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How social media applications affect B2B communication and improve business performance in SMEs
... Rather, we have witnessed an explosion of research on implementing SM in the B2B domain, with both conceptual and empirical studies emerging from recent literature calls (Cartwright et al., 2021a;Salo, 2017). This research has evolved from SM being viewed and analysed as a media tool within marketing communications (Swani et al., 2014) to a tool for enhancing; sales and customer engagement processes (Agnihotri, 2020;Bocconcelli et al., 2017), information sharing and problemsolving (Leek et al., 2016), and collaboration across business relationships (Wang et al., 2016;Drummond et al., 2022). ...
... For example, SM's potential as a collaborative tool has been illustrated (Georgescu and Popescul, 2015) particularly for value co-creation within a sales context (Andzulis et al., 2013) and to enable complex, collaborative co-created activities (Lipiäinen, 2015). Studies focusing on SM as a collaborative medium among B2B network actors (Wang et al., 2016;Jussila et al., 2014) indicate SMs ability to facilitate cooperative activities central to innovative research and development and open innovation processes (Shaltoni, 2017;Georgescu and Popescul, 2015). Particularly in a smaller firm context, the collaborative nature of SM permits interfirm collaboration across business relationships and between groups of network actors which strengthens the focal organisations' performance (Wang et al., 2016). ...
... Studies focusing on SM as a collaborative medium among B2B network actors (Wang et al., 2016;Jussila et al., 2014) indicate SMs ability to facilitate cooperative activities central to innovative research and development and open innovation processes (Shaltoni, 2017;Georgescu and Popescul, 2015). Particularly in a smaller firm context, the collaborative nature of SM permits interfirm collaboration across business relationships and between groups of network actors which strengthens the focal organisations' performance (Wang et al., 2016). Recent studies reveal that SM positively impacts entrepreneurial firms, who are typically limited in collaborative network activity given their peripheral status and inherent liabilities of newness and smallness, to enable collaboration with a large pool of B2B partners on, for example, joint promotions, cocreation of new products or new service development (Drummond et al., 2018(Drummond et al., , 2022. ...
... MST has been applied to examine the impact of SMU on employees' work performance as well as firms' communication and business performance (Cao et al., 2016;W. Y. C. Wang et al., 2016). For instance, based on MST and social capital theory, Cao et al. (2016) found employees' SMU in work can lead to better work performance through fostering knowledge transfer and social capital (e.g., network ties and trust). W. Y. C. Wang et al. (2016) confirmed that five media capabilities are all apparent in social media apps, and sm ...
... For instance, based on MST and social capital theory, Cao et al. (2016) found employees' SMU in work can lead to better work performance through fostering knowledge transfer and social capital (e.g., network ties and trust). W. Y. C. Wang et al. (2016) confirmed that five media capabilities are all apparent in social media apps, and small and medium-sized enterprises' use of social media as inter-organizational communication tools is conducive to improving business-to-business communication and business performance (collaboration, innovation, and marketing). Despite this, investigation in export sales contexts is lacking. ...
... Prior research found that social media are a combination of media capabilities (W. Y. C. Wang et al., 2016), which matches well with Dennis et al.' (2008) idea that there is no one "best medium" suited to a complex task, but a set of media with different capabilities used together can contribute to ideal communication performance. Further, MST reveals the working mechanism of media use from the communication perspective and expands our knowledge about the factors and paths influencing the effect of media use. ...
Despite increasing interest in the role of social media use (SMU) in improving performance, limited studies have examined its impact on sales performance in B2B export sales contexts. And the underlying mechanisms of such effects remain underexplored. Drawing on Media Synchronicity Theory, we propose SMU in sales affects cross-cultural communication performance first, which in turn affects sales performance, and training and experience are appropriation factors of SMU in sales. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 751 B2B export salespeople from mainland China. The results show cross-cultural communication performance fully mediates the effect of SMU in sales on sales performance, and training and experience are antecedents of SMU in sales. The total effect of training on sales performance through SMU in sales and cross-cultural communication performance is stronger than that of experience. Theoretical and practical insights on how to leverage social media to support B2B export sales performance are discussed.
... While extant research mostly investigates SM use in large firms (e.g. Eggers et al., 2017;Habibi, Hamilton, Valos, and Callaghan, 2015), which may not apply to SMEs (Yoon, Yoon, Nam, and Choi, 2021), SMEs are increasingly using SM (Brink, 2017;Karampela, Lacka, and McLean, 2020) for example to communicate and attract customers (Fraccastoro, Gabrielsson, and Pullins, 2021;Michaelidou, Siamagka, and Christodoulides, 2011;Wang, Pauleen, and Zhang, 2016). Evidence in the literature suggests that a firm's SM use shows its market information processing (e.g. ...
... While SM is described as "the technological component of the communication, transaction, and relationship building functions of a business which leverages the network of customers and prospects to promote value co-creation" (Andzulis, Panagopoulos, and Rapp, 2012, p. 308), SM use has been increasingly examined through a capability lens, including SM strategic capability (Nguyen, Yu, Melewar, and Chen, 2015), SM capability (Wang et al., 2016), reflexiveness capability (Baptista, Wilson, Galliers, and Bynghall, 2017), SM capabilities for innovation (Muninger, Hammedi, and Mahr, 2019), and strategic communication capacity (Pekkala and van Zoonen, 2022). Built upon these studies and in the present research, we define SM use as an organizational capability that constitutes the firm's overall MSC to perceive market opportunities and threats, one dimension of the dynamic capability (Endres, Helm, and Dowling, 2020). ...
... They found that while SM can be used to attract new customers, it lacks perceived relevance. Wang et al. (2016), based on five case studies, showed that SM use allows B2B SMEs to improve their communication and business performance. Hsiao, Wang, Wang, and Kao (2020) found that including national brands in SM positively affects the popularity of private labels, thereby increasing the sales of private label products. ...
... However, recent studies pushing the interaction perspective further have illustrated the wider value creation possibilities of SM within a collaborative network. Entrepreneurial actors can use SM to exchange information within the network (Itani, Krush, Agnihotri & Trainor, 2020), as a platform to build relationships and customer engagement (Bocconcelli et al., 2017;Cartwright, Davies & Archer-Brown, 2021) and to use with other resources (Bocconcelli et al., 2017) facilitating collaboration and coordination of processes and innovation (Wang, Pauleen & Zhang, 2016). ...
... However, SM can form part of the knowledge and reputation of the firm enabling the creation of a range of potential value including innovation, collaboration, seamless ordering and logistics, and joint promotions (Drummond et al., 2018). In addition, it is implicit that trust and satisfaction can develop in SM B2B relationships (Agnihotri, 2020), intensifying industrial partnerships (Wang et al., 2016) and allowing the entrepreneurial firm to build a reputation and identity within the network. SM creates B2B customer loyalty in this context (Bill, Feurer & Klarmann, 2020;Rose, Fandel, Saraeva & Dibley, 2021) and hastens relationship and network building (Quinton & Wilson, 2016). ...
... SM offers the potential for multiple actors to co-operate on new activities that created business opportunities for the B2B partners. Although existing research from Wang et al. (2016) discusses SM as a collaborative tool for more effective inter-firm collaboration within smaller firms, in this study, it is part of the product and/or service aspects of what is offered by a group of network actors. SM in the context of the collaboration then becomes part of the 'product' offered by the collaborating SM network actors, the essence of these collaborations not being possible without its creation in a virtual environment. ...
... Correspondingly, existing research concerning brand storytelling propose that storytelling in B2B selling is actively performed by both suppliers and buyers who play an active role in storytelling and value co-creation (Lacoste and La Rocca 2015). Honest voices from savvy buyers help build credibility and transparency around products in ways traditional advertising cannot (Wang, Pauleen, and Zhang 2016). For example, the literature suggests that stories in B2B advertisements were positively related to the decision maker's trust in the supplier, the ability to create personal connections with the supplier, and the tendency to advocate for the supplier (Anaza et al. 2020). ...
... Social media is a marketing tool for B2B. It has a number of merits, including reducing costs, easier access to potential target segments, and the possibility to measure digital marketing activities to a larger extent than offline marketing (Wang, Pauleen, and Zhang 2016). SMEs use Facebook because of its interactive, cost-effective, and compatible features (Wee et al. 2020). ...
... Today, the collection of data on customers and competitors, as well as its accurate and timely analysis (key informative marketing activities), and market segmentation and brand positioning (key strategic marketing activities) are facilitated by the availability of huge amounts of data and new digital technologies, such as big data analytics and customer profiling techniques (Sundararajan et al., 2022). Big data are the data stored in social media (Wang et al., 2016), the cloud/blockchain, customer reviews and websites (Sundararajan et al., 2022). Every digital activity on the Internet/social media and mobile apps that is transmitted through systems, sensors and portable devices produces data (Oztemel and Gursev, 2020). ...
... (1) Customer analysis (digitalization allows businesses to collect vast amounts of data on customers from the cloud/blockchain, social networks, websites, etc. and analyse them with big data analytics and other digital technologies) (Ardito et al., 2019;Wang et al., 2016;Sundararajan et al., 2022). ...
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to present an empirical study that examines the impact of digitalization on informative, strategic and operational marketing activities in manufacturing companies from the entrepreneurial perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
A research project was carried out in 205 Italian manufacturing companies by using the questionnaire method. An exploratory research study was conducted with hierarchical cluster analysis.
Findings
The analysis shows the existence of seven clusters of manufacturing companies that differ by the impact of digitalization on marketing activities from the entrepreneurial perspective. Two clusters have a high positive impact of digitalization, primarily on informative and strategic marketing activities. Two clusters are characterized by a low positive impact of digitalization and three clusters perform an intermediate level of digitalization. Furthermore, these groups of clusters differ in terms of the influence of digitalization on customer value.
Research limitations/implications
The small size of the sample and the geographic origin of the companies imply limited generalizability; further research on the topic is thus recommended.
Practical implications
The study suggests that companies should digitalize many key marketing activities to increase marketing effectiveness and customer value. To achieve high levels of digitalization and thus increase their competitiveness, manufacturing companies should consider the importance of relevant technologies and skills.
Originality/value
By focussing on the impact of digitalization on informative, strategic and operational marketing, which has not yet been empirically investigated, the present study reveals many new elements concerning the marketing process in the digital era from the entrepreneur's point of view.
... Businesses have benefited greatly from the introduction of new social media platforms that are provided with a variety of functionalities such as marketing and sales, education, governance and IT (Kanagarajoo et al., 2019). In many industries, such as marketing, healthcare, banking, insurance, and IT, social media is already an essential communication practice due to its nature of realtime information exchange (Wang et al., 2016). Social media allows organizations to communicate with their diverse stakeholders both internally and externally, and provides a variety of options, consequently utilizing the increased reach (Cardon & Marshall, 2015;Walker & Garrett, 2016). ...
