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Determinants of social media adoption by B2B organizations
Abstract
This study contributes to the current dearth of knowledge on the potential of social media as a marketing tool in industrial settings, by focusing on factors that determine social media adoption by B2B organizations. A conceptual model, which draws on the technology acceptance model and resource-based theory, is developed and tested using quantitative data from B2B organizations in the UK. Findings suggest that perceived usefulness of social media within B2B organizational contexts is determined by image, perceived ease of use and perceived barriers. Additionally, the results show that adoption of social media is significantly affected by organizational innovativeness and perceived usefulness. The moderating role of organizational innovativeness is also tested but no support is found. The findings of the study are further validated via nine qualitative interviews with B2B senior managers, yielding additional interesting and in-depth insights into the drivers of social media adoption by B2B organizations.
... However, in terms of meaningfully supporting strategic practices, this feature tends to act as an impediment to effective use [30]. The perception identified regarding social media convenience and its presumed effects extends previous outcomes from a mixed-method study on social media adoption for industrial SMEs [141], but in turn contradicts results emerging from research focusing on Latin American entrepreneurs [142], who could not reveal usability as a particular feature of social media. In contrast to the study conducted by Beier and Wagner [37], this analysis clearly showed that the perceived effort of time and work necessary to engage in social media negatively influences the propensity toward social media. ...
... In contrast to these previous suggestions, the analysis showed that the effect of customer pressure is not restricted to specific business settings or models. The significance of the impact of competitors' pressure is consistent with the data obtained from an analysis of social media adoption at industrial SMEs conducted by Siamagka [141]. ...
... The results on feeling an obligation extend Griffith's view, as she suggests primarily tracing deliberate initiatives back to tangential or vague attributes of technology. A sense of necessity as an impetus for drawing attention to social media is also reported by Siamagka et al. [141]. The aspect of innovation or novelty plays a subordinated role for pre-attentional foci on social media; this finding is likely to be related to the vast penetration of social media into private and business life [9]. ...
... Social Media (SM), the focus of this paper, is part of this digital transformation of relationships and networks, and a key element for the future of Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing theory (Cortez & Johnston, 2017;Tiwary, Kumar, Sarraf, Kumar & Rana, 2021). SM, largely defined in use as a digital communications platform (Siamagka, Christodoulides, Michaelidou, & Valvi, 2015), has more recently, using an interaction lens (Håkansson & Snehota, 1989), been defined as a digital resource to; develop and improve B2B sales relationships (Bocconcelli, Cioppi & Pagano, 2017), strengthen customer engagement (Cartwright, Davies & Archer-Brown, 2021;Cortez & Dastidar, 2022), and facilitate network coordination and collaboration (Drummond, McGrath & O'Toole, 2018). ...
... As noted, SM has been predominantly defined as a platform or communications tool (Siamagka et al., 2015;Andzulis, Panagopoulos & Rapp, 2013;Lacoste, 2016). This view of SM fits with the resource-based view of the firm (RBV), creating its SM strategy and controlling its value creation potential in isolation of its network as an independent actor (Barney, 1991). ...
... Facility resourceplatform resource which can be used with other digital tools Siamagka et al. (2015) Empirical ...
... Due to its low resource commitment and simplicity of use (Siamagka et al., 2015;Drummond et al., 2018), SM is emerging as a key area in entrepreneurial B2B network research. SM can facilitate relationship development (Sigfusson and Chetty, 2013;Quinton and Wilson, 2016), assist the internationalisation process for entrepreneurial ventures (Fraccastoro et al., 2021) and enhance network coordination and collaboration (Drummond et al., 2018). ...
... This is important as organisational identity can improve the perception of a new ventures' legitimacy (Parry, 2020) facilitating entry into the business network. We add to growing literature streams which address SM in a B2B context (Bocconcelli et al., 2017;Quinton and Wilson, 2016;Siamagka et al., 2015;Swani et al., 2014), responding to specific calls for additional empirical work in an entrepreneurial context (Sigfusson and Chetty, 2013;Drummond et al., 2018Drummond et al., , 2020. The benefits of using SM are clear for the entrepreneurial venture to connect to the network, engage in relationships and share and create resources through co-ordination and collaboration (Drummond et al., 2020). ...
... .] that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content" (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010, p. 61) and the use of the internet to "facilitate conversations" (Lamb, 2015, p. 332) has changed the way firms interact (Drummond et al., 2018). Whilst academic research has largely focussed on the use of SM in business-to-consumer (B2C) contexts (Siamagka et al., 2015), it is increasingly becoming relevant and adopted in a B2B context (Leek et al., 2016;Quinton and Wilson, 2016). As a two-way process, the concept of SM fits comfortably within the IMP perspective given its focus on interaction and aligns with the view of organisational identity formation transcending organisational borders (von Wallpach et al., 2017). ...
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.
... Several social media channels are there to help in performing social media marketing. Siamagka et al. (2015) noted that the selling organizations share the messages, photos, product descriptions, video, and audio files about their products through social media channels. These organizations make their online presence through different social media channels Alaali et al., 2021;Joghee et al., 2021a). ...
... As per the statement made by Wang et al. (2016), social networking sites, blogs, microblogs, and discussion forums are the most effective and popular tools for the external use of SM towards their customers. Siamagka et al. (2015) stated that project communication, communication, and collaboration, and network management are three essential functions of partnerrelated use of SM. SM provides sales support and helps in making communication with partner organizations and customers. ...
... The organizations that use SM as their marketing tool use SM towards setting up their companies as the leaders, increasing brand awareness, and making contacts with their stakeholders. Siamagka et al. (2015) informed that SM also helps the organizations towards optimizing the search engine results and also helps in increasing their website homepage traffic. ...
This research is done to understand the impacts of social media in managing customer relationships for the selling business organizations within the b2b business environment. In today’s world, the use of social media has increased rapidly. The selling business organizations use social media sites as their marketing tool. However, now, it is time for them to understand that social media sites can be used towards improving customer relationship performance. SEM-PLS model is used in this research to understand the effects of social media as the relationship tool. The data collected for the research shows that the use of social media has a direct positive impact on social CRM capabilities, which has a direct positive impact on customer relationship performance. The researcher has discussed the research result elaborately. In the end, proper implications, limitations, and recommendations are discussed by the researcher.
... Several social media channels are there to help in performing social media marketing. Siamagka et al. (2015) noted that the selling organizations share the messages, photos, product descriptions, video, and audio files about their products through social media channels. These organizations make their online presence through different social media channels Alaali et al., 2021;Joghee et al., 2021a). ...
... As per the statement made by Wang et al. (2016), social networking sites, blogs, microblogs, and discussion forums are the most effective and popular tools for the external use of SM towards their customers. Siamagka et al. (2015) stated that project communication, communication, and collaboration, and network management are three essential functions of partnerrelated use of SM. SM provides sales support and helps in making communication with partner organizations and customers. ...
... The organizations that use SM as their marketing tool use SM towards setting up their companies as the leaders, increasing brand awareness, and making contacts with their stakeholders. Siamagka et al. (2015) informed that SM also helps the organizations towards optimizing the search engine results and also helps in increasing their website homepage traffic. ...
This research aims to understand the impacts of social media in managing customer relationships for the seller business organizations within the Business-to-Business (b2b) business environment. This research will help the seller organizations involved in b2b businesses to understand the full advantages of social media they can take towards achieving better customer relationship performance. Accordingly, the seller business organizations can use social media sites to improve social CRM capabilities and retaining more customers. The researcher has followed a descriptive research approach. Quantitative data were collected and used for this research. SEM-PLS model is used in this research. It can be said from the data analysis that social media has strong positive effects on building customer relationships within the b2b business environment though it is also seen that most of the organizations use social media as only their marketing tool, and they do not use it as a relationship tool. The main limitations of this research were the small sample size, limited time, and limited financial support. More time, financial support, and bigger sample size will help to perform comprehensive research in the future.
... El modelo TAM fue propuesto inicialmente por Davis, Bagozzi & Warshaw (1989). Es una teoría de sistemas de información que modela como los usuarios aceptan y utilizan una tecnología, este modelo ha sido empleado comúnmente para explicar el proceso de adopción de nuevas tecnologías dentro de las pymes (Siamagka 2015, Abou-Shouk 2016, Gohary 2012. El modelo sugiere que cuando se les presenta a los usuarios una nueva tecnología, una serie de factores influyen en su decisión sobre cómo y cuándo la usarán. ...
... Asimismo Siamagka (2015), menciona que el modelo TAM ha sido aplicado en múltiples contextos tecnológicos (por ejemplo: correo electrónico, correo de voz, posición de palabras, gráficos, compras en línea, etc.) para predecir el uso doméstico y organizacional de la tecnología, sin embargo, el mismo estudio de Siamagka, donde se investiga la adopción de social media por las organizaciones basándose en esta teoría y sus extensiones (TAM2), reconoce las limitantes de la misma para desarrollar un modelo para la adopción de social media. En general TAM ha sido criticado dado que se concentra sólo en los factores individuales que afectan el uso de la tecnología. ...
