the study firms that did not have a Spanish domain name were omitted; however, firms could have a “.com” or “.org” domain name and still be Spanish firms. Also, other companies without any domain name on the Internet were not included in the study. Second, the study applied a classification analysis with exploratory purposes about the characteristics of the business according to the cluster of pertinence. Nevertheless, a longitudinal study could be more useful explaining whether or not these companies follow the process described. Third, a more detailed questionnaire with more specific questions could be more helpful to gain a better description of the phases of a more sophisticated technology adoption (i.e. the acceptance/routinization and infusion stages).
Practical implications
This paper has some relatively important managerial implications. First, the fact of having a domain name does not mean that the companies are in the acceptance/routinization phase and even less in the infusion phase. From this, the paper identified how the majority of firms were in the so‐called initial stages of the Internet technologies adoption process. Second, it is possible that managers who do not perceive the strategic value of these technologies are managing the majority of these firms. Third, as more businesses implement these technologies in their processes, presumably more competitive pressure will exist to adopt Internet technologies.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the research into the organizational factors that affect Internet adoption.
Explores the application of Web 2.0 technologies to business intranets, and their potential use in managing and developing business information and knowledge assets. Considers how Web 2.0 approaches on the public web are subtly reshaping the relationship between users and information. Argues that Web 2.0 is not a technological innovation, but is changing the understanding of the status of information, knowledge and the role of the user in information applications. Suggests that, as information proliferates, control is being gradually ceded to users, opening up the possibility of a new, more democratic, and more evaluative phase in the exploitation of information within organizations.
During different time era's different methods of communications has developed and changed the day by day life. Social media has become the method of statement in the 21't century, enabling us to express our belief, ideas and manner in a absolute new way. This way of message have also have a huge impact on corporation, where they have realize that without a correct plan and social media strategy they have no chance to stand out in the rapidly changing digital freedom. To guarantee a successful attendance on social media the companies need to take different marketing theories into consideration so that they can boost their brand in different aspect. If this can be collective with original ways of consumer interaction the companies have a good chance to take the lead in social media marketing'. The meteoric growth of community websites, such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedln, have usher the world into a new era of social media. The global reach is nothing short of marvelous, so much so that if Facebook were a country, it would be third largest, next to China and India. Some even say that this is the biggest shift since the industrial revolution, which means that the world has a brand new playing meadow At its center, social media is any kind of online media that stimulates participation, openness' conversation, Connecters and sense of community. The social media phenomenon has a profound impact. Social media has transformed research methods. This allows brands to communicate better with their consumers, and intensify their association with them. The advertising world has not been spared from social media influence. Companies are now more careful with advertising; chiefly in anticipate consumer response and avoiding unanticipated blunders to prevent a viral consumer backlash in networking sites. Social media plays a hybrid role in the promotion mix. It allows companies to talk to their clientele and, at the same time, it allows regulars to talk to one another. Shaping customers' discussions to ensure they are aligned to the organization's goals is the firm's best importance. Companies have started provided that their consumers with networking platforms, and have occupied them during blogs and other social media tools. Social media is seen by Marketers today as a great opportunity to boost market share figures. Marketers are only too happy to view the social web as a new set of channels through which to market their goods or services. Social media marketing is a hot topic for companies. It allows companies to establish a communication channel with its customers, market their products, build brand equity, and boost clientele faithfulness.However, as it is a two-way channel, it requires effort and care to manage this communication. Dissatisfied customers can protest out loud, attainment many other customers easily and damaging the brand's image. In order to avoid the risk of damaging the brand's image rather than improving it, the company should align their social media marketing with the global marketing strategy of the company. In order to do this, the business should choose the profile of people that matches its target segment and communicate with them accordingly.
Software process improvement is a practical concern in software companies today and it has been addressed in research. Part of this research has applied a knowledge management perspective. Researchers point out that two different strategies exist where a mixture is difficult to maintain: Personalization focus on people and their collaboration and codification focus on documents and their accessibility. This paper addresses different knowledge management problems of a software company and how they can be alleviated. A prototype, which distinguishes between different organizational levels e.g., software managers and software developers and applies different knowledge management strategies, was built. It consists of a wiki and an enterprise system. This article shows how each part of the system focuses on one of the strategies and describes the differences for tool support. This combination could be beneficial because the connection between the two different parts of the prototype works. Further implications for practitioners are explained.