... Social media allows organizations to communicate with their diverse stakeholders both internally and externally, and provides a variety of options, consequently utilizing the increased reach (Cardon & Marshall, 2015;Walker & Garrett, 2016). For businesses, social media platforms are typically used to make corporate statements, share knowledge, and communicate with external stakeholders (Wang et al., 2016). ...
Considering the widespread use of social media throughout many business operations, social media use is a growing field of interest. Studies of professional networks highlight the use of social media for member support, profile and relationship building enabling new dimensions of reach and transparency.Typicial limitating highlights are the threat of leaked information and brand damage. The concept of social media is considered a new age phenomenon that opens up exciting possibilities for collaborative communication. The social media platforms, such as Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, LinkedIn, and WeChat emerge as new-generation collaboration platforms. To date, only a few studies have looked at the context of projects and project management. The purpose of this article is to establish the extent social media as a phenomenon in projects and project management has been captured. The research method followed a Systematic Literature Review strategy but was extended to include a snowball method, including references and citations of the identified articles too. Despite social media's widespread use, the literature review findings reveal that the use of social media for project management is still an understudied field that receives little attention from researchers. However, the parallel literature reveal insights into potential new dynamics that need to be explored in projects. The definitions of social media are still evolving and may refer even in similar contexts to different applications, uses, and expectations. Using social media in projects can be attributed to communication, profile building and knowledge sharing, perceived social presence/ intimacy, real-time/immediacy, and linked cultural context to relationships are emphasized as potential avenues for improved collaboration. Associated benefits are professional profile-and relationship building, greater social presence, and interactions with other team members/ member support, accessibility to information, increased interactions with others, and immediately available, shared, and personalized information. Issues include surveillance, lack of trustworthiness, confidentiality/privacy, information overload and technology used as distraction. To date, the phenomena of social media in projects have only been mentioned in relation to governance with a limited set of applied theories, stakeholder management theory, social exchange theory, and knowledge-based theory. Future research on social media in project management needs to investigate practices around social media in projects empirically to shed light on the implications for project management. The knowledge contribution establishes premises to contextually realize value-adding practices for practitioners and helps navigate this emerging topic in project studies.
... Our framework complements extant knowledge that sheds light on entrepreneurial network development processes (Smith and Lohrke, 2008), branding co-creation processes (Iglesias et al., 2020) network capability development processes (McGrath et al., 2019) and entrepreneurial network-based processes using SM (Drummond et al., 2018;Wang et al., 2016). While the complexity of interfirm B2B relational processes means that no two cases are the same, our analysis suggests that the case entrepreneur and embedded network actors exhibit common patterns in developing organisational identity within networks using SM. ...
... This sharing illustrates both how firms perceive themselves, while also influencing how they are perceived. This, in line with previous literature, strengthened their business relationships and social connectedness (Agnihotri, 2020; Wang et al., 2016). The case entrepreneur and embedded actors shared posts illustrating collective values, important for co-creation and trust (Sundström et al., 2021). ...
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.
... Most of the uses of SM by the b2b companies are done for their internal and external processes through internal use is more than external use. 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. Some barriers come when SM is used in the b2b context, which includes inappropriate measurement of the efficiency of SM, a high priority of the other projects, a lack of proper understanding of the available options, a smaller number of related case studies, etc. Wang et al. (2016) showed the advantages of using SM in b2b context, including increasing involvement of the customers, increased profitability through increased sales, increased customer loyalty, brand awareness, improved relationship with the customers, helping in providing improved customer services. Cawsey and Rowley (2016) added that one of the important advantages of SM is the low-cost coverage and high impact on the target customers at the same time. ...
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.
... Most of the uses of SM by the b2b companies are done for their internal and external processes through internal use is more than external use. 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. Some barriers come when SM is used in the b2b context, which includes inappropriate measurement of the efficiency of SM, a high priority of the other projects, a lack of proper understanding of the available options, a smaller number of related case studies, etc. Wang et al. (2016) showed the advantages of using SM in b2b context, including increasing involvement of the customers, increased profitability through increased sales, increased customer loyalty, brand awareness, improved relationship with the customers, helping in providing improved customer services. Cawsey and Rowley (2016) added that one of the important advantages of SM is the low-cost coverage and high impact on the target customers at the same time. ...
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.
... Such organisations aim to increase their competitive edge by maintaining long-term relationships with crucial business partners, hence developing and growing business relationships is becoming increasingly important (Liu et al., 2021a). Effective business relationships have been shown to be important to firm performance (Wang et al., 2016), competitive advantages (Čater & Čater, 2010), and knowledge creation (Adams & Graham, 2017). B2B relationships have both advantages and downsides (Chowdhury et al., 2016). ...
... In general, (Gandomi & Haider, 2015) analytics refers to the process of discovering unrevealed insights from data, with the goal of developing business knowledge (Wang et al., 2016). The emergence of analytics in CRM supports personalisation and builds engaging relations with customers (de Lima Francisco et al., 2016). ...
... Perceived usefulness has been explored by a variety of studies, for example, in relation to social media marketing, the business-to-business context (Al-Masaeed, 2018;Eid et al., 2019), the banking sector (Alraja & Malkawi, 2015), mobile services (Abbas & Hamdy, 2015), blogging (W. Y. Wang et al., 2016) and the hospitality industry (Leung et al., 2015). Therefore, the following hypothesis is formulated: Hypothesis1: Perceived usefulness has a significant and positive impact on behavioral intentions to adopt social commerce. ...
... The organizational context of the TOE framework is concerned with organizational features that influence the adoption of technology (Bhattacharya & Wamba, 2018), and the business needs to guarantee that the inter-organizational procedures are ready for technology adoption (W. Y. Wang et al., 2016). The present study evaluates two organizational contexts that impact the adoption of social commerce among SMEs: high-level management support and organizational readiness. ...
Aim/Purpose: Social commerce is an emergent topic widely used for product and service sourcing. It helps companies to have frequent interaction with their customers and strive to achieve a competitive advantage. Yet there is only little empirical evidence focusing on social commerce and its adoption in SMEs to date. This study investigates the key factors affecting social commerce adoption in SMEs. This research designed a theoretical model using the Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) Model Background: Despite its rapid growth and usage, social commerce is still in its evolution phase and its current conception is vague and restricted. Therefore, considering the benefits of social commerce for consumers and businesses, it is important to explore the concept of social commerce. Methodology: The research floated a self-administered questionnaire and surveyed 218 Jordanian SME businesses. The data was analyzed using smart PLS and the results were drawn that covers the detail of the characteristics of respondents, study descriptive, results of regressions assumptions, e.g., data normality, reliability, validity, common method biases, and description of the measurement model, followed by the findings of hypothesis analysis. Contribution: This study has many significant contributions to the existing studies on firms’ adoption of social commerce. It indicates that organizational readiness from the organizational perspective and consumer pressure from the environmental dimension of the TOE model are significant influential elements in the adoption of social commerce in business, followed by high-level management support and trading partner pressure, respectively. This shows that organizational readiness to adopt social commerce and consumer pressure has a vital role in Jordanian SMEs’ adopting social commerce. Findings: The results were drawn from a survey of 218 Jordanian SMEs, indicating that organizational readiness from an organizational dimension and consumer pressure environmental perspective, followed by top management’s support and trading partner pressure, significantly predicts the adoption intentions of social commerce. However, perceived usefulness and security concerns from a technological context do not significantly impact behavioral intentions to utilize social commerce. Recommendations for Practitioners: Lack of awareness about new technology and its potential benefits are not well diffused in the Jordanian context. In short, both organizational and environmental dimensions of the TOE framework significantly influence the behavioral intentions for social commerce adoption in the Jordanian context whereas the third-dimension technological factors do not affect the behavioral intentions of SMEs to adopt social commerce. In the technological context, SMEs need to invest in technology and must spread awareness among Jordanian consumers about the potential benefits of technology and must encourage them to use social commerce platforms to interact because of the high significance of social commerce for businesses as it facilitates the quick completion of tasks, enhances the productivity, and improves the chances of high profitability. Recommendation for Researchers: First, the study is limited in scope as it discusses the direct links between the TOE framework, behavioral intentions to use social commerce, and the actual usage of social commerce in the Jordanian context rather than testing the mediation, and moderation. Future research may examine the mediators and moderators in the conceptual model. Second, the research examined the behavioral intentions of SMEs rather than consumers to adopt social commerce. Further research might consider the consumer perspective on social commerce. Impact on Society: This research aims to identify the key factor that impact the behavioral intentions of SME businesses to practice social commerce. The theoretical underpinning of the study lies in the TOE model, as using its basic assumptions the conceptual grounds and hypothesis of the study are developed. Future Research: The study findings are not generalizable in different contexts as it was specifically conducted by gathering data from the Jordanian population. However future studies may consider different contexts, sectors, cultures, or countries to examine the model. Lastly, the research collected data using convenience sampling from 218 SMEs in Jordan, which may create difficulty in the generalizability of the research, so needs to examine a larger sample in future studies.
... In this respect, it becomes apparent that, the use of social media could help in bringing corporate sector work force together to attain a common vision, aim or goal or driving output, pushing the set targets (Henderson and Bowley, 2010). The outcome of this study finds support in prior studies of Henderson and Bowley (2010) and Wang et al. (2016a). ...
... Moreover, the findings support the potency of social media usage in facilitating knowledge transfer enhance communication of essential organizational vision, goals and other matters concerning performance and welfare of organizations. This outcome supports effective deployment and use of social media in organizations as supported by Wang et al. (2016a). ...
Goal: The motivation of this paper is to forge and foster an insightful and comprehensive understanding of social media potential and its possible impact on Ghana Commercial Bank employees’ performance.
Design / Methodology / Approach: Five cities were strategically sampled using convenient sampling technique to represent the various diversifications in corporate compositions. Data was collected from 249 workers of the Ghana Commercial Bank. The study utilized the structural equation modeling technique to construct and evaluate the proposed research model.
Results: Social media usage had a significant positive relationship with employee engagement and knowledge transfer. Knowledge transfer had no significant relationship with work performance and employee engagement had a significant positive relationship with work performance. Experience with social media had a significant moderating effect on relationship between knowledge transfer and work performance.
Research limitations/implications: The study covered employees from one bank and this has implications on generalization. The study used cross sectional data and employed quantitative analysis. Mixed methods would have added some insights and longitudinal data could further unravel causal relationships among overtime.