... En un estudio de Dorantes y Rivera (2016) donde se analizaron los impactos asociados con el uso de las Pymes se encontró que el uso de redes sociales en particular Facebook tiene diversos impactos positivos en el desempeño de las empresas en áreas como servicio y atención al cliente, mercadotecnia, innovación organizacional y finanzas. Esto coincide con otros estudios donde fueron encontrados aspectos similares entre ellos la mejora de la satisfacción de cliente, aumento de la demanda, aumento de clientes, aumento de ventas, mejorar los canales de distribución y una mayor competitividad (Aboushouk, Mun, & Megicks, 2016;Jantavongso, 2014;Siamagka, Christodoulides, Michaelidou, & Valvi, 2015). ...
... Thus, our first hypothesis is not supported. Our results are similar to the results of a previous study that found a negative relationship between ease of use and usefulness regarding social media adoption (Siamagka et al., 2015). The authors explained their results with the complexity of social media usage: social media seems to be easy to use at the beginning; however, at an advanced level, it is more difficult to use, but it also provides more benefit to the enterprise. ...
... First, we provide empirical evidence that the perceived ease of use and the perceived usefulness are unrelated when the model concerns digital marketing adoption. We extended previous results regarding social media adoption to digital media adoption (Siamagka et al., 2015). The unrelatedness of the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness seems to apply to a wider digital marketing context; however, exploring the underlying mechanisms and the consequence of this phenomenon requires further examination. ...
External knowledge sources such as professional social media accounts represent an understudied domain in the digital media adoption literature of small enterprises. This article extends the Technology Acceptance Model with two additional factors-external knowledge source and trust in digital marketing professionals-to better understand the digital marketing adoption of microenterprises. We collected and analyzed data from 181 microenterprises using online survey and structural equation modeling methodology. Results indicate that participation in events and following professional Facebook groups are positively related to perceived ease of use, while following professional Facebook groups, blogs, and vlogs, and meeting consultants are positively related to perceived usefulness. Besides, trust in marketing professionals has a significant effect on both perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. By applying the technology-in-practice literature to digital marketing adoption, the article highlights that marketing professionals can be a bridge between academia and small business managers by contextualizing and translating formal knowledge to practical easy-to-understand knowledge.
... Because it encourages communication beyond personal conversations for many people (Ahmad et al., 2018;Siamagka et al., 2015). Social media is probably the most common in personal and business cycles. ...
... Social media also offers a cheaper alternative to automated printing, content management, and conversion tracking among users. Social media studies conducted over the past ten years have indicated that consumers benefit from social media (Siamagka et al., 2015). In order to increase user engagement, social media platforms encourage the marketing of ideas through smart devices such as mobile phones and tablets. ...
The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of social media on students' academic performance. The case study is based on the academic performance of students majoring in business administration at a higher education institution in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. A conceptual framework was developed from previous research which includes social media information, social media innovation, social media entertainment, social media knowledge generation, and student performance. Quantitative methods were used to distribute questionnaires to 376 respondents. A multistage sampling technique was conducted by nonprobability sampling, using judgmental sampling to select university students, quota sampling to calculate the sample size, and convenience sampling to distribute the questionnaire online, using several popular social networks. Before collecting data, the Index of Item-Objective Congruence (IOC) was used to validate the constructs. Factor loadings and Cronbach's alpha were tested for reliability, using 50 respondents as a pilot study, single and multiple linear regressions were applied to test hypotheses, and correlation matrices were used to identify variable relationships. The results indicated that social media information, social media innovation, and social media entertainment have a strong effect on social media knowledge creation. In addition, social media knowledge creation has a strong impact on student performance.
... To better comprehend the good and negative consequences of the social media for the enterprise, previous research have explored the key aspects that compose the social media (Felix et al., 2017;Labrecque et al., 2013) [25,46] . The utilization of various social media outlets has been heralded by other prior research as the next source of competitive advantage (Irma et al., 2016;Siamagka, N.T. and Christodoulides, George and Michaelidou & Valvi, 2015) [36,62] . ...
... To better comprehend the good and negative consequences of the social media for the enterprise, previous research have explored the key aspects that compose the social media (Felix et al., 2017;Labrecque et al., 2013) [25,46] . The utilization of various social media outlets has been heralded by other prior research as the next source of competitive advantage (Irma et al., 2016;Siamagka, N.T. and Christodoulides, George and Michaelidou & Valvi, 2015) [36,62] . However, social media marketing is not a novel idea in Ghana. ...
As more and more firms want to connect with different stakeholders through social media, plans to build a presence on these platforms are becoming part of top-level strategy. This research verifies a conceptual framework that extends the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in order to determine the factors that influence acceptance and use of social media marketing tool within SMEs industries in emerging economies. Using a simple random approach, data was obtained from 50 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana, with 314 IT-and management-related employees submitting valid response. In addition, partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was utilized to evaluate and assess the hypotheses given in this research. The findings indicate that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and behavioral intentions to use social media marketing have a positive effect on the actual usage of social media marketing by SMEs, whereas perceived cost has a negative effect on the actual usage of social media marketing. The findings also suggested that transformational leadership moderates the relationship between behavioral intention to use social media marketing and actual usage of social media marketing. Additionally, the research contributes to the existing literature on social media adoption factors and reinforces factors such as perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use to the relatively small number of empirical studies undertaken on social media marketing adoption factors in developing countries. Finally, this paper has significant implications for practitioners and scholars interested in examining the adoption of social media marketing by SMEs.
... While it has been documented that corporations and big businesses actively embrace Twitter for diverse functions such as marketing, promotion, product development, and customer relationship management, there exists a shortage of comprehensive research linking social media utilization to the generation of market value (Kato & Tsoka, 2020). Preceding scholarly inquiries have suggested the proposition that the adoption of social media stimulates the establishment of valuable networks interconnecting businesses, customers, and suppliers (Siamagka et al., 2015). ...
This study investigates the impact of Twitter adoption on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) performance in Buloba, Uganda. Despite the economic significance of the SME sector in Uganda, concerns persist about the high rate of start-up failures. This impedes the attainment of several SDG 17 goals, including 8 and 9. The study explores the link between Twitter usage and SME performance, aiming to fill gaps in the existing literature, particularly within the Ugandan context. The research utilizes a descriptive quantitative survey approach with a sample of 120 SMEs in Buloba. The findings reveal moderate mean scores across various dimensions of Twitter adoption, suggesting a balanced yet not exceptionally high proficiency among SMEs. Positive correlations between SMEs performance and different aspects of Twitter adoption indicate that a well-rounded approach is associated with improved performance. The regression model, while modest, suggests a significant impact. Recommendations include strategies to enhance proficiency in product marketing and customer ordering and a strategic focus on developing Twitter usage skills for impactful customer engagement. Future research is encouraged to delve deeper into the qualitative aspects of Twitter adoption for SME performance.
... And Social media can prove to be an effective source of building trust in such users so that they can confidently start their transactions on e-wallets. It enables people to communicate and move beyond private one-on-one conversations to many-tomany conversations [26]. ...
Understanding the emerging trend and future of e-wallets in the Indian context. To learn and find out up to what extent e- wallets have penetrated into the self- employed groups and to study the impact of this emerging trend.The research process was systematically carried out through online questionnaire which contains 82 respondents of India. The data is of primary nature and was analyzed through SPSS. Descriptive study is done. Variables are taken from present literature and an attempt has been made to find balance among them.
... Davis (1989, p. 320) defined perceived usefulness as "the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance." According to the technology acceptance model, the perceived usefulness of technology affects attitudes and behavioral intentions, ultimately resulting in acceptance and use of the given technology (Siamagka et al., 2015). Perceived usefulness constitutes one of the essential core constructs of TAM and a significant determinant in adopting technological innovations . ...
This study explores FinTech adoption in Jordan during and post-COVID-19 pandemic by integrating and extending the TAM and UTAUT theories to predict behavioral intention to use FinTech. Six predictors were hypothesized to test their impact on behavioral intention: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence, personal innovativeness, financial risks, and privacy risks. while using COVID-19 lockdowns as a moderator. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) on a sample of 296 respondents, the data analysis results indicated that the proposed variables, including the predictors and the moderator, accounted for 38.4% of the variation in behavioral intention to use FinTech. Which clearly shows the important impact of COVID-19 on increasing the adoption of technologies and especially FinTech’s in the Jordanian context. The empirical findings revealed that perceived usefulness and personal innovativeness had the most significant impact on behavioral intention. In contrast, privacy risks had no significant impact on behavioral intention. Besides, this study empirically demonstrated the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns as a moderator. The impact of COVID-19 lockdowns significantly moderated the relationship between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, personal innovativeness, and financial risks with behavioral intention. The result of this study contributes to both theory and practice by adding to the existing literature on FinTech adoption using new determinants that might drive behavioral intention to use FinTech services.