This paper discusses open innovation from the viewpoint of customers and users, focusing on their new roles. The paper focuses particularly on the 'user as the innovator' approach that encourages outsourcing at least parts of innovation process to users and user communities. The 'user as the innovator' approach is based on three premises in the existing literature: users are capable and willing to innovate, communities are important entities in innovation activity and users are willing to freely reveal their ideas. The empirical material comes mainly from business-to-consumer contexts. The aim of this paper is to highlight the characteristics of the business-to-business context and discuss the premises in that light. Finally, the paper proposes a future research agenda in order to better understand and capitalise on the 'user as the innovator' approach in business-to-business contexts.
Process oriented Knowledge Management (pKM) has been a widely discussed approach for KM initiatives. The approach ties business strategy closely to KM by connecting knowledge activities to key business processes. Social Software has been taken up in many domains as an organizational tool for managing knowledge. Up till now, the impact of being globally distributed (organizations and teams) has not been emphasized within the pKM view, nor has been the Social Software approach. The globally distributed, Social Software – supported approach has clear impacts for designing and implementing KM processes in the pKM view. Within this paper we clarify these implications with an integrated model for introducing Social Software tools for Knowledge Management and aligning those with KM as well as business processes. Our approach emphasizes on aligning the Social Software activities with KM coordination processes, knowledge-intensive business processes and knowledge activities. Our work also stresses the need to recognize and deal with KM barriers within the coordination processes in order to define and implement appropriate interventions and activities.
""The social media phenomenon is still ramping up, and this book provides useful and timely business advice."-Vint Cerf, Father of the Internet" ""Social media and customer care are rapidly coming together. This Second Edition is a must-read for any professional who wants to stay on top of this rapidly changing topic. From the basics to long-term social media strategy, this is the only resource book to have on your desk."-Scott Ross, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, NCO Group, Inc." ""Lon Safko and The Social Media Bible address the key questions-Why should I take part in social media? How should I take part? How do I reap the greatest benefits?-while also providing the push to take the next step."-Jeff Hagen, Director, Consumer Services, General Mills" ""Lon Safko is a serial technologist who really understands social media and is also blessed with the gift of being a great communicator. His book deftly takes you from 'Social Media 101' all the way to PhD status in a format that is easy to browse, informative, and powerful."-Tom Asher, Director, Consumer Relations, North America, Levi Strauss & Co." "The new edition of the ultimate guide to social media" "The Social Media Bible, Second Edition delivers the most comprehensive single resource available for marketing in the social media universe. Here you'll find top-to-bottom coverage of the tactics, tools, and strategies to successfully grow your business in these new media channels." "Revised and updated with user-generated feedback and content, this Second Edition features the latest techniques, platforms, technologies, people, companies, and more, enabling you to make smart moves in the social media world and get the most out of your marketing strategy. Inside this new edition, you'll discover:" "The 100-plus best companies providing software, sites, apps, gaming platforms, and more" "The five steps for developing a successful social media marketing plan" "How to win in social media whether you're a one-person company or a Fortune 500 company" "Additional online content available for book purchasers" "Interviews with 50 different experts, from Twitter inventor Biz Stone to social media marketer extraordinaire Gary "V" to senior vice presidents at YouTube, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Google, and Flickr" "How to measure social media ROI, including numerous examples from companies of all sizes"--BOOK JACKET.
Previous research has established the benefits of branding for business-to-business (B2B) organizations. Various tools can be used to support B2B brands, including the internet and other interactive technologies. Yet research on how organizations use Social Networking Sites (SNS) to achieve brand objectives remains limited. This study addresses the gap by focusing on B2B SMEs and their social networking practices, particularly, usage, perceived barriers, and the measurement of effectiveness of SNS as a marketing tool. Findings from a mail survey show that over a quarter of B2B SMEs in the UK are currently using SNS to achieve brand objectives, the most popular of which is to attract new customers. On the other hand, the most significant barrier is the lack of perceived relevance for particular sectors. Notably, the overwhelming majority of users do not adopt any metrics to assess SNS effectiveness. Almost half of the sample of SMEs that currently use SNS have indicated their intention to increase their marketing spending on this channel, highlighting the growing importance of SNS in a B2B context.