Practical implications: Social media platform managers and policy makers within the banking sector should proactively harness social media platform and utilize to benefit corporate bodies. Banking authorities and allied stakeholders should train workers to ensure positive inclination to social media usage.
Originality/Value: Contributes to theory by validating and establishing the theoretical model. The findings provide insights with respect to development and subsequent deployment of practical guidelines for successful integration of social media in enterprise activities.
... Some studies have focused on how SMEs use SM for business collaboration [49], customer relationship management (CRM) [50], customer engagement [51], and commercial activities [25]. Other studies have provided insights on how the use of SM for business purposes influences SME's performance [52,53]. Nevertheless, the current research provides very limited insights on relational s-commerce capability and its impact on SMEs performance. ...
... In the context of SMEs, the findings are inconsistent. While Tajvidi and Karami [52] provide evidence that SM use has a positive effect on the growth and profitability of SMEs, Foltean, Trif, and Tuleu [68] did not find a significant relationship between SM and business performance. As several recent studies [48,73] indicated that SM use can improve the performance of SMEs, we hypothesize that: H2: SM use for CRM has a positive impact on business performance. ...
Social media (SM) enables micro, small, and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to improve brand awareness and to engage their audience, which can lead to referrals, repeat business, and increased sales. However, the existing literature offers limited insights into how the ability to leverage SM for commercial activities that are beyond transactions (relational social commerce capability) can affect performance outcomes for SMEs. Drawing on the existing literature and insights from in-depth interviews with six SME managers/owners, we developed a conceptual research model and examined it empirically by using a dataset collected from Slovenian SMEs. This study identifies relational social commerce capability and competitive advantage as important mediators when exploring the impact of SM use on business performance. More specifically, the findings reveal the mediating role of relational social commerce capability between SM use and competitive advantage, while SM use was not found to have a direct impact on competitive advantage. Furthermore, the findings illustrate business performance as a result of the competitive advantage derived from relational s-commerce capability.
... The studies that were cited contend that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use (TAM model), and compatibility (IDT model) would significantly (positively or negatively) impact on the SMEs to adopt SMM [13]. The studies by Wang, Pauleen, and Zhang (2016) [39] and Chatterjee, et al. (2021) [34] have indicated that the use of SMM mechanisms by SMEs has a significantly positive effect on the enhancement of SME businesses. ...
... The studies that were cited contend that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use (TAM model), and compatibility (IDT model) would significantly (positively or negatively) impact on the SMEs to adopt SMM [13]. The studies by Wang, Pauleen, and Zhang (2016) [39] and Chatterjee, et al. (2021) [34] have indicated that the use of SMM mechanisms by SMEs has a significantly positive effect on the enhancement of SME businesses. ...
Thanks to the ongoing expansion of internet access and, most recently, the movement restrictions that were put in place globally to stop COVID-19 spread, many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are prepared to use social media platforms to market their products as a way to improve their business performance in emerging economies. Businesses at all levels that use social media marketing (SMM) see a considerable increase in their output. This study’s objective is to identify the factors that significantly help Ugandan SMEs implement SMM techniques to enhance their commercial performance. Here, statistical models are utilized to analyze how the age and gender of SMEs owners as moderating variables affect the adoption and performance of SMEs in Uganda. A theoretical model that is based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) theories has been put out as part of a specific conceptual framework. The following indicators are used to evaluate the performance of SMEs: sales, customer engagement, awareness of customers’ needs, low operation costs, and brand modification by staff. Empirical model validation has been performed using 152 business units (observation units) corresponding to the number of respondents (units of analysis), and the ensuing analyses have been done using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results indicate that compatibility and perceived ease of use have a positive impact on SMEs to adopt SMM, while perceived usefulness has a negative impact on SMEs to adopt SMM. Age and gender as moderating variables all have a positive moderating effect. With limited studies available on the subject, this research contributes to already existing literature by combining two components of the TAM model and one component of the IDT to explain the impact of SMM on SMEs when moderated by both age and gender in a developing economy.
... The studies that were cited contend that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use (TAM model), and compatibility (IDT model) would significantly (positively or negatively) impact on the SMEs to adopt SMM [13]. The studies by Wang, Pauleen, and Zhang (2016) [39] and Chatterjee, et al. (2021) [34] have indicated that the use of SMM mechanisms by SMEs has a significantly positive effect on the enhancement of SME businesses. ...
... The studies that were cited contend that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use (TAM model), and compatibility (IDT model) would significantly (positively or negatively) impact on the SMEs to adopt SMM [13]. The studies by Wang, Pauleen, and Zhang (2016) [39] and Chatterjee, et al. (2021) [34] have indicated that the use of SMM mechanisms by SMEs has a significantly positive effect on the enhancement of SME businesses. ...
Thanks to the ongoing expansion of internet access and, most recently, the movement
restrictions that were put in place globally to stop COVID-19 spread, many small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) are prepared to use social media platforms to market their products as a way to
improve their business performance in emerging economies. Businesses at all levels that use social
media marketing (SMM) see a considerable increase in their output. This study’s objective is to
identify the factors that significantly help Ugandan SMEs implement SMM techniques to enhance
their commercial performance. Here, statistical models are utilized to analyze how the age and gender
of SMEs owners as moderating variables affect the adoption and performance of SMEs in Uganda. A
theoretical model that is based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Innovation Diffusion
Theory (IDT) theories has been put out as part of a specific conceptual framework. The following
indicators are used to evaluate the performance of SMEs: sales, customer engagement, awareness of
customers’ needs, low operation costs, and brand modification by staff. Empirical model validation
has been performed using 152 business units (observation units) corresponding to the number of
respondents (units of analysis), and the ensuing analyses have been done using structural equation
modelling (SEM). The results indicate that compatibility and perceived ease of use have a positive
impact on SMEs to adopt SMM, while perceived usefulness has a negative impact on SMEs to adopt
SMM. Age and gender as moderating variables all have a positive moderating effect. With limited
studies available on the subject, this research contributes to already existing literature by combining
two components of the TAM model and one component of the IDT to explain the impact of SMM on
SMEs when moderated by both age and gender in a developing economy
... Bu sistemler Lojistik 4.0 kavramının hayatımıza girmesini sağlamıştır. Lojistik 4.0; nesnelerin interneti (IoT), büyük veri (BD), siber-fiziksel sistemler (CPS), bulut bilişim; bilgi işleme ve ağ iletişim teknolojileri vasıtasıyla radyo frekans tanımlama teknolojileri, küresel konumlandırma sistemleri (GPS), robotlar, simülasyon gibi gelişmiş sistemlerin lojistik operasyonlarında kullanılıyor olmasını ifade etmektedir (Wang, 2016;Winkelhaus & Grosse, 2020;Jamkhaneh vd., 2022). Lojistik 4.0'ın temel boyutları ve bu boyutlar ile ilgili hayata geçirilen çözümler Tablo 1'de yer almaktadır. ...
... Nesnelerin İnterneti, Hizmetlerin İnterneti (IoT&S) ve büyük verinin evrimi Lojistik 4.0' ın ana itici güçleridir. Yakın gelecekte tedarik zincirlerinde insan müdahalesinin gerektiği işlerin büyük ölçüde azalması; otomatik kılavuzlu araçların (AGV) ve robotların insanlar tarafından yürütülen süreçlerin yerini alması beklenmektedir (Wang 2016;Demir vd., 2021). ...
İşletmeler arası (B2B) pazarlarda dijital pazarlama stratejilerinin önemli potansiyel barındırdığı gerçeği Covid-19 sonrası yaşanan gelişmeler ile daha iyi anlaşılmıştır. Yaşanan sorunları çözmeye yönelik çabalar sayesinde lojistik pazarlama süreçlerinde dijitalleşme de normal zamanlara göre daha fazla hız kazanmıştır. Kitabın bu bölümünde ilk olarak geleneksel pazarlamadan dijital pazarlamaya geçiş süreci, işletmeden işletmeye (B2B) hizmetlerin de içinde yer aldığı hizmet pazarlamasında dijitalleşme hakkında detaylıca bilgi verilecektir. Daha sonra dijitalleşmenin lojistik endüstrisine olan etkileri incelenerek lojistikteki dijital pazarlama uygulamalarından bahsedilecektir. Dijitalleşme ve Endüstri 4.0 uygulamalarının lojistik sektörüne etkileri mevcut yazında fazlaca ele alınmasına rağmen, bu gelişmelerin lojistikte pazarlama faaliyetlerine etkileri çok fazla incelenmemiştir. Bu sebeple bu bölümün söz konusu alanda özet bir araştırma niteliğinde olmasından dolayı mevcut yazına önemli katkı sağlayacağı düşünülmektedir.
... Opeyemi et al. (2018) demonstrates that applications supporting a country's native language differ across nations; for example, WeChat, accommodating Chinese characters, is the preferred choice in China, while an instant messaging service allowing Hindi text characters is favoured in India. This scenario highlights how modern technology encourages users to select a program aligned with their needs and broader societal norms (Wang, Pauleen & Zhang, 2016). According to Ling and Lai (2016), individuals from different geographical areas tend to use channels that align with their social context. ...
This study investigates the adoption of WhatsApp among Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Buloba, Wakiso district, Uganda, and its impact on business performance as a means to help attain some aspects of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The research reveals a high level of WhatsApp adoption, particularly in skilled usage, platform following, customer engagement, product marketing, and customer ordering. Positive correlations between WhatsApp adoption and SME performance indicate its potential role in enhancing business outcomes. Multiple regression analysis demonstrates that approximately 20.6% of SME performance variance is explained by WhatsApp adoption, with customer engagement showing a marginally significant positive relationship. The findings emphasize the role of WhatsApp, especially in customer engagement, for SME success. Recommendations include prioritizing customer engagement, providing SME training, and further research to delve into specific influencing factors. The study contributes valuable insights into the budding landscape of SMEs in Buloba, emphasizing the need for strategic use of WhatsApp for sustained business success.
... The results indicated that it is possible to leverage and support innovation processes through social media. Wang et al. (2016) suggest that social media have positive effects on communication, collaboration, innovation, and performance. Thus, it is hypothesized that: ...
