A role for startups in unleashing the disruptive power of social media

Go Green, Go Social: Exploring the Antecedents of Pro-Environmental Behaviors in Social Networking Sites beyond Norm Activation Theory

The paucity of environmental resources and the threatening warning of global climate change have led to increasing research on environmental issues [e.g., pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs)]. Although norm activation theory (NAT) is a well-recognized theory for approaching PEBs, existing works appear insufficient to explain PEB in the context of social networking sites (SNSs) without taking contextual, emotional, and social factors into account. Grounded in the egocentric tactician model (ETM), NAT, along with the notions of guilt and social stressors, this study integrates a new ETM path, a supplemented emotional path, alongside the conventional NAT path to achieve a more complete picture of what are crucial determinants of PEBs in the context of SNSs. Social stressors positively moderate the emotional path. Data collected from 897 Facebook users confirm all of our proposed hypotheses. Results indicate that beyond the traditional NAT path, the new ETM path and the emotional path add values to illustrate PEBs on SNSs, and new constructs of self-influence on SNSs (SIS) and guilt remarkably drive PEBs alongside personal norms. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, and guidelines for future research are identified.

Brand post popularity on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn: the case of start-ups

Purpose

With the growing trend of omni-channel marketing, brands are increasingly looking to offer a seamless experience to their online fan base by connecting with them across multiple social media platforms. This paper explores the relationship between brand posts' characteristics and popularity for start-ups across four different social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 1,200 social media posts from 10 start-ups were subjected to content analysis. Regression analysis was employed with brand posts' popularity (likes, comments and shares/retweets) as the dependent variable.

Findings

The results reveal several nuances in brand post popularity for start-ups across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Antecedents of the popularity measures of likes, comments and shares/retweets also fared differently.

Originality/value

The paper reports one of the earliest empirical studies to better understand how the qualities of brand posts are related to their appeal across multiple social media platforms. It advances the literature on social media marketing and offers insights to social media managers of brands, particularly start-ups, on how to offer smoother customer journeys across numerous digital touchpoints.

Factors Affecting the Success of Social Commerce in Kuwaiti Microbusinesses

Many studies have focused on the adoption of social commerce (s-commerce) by customers but not by businesses or by microbusinesses. Further, they have investigated this adoption from a researcher's perspective while using quantitative approaches. To fill this gap, the study sheds light on the success of Instagram for microbusinesses (IMB) in an Arab country and highlights the need for more investigation in order to understand this complex phenomenon. In this study, the authors use a qualitative approach to 27 microbusiness cases that adopted Instagram for s-commerce. They use technological innovation theories to successfully identify and classify the drivers and inhibitors of success under different contexts. Hence, they find that the success of IMB in Kuwait is contingent on addressing different technological, organizational, and environmental challenges. Further, they find that Instagram initiatives are still evolving and still need assistance from different stakeholders to overcome several hurdles. This study provides different recommendations that advance the theory and practice.

The Bright Side of Social Media: Social Media Platforms Adoption and Start-Up Sustainability

This study aims to explicate the contribution of social media platforms adoption on start-up sustainability. Since most economies of the world start-up failure rate are relatively high, there is always a desire or a need to investigate the success recipe. As a result, the primary objective of this study is to understand the social media environment and how start-ups can best utilize social media platforms throughout their life cycle. Based on the qualitative case study approach, five in-depth interviews of social media marketers and individuals working in start-ups were conducted. The finding demonstrates that social media is a crucial virtual platform for striving resource start-ups. Therefore, if a platform gets utilized correctly, it can play an essential role in the sustainable progression of a start-up. Thus, there is a need for start-ups to articulate a comprehensive social media policy for each life cycle stage.

Internal and external antecedents of open innovation adoption in IT organisations: insights from an emerging market

Purpose

This study aims to propose and test a theoretical model exploring the impact of internal and external factors of social media use by IT organisations on open innovation (OI) adoption with the mediating effect of knowledge management capabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 200 IT firms and partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data of this study and to test the research hypotheses.

Findings

The results revealed that both customer involvement in social media and top management support (TMS) for social media had a significant impact on OI adoption. However, only the relationship between TMS for social media usage and OI link was mediated by knowledge management capability.