... The said notion refers to a situation where an individual perceives a technology as easy to use, hence, inferentially evaluating it as more useful, which subsequently leads to perceived usefulness (an increased likelihood of using it). Empirical evidence substantiating this relationship has been garnered from extensive research in various domains, such as social media usage (Siamagka et al., 2015), e-portfolios (Abdullah et al., 2016) and the adoption of cloud computing services like Dropbox and Google Drive (Gangwar et al., 2015). The existing empirical studies offer compelling evidence supporting the notion that the perceived ease of use of a technology or system is closely linked to its perceived usefulness. ...
Purpose
This research aims to build on the pre-existing corpus of literature through the integration of the technology acceptance model (TAM) and usage habit to more accurately capture the determinants associated with social media addiction among university students. This study seeks to delineate how usage habit and TAM may be used as predictors for addiction potential, as well as provide greater insight into current trends in social media usage across this population demographic.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional research design was employed to investigate the determinants of social media addiction among university students in Malaysia at the onset of their tertiary education. A self-administered survey, adapted from prior studies, was administered to a sample of 217 respondents. The hypotheses on social media addiction were subsequently tested using a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach.
Findings
Usage habit was found to be a direct and strong predictor of this type of addiction, as well as all TAM variables considered in the research. Additionally, by integrating TAM with usage habit, the study revealed a comprehensive and multi-faceted understanding of social media addiction, providing an important insight into its complexity in the Malaysian context. Although several other factors have been identified as potential contributors to social media reliance and addictive behavior, it appears that usage habit is paramount in driving these addictive tendencies among university students.
Research limitations/implications
This expanded model holds significant implications for the development of interventions and policies that aim to mitigate the adverse effects of social media addiction on students' educational and psychological well-being. The study illustrates the applicability of the TAM in examining addictive behaviors within emerging contexts such as the Malaysian higher education sector, thus contributing to the extant literature on the subject.
Practical implications
The integrated TAM and habit model is an effective predictor of social media addiction among young adults in developing countries like Malaysia. This highlights the importance of actively monitoring and controlling users' interactions with technology and media platforms, while promoting responsible usage habits. Educators can use these findings to create tailored educational programs to educate students on how to use technology responsibly and reduce their risk of becoming addicted to social media.
Originality/value
This study provides a unique perspective on social media addiction among university students. The combination of TAM and usage habit has the potential to shed significant light on how variables such as perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) may be associated with addictive behaviors. Additionally, by considering usage habit as an explanatory factor, this research offers a novel approach to understanding how addictions form over time.
... The two applications also promote horizontal communications instead of centralised communication systems in organisations. Social media in local municipalities is perhaps a result of social media becoming increasingly popular for organisations because it allows communications to go beyond a private one-to-one conversation to become many-to-many (Siamagka, Christodoulides, Michaelidou, and Valvi, 2015). These aforementioned social media platforms included South Africa's five most popular social media platforms. ...
... Staying relevant in the fast-moving market world of today requires a strong plan for social media. Empirical evidence indicates that social media use can help organizations significantly (Siamagka et al., 2015). Marketing in social media can create higher brand attitudes and buy intentions than conventional digital media (Colliander & Dahlen, 2011). ...
Social media marketing is now becoming a mean for a business to understand the customers purchasing behaviour and to gain insight into why customers feel the way the felt about a certain brand. Through social media marketing, it helps the company to develop two-way communication with the consumers through social media marketing, and it gives the business better communication ground with the customers to establish brand loyalty. Generation Y has a solid impact on the life of the organization, as a client, in industry and as staff, but also on the overall community growth. As a customer, Generation Y is conversant with a communications revolution transforming business, education, healthcare, social relations, entertainment, government and any other institution. Therefore, in order to increase the brand loyalty between Generation Y, businesses need to ensure that the social media marketing used by this generation can create better communications grounds for both businesses and this type of generation in the long run by using effective use of time and resources. Hence, it will also allow businesses to create a stronger conversation with Generation Y, fine-tune the advertising message and sustain the position of the product in the online retailers.
... As the adoption of enterprise social media platforms and tools increases, users become increasingly collaborative and involved. Consequently, mobile devices can access ESM resources, such as applications and tools, via the Internet [66]. Employee productivity is influenced by stress, motivation, the character of the work environment, and employee satisfaction [67]. ...
The research study examines the impact of enterprise social media (ESM) on employees’ competence through the mediating role of knowledge sharing and the moderating influence of information relevance. The study was conducted with 272 respondents working in various educational institutions in Multan City, Pakistan, using a structured questionnaire to collect data. The research findings indicate that enterprise social media positively affects employees’ competencies, and knowledge sharing plays a significant role in mediating this effect. The study also suggests that information relevance moderates the relationship between ESM and employees’ competencies, indicating that the association is stronger when information relevance is high. The research is based on the social capital theory, which proposes that trust, shared vision, and network ties can enhance employee competence and knowledge sharing. This theoretical framework emphasizes the importance of building organizational social connections to promote knowledge sharing and employee competence. The study highlights the potential benefits of using ESM in organizations to enhance employees’ competencies through improved knowledge sharing. It also emphasizes the importance of information relevance in determining the effectiveness of ESM in promoting employee competence. The findings of this study have practical implications for organizations seeking to leverage ESM to improve their employees’ skills and knowledge.
... The effective utilisation of message appeals, content, and strategies are helpful in enhancing user engagement (UE) (Fetais et al., 2022). Still, the lack of skills, innovativeness, and vision for the efficacious use of these platforms that exists in B2B firms slows the diffusion of SMP (Siamagka et al., 2015). Such a difference in optimal utilisation of the potential of SMPs has gained our attention and has led to us to advance the academic research on B2B firm's social media communication practices. ...
The enormous presence of users over social media platforms (SMPs) has been harnessed by B2B marketers and researchers across the innovation process. However, limited research has examined the marketing of firms’ industrial innovation practices over SMPs. Through the lens of signaling theory, we identified the presence of organizational, product, process, marketing, and social innovation operations in their SM posts. These posts were further analyzed using multimodal analytical techniques to identify their embedded textual and visual features. The results indicate that using SMPs for announcing industrial innovation practices is essential. It also shows the prevalence of users’ interest in the information relevant to organizational innovation practices of B2B firms. Our study provides a guidebook for social media managers that leads them from “what” to “how” while designing social media posts for effective user engagement.
... It has been considered an effective medium for businesses to engage with many prospective customers to transmit corporate information and build social media value for the firm. The use of social media in business leads to the construction of remarkable networks among firms, customers, and suppliers [25]. ...
Entrepreneurship is essential to Indonesia's economic development. It is evidenced by 99.9 percent of all Indonesian firms are micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Young generations play an essential part in entrepreneurial ventures since they are more likely to start a new business than older generations. Moreover, Gen Y and Gen Z are more adept with digital learning behaviors. This study adds significantly to the existing entrepreneurial literature by examining social media learning on knowledge-based activities. The Rasch model was used in this study. It evaluated social media as a digital platform where newbie entrepreneurs can use resources and capabilities through knowledge-based activities to develop digital learning among them. The study's outcomes demonstrate a significant difference in exploitative behaviors between gen Y and gen Z. On the contrary, there are no significant differences in both generations' explorative and knowledge-sharing behaviors. It means they have the same level of explorative and knowledge-sharing behaviors.
... Connecting a business to a social media platform such as Facebook is as simple as creating a page. SMEs use these media for advertising because it is more affordable and easier to use (Siamagka et al., 2015). The only costs are fees to access the Internet and those for composing an advertisement before posting (Puriwat & Tripopsakul, 2021). ...
This study aims to bridge the gap in inconsistent findings on the use of social media technology to enhance firm performance through business network power and market entry speed. The original premise of this study is the formulation of business network power, derived from the resource advantage theory of competition, through social media as a primary process that impacts a firm’s performance. Data were collected from a sample of 236 owner—managers of small-to-medium craft subsector enterprises in the creative industry in Bali, Indonesia. The results indicate that social media can be a primary trigger for leveraging business network power and strengthening market entry speed and performance. This study has several theoretical and managerial implications.
... Both marketing performance and financial performance were measured relative to key competitors and for the last three financial years. SM use was measured formatively using six indicators modified from Siamagka, Christodoulides, Michaelidou, and Valvi (2015). Table 1 summarizes the constructs and the associated indicators of this study. ...
... At the level of private organizations, TAM is integrated with several variables, for example, image, constraints, and organizational innovation (Bright et al., 2015;Lin & Kim, 2016), rules and standardization (Siamagka et al., 2015), market changes, risks and benefits (Bretschneider & Parker, 2016), knowledge exchange (Veldeman et al., 2017), and government support and technological innovation (Behringer & Sassenberg, 2015). In public organizations, the adoption of social media is influenced by technology, organizational, cultural and administrative factors (Calantone et al., 2006). ...