Objetivo: Este artigo examina o papel dos controles culturais e das mídias sociais na inovação organizacional em startups. De forma complementar, analisa o possível efeito moderador da criatividade individual na relação entre mídias sociais e inovação organizacional. Método: Uma survey foi realizada com 110 gestores de startups incubadas em incubadoras brasileiras. Para a análise dos dados foi utilizada a técnica de modelagem de equações estruturais por mínimos quadrados parciais. Resultados: Os resultados demonstram que os controles culturais não apresentam efeitos diretos na inovação organizacional, porém, efeitos indiretos são encontrados. Por sua vez, as mídias sociais revelam exercer papel mediador nesta relação, além de efeito direto na inovação organizacional. Em contraste, a criatividade individual não demonstra efeito moderador na relação entre mídias sociais e inovação organizacional. Contribuições: Os achados contribuem para a literatura ao demonstrar empiricamente possíveis impulsionadores da inovação organizacional, com destaque para as mídias sociais que demonstrou interferir na magnitude da relação entre controle cultural e inovação organizacional e efeito direto na inovação organizacional. Esta descoberta tem importantes implicações na prática gerencial em ambientes que tem no cerne de sua existência a inovação, como no caso de startups, visto que proporciona uma melhor compreensão do papel das mídias sociais na promoção da inovação.
... However, the relationship between differentiation-oriented content and customer engagement in social media campaigns has not yet been made public. According to Wang et al. (2016), higher online engagement with social media content is found to be a source of a number of favorable outcomes, including purchase intentions. However, a review of the literature indicates that the moderating impact of a few relevant variables on the aforementioned relationship has not yet been fully revealed. ...
Purpose
This research aimed to investigate the mediating role of social media engagement in the relationship between differentiation-oriented content and purchase intentions. Additionally, this research studies the moderating impact of entrepreneurial social media skills in the relationship between social media engagement and purchase intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
The research proposes a positivist research philosophy, deductive research approach and survey research strategy. Data were collected from followers of social media pages of small and medium businesses operating in the fields of groceries, food items, apparel and supplies in Pakistan. Respondents were selected randomly. The descriptive statistics were calculated first, followed by reliability and validity analysis as part of the measurement model. Finally, mediation and moderation analyses were run by using structural equation modeling.
Findings
Results of the study confirm that differentiation-oriented content has a positive relationship with purchase intentions and social media engagement mediates this relationship. Results further confirm that the social media skills of entrepreneurs moderate the relationship between social media engagement and purchase intentions.
Practical implications
From a practical point of view, this study will potentially help entrepreneurs in Pakistan unveil the undiscovered potential of social media and understand the importance of social media marketing campaigns in crisis situations. It will unlock the importance of entrepreneurial training and development to better adapt to the dynamic and vibrant world of social media.
Originality/value
This is the first study that investigates the relationship between differentiation-oriented content and purchase intentions. Additionally, the current study adds to existing knowledge by proposing entrepreneurial social media skills as moderators in the relationship of social media engagement with purchase intentions.
... Digital marketing memiliki beberapa bentuk, seperti content marketing (Jose S.V. & Markose, 2021), pemasaran media sosial (W. Y. C. Wang et al., 2016), search engine optimization (SEO), bayar per klik (PPC) (Karjaluoto & Leinonen, 2009), pemasaran afiliasi, otomatis pemasaran, dan pemasaran email (Goic et al., 2021). ...
The study aims to examine the effect of digital marketing and e-service quality on purchase intention through Blibli’s customer relationship management in Surabaya. The quantitative method of research equipped with the main instrument a questionnaire survey to the owner of the Blibli account was conducted. This research sampling technique is non-probability sampling with a purposive sampling technique. The sample used in this study amounted to 164 respondents. The sample criteria determined are, Blibli account users over 17 years of age, domiciled in the entire city of Surabaya. This study uses structural equation modeling (SEM) data analysis techniques. Data processing is done using SmartPLS software. The results of this study indicate that digital marketing and e-service quality have a significant positive effect on purchase intention in the e-marketplace through Blibli’s customer relationship management in Surabaya, with a 0.781 score of R2 or reached 78% accuracy level between theoretical background, research framework, and methodology. Penelitian bertujuan menguji pengaruh digital marketing dan e-service quality terhadap purchase intention melalui customer relationship management Blibli di Surabaya. Metode kuantitatif dengan instrumen kuesioner diimplementasikan pada survei terhadap sejumlah pemilik akun Blibli. Teknik pengambilan sampel penelitian ini adalah non probability sampling dengan teknik purposive sampling. Sampel yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini sejumlah 164 responden. Kriteria sampel yang ditentukan, yaitu pengguna akun Blibli berusia di atas 17 tahun domisili seluruh kota Surabaya. Penelitian ini menggunakan teknik analisis data Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Pengolahan data dilakukan menggunakan software SmartPLS. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa digital marketing dan e-service quality berpengaruh positif signifikan terhadap purchase intention pada e-marketplace melalui customer relationship management Blibli di Surabaya, dengan R2 0,781 yang berarti akurasi antara teori, model, dan metodologi penelitian ini tercapai sebesar 78%.
... MNEs typically have a deeper understanding of social media metrics and analytics (Gao et al. 2018). Furthermore, enterprise social media use within MNEs allows for greater potential internal information flows and knowledge transfer capacities (Paniagua, Korzynski and Mas-Tur 2017 Inversely, within local firms, social media use offers distinct benefits for outreach and collaboration with customers (Wang, Pauleen and Zhang 2016). Social media is advantageous for local firms seeking to identify business opportunities or increase customer engagement (Fraccastoro, Gabrielsson and Pullins 2021). ...
Salespeople are increasingly required to navigate an international environment - having international customers or international peers. However, much remains to be learned about how salespeople are utilizing social media in an international context. This multi-method, multi-study design contributes to international sales research by showing how business-to-business (B2B) salespeople use social media whether they are in a multinational or local firm. With a social capital lens, the authors explore the importance of social media in regards to strengthening salespeople’s internal and external connections in an international context. In Study 1, with 131 B2B salespeople, salespeople use social media to develop customer relations (i.e., external connections) to engage in positive publicity and social media advocacy, ultimately leading to sales performance. Specifically, social media advocacy enhances sales performance only for salespeople in multinationals. In Study 2, with twenty-three qualitative interviews, the authors contextualize the findings of Study 1 by comparing social media use amongst salespeople in MNEs and local firms. The basis of the exploration involves internal and external connections with the three dimensions of social capital: structural, relational, and cognitive. The authors demonstrate that internal connections with peers on social media allows for increased knowledge transfer and other benefits.
... Based on previous studies, there are several factors that are believed to be antecedents in the use of social media for MSMEs. These factors are trust (Hamdani, 2018;Deelmann, 2018), cost effectiveness (Chong and Chan, 2012;Constantinides et al. 2010;Fischer and Reuber, 2011), compatibility (Ainin et al. 2015;Wang et al. 2016) and top management support (Hwang et al. 2012;Matikiti et al. 2018). These research investigate the factors that influence the motivation of MSMEs in adopting and using social media with the overall performance outcome variables of MSMEs. ...
The use of social media for MSMEs is needed so that MSMEs can compete and survive, especially during a pandemic. The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of trust factors, cost-effectiveness, compatibility, and top management support on the financial and non-financial performance of South Tangerang MSMEs. Data was collected through an online questionnaire using Google Docs. Research variables were measured using a Likert scale. Data processed using descriptive analysis and top two boxes and bottom two boxes. The data that has been processed then analyzed using the Structural Equation Model (SEM). The results of the study found that there were 2 variables that influenced financial and non-financial performance. The compatibility variable has a positive and significant effect on the financial and non-financial performance of MSMEs. Social media can adapt to the needs and business practices of MSMEs which have proven to be a consideration for small business actors in their use. The top management support variable has a positive and significant effect on the non-financial performance of MSMEs. The existence of support from top management for the use of social media in MSMEs affects non-financial performance such as helping relationships with customers and supporting service activities. Based on the test, it found empirical evidence of the effect of compatibility on the financial and non-financial performance of MSMEs and the effect of top management support on the non-financial performance of MSMEs. Keywords: COVID-19, financial performance, MSMEs, non-financial performance, social media
... The emergence of social media has benefited both consumers and businesses, allowing brands to engage and communicate with their audience in unprecedented ways (Meske and Stieglitz, 2013). SMEs particularly benefit from social media marketing due to its costeffectiveness and adaptability for marketing and new product development (Wang et al., 2016). By leveraging social media technologies, SMEs can effectively communicate with customers, support internal communication and enhance collaboration (Susanto et al., 2023). ...
Purpose
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a major source of employment and revenue growth in developing nations like India, but they also face challenges from resource shortages, shifting consumer demand and heightened competition. This research aims to discover the aspects that enhance SMEs' competitiveness and performance.
Design/methodology/approach
By analyzing literature and consulting experts, 10 factors that boost a firm's competitiveness were identified. The total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) method was then used to determine their interaction and structural hierarchy. Neutrosophic-MICMAC analysis was employed to assess the driving-dependence power of each factor.
Findings
The study discovered that the factor, namely “entrepreneurial orientation,” was found to be a significant one. “Manufacturing strategy” was found to be extremely dependent on the remaining competitive advantage factors.
Research limitations/implications
This SME-focused framework can be adopted by large businesses to enhance organizational performance by focusing on critical factors. The study depends on experts' judgment, which might be biased. Findings will assist SMEs in identifying significant factors influencing competitive advantage and relationships, increasing awareness of factors contributing to competitive edge.
Practical implications
The results of the research may encourage SME sector managers and practitioners to prioritize the factors that contribute to a firm's competitive advantage.
Originality/value
The majority of research on SME competitive advantage focuses on individual aspects. To add to the body of knowledge on the subject, this study applies the TISM technique to Indian SMEs to identify the contextual interactions among factors that increase long-term competitiveness.
... However, concerns about privacy issues, data accuracy, and the digital divide have been raised, especially in marginalized communities (Wang, Pauleen, & Zhang, 2016). ...
This dissertation delves into the transformative effects of integrating citizen science within pre-service science teacher education, utilizing real-time mobile air quality monitoring as a key tool for scientific engagement. Through a qualitative case study research design, this study meticulously examines the progression of understanding, attitudes, and competence among 12 pre-service science teachers engaged in the course. Data is collected via various methods, including pre-and post-course interviews, a range of validated scales, focus group interviews, detailed course and online platform usage observations, and scoring of research reports. This multiplicity of data sources ensures a robust and comprehensive understanding of the rich learning experiences involved. Many methods and strategies were rigorously applied to ensure the transferability, credibility, and trustworthiness of the research.
Findings demonstrate a notable enhancement in the citizen science skills of participants. This is exemplified by an increased understanding of scientific concepts, particularly those on-air quality and environmental science. Simultaneously, there is an observable improvement in their attitudes toward science and the environment, indicating a heightened awareness and concern for environmental issues. Moreover, the participants exhibit enhanced competence in utilizing technology for teaching, thus illustrating the successful integration of technological tools within the educational process. This study underlines the potential of intertwining technology and citizen science in teacher education, highlighting its profound implications for molding future science educators. It concludes that the innovative use of real-time mobile air quality monitoring can be a potent catalyst for developing citizen science skills of pre-service science teachers, creating a more environmentally literate and technologically adept generation of educators.