The use, potential and challenges of social media in innovation have received little attention in the literature, especially from the standpoint of the business-to-business sector. Therefore, this paper focuses on bridging this gap. The purpose of this paper is to study the use and potential of social media in the innovation context, especially from the perspective of business-to-business companies. The paper starts by defining of social media and Web 2.0, and then characterizes social media in business, social media in the business-to-business sector and social media in the business-to-business innovation process. The paper also studies the essential differences between business-to-consumer and business-to-business in the given respects. Finally the authors present and analyze the results of their empirical survey of 110 respondents from Finnish companies. The results suggest that there is a significant gap between the perceived extensive potential of social media and current social media use in innovation in business-to-business companies. They have also identified potentially effective ways to reduce the gap, and clarify the found differences between B2B’s and B2C’s.
Getting an innovation adopted is difficult; a common problem is increasing the rate of its diffusion. Diffusion is the communication of an innovation through certain channels over time among members of a social system. It is a communication whose messages are concerned with new ideas; it is a process where participants create and share information to achieve a mutual understanding. Initial chapters of the book discuss the history of diffusion research, some major criticisms of diffusion research, and the meta-research procedures used in the book. This text is the third edition of this well-respected work. The first edition was published in 1962, and the fifth edition in 2003. The book's theoretical framework relies on the concepts of information and uncertainty. Uncertainty is the degree to which alternatives are perceived with respect to an event and the relative probabilities of these alternatives; uncertainty implies a lack of predictability and motivates an individual to seek information. A technological innovation embodies information, thus reducing uncertainty. Information affects uncertainty in a situation where a choice exists among alternatives; information about a technological innovation can be software information or innovation-evaluation information. An innovation is an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or an other unit of adoption; innovation presents an individual or organization with a new alternative(s) or new means of solving problems. Whether new alternatives are superior is not precisely known by problem solvers. Thus people seek new information. Information about new ideas is exchanged through a process of convergence involving interpersonal networks. Thus, diffusion of innovations is a social process that communicates perceived information about a new idea; it produces an alteration in the structure and function of a social system, producing social consequences. Diffusion has four elements: (1) an innovation that is perceived as new, (2) communication channels, (3) time, and (4) a social system (members jointly solving to accomplish a common goal). Diffusion systems can be centralized or decentralized. The innovation-development process has five steps passing from recognition of a need, through R&D, commercialization, diffusions and adoption, to consequences. Time enters the diffusion process in three ways: (1) innovation-decision process, (2) innovativeness, and (3) rate of the innovation's adoption. The innovation-decision process is an information-seeking and information-processing activity that motivates an individual to reduce uncertainty about the (dis)advantages of the innovation. There are five steps in the process: (1) knowledge for an adoption/rejection/implementation decision; (2) persuasion to form an attitude, (3) decision, (4) implementation, and (5) confirmation (reinforcement or rejection). Innovations can also be re-invented (changed or modified) by the user. The innovation-decision period is the time required to pass through the innovation-decision process. Rates of adoption of an innovation depend on (and can be predicted by) how its characteristics are perceived in terms of relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability. The diffusion effect is the increasing, cumulative pressure from interpersonal networks to adopt (or reject) an innovation. Overadoption is an innovation's adoption when experts suggest its rejection. Diffusion networks convey innovation-evaluation information to decrease uncertainty about an idea's use. The heart of the diffusion process is the modeling and imitation by potential adopters of their network partners who have adopted already. Change agents influence innovation decisions in a direction deemed desirable. Opinion leadership is the degree individuals influence others' attitudes
Sun Microsystems' CEO challenged his Global Employee Communications team to build communities within the company with social networking technology. Wikis, blogs, Facebook fan pages, and six islands on Second Life are just a few of Sun's new social media tools that employees use to learn, boost innovation, connect with executives and each other—and spread the good word about Sun. To achieve this quickly, the communications team collaborated across organizational boundaries, tapped grassroots social media efforts in other parts of the company, focused on a manageable number of short-term projects, and showed a willingness to experiment. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The media discussion on `information superhighway', `Internet' and `national information infrastructure (NII)' has highlighted the potential of information technology in modern society. The changes in information and communication technologies provide both opportunities and threats to small businesses located in rural communities. The objective of this study is to identify the state of use of various communications technologies and the factors that influence the adoption of these technologies in small businesses located in rural communities in the US. A research model is postulated that contains 10 independent variables under three broad categories — innovation, organizational and environmental characteristics. The dependent variable, adoption of information and communication technologies, is measured as the degree of adoption of four modern communication technologies by the organization. Data from 78 organizations were collected using a structured interview process. The results of data analysis using discriminant analysis indicate that relative advantage, top management support, organizational size, external pressure and competitive pressure are important determinants of adoption.