Social media was born as a derivative of information and communication technology (ICT) development. It is stimulating new habits for people to produce, consumption, and distribution information in online interaction. Although many researchers have studied social media, no one has provided attention to social media and ulama (Islamic scholar). This article aims to describe patterns of ownership, access, perceived usefulness, and ease of use of social media among ulama. Based on qualitative research in Ogan Ilir District, South Sumatera Province, we found that the acceptability of social media among ulama in Ogan Ilir District is positive. Online life has become the new identity of ulama in this area. They use social media for broadcasting da’wah message and selling or buying goods and service. However, no ulama are producing their messages of da'wah. Facebook is the most popular social media among ulama. We also find that feeling safe and comfortable, get the real benefits from social media, network quality, and jihad in cyberspace have positive contributions to social media adoption within ulama. We identify the availability of time, audience response, negative content, addictive situations, and internet cost as the inhibiting factor of social media adoption among ulama. We discussed these findings and suggested practical recommendations and agenda for further research.
... As compared to larger firms, SMEs usually lack the resources to invest in costlier tools such as TV or print advertising. On the one hand, social media usually require lower investments (Siamagka et al., 2015), therefore, they could meet SMEs' budget constraints. On the other hand, this study suggests, more investmentsalso in terms of timeshould be undertaken to develop a specific social media strategy. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) adoption of social media platforms and how they integrated them within their marketing strategies during the COVID-19 outbreaks. Dynamic capabilities – observed as the interplay between sensing, seizing and reconfiguration capabilities – represent the principal theoretical framework used in this research to explain challenges in social media adoption and their effects on these businesses.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts the grounded theory approach to analyze semistructured interviews with 19 key informants from Italian SMEs belonging to diversified industries.
Findings
The findings of this research are summarized in a holistic framework that explores three types of capabilities (i.e. sensing, seizing and reconfiguration capabilities) and the marketing outcomes of social media adoption among SMEs.
Originality/value
This study attempts to unpack the specific dynamic capabilities that allowed SMEs to be successful in social media adoption during COVID-19 outbreaks.
... Several studies hypothesised Relative advantage to have an explicit impact on behavioural intention towards specific IT or IS adoption [39,44] following past literature [48][49][50]. Specifically, extensive examination on RA based on varying IT and IS adoption, including the implementation of social medias [51], mobile services provider (MSP) [52], and big data proved positive and significant in line with Lutfi et al. [53]. As such, the following hypothesis is developed: Hypothesis 1 (H1). ...
The information technology (IT) revolutionization aside with the emergence of COVID-19 have catalyzed cloud-computing services and systems with multiple end-user benefits for online business management, specifically in the accounting discipline. For example, cloud accounting enables the significant reduction of organisational IT investment with flexible access to a large group of scalable resources. The cloud accounting enables small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) to independently engage in fundamental bookkeeping responsibilities rather than hiring external auditors for the same services. As cloud-based accounting adoption remains in the preliminary stage within Jordanian businesses, this study applied the technology, organisation, and environment model to explore cloud accounting among Jordanian SMEs. The study data were gathered from 156 Jordanian SME owners or managers with a structured online survey questionnaire. The recommended study framework encompassed seven determinants that influenced the cloud accounting adoption intention. Resultantly, except Perceived knowledge uncertainty factor, the proposed hypotheses were supported as the aforementioned factors (relative advantages, security concerns, top management support, organizational readiness, competitor’s intensity and suppliers computing support) positively and significantly influenced the cloud accounting of Jordanian SMEs. The study outcomes could facilitate IT field decision-makers and practitioners by investigating an actual cloud accounting case based on the essentiality of its application.
... Thus, social media have the potential to enhance B2B brand equity (Rapp, Beitelspacher, Grewal, & Hughes, 2013). Indeed, Siamagka, Christodoulides, Michaelidou, and Valvi (2015) demonstrated that perceived image enhancement from using social media is the strongest predictor of perceived (social media) usefulness. Further, social media help create content that tells stories, appeals to emotions, and sparks conversations (Jackson, 2018). ...
This study investigates whether LinkedIn content in a business-to-business (B2B) service setting affects how firms generate engagement and sales revenue. Drawing on social media marketing theoretical underpinnings, we explain how a new post typology (sales, technical, and social) and customer engagement (likes, clicks, shares, and comments) are relevant to increase firm performance. We specify a VAR model with exogenous variables (VARX) using 106 weeks of data from a new, steadily growing B2B firm. We focus on the cumulative effects (i.e., short- and long-term effects) of the types of posts, website visits, new followers, and a composite of engagement behaviors over time and compute elasticities with impulse response functions (IRFs). Our findings indicate that followers and website visits positively affect the amount of sales revenue, and sales posts and website visits drive the number of followers. In addition, we find that social posts, new followers, and sales revenue positively influence engagement. These findings demonstrate the utility of LinkedIn at the firm level, preventing top management from perceiving social media as an ornamental accessory, and provide guidance for B2B marketers about what content to post on LinkedIn.
... As social media become powerful marketing and strategic tools, many studies have examined the drivers, influencing factors, and consequences of social media adoption/usage within organizations. For example, Siamagka et al. (2015) found that social media adoption by B2B firms is significantly affected by perceived usefulness, which is determined by image, ease of use, and knowledge barriers. This is consistent with the findings of Rydén et al.'s (2015) There are also a number of concerns associated with the integration of social media with the firm's marketing strategies. ...
The widespread use of social media as a marketing tool during the last decade has been responsible for attracting a significant volume of academic research, which, however, can be described as highly fragmented to yield clear directions and insights. We systematically synthesize and critically evaluate extant knowledge of social media marketing extracted from 418 articles published during the period 2009–2021. In doing so, we use an organizing framework focusing on five key areas of social media marketing research, namely, social media as a promotion and selling outlet, social media as a communication and branding channel, social media as a monitoring and intelligence source, social media as a customer relationship management and value cocreation platform, and social media as a general marketing and strategic tool. Within each of these areas, we provide important theoretical, methodological, and thematic insights, as well as future research directions. We also offer useful managerial implications derived from the articles reviewed.
... Empirical outcomes enable policymaking of e-business executives in the visiting commerce not only by modifying the usefulness along with financial plan portion of owned social media marketing. Siamagka et al. (2015) have proposed that the underwrites present a shortage of knowledge over the prospective of social media as a promotion tool in business surroundings, via concentrating on aspects that regulate social media embracing through B-to-B companies. Furthermore, the outcomes indicate that acceptance of social media is pointedly contrived through organizational creativity along with recognizing the effectiveness and additional authentication through 9 evaluative consultations with B2B older executives. ...
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.
... According to Venkatesh and Bala (2008) TAM 3 is widely applied in the electronic commerce context with the inclusion of perceived risk (PR) on system use and the effects of trust. However, both TAM 2 and TAM 3 received critics from scholars due to the complexity of the research frameworks (Siamagka et al., 2015;. ...
... Due to the relevance of social media platforms in today's world and their practical advantages, such as information flow improvement, relationship building potential and real-time feedback [Luo et al., (2021), p.295], which allows for "a more direct and interactive form of communication" [Siamagka et al., (2015), p.89], the Centralized Procurement Department also carried out live presentations on YouTube in order to better explain the details of the procurement processes and answer questions and doubts of public bodies and private firms. ...
... Considering that social media sites have rapidly grown in popularity, now they are widely considered as a critical strategic component of an organization's competitiveness and survival [2,3]. Relying on social media allows organizations to connect with customers [4,5,6,7,8] because it enhances information sharing [9] and determines critical changes in organizational communication [5,10]. ...
Trust in social media information is gaining in importance and relevance for both companies and individuals as nowadays contemporary society is confronted with a wave of fake news about daily life situations, brands, organizations, etc. As it becomes more difficult to accurately assess social media information and to determine its origin or source, as well as to be able to double-check information spread across different Social Networking Sites (SNS), businesses must understand how individuals' perceived control, concentration, and time distortion enhances the social media usage, thus allowing them to correctly assess online information. Therefore, the scope of the paper is to assess, based on a conceptual model, the antecedents of trust in online information about companies by considering users' perceived control, concentration, and time distortion, while browsing social media networks and sharing fake news about companies in SNS. With the help of an online survey, data was collected from social media users, later being analysed with SmartPLS. The findings suggest that social media usage and sharing of fake news mediate the relationship between users' perceived control, concentration, and time distortion (i.e., flow characteristics) and trust in online information about companies.