... Moreover, it was one of the few studies in the analysis of SM use's impact at the organisational level. Wang et al. (2016) identified that SM's usage results in an improvement of the OP in the business-to-business context, improving communication. However, the authors stressed that information security is a fundamental challenge for increased use and, consequently, for improving OP. ...
Knowledge in organisations is seen as a source of competitive advantage. Organisations have used social media (SM) as a communication tool due to benefits of this use for knowledge management (KM). SM is expected to optimise KM processes, increasing organisational performance (OP). This study aims to analyse the impact of SM use on KM processes and OP. Through a survey, data were collected from 325 respondents. The results show that the use of SM impacts the OP and that the processes of acquisition, conversion, and application of knowledge support this relationship. However, the impact of knowledge protection on OP was not significant and did not mediate SM use. The research model contributes to KBV by understanding SM use's impact on KM processes and these processes in OP. This study's results indicate the need for future studies to understand why the relationship between knowledge protection and OP has not been confirmed.
... Social media have changed the way in which consumers interact and relate to brands and to each other. It deepened consumer-brand interactions (Vohra & Bhardwaj, 2019), becoming a crucial tool in buyer-seller communication (Wang, Pauleen, & Zhang, 2016). This dialogue is not just between brand-consumers but in consumer-consumer interactions (Hook, Baxter, & Kulczynski, 2018). ...
A decreasing trend in young people's recreational reading habits has been observed worldwide. On the other hand, young people's daily use of social media has increased dramatically in recent years. With this evolution, different literary communities and influencers also emerged on social media. It is necessary to understand the motivations that lead users to engage in social media to maintain an active and involved community. Researchers have already discussed a core set of motivations to participate in online communities. However, most studies focus on brand communities, and few analyze literary communities' specific cases. There are various motivations for participating in communities. However, we highlight the social motivations (meeting people, being part of the community, sharing information, listening to other opinions) and hedonic ones (because participating in them is a pleasant, fun, enjoyable activity). Engagement in social media can be measured through a passive attitude of lurkers who only see published content or an active attitude when users comment and publish content on social media, generating discussion and interaction in the community. On the other hand, some studies in other areas show that intention and propensity to purchase can be affected by many factors, such as social and hedonic motivations. Could also these motivations influence intention to purchase books? This study aims to study the influence of hedonic and social motivations to participate in literary communities on social media engagement and book purchase intention. A quantitative methodology was used, with a sample of N= 272 female participants in literary communities on social media. The data was analyzed through the modeling of structural equations by the AMOS software. Results show that social motivations are positively related to the level of engagement in literary communities on social media. Additionally, this study revealed that hedonic motivations influence book purchase intention.
... Most of the existing research on digital marketing is from the company's perspective, examining how companies can improve their digital marketing capabilities to attract consumers [9][10][11][12], but very little research has investigated the consumer's perspective. Tang et al. [13] investigated the use of an Internet-of-Things (IoT)-based information system in Logistics 4.0. ...
Interior design industries have evolved to adopt advanced digital and interactive virtual reality (IVR) technologies for promotion. Marketing using a platform with a virtual interior design feature is an approach that enables not only the building up of a positive image for an interior design firm but also allows customers to experience home design intuitively on the digital platform. This study researched the relationship between the three factors of aesthetics, ease of use, and information quality in digital marketing and consumer satisfaction. Data from 120 respondents were collected via the internet. The results generated from structural equation modelling indicated that the above factors positively influence customer satisfaction with a digital platform empowered with the IVR interior design. It was found that information quality has the most influence among the three factors. Despite numerous scholars having conducted in-depth research on digital marketing, existing research lacks a consumer perspective for examining what factors have the most significant impact on consumers. Moreover, relatively little work has been conducted to determine the customer’s perceptions towards the digital marketing approach using virtual interior design and its interactive features. A theoretical model for interactive virtual interior design features for digital marketing is thus proposed.
... In line with (Omar et al., 2020) that the dimensions that measure digital marketing positively affect business performance thereby helping business development towards a more effective system. Wang , Pauleen and Zhang (2016) suggest that companies can improve relationships with their consumers through social media to improve business performance (Cacciolatti & Lee, 2016) Because social media can be used as a platform to be able to communicate with consumers, influencing one another. ...
The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of entrepreneurial-focused street food and beverage vendors, as well as their pricing and promotion plans in the new normal era. 128 street vendors were selected as the sample based on the findings of the research questionnaire distribution using the incidental sampling technique. This study uses causality with multiple linear regression analysis as an explanatory approach. The results of the study found that the success of street vendors in the new normal era was positively and significantly influenced by entrepreneurial orientation, promotion strategies, and pricing strategies. Even though many traders cannot continue their business, these findings provide support for street vendors who are able to survive in conditions related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since prices have not changed, they are still quite distinctive to customers, and street vendors have acted practically without realizing that they can adapt their strategy to concentrate on maintaining customer loyalty. This study recommends that street vendors continue to provide their customers or consumers with the best service. It is perfect for consumers who use their products frequently, and offers the best customer service, encouraging them to continue buying their products.
... In this context, manufacturing firms can utilize social media to achieve organizational success; for instance, social media usage contributes to firm sustainable performance (Abbas et al., 2019;Jibril et al., 2019;Korcsmáros & Csinger, 2022;Rialp-Criado & Rialp-Criado, 2018). Therefore, it is crucial to explore the association between social media and SME manufacturing firms' performance (Wang et al., 2016;Foltean et al. 2019). According to Braojos-Gomez et al. (2015), social media must be a fundamental part of an organization's strategy due to its innovativeness, which ultimately leads to improved business performance. ...
The changing trend in the circular economy has pushed most firms to be competitive in their business activities using emerging technology. SMEs in recent times are increasingly leveraging technologies such as social media to enhance their interactions with their customers, increase their reach and become competitive. Despite this, SMEs in the manufacturing sector in developing economies are often underexplored in literature in their resolve to leverage social media to improve their performance and sustainability. This research explores the integration of social media in SME manufacturing firms’ activities toward their performance and sustainability in developing countries. Drawing on relevant literature and the social media engagement theory, we employed a questionnaire survey to collect data from 417 managers/staff of SME manufacturing firms in Ghana, using PLS-SEM techniques for the analysis. Research findings revealed that social media integration proved a direct positive correlation with SME manufacturing firms’ performance. Additionally, it was revealed that social media utilization has a positive and significant effect on SME manufacturing firms’ performance. The findings further show that social media usage assists SME firms’ performance and fosters their sustainability. It is concluded that SMEs should incorporate social media marketing strategies for firms’-customer relationships and internal and external collaboration. By implication, this study offers practitioners and researchers knowledge regarding social media integration among SMEs in emerging economies.
... Moreover, it was one of the few studies in the analysis of SM use's impact at the organisational level. Wang et al. (2016) identified that SM's usage results in an improvement of the OP in the business-to-business context, improving communication. However, the authors stressed that information security is a fundamental challenge for increased use and, consequently, for improving OP. ...
Knowledge in organisations is seen as a source of competitive advantage. Organisations have used social media (SM) as a communication tool due to benefits of this use for knowledge management (KM). SM is expected to optimise KM processes, increasing organisational performance (OP). This study aims to analyse the impact of SM use on KM processes and OP. Through a survey, data were collected from 325 respondents. The results show that the use of SM impacts the OP and that the processes of acquisition, conversion, and application of knowledge support this relationship. However, the impact of knowledge protection on OP was not significant and did not mediate SM use. The research model contributes to KBV by understanding SM use’s impact on KM processes and these processes in OP. This study’s results indicate the need for future studies to understand why the relationship between knowledge protection and OP has not been confirmed.
... The creation of new multi-stakeholder innovation for sustainability hubs supports, connects, and allows companies to recover and pivot beyond the COVID-19 pandemic (Rowan & Galanakis, 2020). Social media advertisement is a valuable tool in promoting products and services, but companies may have to consider enhancing their security features, specifically for business-to-business (B2B) transactions (Wang, Pauleen, & Zhang, 2016). ...
... Process innovation is the launching of a new or unique production method, the key to a firm's level of competitiveness as an entity can experience higher efficiencies in the production process and improved product quality and features (Flaig & Stadler, 1994). Wang, Pauleen, and Zhang (2016) proposed extracting principle innovation know-how from process patents to back systematic process innovation in manufacturing. The proposed method categorizes process patents through process methods, using manufacturing objects and feature reference points. ...
The researcher formulated four objectives and related hypotheses to guide the present study. In
particular, the study investigates bank-imposed conditions and the business environment's three
different effects on firm performance. These are the direct, indirect, and conditional effects,
particularly on small and medium-sized firms in Kenya over three years. The indirect effect
is through two factors, namely external finance requirements and innovation activity level. Still,
BE and BIC’s indirect and conditional effects stem from three moderators: ownership type,
firm age, and owner-manager perception of future finance availability. Structural equation
modelling through the R program and Process Macro Pathway Analysis tests the study’s
hypotheses.
... Testing of hypotheses 7 and 8 also has a P-value <0.01 with a value of 0.76 and Hypothesis 8 of 0.75, meaning that technology adoption has a positive effect both on improving SMES brand performance and SMES financial performance (H7 and H8 are supported). The results of this study are in line with the findings in the study of (Narangajavana Kaosiri et al. 2019;Wang et al. 2016;Abbad et al. 2022) which states that social commerce technologies such as Facebook have a positive impact on customer-oriented processes then affect brand performance and financial performance. The summary of hypothesis testing can be seen in the Table 2. ...
Currently, the shift in consumer behavior has led to an increase in the average value of purchase transactions. This is an opportunity for SMEs to take advantage of the digital space for business acceleration. This study aims to explore the technological, organizational, and environmental (TOE) framework as a driving factor technological adoption. Technological factors used in this study are the benefits obtained and utilized. Then, the organizational factors tested in this study are top management support and knowledge of IT/IS employees and the last environmental factor is customer pressure and competitive pressure. This study uses a quantitative approach and survey methods to 144 SMEs. The findings in this study are perceived advantage, top management support and customer pressure have positive effect on technology adoption and have an effect on SMEs performance both on financial performance and brand performance.
Keywords: SMEs, social commerce, technological, organization and environmental (TOE)
... Other studies concentrate on the adoption of social media platforms. While SMEs might lack the legal, human, and technological resources to adapt social media platforms (Wang, Pauleen, & Zhang, 2016), the successful application of social media platforms by SMEs depends on business model innovation and leadership structure in the SMEs (Brink, 2017). The application of these platforms also helps improve B2B SMEs' digital marketing performance (Setkute & Dibb, 2022). ...