Software process improvement is a practical concern in software companies today and it has been addressed in research. Part of this research has applied a knowledge management perspective. Researchers point out that two different strategies exist where a mixture is difficult to maintain: Personalization focus on people and their collaboration and codification focus on documents and their accessibility. This paper addresses different knowledge management problems of a software company and how they can be alleviated. A prototype, which distinguishes between different organizational levels e.g., software managers and software developers and applies different knowledge management strategies, was built. It consists of a wiki and an enterprise system. This article shows how each part of the system focuses on one of the strategies and describes the differences for tool support. This combination could be beneficial because the connection between the two different parts of the prototype works. Further implications for practitioners are explained.
Recent events indicate that sharing news in social media has become a phenomenon of increasing social, economic and political importance because individuals can now participate in news production and diffusion in large global virtual communities. Yet, knowledge about factors influencing news sharing in social media remains limited. Drawing from the uses and gratifications (U&G) and social cognitive theories (SCT), this study explored the influences of information seeking, socializing, entertainment, status seeking and prior social media sharing experience on news sharing intention. A survey was designed and administered to 203 students in a large local university. Results from structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis revealed that respondents who were driven by gratifications of information seeking, socializing, and status seeking were more likely to share news in social media platforms. Prior experience with social media was also a significant determinant of news sharing intention. Implications and directions for future work are discussed.
This is the era of social networking, collective intelligence, participation, collaborative creation, and borderless distribution. Every day we are bombarded with more publicity about collaborative environments, news feeds, blogs, wikis, podcasting, webcasting, folksonomies, social bookmarking, social citations, collaborative filtering, recommender systems, media sharing, massive multiplayer online games, virtual worlds, and mash-ups. This sort of anarchic environment appeals to the digital natives, but which of these so-called `Web 2.0' technologies are going to have a real business impact? This paper addresses the impact that issues such as quality control, security, privacy and bandwidth may have on the implementation of social networking in hide-bound, large organizations.
Social media use, potential and challenges in innovation have received little attention in literature, especially from the standpoint of the business-to-business sector. Therefore, this paper focuses on bridging this gap with a survey of social media use, potential and challenges, combined with a social media - focused innovation literature review of state-of-the-art. The study also studies the essential differences between business-to-consumer and business-to-business in the above respects. The paper starts by defining of social media and web 2.0, and then characterizes social media in business, social media in business-to-business sector and social media in business-to-business innovation. Finally we present and analyze the results of our empirical survey of 122 Finnish companies. This paper suggests that there is a significant gap between perceived potential of social media and social media use in innovation activity in business-to-business companies, recognizes potentially effective ways to reduce the gap, and clarifies the found differences between B2B's and B2C's.
Incluye bibliografía e índice
Strategic market planning -- Industrial marketing -- Research for marketing decisions -- Global marketing management -- Marketing management -- Strategic marketing for nonprofit organizations -- Principles of marketing -- Services marketing -- Marketing research and knowledge development -- The strategy and tactics of pricing -- Kleppner's advertising procedure -- Marketing channels -- Legal aspects of marketing strategy -- Design and marketing of new products
The safe days of walled gardens are over. People collaborate on web sites, and as a return, the action of individuals produces something new, even unexpected results. The emergence may be profitable business and provide income for firms, but it also impacts on the social relations and the lives of individuals.
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