... Int J Elec & Comp Eng, Vol. 12, No. 5, October 2022: 5291-5303 5296 BLACKPINK Thailand (450,589 Shares), and War Bang Ton (401,749 Shares). On the whole, the number of Likes added up to a total of 26,491,673, followed by love reactions (11,058,930), wow reactions (105,302), haha reactions (478,307), sad reactions(29,720), and angry reactions (1,859), respectively. ...
span lang="EN-US">The purpose of this study was to gather, analyze, and elaborate big data on Facebook’s essential information, with a specific focus on the information obtained from Korean-popular (K-Pop) fan pages on the social networking site. For this analysis, a total of 3,531,736 comments by Korean-pop fans were gathered from various K-pop Facebook pages. In order to interpret how 11 extremely popular Facebook pages shape Thai fans’ enthusiasm for the South Korean music industry, descriptive statistics and visualization analysis were employed. Finally, data analytics and correlation analysis were used to evaluate the essential understanding of the Facebook pages. The research revealed three key findings: i) K-pop fan pages provide more opportunities for Thai fans to express their support for K-pop artists and advocate for causes, ii) K-pop fan pages provide more opportunities for Thai fans to communicate with K-pop artists, and iii) K-pop fan pages build opportunities for Thai fans to establish a more glamorous online presence despite limitations concerning financial resources, foreign language skills, and opportunities. In the future, the research outcomes may be valuable for academic studies and practice.</span
... Though, Eze et al. (2019) stated that digital marketing experts have failed to establish such relationships because of the consequences and outcomes. Previous research has looked at the influence of social media sites and online apps on company performance and growth, with a focus on the business-to-consumer scenario via social media for influencing client purchasing decisions (Chang et al., 2016;Canovi and Pucciarelli, 2019;Nuseira and Aljumahb, 2020;Siamagka et al., 2015;Valeri, 2021). Most of the previous studies have concentrated on the advantage of digital marketing (Yasmin et al., 2015), digital marketing strategy in the manufacturing industry (Bang and Roos, 2014) and future trends in digital marketing (Bala and Verma, 2018). ...
Purpose: This paper aims to measure the intention to use digital marketing strategies to enhance the performance of tourism business as well as the extent of digital renovation applications in tourism for sustainable business in a new normal era.
Design/methodology/approach: This paper is an insight from the existing relevant literature on the tourism business from time immemorial. The conceptual framework of this study is designed based on previous studies of digital marketing practices for tourism businesses. Furthermore, data were collected from 270 respondents, of which the valid response rate is 72.97%. Partial least square (PLS)-structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to validate the conceptual framework and hypotheses testing.
Findings: Among the nine hypotheses path, seven were supported. This study result shows that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social media marketing and tourism business performance are critical factors for adopting digital marketing in tourism. Thus, tourism service providers' intention has a positive impact to meet the expectation of tourists and adoption of digital marketing.
Research limitations/implications: The study's results will assist tourism researchers and service providers in understanding an authentic relationship between digital practices of tourism business and tourist satisfaction. In addition, the legacy of tourism business through digital marketing empowers the owner and community.
Originality/value: The study is the first to explore the relationship between tourism business performance and digital marketing during the new normal era for the empowerment of local community and expanded business in tourism sector.
... Additionally, 50% of the companies stated that social media has improved their marketing optimization and customer experience, while 25% stated that their revenue went up [41]. Even though B2B companies are benefitting from social media used by marketers, it is argued that research on that area is still in the embryonic stage and future research is needed [42][43][44][45]. There is a limited understanding of how B2B companies need to change to embrace recent technological innovations and how it can lead to business and societal transformation [46][47][48]. ...
Marketers are constantly exploring the best communication channels to deliver the best possible message to their targets. Therefore, technological advances are continuously shaping communications, especially in digital environments. Bidirectional and interactive dimensions characterize digital media communications. This study explores relevant literature on integrated marketing communications and communication in digital environments, including child-oriented marketing communications. As a result, theoretical framework on digital communication is provided for academics and practitioners.KeywordsDigital marketingIntegrated marketing communicationDigital communicationBusiness-to-businessBusiness-to-consumerChild-oriented marketing communication
Currently, with the percentage of active users on social networks increasing, it becomes almost mandatory for brands to have a communication strategy using social networks. Digital agencies come to fill the need for brands to communicate with their customers through these channels, but it is possible to see that not all social networks are used by digital agencies for this strategy. The present investigation focuses on understanding the factors that lead Portuguese digital agencies to adopt a certain social network as a communication tool for their clients. Was followed a qualitative methodology, using semi-structured interviews with digital agencies in Portugal. It was possible to verify that digital agencies in Portugal do not look for specific characteristics in social networks, but rather functionalities such as the possibility of integrating third-party applications. This investigation was the first to study the relationship between Portuguese Digital Agencies and Social Networks, a topic that until then had no references. In this way, for future investigations, this study leaves many paths to explore to expand knowledge on the subject.
Purpose: The study's main goal was to determine the impact of outsourcing models on supply chain efficiency and SMEs' performance in the hospitality industry. The qualitative research design was used to achieve the objectives. Theoretical framework: Outsourcing model is one of the key business trends experienced in the contemporary business sector. Outsourcing is an organizational operational approach in which a corporation hires a third party to perform planned or ongoing obligations. Whatever the case may be, it entails the transfer of people and assets from one business to another. The approach is concerned with establishing answers to the whys and how’s of the research question. Design/methodology/approach: Secondary data was entirely used to assess the research questions. Articles were obtained from the selected databases comprising Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scribed, Scopus, JSTOR, and DOAJ using the keywords. The PRISMA framework was used to appraise the articles and only 13 met the critical. Data was synthesized and analysed using the thematic approach. Findings: Outsourcing models have contributed significantly in enhancing the efficiency of the supply chain. Additionally, SME’s have portrayed improved performance after adopting the outsourcing models. This is closely associated and reflected by complimenting resources and capabilities, access to better and qualified personnel, high quality products and services, competitive prices and cost reduction. Research, Practical & Social implications: The incorporation of outsourcing models in hospitality industry is a mandatory exercise in the contemporary business sector Nevertheless, the strategy is instrumental in enhancing supply chain efficiency and improving the entire performance. In addition, outsourcing models are key trends in hospitality industry thus all the market should incorporate the conforming strategies to avoid stiff completion. Originality/value: The findings suggest several consequences forth fields of Outsourcing Model on Supply Chain Efficiency and Performance in SMES. Although outsourcing models are associated with multiple benefits, the implementation should be guided by expert depending on the model. Also, a link should be established between the research objectives, outsourcing model and strategic management.
This study aims to analyze digital marketing adoption among micro and small enterprises (MSEs) operating in Lagos State, Nigeria. This state was chosen because it was the worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic regarding the reported number of infections and it has a large concentration of MSEs. There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic brought changes to how businesses operate. It succeeded in pushing business owners into adopting new business strategies, all in the bid to adapt to the reality of the pandemic and the associated changes. The cross-sectional survey design was adopted; data were collected through an online survey of 240 MSEs operating in Lagos State. The results show no substantial increase in digital marketing adoption during the pandemic relative to the pre-pandemic era. The findings, however, reveal that digital marketing use differed significantly according to sector and size before and during the pandemic. No changes were found in digital marketing adoption in the information technology and finance sectors, while a decline in digital marketing adoption was reported in the hospitality sector. On the other hand, there was a rise in the use of digital marketing during the pandemic in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. These findings provide an empirical managerial perspective establishing the link between reality and theoretical business underpinnings.
Finance Technology (Fintech) has emerged as the current trend in the financial world. Fintech services gain popularity from the increasing adoption by organizations and consumers. By applying empirical research, this chapter aims to explore the important factors influencing consumer satisfaction and continuance intention to adopt Fintech services. As previous studies on customers’ behavioral intention to adopt Fintech were mostly conducted in the context of developed countries, there is a paucity of research in the developing countries’ perspective. To address the research gap, this study focused on five selected developing countries, namely Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Nigeria and Philippines. Drawing on the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) for the proposed research model, customer innovativeness, hedonic motivation, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, system quality and technology self-efficacy have positive effect on customer satisfaction and subsequently, continuance intention to adopt Fintech. The findings recommend that Fintech service providers to develop effective strategic frameworks to build consumer satisfaction and encourage their continuance intention to adopt Fintech.
Organizations have used social media networks to build and grow virtual communities, enabling organizations to spread the word about products and services. This research analyzes the activity and effectiveness of the Facebook and Instagram pages of the Portuguese wine certifying entities between January and March 2022 using the updated PRGS (presence, response, generation, suggestion) model, updated with engagement, interaction, and efficiency. Results show that Facebook stands out as the main social network for wine-certifying entities, with wider communities and more posts. However, when it comes to reactions, Instagram shows superior numbers for most wine-certifying entities' pages. Instagram indicators show consistent and interesting results, indicating that it is a solid channel for Portuguese wine-certifying entities. These findings shed light on how to improve their online presence and have a more balanced presence on both social media platforms.