Drawing on the SDL perspective whereby platforms are seen as multi-layered modular structures, our work adopts a case study approach to investigate how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can leverage AI platforms to integrate AI Technologies. A digital platform headquartered in China was selected for our research. Twenty-one interviews were conducted with the managers of the platform company, platform user companies, and external module providers. Our findings identify three layers of the AI platform where interactions between platform users and the platform take place. We further identify six roles adopted by these users and highlight the mechanisms of their interactions with the platform. Our findings further explore the conditional factors relating to these interactions, namely, knowledge (operational, functional, and technological), organizational processes, and access to external data. With these findings, our study contributes to the platform literature by highlighting its multi-layer architecture. Our study also contributes to the literature on service platforms by describing five types of interactions experienced by platform users when leveraging platforms. Finally, we contribute to the literature on SME AI adoption by revealing the role of platforms in the process.
Purpose
Integrating transaction costs economics and task-technology fit theory, this study distinguishes two categories of social media–enabled interactions, namely task-related interactions and tie-related interactions, and explores the match between these two and firms' use of contracts in achieving safeguarding and coordinating purposes in interfirm governance.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. In Study 1, this study collaborated with a professional market research firm and collected responses from Chinese manufacturing firms in a survey. In Study 2, this study designed a scenario-based experiment and collected 239 participants from the Credamo platform.
Findings
This study categorized social media–enabled interactions into task-related interactions and tie-related interactions and conducted two studies to reveal that the safeguarding purpose of contract specificity is amplified by tie-related interactions, whereas the coordinating purpose of contract specificity is strengthened by task-related interactions.
Research limitations/implications
This study assumes that firms permit and encourage the use of social media. However, some firms might prohibit the use of social media due to risk issues, or their partners may be prohibited from using social media.
Practical implications
Given that social media–enabled interactions have joint effects with contracts in achieving safeguarding and coordinating purposes, a firm's employees should match their goals with an appropriate type of social media–enabled interactions.
Originality/value
This study enriches the interfirm governance literature by uncovering the roles of these two types of interactions in matching contract specificity to achieve safeguarding and coordinating purposes, which provides actionable insights for managers in governing interfirm relationships.
Customers turn to social media to find brands and make purchases from them. This study attempts to investigate the impact of social media on customer behavior using a quantitative approach to obtain a deep understanding of this phenomenon. An online questionnaire was distributed to the listed small businesses in Hyderabad, Telangana State, India via their emails. Data of self-administered questionnaire of small businesses for 197 participants were accomplished. Descriptive and inferential statistics are applied to the variables under study. Direct Connect, Trust, Customers' Satisfaction, Interaction, Customers' Value and Customers' Preferences are used as determinants of Customer Behavior in this study. Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Discriminant Validity and Hypothesis testing are used in the practical analysis to examine the impact of social media on the determinants of customer behavior. The results show that social media has a positive significant impact on the all involved variables (constructs) i.e., Direct Connect, Trust, Customers' Satisfaction, Interaction, Customers' Value and Customers' Preferences. Obviously, small businesses still have a need to gain more knowledge about how to engage social media into their marketing strategies. Key Words: Social Media, Customer Behavior, Small Businesses, Direct Connect, Trust, Customers' Satisfaction, Interaction, Customers' Value and Customers' Preferences.
In this comprehensive meta-analysis study, we investigate the potential moderating effect of culture on the intricate interplay between ethical leadership and individual-level organizational performance. Our analysis is based on a global collection of studies conducted across diverse regions including Asia, Europe, North America, and other regions. Systematically reviewing the literature, we identified a substantial body of primary studies exploring the relationship between ethical leadership and individual-level organizational performance within the timeframe of 2011 to 2021. These studies span across 28 countries, with select studies encompassing multiple countries, contributing to a total of 86 studies and 127 effect sizes, collectively involving 53,761 individuals. Our findings reveal a significant positive association between ethical leadership and heightened organizational performance. Notably, our analysis indicates that this relationship remains consistent and robust across diverse cultural contexts, as culture does not moderate the observed connection.
Purpose
This study aims to empirically examine the factors that affect mobile loyalty (m-loyalty) and its influence on customer reuse intention towards mobile instant messaging services. This study identified measurement items to assess the business users and individual users reuse intention towards mobile instant messaging services and test the relationship in the conceptual model. This study bridges a literature gap focusing on m-loyalty and its impact on customer reuse intention, which has not received attention previously.
Design/methodology/approach
To evaluate the influence of the factors, this study identified and extracted the items from past literature to develop the survey instrument. This study surveyed 600 respondents including business users and individual users from the Delhi-National Capital Region of India and applied the structural equation modelling to test the conceptual model.
Findings
The results revealed that satisfaction and m-loyalty have a direct effect on the business users and individual users’ reuse intention of mobile instant messaging services. This study found that satisfaction, usability, perceived value, commitment, trust and m-loyalty influence on business users reuse intention. This study indicate that enjoyment has an insignificant relationship on m-loyalty for business users followed by usability and enjoyment has an insignificant relationship on m-loyalty for individual users. Further, female gender does not moderate the relationship between satisfaction and business users reuse intention. The cognitive absorption and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) theories supported evaluating the association between the factors in the context of business and individual users reuse intention of mobile instant messaging service.
Research limitations/implications
The empirical findings imply that all the factors except enjoyment have directly influenced the business users reuse intention of mobile instant messaging. The significant influence of usability factor on the business users reuse intention towards mobile instant messaging is the major variation between the validated models of business and individual samples. The results of influencing factors of m-loyalty and its impact on customer reuse intention are associated with cognitive absorption and the UTAUT theories.
Practical implications
Focus on these factors can be beneficial for the business users, managers, mobile instant messaging service providers and application developers to increase customer loyalty and reuse intention for the mobile instant messaging services. This research will facilitate mobile instant messaging service providers to keep their services market relevant and focus on user satisfaction in building applications for loyalty.
Originality/value
This research identified measurement items from earlier literature to identify, analyze and verify the relevance of these factors in m-loyalty and customer reuse intention of mobile instant messaging services and fill the gap in customer reuse intention of mobile instant messaging services literature.
Team creativity can be strongly affected by communication. With the trend of online collaboration, the design of communication tools increasingly affects different creative processes of teams working online. To clarify this effect, this study took the perspective of affordances and reviewed 54 papers to map the needs of teams, the design of communication tools, and the effects of tools on creativity in different creative stages. First, we summarized teams’ requirements for communication tools in different stages. Second, we identified key affordances with relevant features. Third, we discussed how these affordances could affect communication and team creativity in different stages and built a mapping of creative teams’ needs and communication tools. The mapping can provide insights for both designing communication tools for creative teams and expanding the current team creativity theories to fit the online context and new communication technologies.KeywordsCommunicationCommunication ToolsTeam CreativityCreative ProcessOnline Collaboration
Social media and digital networks have gradually changed how firms sell themselves. In a world where technology is permeating society more and more, understanding how sales teams use business-to-business (B2B) markets can provide insight into the motivations driving the selling process. In the three crucial stages of the B2B sales process, this study investigates how global SMEs use traditional, digital, and social media sales communication methods. The paper's use of grounded theory shows how social media may be quite effective in luring clients from outside. The effective phase appears to be where digital communication tools are most common, whereas customer relationship management still favours more conventional communication methods. Nevertheless, certain important potential boundary circumstances, like relationship culture and closeness to a location, technology, the strategic value of the consumer, creativity, and capital, appear to have an impact on how international SMEs employ a range of communication channels when conducting business. To assist foreign SMEs with their sales communication, designers provide a method for understanding the flow of the B2B sales process.
In this paper, we reviewed 126 papers published in 13 top journals in information systems from 2008 to 2022 that focused on the adoption of social networking sites (SNS) and its consequences. The paper presents a summary of the literature review. The literature review indicated that most scholars studied the adoption and the consequences of SNS adoption in silos. Human behavior is complex. Skinnerian behaviorism posits that human behavior is triggered by environmental stimulus and reinforced by an appraisal of consequences to the behavior. It evinces a need for the development of an integrative framework to model the stimulus for adoption of SNS and an appraisal of the reinforcement of the consequences of adoption in a single frame. We analyze the associated constructs and theories to propose the integrative Social Networking Site Exploitation Framework (SNSEF), based on reinforcement theory, social psychology, and social capital theory. The SNSEF constitutes nine propositions to explain human motivations and behavior that leads to value creation on SNS. SNS providers will find the framework useful to assess human motivations of SNS usage and the value generation from the sites to design appropriate features of their sites to attract and retain active users. The SNSEF will help educational and business organizations as well as governmental agencies in designing appropriate policies for SNS adoption and exploiting SNS for communication. Business managers and marketers may leverage the SNSEF to understand user behavior on SNS to attain business goals. Academic scholars may gain from the literature review, propositions of the SNSEF, and the future research directions presented in this paper.
The chapter addresses how small-scale enterprises fundamentally use social media to leave a footmark of their brand and have a direct mode of interaction with customers. The chapter indicates the need for SMEs to develop a social media roadmap to come up with user-friendly ideologies and use of relevant social media platforms to cater to the needs of customers. The chapter also discusses the varied social media platforms that have become an integral part of the marketing function for SMEs and play an impeccable role in successful campaigns with the sole motive of adding value to a brand face. The chapter also provides some managerial guidelines to use social media marketing in the marketing function of SMEs.
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.
Improving the digital citizenship of secondary vocational students is critical for cultivating vocational talents in education. It is an inevitable requirement for modernizing vocational education. Focusing on social media competence, this study explores possible ways to improve the digital citizenship of secondary vocational students. A total of 469 secondary vocational students in Wuhan city, Hubei province, were investigated using questionnaires. The data analysis shows that the four dimensions of social media competence (technical use, content interpretation, content generation, and anticipatory reflection) significantly predict digital citizenship. On this basis, we propose four paths for improving the digital citizenship of secondary vocational students: creating a suitable environment for secondary vocational students to apply their skills in information technology; enhancing the ability of secondary vocational students to discriminate about information on the Internet; improving students’ interpersonal communication ability when dealing with technical support; building an early warning system for secondary vocational students’ behavioral perception.