Practical implications

This study stresses the importance of social media policy development for business managers to create an interactive platform for their customers to participate in the activities of the firm. Moreover, the results suggest that for developing open knowledge management capabilities, leaders must focus on and support the use of social media technologies by the firms.

Originality/value

Social media technologies have taken the world by storm. Organisations and individuals are influenced by the knowledge available on Web 2.0 platforms. Most of the current research has focussed on the impact of social media use on OI in developed countries, but developing nations on the Asian continent have been left out of this discussion. Moreover, while most studies have focussed on the OI outcomes, less efforts have been directed towards understanding and exploring the OI antecedents.

Social Media in Micro-Enterprises

Social media is increasingly gaining traction as a valuable tool for small business. This is particularly the case in micro enterprises in the Indonesian retail industry, where adoption is anecdotally increasing, but with little understanding of the factors enabling such adoption. Consequently, this study proposes a research model derived from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and the Use of Technology and extended by integrating the task-technology-fit framework, along with price value propositions. Online surveys were sent to micro enterprises operating in the Indonesian retail industry with 153 valid responses received. Data analysis used structural equation modelling with SmartPLS 3. The results show that price value and task-technology-fit are perceived as significant factors for influencing positive attitudes towards the adoption of social media among micro enterprises. In addition, attitude and facilitating conditions were found to have a significant influence on intention to adopt social media. These findings hold import implications to theory and practice in this nascent field of research.

Social customer relationship management factors and business benefits

Purpose

This study aims to identify the business benefit of and factors affecting the use of social customer relationship management (SCRM) in Indian organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

Building on theoretical foundations, a conceptual model of factors affecting SCRM in Indian organizations is developed and empirically tested through a survey and corresponding analysis using SPSS and AMOS software.

Findings

The study presents empirical evidence that technological competence, environmental characteristics and organizational environment positively impact the actual use of SCRM on Indian organizations. Additionally, leadership support of organizations impacts positively the actual use of SCRM in organizations, while the trust factor insignificantly impacts the latter. The actual use of SCRM in organizations was found to have a positive impact on their business benefits.

Research limitations/implications

The theoretical model is built on the constructs of the technology, environment and organizational framework. It has added new factors, such as leadership support and trust, and thereby identified the business benefits of organizations using SCRM mediating through the organizations’ actual use of SCRM. The proposed model is simple, implementable and has a high explanative power of 81 per cent.

Practical implications

The study provides practitioners with evidence and practicable knowledge regarding the means and impact/benefits of SCRM use in Indian organizations.

Originality/value

The study is one of few empirical studies on the topic and contributes valuable knowledge to extant works through additional factors, theoretical conceptualization and empirical scientific findings of both scholarly and executive worth.

A synthesized framework for the formation of startups’ innovation ecosystem

Purpose

The purpose of this study set out to introduce an alternative framework for explaining the formation of the innovation ecosystem based on the systematic literature review (SLR) and ecosystemic approach.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is an SLR of studies from the year 2008-2018 that investigating startups’ innovation. SLR approach being used exploration, interpretation and communication method, which composed of seven steps as follows exploring topics, searching, organizing, evaluating and expanding, integrating and communicating. The output of this process is 63 documents that applied to synthesize the formation framework.

Findings

The systematic review of literature has shown that researchers in recent years have considered some entities such as incubators, financials suppliers, accelerators, universities and companies in relation to the startup innovations, which are described in this paper as key actors. The study of the relationship between these actors in the documents led to the identification of interactional necessities, including structures, infrastructures and networks. Finally, the processes studied in the literature were classified into three types of mechanisms, namely, the genesis, growth and development of startups innovations.

Research limitations/implications

The SLR approach is subject to limitations because some poor explanations amongst previous researchers may be repeated and reinforced. Also, in the protocol adopted in this paper, documents are limited in English.

Practical implications

The introduced frammework can be useful in identifying and understanding the requirements of startups and creating effective policies for their innovation development.

Originality/value

This paper reviews, summarizes and integrates the growing and scattered literature of the innovation ecosystem of the startups and delivers new facts for the future development of this field.