Purpose
Supply chains are under increased scrutiny as consumers have become aware of the dark side of downstream production practices. Many articles and exposés have led consumers to be more conscious of purchasing products from companies who source materials in a socially responsible and ethical manner. As a result, business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumers (B2C) companies are under increased pressure to source raw materials in a transparent and ethical way. Because of the associated costs, companies then look to benefit from increased brand equity by promoting to consumers how ethical their products are. The purpose of this study is to look at the case of the food industry to analyze sustainability messaging on Twitter in both B2B and B2C companies to determine which of the dimensions of sustainability (people, profit, planet) are being emphasized.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, two published dictionaries were combined to capture the three dimensions of “sustainability,” and these scales were then used to analyze Twitter posts. This study created a unique software package to classify, mine, collect and analyze Twitter data. This study used these tools to analyze 246,386 Twitter posts within a sample of 39 leading B2C and B2B food companies over a 10-year period (2012–2021) to explore brand messaging and engagement rate.
Findings
This research revealed several interesting results. These include how B2B companies have emphasized the employee (people) dimensions of sustainability, while B2C companies have had a more balanced approach that overall has prioritized the economic dimension (profit) of sustainability. The data on audience engagement revealed a mismatch between the types of sustainability messaging B2B companies and B2C companies in the food industry are posting and what engages audiences.
Originality/value
This study fills several gaps, including analyzing how B2B and B2C companies use sustainability language in their social media brand management, as well as looking at which dimensions of sustainability they emphasize and which ones engage audiences the most. This research is also novel in combining multiple existing scales under one project to analyze the triple bottom line in the analysis of qualitative texts.
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.
Introduction:
Due to the superposition of multiple complex socioeconomic environments and the complexity and uncertainty of the agricultural industry chain itself, the agricultural industry chain has become unstable, jeopardizing its long-term sustainability.
Methods:
The purpose of this study is to construct and validate a stability mechanism model of cooperative relationships within agricultural industry chains based on the institutional theory. The questionnaire survey method was used for empirical analysis.
Results:
The results show that imitative pressure, mandatory pressure, and normative pressure have significant positive effects on the stability of cooperative relationships in agricultural industrial chains. Besides, perceived benefits, perceived risks, and trust play composite multiple mediating roles between imitative pressure and cooperation stability, and between normative pressure and cooperation stability in agricultural industrial chains. Perceived benefits and trust play partial mediating roles in the stability of cooperative relationships between mandatory pressure and agricultural industrial chains.
Discussion:
This study is conducive to further understanding the cooperative psychology of agricultural industry chain operators. And this research can provide a reference for managers to take targeted measures to deal with the instability in the development of agricultural industry chains.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been an ally of women wishing to engage in entrepreneurial activity, especially of the mompreneurs. Within this context, this study aims to investigate the antecedents and outcomes of the use of ICTs by mompreneurs. The data were collected in Brazil through an online questionnaire and were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that perceived usefulness, social influence, and trust are antecedent factors of the use of ICTs by these women. Moreover, the use of ICTs has a positive impact on the perception of mompreneurs regarding the financial performance of their ventures in relation to competitors. The results also show that more than 97% of the mompreneurs use smartphones and WhatsApp to manage their business, suggesting that social media and mobile devices have assumed a predominant role in female ventures, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, period in which the data were collected.
Strategic brand management presupposes the use of different strategies. The dimensions. In this theoretical chapter, the authors analyze how the most known concepts are related. As a result, brand equity plays a great importance in brand image and brand identity, implying different approaches in the communication process of brands. Consequently, storytelling plays a specific role in brand communications, especially digital storytelling. Creating appropriate narratives, brands can improve customer engagement, consumer’s emotional involvement and loyalty.KeywordsBrandingBrand equityBrand image and identityStorytellingNarrativesCustomer involvementConsumer’s memoryDigital marketing
Business-to-business (B2B) social media efforts have largely focused on creating brand engagement through online content. We propose to analyse company social media texts (tweets) according to its two main dimensions, content and linguistic style, and to evaluate these in comparison to the overall content and style of the company's community of Twitter followers. We combine 15 million tweets originating from 254,884 followers of ten company profiles and link these to 10,589 B2B company tweets. Using advanced text analytics, we show that content similarity has positive effects on all engagement metrics, while linguistic style similarity mainly affects likes. Readability acts as a moderator for these effects. We also find a negative interaction effect between the similarity metrics, such that style similarity is most useful if content similarity is low. This research is the first to integrate content and linguistic style similarity and contributes to the brand engagement literature by providing practical message composition guidelines, informed by the social media community.
The branding literature has long recognized the power of storytelling to provide meaning to the brand and practitioners have used storytelling to enhance consumers' connections with brands. The premise of brand storytelling has been that the story and its content, production, and distribution are the brand owner's realm and the consumer primarily a listener. The emergence of social media has changed the consumers' role in storytelling from that of a passive listener to a more active participant. Our paper uses the metaphor of improvisation (improv) theater to show that in social media brand owners do not tell brand stories alone but co-create brand performances in collaboration with the consumers. The first and foremost contribution of such a conceptualization is that it offers a semantic framework that resolves issues in storytelling, demonstrates the necessity of co-creation in storytelling, and identifies the core of an inspiring story. The improv theater metaphor also helps identify the following three propositions relevant for branding in social media: (i) the process of improvisation is more important than the output, (ii) managing brands is about keeping the brand performance alive, and (iii) understanding the audience and its roles is the prerequisite for a successful brand performance.
Cross-sectional studies of attitude-behavior relationships are vulnerable to the inflation of correlations by common method variance (CMV). Here, a model is presented that allows partial correlation analysis to adjust the observed correlations for CMV contamination and determine if conclusions about the statistical and practical significance of a predictor have been influenced by the presence of CMV. This method also suggests procedures for designing questionnaires to increase the precision of this adjustment.
Despite the fact that most Americans use the Internet, those who are older, less educated, minority and lower income have lower usage rates than younger, highly educated, white and wealthier individuals. We develop and test an extended version of the technology acceptance model (TAM) to explain these differences. We found that age, education, income and race are associated differentially with beliefs about the Internet, and that these beliefs influence a consumer's attitude toward and use of the Internet. Further, we found that although access barriers have a significant effect in the model, perceptions regarding ease of use and usefulness have a stronger effect. Our results suggest that by extending the TAM, to include perceived access barriers helps to explain demographic-based differences in Internet use. We also provide key insights for both managers and policymakers.
Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook enable the creation of virtual customer environments (VCEs) where online communities of interest form around specific firms, brands, or products. While these platforms can be used as another means to deliver familiar e-commerce applications, when firms fail to fully engage their customers, they also fail to fully exploit the capabilities of social media platforms. To gain business value, organizations need to incorporate community building as part of the implementation of social media. This article starts by describing the Fortune 500's use of four of the most popular social media platforms-Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and client-hosted forums-to interact with customers. We then argue that to gain full business value from social media, firms need to develop implementation strategies based on three elements: mindful adoption, community building, and absorptive capacity. Next, we use case studies of three Fortune 100 corporations to illustrate how they are managing their respective networks of social media applications. Finally, we provide guidelines for implementing social media.
The use of online data is becoming increasingly essential for the generation of insight in today's research environment. This reflects the much wider range of data available online and the key role that social media now plays in interpersonal communication. However, the process of gaining permission to use social media data for research purposes creates a number of significant issues when considering compatibility with professional ethics guidelines. This paper critically explores the application of existing informed consent policies to social media research and compares with the form of consent gained by the social networks themselves, which we label 'uninformed consent'. We argue that, as currently constructed, informed consent carries assumptions about the nature of privacy that are not consistent with the way that consumers behave in an online environment. On the other hand, uninformed consent relies on asymmetric relationships that are unlikely to succeed in an environment based on co-creation of value. The paper highlights the ethical ambiguity created by current approaches for gaining customer consent, and proposes a new conceptual framework based on participative consent that allows for greater alignment between consumer privacy and ethical concerns.
As social media increasingly penetrate the business world, it is important to understand the underlying reasons for companies to adopt social networks marketing (SNM). This study extends the technology acceptance model (TAM) to explore the role of social influences in the context of SNM technology adoption by small and medium companies, and considers how the temporal aspect of new technology adoption affects this relationship. Our findings show that adoption of SNM is strongly influenced by social influences from experts, competitors, and customers. These social influences affect intention to adopt this new technology both directly, and by affecting the perceptions of the technology usefulness. For SMEs already using SNM, social influence is the only strong determinant of the intention to continue employing this marketing technology, with the amount of experience with SNM strengthening this relationship.
While the tools of social media are ubiquitous in contemporary consumer marketing, there is little evidence about the extent to which they have been adopted by business-to-business marketers. Although experts argue that B2B firms can and should use platforms such as FaceBook and YouTube, almost all of the popular examples used in mainstream seminars, conferences and the practitioner press are of consumer brands. Our exploratory study used content analysis and text-mining to look at current B2B marketing practitioner literature on the subject, and examined ten large B2B technology companies to profile their use of social media. We found that although large companies were extensive users of almost all the mainstream social media channels, the adoption of these tools was by no means universal. It seems that US-based firms are the furthest ahead in using social media for B2B marketing. The B2B social media pioneers are striving to use these tools to position themselves as 'thought leaders', to take a market-driving role in the sector and to build relationships with a range of stakeholder groups.