Zagadnienia poruszane w niniejszej monografii dotyczą roli jaką obecnie odgrywa Internet oraz tzw. nowe media w działaniach marketingowych szkół wyższych w Polsce i na Ukrainie. Zmiany we współczesnym marketingu, jego postępująca transformacja cyfrowa stanowią tematykę niezwykle szeroką i dynamiczną. Równolegle na te procesy nakładają się również przemiany w szkolnictwie wyższym obserwowane zarówno z perspektywy globalnej, jak i narodowej. Tak zdefiniowany obszar badawczy wskazał autorowi lukę badawczą, której fragmentaryczne wypełnienie jest głównym celem tej książki.
Praca składa się z sześciu rozdziałów. Rozdział pierwszy ma charakter teoretyczno-empiryczny. Punktem początkowym rozważań jest problematyka przemian idei uniwersytetu w perspektywie wyzwań współczesności. W dalszej kolejności poruszono kwestie zarządzania szkołą wyższą w ujęciu teoretycznym, których istotnym elementem są działania marketingowe. Tej tematyce poświęcono kolejny podrozdział, omawiając zagadnienia związane z marketingiem i zarządzaniem marketingowym szkół wyższych. Poszerzeniem spektrum prowadzonych w pierwszym rozdziale rozważań były zagadnienia zarządzania wiedzą w organizacjach oraz rozwój technologii informacyjnych i komunikacyjnych (ICT) w świetle wielowymiarowości współczesnego zarządzania. Zakończenie rozdziału pierwszego stało się przyczynkiem do analizy tematyki cyfrowej transformacji marketingu.
Rozdział drugi ma charakter teoretyczny i został oparty w całości o studia literatury przedmiotu. Przedstawiono w nim podstawowe informacje na temat marketingu internetowego. Omówiono jego genezę i oddziaływanie na współczesny marketing, następnie przedstawiono modele komunikacji marketingowej online, co było wstępem do rozważań na temat komunikacji marketingowej w Internecie. Rozdział ten zakończono omówieniem ewolucji koncepcji marketingowych w odniesieniu do rozwoju nowoczesnych technologii komunikacji masowej.
Rozdziały trzeci i czwarty mają charakter teoretyczno-empiryczny. Autor dążył do nadania im aplikacyjnego charakteru, dlatego najwięcej miejsca poświęcono na przedstawienie przykładów działań marketingowych uczelni (polskich w rozdziale trzecim i ukraińskich w rozdziale czwartym), ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem Internetu. Omówiono m.in. reklamę, public relations, content marketing, promocję uzupełniającą, targi edukacyjne, targi pracy, drzwi otwarte, sponsoring, marketing w wyszukiwarkach oraz w mediach społecznościowych. W każdym z rozdziałów zamieszczono również ogólne charakterystyki szkolnictwa wyższego w badanych krajach.
Rozdział piąty ma charakter empiryczny i został poświęcony analizie porównawczej praktycznego wykorzystania Internetu w działaniach marketingowych szkół wyższych w Polsce i na Ukrainie. Tę część badań przeprowadzono dzięki współpracy autora z naukowcami z Katedry Zarządzania Organizacjami Uniwersytetu Narodowego „Politechnika Lwowska”. W rozdziale tym dokonano charakterystyki przedmiotu badań oraz zakresu danych empirycznych, następnie przedstawiono hipotezy oraz metodologię badań. W jego zasadniczej części dokonano analizy statystycznej otrzymanych wyników oraz przeprowadzono ich porównanie z rezultatami uzyskanymi w Polsce. Przeprowadzona analiza reprezentuje tematykę do tej pory niepodejmowaną przez polskich i ukraińskich naukowców, wyniki analizy struktur odpowiedzi respondentów pozwoliły na weryfikację hipotezy głównej tej części badania: nie stwierdzono istotnych różnic w strukturze odpowiedzi między ocenami wykorzystania Internetu w działaniach marketingowych polskich i ukraińskich szkół wyższych.
Zaprezentowana w pracy wielość instrumentów, narzędzi i kanałów marketingu online wskazuje zarówno na niezwykły potencjał komunikacji cyfrowej, jak i potrzebę integracji różnorodnych form w wielu możliwych kanałach. Z tego względu w rozdziale szóstym przedstawiono konceptualny model cyfrowej komunikacji marketingowej szkoły wyższej, który jest próbą ukazania kierunków owej integracji w podejściu wielo- a następnie omnikanałowym (multichannel, omnichannel) z zastosowaniem bazy danych typu CDP (Customer Data Platform).
Intencją autora było, aby niniejsza praca stała się źródłem inspiracji dla osób, które na różnych płaszczyznach kreują lub nadzorują działania marketingowe szkół wyższych. Z tego względu zakończenie monografii zostało podzielone na dwie części. Pierwszą, zawierającą podsumowanie prowadzonych badań, oraz drugą, w której zamieszczone zostały rekomendacje o charakterze aplikacyjnym. Transformacja cyfrowa marketingu jest procesem dynamicznym i ciągłym, stanowi wyzwanie dla każdej organizacji. W przypadku szkół wyższych problematyka ta nabiera dodatkowych znaczeń ze względu na przemiany systemu, a także samej idei współczesnego uniwersytetu. Ukazane w monografii spojrzenie na zachodzące zmiany z perspektywy Polski i Ukrainy powinno być, zdaniem autora, wartościowe zarówno dla innych badaczy, jak i praktyków zajmujących się marketingiem szkół wyższych.
This article intends to systematically examine and review the current studies on social media marketing in the small and medium enterprise sector. The research also intends to synthesise and organise the unique aspects covered in these studies and further understand how these various issues related to social media marketing were addressed in these studies. The review covers 48 articles, collected from peer-reviewed journals from 2009 to 2019. These articles are then classified in different categories based on the central theme of research, research design of the study, theoretical model used in the study, country of study and social media platform used in the research. The findings of the review provide an overview of the categories as well as the most widely used subcategory for each classification, along with upcoming trends and tendencies in social media marketing.
As the usage of smart phones increases, the characteristic of social interaction is changing. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of smart phones on the performance of communication and task-performance in temporary virtual teams using Media Synchronicity Theory (MST). 'Accessibility' is added to the model since it is a unique feature of smart phones. Task complexity moderates the positive relationship between media capabilities and performance. The familiarity of the media also influences the communication performance. This project is set to empirically test MST in a university setting. Consequently, this study provides opportunities for future research about smart phone's usability in virtual team projects and global organizations.
With the rapid change of technology, the use of Social Networking Sites (SNS) has been extended beyond individuals to professionals and organizations. These latter groups use SNS to engage with their target audiences. Yet, research about the impact of SNS on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) compared to large enterprises is limited. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the differences between SMEs and large enterprises regarding their use of SNS. Based on data from both Saudi Arabia and Australia, it will investigate the usage, objectives, management, benefit, and barriers of using SNS for firms of varying sizes.
The growing importance of the Internet to B2B customer purchasing decisions has motivated B2B sellers to create digital content that leads potential buyers to interact with their company. This trend has engendered a new paradigm referred to as ‘content marketing.’ This study investigates the organizational processes for developing valuable and timely content to meet customer needs and for integrating content marketing with B2B selling processes. The results of this single case study demonstrate the use of marketing automation to generate high-quality sales leads through behavioral targeting and content personalization. The study advances understanding of the organizational processes that support content marketing and shows how content marketing can be combined with B2B selling processes via marketing automation in ways that achieve business benefits.
This paper expands, refines, and explicates media synchronicity theory, originally proposed in a conference proceeding in 1999 (Dennis and Valacich 1999). Media synchronicity theory (MST) focuses on the ability of media to support synchronicity, a shared pattern of coordinated behavior among individuals as they work together. We expand on the original propositions of MST to argue that communication is composed of two primary processes: conveyance and convergence. The familiarity of individuals with the tasks they are performing and with their coworkers will also affect the relative amounts of these two processes. Media synchronicity theory proposes that for conveyance processes, use of media supporting lower synchronicity should result in better communication performance. For convergence processes, use of media supporting higher synchronicity should result in better communication performance. We identify five capabilities of media (symbol sets, parallelism, transmission velocity, rehearsability, and reprocessability) that Influence the development of synchronicity and thus the successful performance of conveyance and convergence communication processes. The successful completion of most tasks involving more than one individual requires both conveyance and convergence processes, thus communication performance will be improved when individuals use a variety of media to perform a task, rather than just one medium.
Despite the recent increase in the adoption and use of social media tools to support firm operations, very little empirical research focusing on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been conducted to-date. The aim of this study is to fill this knowledge gap by investigating SME adoption of social media tools. In particular, we assess the impact of organizational, manager and environmental characteristics on SME utilization of the Facebook Events Page. To test our proposed research model, we administered a survey to 453 SME managers. Results of a hierarchical logistic regression indicate that firm innovativeness, firm size, manager's age and industry sector all have a significant impact on social media adoption. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to propose two additions to the existing IS success model to influence usefulness and satisfaction, and ultimately customer loyalty. This study posits that process quality and collaboration quality will significantly influence perceptions on satisfaction, since both considerations are expected to improve interactions between the organization and its customers.
Design/methodology/approach
The developed research model was tested in the context of B2B e‐commerce users, employing structural equation modelling‐partial least square to analyze and test the research hypotheses.
Findings
Results show that adding process and collaboration quality to the model affects the way system, information, and service quality influences usefulness and satisfaction, suggesting a shift in perspectives and priorities when it comes to B2B e‐commerce transactions. Furthermore, results show that process and collaboration quality have significant effects on usefulness and satisfaction, reinforcing the objective of using B2B e‐commerce systems across supply chain members.
Practical implications
This highlights the importance of improving business processes and enhancing collaboration activities, implying that managers should focus their efforts into enhancing customer service on top of system functionalities and features via B2B to better work with their supply chain partners. However, this study is limited in the context of a Taiwanese supply chain, suggesting that further research consider its applicability in different contexts, culturally and geographically, especially given the fact that B2B e‐commerce enables cross‐border business operations.
Originality/value
This study also extends the IS success model, especially in the context of B2B e‐commerce, by emphasizing behavioural considerations on top of the functional issues present in any information systems.
The use of social media ranges from personal to business purposes. This preliminary study aimed to firstly identify the reasons small business entrepreneurs use social media in their businesses; and secondly, to determine the level of trust in the social media among small business entrepreneurs. Data of the study were gathered using questionnaires. A descriptive analysis showed that social media are useful and important in image building, strengthening relationship, and networking among business entrepreneurs and customers, but the ‘trust’ on media was average. Recommendations are put forward to make social media more visible and significant among the business entrepreneurs.
