TY - JOUR
T1 - Talk less and listen more? The effectiveness of social media talking and listening tactics on export performance
AU - Hultman, Magnus
AU - Iverson, Abbie
AU - Oghazi, Pejvak
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Saltanat Nurzhanova for her valuable work on data collection.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)
PY - 2023/2/18
Y1 - 2023/2/18
N2 - This research investigates the effect of social media talking and listening tactics on customer performance through firms’ networking capabilities and promotion adaptation strategies among entrepreneurial, emerging market, small and medium-sized enterprises (ESMEs). From a survey of 169 ESME managers, the study tests whether firms should use social media to listen and adapt to the foreign market or disseminate and network in the foreign market. The study's ultimate aim is to guide managers on how best to leverage social media in their international export campaigns. The results were analyzed using a series of nested structural equation models. We found that using social media tactics combining both talking and listening leads to significantly higher levels of customer performance than using talking or listening strategies singly. Moreover, we found that each tactic's mechanisms operating these effects differed. By showing, first, the mechanisms through which social media tactics affect customer performance and, second, the superiority of an ambidextrous social media strategy, the study provides ESME entrepreneurs with an understanding of how best to leverage social media to facilitate international exporting.
AB - This research investigates the effect of social media talking and listening tactics on customer performance through firms’ networking capabilities and promotion adaptation strategies among entrepreneurial, emerging market, small and medium-sized enterprises (ESMEs). From a survey of 169 ESME managers, the study tests whether firms should use social media to listen and adapt to the foreign market or disseminate and network in the foreign market. The study's ultimate aim is to guide managers on how best to leverage social media in their international export campaigns. The results were analyzed using a series of nested structural equation models. We found that using social media tactics combining both talking and listening leads to significantly higher levels of customer performance than using talking or listening strategies singly. Moreover, we found that each tactic's mechanisms operating these effects differed. By showing, first, the mechanisms through which social media tactics affect customer performance and, second, the superiority of an ambidextrous social media strategy, the study provides ESME entrepreneurs with an understanding of how best to leverage social media to facilitate international exporting.
KW - 512 Business and Management
KW - promotion adaptation
KW - networking
KW - export
KW - social media
KW - SME
KW - ambidexterity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85148351592&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.113751
DO - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.113751
M3 - Article
SN - 0148-2963
VL - 159
JO - Journal of Business Research
JF - Journal of Business Research
M1 - 113751
ER -