The branding literature has long recognized the power of storytelling to provide meaning to the brand and practitioners have used storytelling to enhance consumers’ connections with brands. The premise of brand storytelling has been that the story and its content, production, and distribution are the brand owner’s realm and the consumer primarily a listener. The emergence of social media has changed the consumers’ role in storytelling from that of a passive listener to a more active participant. Our paper uses the metaphor of improvisation (improv) theater to show that in social media, brand owners do not tell brand stories alone but co-create brand performances in collaboration with the consumers. The first and foremost contribution of such a conceptualization is that it offers a semantic framework that resolves issues in storytelling , demonstrates the necessity of co-creation in storytelling, and identifies the core of an inspiring story. The improv theater metaphor also helps identify the following three propositions relevant for branding in social media: (i) the process of improvisation is more important than the output, (ii) managing brands is about keeping the brand performance alive, and (iii) understanding the audience and its roles is the prerequisite for a successful brand performance.
Motivating the sales force to adopt and use sales force automation (SFA) technology remains an issue. If salespeople are not committed to the selling organization's technology strategies, customer alliances are hindered.
Social media tools are used by firms to create and capture business value. In this study, we synthesize emerging literature on social commerce, social media, and the diffusion of innovation to identify the role that organizational, managerial and environmental characteristics of SMEs play in the adoption of Twitter. To test the model, we administered a survey to 453 SME mangers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and India. The results of logistic hierarchical regression indicate that firm innovativeness, age and geographic location have a significant impact on Twitter adoption by SMEs. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
In this article, we provide guidance for substantive researchers on the use of structural equation modeling in practice for theory testing and development. We present a comprehensive, two-step modeling approach that employs a series of nested models and sequential chi-square difference tests. We discuss the comparative advantages of this approach over a one-step approach. Considerations in specification, assessment of fit, and respecification of measurement models using confirmatory factor analysis are reviewed. As background to the two-step approach, the distinction between exploratory and confirmatory analysis, the distinction between complementary approaches for theory testing versus predictive application, and some developments in estimation methods also are discussed.
While the technology acceptance model (TAM), introduced in 1986, continues to be the most widely applied theoretical model in the IS field, few previous efforts examined its accomplishments and limitations. This study traces TAM's history, investigates its findings, and cautiously predicts its future trajectory. One hundred and one articles published by leading IS journals and conferences in the past eighteen years are examined and summarized. An open- ended survey of thirty-two leading IS researchers assisted in critically examining TAM and specifying future directions.
The internet and its related e-technologies have to a large extent upset the asymmetry of information that for so many years worked in favour of brand managers. Consumers are now empowered to interact with brands and other consumers but also to create their own content on user generated content sites leading to a more participative approach to branding. Internet brands adopt a more relaxed stance on brand management, which involves the consumer in fundamental stages of the brand building process. In this context, the brand manager is no longer a 'guardian' of the brand but becomes more of a brand 'host'. The question is to what extent can traditional companies follow suit? Are they comfortable to cede control to consumers? Do we need a new theory of branding in an e-space?
The goals of this article are twofold: (a) briefly highlight the merits of residual centering for representing interaction and powered terms in standard regression contexts (e.g., Lance, 1988), and (b) extend the residual centering procedure to represent latent variable interactions. The proposed method for representing latent variable interactions has potential advantages over extant procedures. First, the latent variable interaction is derived from the observed covariation pattern among all possible indicators of the interaction. Second, no constraints on particular estimated parameters need to be placed. Third, no recalculations of parameters are required. Fourth, model estimates are stable and interpretable. In our view, the orthogonalizing approach is technically and conceptually straightforward, can be estimated using any structural equation modeling software package, and has direct practical interpretation of parameter estimates. Its behavior in terms of model fit and estimated standard errors is very reasonable, and it can be readily generalized to other types of latent variables where nonlinearity or collinearity are involved (e.g., powered variables).
Purpose – Extant research has examined consumer acceptance of the internet in various contexts mainly as a dichotomy (adoption/non-adoption), thus ignoring the process underlying adoption. This paper aims to provide insights into factors determining the extent to which an innovation is adopted. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the literature on the technology acceptance model (TAM), and justifies the use of this model to explore the factors contributing to the extent to which consumers use the internet as a distribution channel for financial services (FS). Data are collected through telephone interviews with 300 UK consumers responding to a questionnaire. Findings – The application of the TAM model is helpful but additional links need to be included. The key drivers of extent of use are past experience with the internet as a purchasing channel (for non-FS) and attitudinal aspects, i.e. positive emotions towards the internet as a distribution channel for FS. Insecurity about this channel does not appear to be an obstacle and perceived usefulness is not directly linked to extent of use but fully mediated via attitude towards the channel. Consumers with computer access from home, those with an active interest in FS, as well as consumers who have general online purchasing experience tend to find this channel easy to use, which, jointly with perceived usefulness, leads to a positive attitude toward this distribution channel. Research limitations/implications – The findings are limited to the FS online retail context and may not be generalisable beyond this context. Future research should be considered using a longitudinal approach. Practical implications – FS retail providers should consider prior experience with the internet as a distribution channel and product category involvement as segmentation bases, and also provide more opportunities for consumers to try and observe the internet as a distribution channel. Originality/value – This research explores the determinants of consumer acceptance of online retailing from a process-based rather than a binary view of adoption of an innovation.
The aim of this paper is to study technology acceptance of internet banking among undergraduate students in Malaysia. Thus, the theoretical framework of the paper is based on modified version of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This paper develops a technology acceptance model for internet banking, a conceptual framework to explain the factors influencing undergraduate students' acceptance of internet banking. The model employs perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived credibility (PC) and computer self-efficacy (CSE). The first two are two initial constructs for TAM model. The rest are new constructs to be included in the model in order to have an extension of TAM model that better reflects the students' view. The results suggest that PU, PEOU and PC had a significant relationship with behavioral intention. Further, these measures are good determinant for undergraduate acceptance for internet banking. Results also suggest that PU and PEOU had a significant relationship with CSE. On the contrary, CSE did not associate with PC. Also, PEOU had
An expanded paradigm is needed to explain how competitive advantage is gained and held. Firms resorting to 'resource-based strategy' attempt to accumulate valuable technology assets and employ an aggressive intellectual property stance. However, winners in the global marketplace have been firms demonstrating timely responsiveness and rapid and flexible product innovation, along with the management capability to effectively coordinate and redeploy internal and external competences. This source of competitive advantage, 'dynamic capabilities', emphasizes two aspects. First, it refers to the shifting character of the environment; second, it emphasizes the key role of strategic management in appropriately adapting, integrating, and re-configuring internal and external organizational skills, resources, and functional competences toward changing environment. 5 Only recently have researchers begun to focus on the specifics of developing firm-specific capabilities and the manner in which competences are renewed to respond to shifts in the business environment. The dynamic capabilities approach provides a coherent framework to integrate existing conceptual and empirical knowledge, and facilitate prescription. This paper argues that the competitive advan is tage of firms stems from dynamic capabilities rooted in high performance routines operating inside the firm, embedded in the firm's processes, and conditioned by its history. It offers dynamic capabilities as an emerging paradigm of the modern business firm that draws on multiple disciplines and advances, with the help of industry studies in the USA and elsewhere.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effects of the dimensions of organisational trust on organisational innovativeness in a relatively large survey sample of the information and communication technology (ICT) and paper and pulp industries in Finland.
Design/methodology/approach
Organisational trust is deemed to consist of both interpersonal and impersonal types of trust. The empirical part of the study shows the relationship between various types of trust and dimensions of organisational innovativeness. Quantitative empirical analysis is based on a survey of 40 organisational units and 214 respondents within the ICT and paper and pulp industries.
Findings
The impact of different types of organisational trust on dimensions of organisational innovativeness was analyzed. The results imply that the impersonal form in particular, namely institutional trust, has an important role in determining organisational innovativeness.
Research implications
This study contributes both to the literature on organisational innovativeness, as well as to the emerging theory on trust, in its approach to trust as not only an interpersonal issue, but also as something with impersonal aspects.
Practical implications
It is suggested that managers should pay special attention to impersonal forms of trust, i.e. to the institutional dimension of organisational trust. Above all, institutional trust and its development could be seen as a strategic question for companies.
Originality/value
This study makes a significant theoretical contribution by examining the linkages between various dimensions of organisational trust and organisational innovativeness, which have previously been studied only to a very minor extent. It thus provides a richer understanding of the relationship between organisational trust and innovativeness.