Social media applications—including collaborative projects, micro-blogs/blogs, content communities, social networking sites, and virtual worlds—have become part of the standard communication repertoire for many companies. Today, with the creation of increasingly powerful mobile devices, numerous social media applications have gone mobile and new entrants are constantly appearing. The purpose of this article is to take account of this evolution, and provide an introduction to the general topic of mobile marketing and mobile social media. Herein, we define what mobile social media is, what it is not, and how it differs from other types of mobile marketing applications. Further, we discuss how firms can make use of mobile social media for marketing research, communication, sales promotions/discounts, and relationship development/loyalty programs. We present four pieces of advice for mobile social media usage, which we refer to as the ‘Four I's’ of mobile social media. Finally, we conclude by providing some thoughts on the future evolution of this new and exciting type of application.
Social media has deeply penetrated workplace, which has affected multiple aspects of employees' lives. This paper aims to investigate the influence of social media on employees' work performance and the underlying mechanism for how they create value at work. Based on media synchronicity and social capital theories, we propose that social media can promote work performance by stimulating trust among employees and offering a communication channel where explicit and implicit knowledge can be effectively transferred. The research model is tested using data collected from 105 Chinese software professionals. The results reveal that social media can enhance trust among employees. The direct effect on knowledge transfer was not significant but the impact was mediated by trust. Trust enhances knowledge exchange in the workplace with a stronger influence on the transfer of implicit knowledge rather than explicit knowledge. Implicit knowledge transfer was significantly related to work performance, while explicit knowledge transfer did not significantly influence work performance. The theoretical and practical contributions of this study are discussed.
This paper expands, refines, and explicates media synchronicity theory, originally proposed in a conference proceeding in 1999 (Dennis and Valacich 1999). Media synchronicity theory (MST) focuses on the ability of media to support synchronicity, a shared pattern of coordinated behavior among individuals as they work together. We expand on the original propositions of MST to argue that communication is composed of two primary processes: conveyance and convergence. The familiarity of individuals with the tasks they are performing and with their coworkers will also affect the relative amounts of these two processes. Media synchronicity theory proposes that for conveyance processes, use of media supporting lower synchronicity should result in better communication performance. For convergence processes, use of media supporting higher synchronicity should result in better communication performance. We identify five capabilities of media (symbol sets, parallelism, transmission velocity, rehearsability, and reprocessability) that influence the development of synchronicity and thus the successful performance of conveyance and convergence communication processes. The successful completion of most tasks involving more than one individual requires both conveyance and convergence processes, thus communication performance will be improved when individuals use a variety of media to perform a task, rather than just one medium.
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.
The study examines the relationships between knowledge acquisition from social media, two forms of market orientation (proactive and reactive), social media strategic capability, and brand innovation strategy in the context of China's online technology industry. Analysis of 357 online technology ventures, created during the past 6 years, suggests that brand innovation is affected by both knowledge acquisition from social media and market orientation. Social media strategic capability positively affects brand innovation and acts as a moderator between knowledge acquisition, market orientation, and brand innovation. It further enhances both types of market orientations in achieving brand innovation, suggesting that on social media, customer's needs, both expressed and latent (or unexpressed), can be identified more comprehensively than that of the traditional setting. Hence, the context of social media provides a different set of rules for competition and strategic behavior, in which online technology ventures should note. Implications are useful to improve the current understanding of social media brand innovation strategy, here in China's dynamic social media scene.
Business-to-business (B2B) marketers hesitate to embrace social media as a marketing tool, unlike their business-to-consumer (B2C) counterparts, and they struggle to implement successful social media strategies due to their limited understanding of the phenomenon. Drawing on communication and word-of-mouth theories, the authors investigate how marketers use Twitter differently across contexts and predict key factors likely to influence the message strategies used in each. A longitudinal content analysis and logistic regression support the assessment of a sample of more than 7000 tweets by Fortune 500 companies. Marketers in B2B and B2C settings exhibit significant differences in their branding and selling strategies; their use of message appeals; and the use of cues, links, and hashtags to support information searches. Whereas B2B marketers tend to use more emotional than functional appeals in their tweets, neither B2C nor B2B marketers have adopted “hard sell” message strategies.
Studies related to the use of social media in the workplace are still somewhat scarce despite their increasing popularity in social media research. This paper aims to investigate how employee perceptions of a workplace related to coworker support, supervisor support, and job-related demands can determine the degree of attachment some employees feel to social media use at work. The study also explores some consequences of social media use at work by analyzing its associations with job satisfaction, job performance, and cognitive absorption. The data was collected through the snowball sampling technique of 170 employees in Thailand and analyzed using partial least squares regression. For the factors predicted to influence social media use at work, the analysis found that coworker support and job demands are positively associated with social media use intensity, while supervisor support is negatively associated with it. The analysis also found a positive association between job satisfaction and job performance and social media use at work. An indirect relationship between social media use and cognitive absorption was also found through the mediating effect of job satisfaction. Overall, the evidence suggests that social media use at work may not necessarily lead to negative job-related outcomes.
Media have always been an important factor affecting communication. However, what kind of media can best improve communication performance is still to be answered. Based on Media Synchronicity Theory and Structural Holes Theory, a communication performance model, simultaneously considering people, media and task factors, is proposed. Besides traditional media, this study also take a new kind of media into account, social communication technologies(SCT). We argue it to be a completely different communication technology than others and have unique and multiple effects on communication process.
Nowadays social media are increasingly used in tourism destination marketing. In this paper, we first analyze the distinctive features of social media, i.e., Sociability, Mobility, and Purposiveness. Based on Media synchronicity theory (MST), we then redefine the marketing as a series of communication processes, and elaborate the features of social media on supporting their synchronicity with tourism destination marketing. The main objectives of this study is to explore the effects of social median on tourism destination marketing, and the study entails important theoretical and practical contributions to enhance our understanding of why social media are used in tourism destination marketing, as well as when and how they should be used.
While much is known about selecting different types of control that can be exercised in information systems development projects, the control dynamics associated with ISD offshoring projects represent an important gap in our understanding. In this paper, we develop a substantive grounded theory of control balancing that addresses this theoretical gap. Based on a longitudinal case study of an ISD offshoring project in the financial services industry, we introduce a three-dimensional control configuration category that emerged from our data, suggesting that control type is only one dimension on which control configuration decisions need to be made. The other two dimensions that we identified are control degree (tight versus relaxed) and control style (unilateral versus bilateral). Furthermore, we illustrate that control execution during the life cycle of an ISD offshoring project is highly intertwined with the development of client–vendor shared understanding and that each influences the other. Based on these findings, we develop an integrative process model that explains how offshoring project managers make adjustments to the control configuration periodically to allow the ISD offshoring project and relationship to progress, yielding the iterative use of different three-dimensional control configurations that we conceptualize in the paper. Our process model of control balancing may trigger new ways of looking at control phenomena in temporary interfirm organizations such as client–vendor ISD offshoring projects. Implications for research on organizational control and ISD offshoring are discussed. In addition, guidelines for ISD offshoring practitioners are presented.
Even today, it is a fairly common argument in business-to-business companies, especially in traditional industrial companies, that social media is only useful in the business-to-consumer sector. The perceived challenges, opportunities and social media use cases in business-to-business sector have received little attention in the literature. Therefore, this paper focuses on bridging this gap with a survey of social media use cases, opportunities and challenges in industrial business-to-business companies. The study also examines the essential differences between business-to-consumer and business-to-business in these respects. The paper starts by defining social media and Web 2.0, and then characterizes social media in business, and social media in business-to-business. Finally, we present and analyze the results of our empirical survey of 125 business-to-business companies in the Finnish technology industry sector. This paper suggests that there is a significant gap between the perceived potential of social media and social media use with customers and partners in business-to-business companies, and identifies potentially effective ways to reduce the gap.
Although there is significant interest in branding in a B2C context substantially less research has been conducted in B2B marketing. The research in B2B marketing is somewhat fragmented and a research agenda to develop coherent models and provide guidance to practitioners is required. Despite the disjointed nature of the research in this area, B2B branding has been found to convey a number of benefits e.g. conferring uniqueness. This special issue consists of eleven papers covering a range of topics including brand alliances, brand personality, brand equity and brand relationships, brand identity, corporate branding and social media.
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.
Business-to-business (B2B) marketing is a complex field requiring companies to put in place organizational units that are able to handle multifaceted interaction processes at the customer interface. Moreover, B2B marketing is characterized by high levels of technological, institutional etc. change. As a consequence, and in order to adapt to new market conditions, companies create new organizational units to take over tasks such as key account management, category management or social media management. These new units are developed within the pre-existing organization. Typically, these new units also display a high degree of cross-functionality since their activities are interdependent with the activities of other units. Hence, the question of alignment is of major importance. In this conceptual paper, we provide a framework for both scholarly research and managerial application. It is based on the concept of frame alignment and offers a lens allowing analyzing internal aligning processes for new B2B marketing units.
Recent developments in technology, such as building information models (BIMs), immersive displays, and mobile computing tools, have enabled changes in the means and locations of communication throughout the building architecture, engineering, construction, and operation (AECO) industry. This paper presents the findings from an exploratory study regarding the planning of physical media for effective communication in conjunction with the developments in BIM use. While literature shows that there has been noticeable impact of physical media on communication, there has been little evidence of consistent and thorough planning and evaluation of media for investment or project level planning. The exploratory study identifies media synchronicity theory as a starting point for identifying the media needs by task for more effective planning of communication, as well as potential considerations unique to the AECO industry. The paper concludes with studies which have begun for planning more specific applications for BIM and media within AECO.
This paper describes research in progress to empirically test the Media Synchronicity Theory (MST) (Dennis et al. 2008). We conducted an experiment consisting of 55 individuals organized into 13 different teams. The teams were assigned to use a lower synchronous medium, a higher synchronous medium, or a portfolio of media. The teams worked together on a new hidden-profile task, and several variables relating to communication performance were measured. The results of the initial study indicate support for the main hypotheses of the paper and the theory. Teams that used a portfolio of media outperformed those teams that used only one type of medium. However, additional data collection is necessary for significance testing. © (2011) by the AIS/ICIS Administrative Office All rights reserved.
With the growing popularity of information and communication technologies (ICT), researchers from information systems (IS) field are increasingly interested in the factors influencing user satisfaction in computer-mediated environment. Drawing on media synchronicity theory (MST), this study explores how various media characteristics influence user satisfaction through social presence. The results from a lab experiment supported our hypothesis and found that transmission velocity, symbol sets and rehearsability were positively related to social presence, whereas reprocessability had a negative effect on social presence. Social presence in turn positively influenced both process satisfaction and outcome satisfaction. Overall, this study contributes to IS literature by providing a deeper understanding on the effect of objective media characteristics on user satisfaction.
The Effects of Use of Instant Messenger on Purchase Intention: The Context of Chinese C2C E-Commerce
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