Given assumptions about the characteristics of knowledge and the knowledge requirements of production, the firm is conceptualized as an institution for integrating knowledge. The primary contribution of the paper is in exploring the coordination mechanisms through which firms integrate the specialist knowledge of their members. In contrast to earlier literature, knowledge is viewed as residing within the individual, and the primary role of the organization is knowledge application rather than knowledge creation. The resulting theory has implications for the basis of organizational capability, the principles of organization design (in particular, the analysis of hierarchy and the distribution of decision-making authority), and the determinants of the horizontal and vertical boundaries of the firm. More generally, the knowledge-based approach sheds new light upon current organizational innovations and trends and has far-reaching implications for management practice.
At present, the resource-based view of the firm is perhaps the most influential framework for understanding strategic management. In this editor's introduction, we briefly describe the contribu-tions to knowledge provided by the commentaries and articles contained in this issue. In addition, we outline some additional areas of research wherein the resource-based view can be gainfully deployed.
In this article, we provide guidance for substantive researchers on the use of structural equation modeling in practice for theory testing and development. We present a comprehensive, two-step modeling approach that employs a series of nested models and sequential chi-square difference tests. We discuss the comparative advantages of this approach over a one-step approach. Considerations in specification, assessment of fit, and respecification of measurement models using confirmatory factor analysis are reviewed. As background to the two-step approach, the distinction between exploratory and confirmatory analysis, the distinction between complementary approaches for theory testing versus predictive application, and some developments in estimation methods also are discussed.
Interest in the problem of method biases has a long history in the behavioral sciences. Despite this, a comprehensive summary of the potential sources of method biases and how to control for them does not exist. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which method biases influence behavioral research results, identify potential sources of method biases, discuss the cognitive processes through which method biases influence responses to measures, evaluate the many different procedural and statistical techniques that can be used to control method biases, and provide recommendations for how to select appropriate procedural and statistical remedies for different types of research settings.
There is a great deal of evidence that method bias influences item validities, item reliabilities, and the covariation between latent constructs. In this paper, we identify a series of factors that may cause method bias by undermining the capabilities of the respondent, making the task of responding accurately more difficult, decreasing the motivation to respond accurately, and making it easier for respondents to satisfice. In addition, we discuss the psychological mechanisms through which these factors produce their biasing effects and propose several procedural remedies that counterbalance or offset each of these specific effects. We hope that this discussion will help researchers anticipate when method bias is likely to be a problem and provide ideas about how to avoid it through the careful design of a study.
At present, the resource-based view of the firm is perhaps the most influential framework for understanding strategic management. In this editor’s introduction, we briefly describe the contributions to knowledge provided by the commentaries and articles contained in this issue. In addition, we outline some additional areas of research wherein the resource-based view can be gainfully deployed.
Consumer socialization through peer communication using social media websites has become an important marketing issue through the development and increasing popularity of social media. Guided by a socialization framework, this article investigates peer communication through social media websites; individual-level tie strength and group-level identification with the peer group as antecedents; and product attitudes and purchase decisions as outcomes. Survey data from 292 participants who engaged in peer communications about products through social media confirm that the two antecedents have positive influences on peer communication outcomes. Online consumer socialization through peer communication also affects purchasing decisions in two ways: directly (conformity with peers) and indirectly by reinforcing product involvement. In addition, consumer's need for uniqueness has a moderating effect on the influence of peer communication on product attitudes. These findings have significant theoretical and managerial implications.
This article investigates-and compares-the effects of brand publicity in social and 'traditional' digital media. In an analysis of consumer responses to identical brand publicity in seven popular b ...
The authors present the results of a study that empirically tests a model connecting national export-promotion programs with export performance through the intervening role of export-related organizational resources and capabilities, export marketing strategy, and export competitive advantage. The study reveals that the adoption of specific national export-promotion programs positively strengthens the firm's export-related resources and capabilities, which in turn are instrumental in developing a sound export marketing strategy. By realizing this strategy, the firm enjoys competitive advantages related to costs, products, or services, which in turn help it achieve superior export performance in both market and financial dimensions. In addition, the firm's export market performance has a positive impact on export financial performance. This study also shows that the effect of national export-promotion programs on export-related resources and capabilities is stronger among smaller firms and, for some programs, among firms with less export experience.
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 Internet increases the likelihood of “disintermediation” in global B2B supply chains. At the same time, opportunities for intermediaries to generate incremental value for other channel members are opened up. The discussion highlights three such strategic directions — “information rich”, “relational exchange” and “joint-learning” — with the focus on the role played by the Internet in the implementation of these strategies. Particular attention is also given to the experience of a leading Hong Kong intermediary to illustrate the alignment of the Internet with each of these strategies for enhancing the competitive position of intermediaries in global supply chains.
To date, industrial marketing has built its conceptual frameworks upon the concept of a dyad—a relationship between one buyer and one seller. Thus, much of what has been researched in business-to-business marketing uses the buyer–seller relationship as the most appropriate unit of analysis. Yet, today, the most exciting development in business marketing is electronic commerce, which is a technology and a paradigm not of dyads but of networks. A great deal of the buyer–seller relationship between firms is being replaced or significantly transformed by electronic commerce systems. Networks pose a tremendous problem in measurement. Existing business metrics were designed for a world of concrete boundaries and fixed categories—a world that is slipping away day by day. Governments will have a keen interest in the development of metrics, as they struggle with regulation of these new entities. As boundaries between organizations blur, governments will have more trouble defining the entity that they are attempting to regulate. In the information economy, perhaps governments will recognize the essential role of “co-opetition” as an essential business strategy. For the dyad, we have the metaphor of marriage. For bureaucratic organizations, we have the metaphor of an army. What is the “similar” organization that will deliver insights about managing within a network? Perhaps the closest metaphor may be a migrating flock of birds. Thus, managers and researchers who want to understand the emerging face of technology-enabled business must come to grips with network concepts and their implications.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relative impact of brand communication on brand equity through social media as compared to traditional media. In a juxtaposition of different industries it aims at: investigating whether both communication instruments have an impact on consumer‐based brand equity; comparing the effect sizes of these two communication instruments; and separating the effects of firm‐created and user‐generated social media communication.
Design/methodology/approach
– A total of 393 data sets from three different industries, namely tourism, telecommunications, and pharmaceuticals, were generated using a standardized online‐survey. Structural equation modeling was used in the analysis of the data obtained to investigate the interplay of social media and traditional media in general, as well as in an examination of industry‐specific differences.
Findings
– The results of the empirical study show that both traditional communications and social media communications have a significant impact on brand equity. While traditional media has a stronger impact on brand awareness, social media communications strongly influence brand image. Firm‐created social media communication is shown to have an important impact on functional brand image, while user‐generated social media communication exerts a major influence on hedonic brand image. Furthermore, the present study highlights significant differences between the industries under investigation.
Originality/value
– The research described in this paper is pioneering in that it juxtaposes the impacts of social media and traditional media on brand equity – a topic of increasing interest to firms in the era of Facebook and Twitter but so far largely uninvestigated. Moreover, the differentiation between firm‐created and user‐generated social media communication, which is gaining increasingly in importance, as companies see their brand marketing power devolve to the consumer through social media platforms, offers valuable insights to marketing practitioners and academics.
This paper investigates the relationship between mandatory adoption of mobile information technology and market performance in the business-to-business (B2B) setting. This study presents and tests the B2B technology satisfaction model (TSM), including perceived loss of control as the mandatory technology acceptance-specific variable. The results of this study reveal that integrating perceived loss of control with user satisfaction and the TAM (technology acceptance model) in a single model can better explain the B2B market performance model. The empirical results suggest that perceived loss of control has a negative effect on user satisfaction and perceived market performance is influenced by user satisfaction and perceived usefulness. Managerial implications of the study are discussed.
Two conceptual approaches [Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13 (3), 319–340; DeLone, W. H., & McLean, E. R. (1992). Information systems success: The quest for the dependent variable. Information Systems Research, 3 (1), 60–95] are unified into a conceptual model that offers a comprehensive explanation of CRM acceptance antecedents and consequences in a sales force setting. Based upon responses from 240 salespersons that utilize a CRM system, the model is tested and explanations are offered for the system's acceptance. Specifically, the most prevailing influence on CRM acceptance comes from CRM perceived usefulness, followed by the setting of accurate expectations regarding system usage, the salesperson innovativeness towards new technological tools, the CRM perceived ease-of-use, and the supervisor encouragement and support. Surprisingly, the model does not adequately explicate salesperson performance. Sales managers are presented with a discussion and implications of the findings.
Strategic management has been increasingly characterized by an emphasis on core competences. Firms are advised to divest unrelated businesses and return to core business. Moreover, competitive advantage is now increasingly seen as a matter of efficiently deploying scarce knowledge resources to product markets. Much of this change in emphasis has occurred because of the emergence of a unified and rigorous approach to strategy, often called the resource-based approach. This Reader brings together extracts from the seminal articles that created this dominant perspective in strategic management. It includes the pioneering work of Selznick, Penrose, and Chandler and more recent writing by Wernerfelt, Barney, Teece, and Prahalad and Hamel.
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