Elvira Bolat, Kaouther Kooli and Len Tiu Wright
Mobile social media (MSM), an interaction, exchange of information and creation of user-generated content, mediated by mobile devices, is becoming the locomotive that drives…
Abstract
Purpose
Mobile social media (MSM), an interaction, exchange of information and creation of user-generated content, mediated by mobile devices, is becoming the locomotive that drives forward evolution of the online world. Fewer academic studies have touched upon the MSM subject, with all the papers being of a conceptual nature to provide recommendations to business-to-business (B2B) firms. This paper aims to explore how B2B firms use MSM in reality.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts the grounded theory approach to analyse interviews conducted in 26 B2B firms representing the UK advertising and marketing sector. Interviewees represent key decision-makers who understand the aspects of mobile technology use in their firms. Eighteen firms stressed the importance of social media as a trigger to adopt mobile devices. Follow-up data collection in these 18 firms focus on strategic orientation, processes, routines and skills required for using MSM.
Findings
This paper found that marketing and advertising firms use MSM for branding, sensing market, managing relationships and developing content. MSM is treated by businesses as a strategic firm-specific capability that drives firms’ competitiveness, where imitation of such capability by competitors is limited because MSM skills are specific to individuals within organisations and MSM routines are manifested as a result of firm-specific MSM skills’ interactions.
Originality/value
This study is amongst the first to provide insights into B2B firms’ practices of using MSM. Additionally, the research is novel because it discovers that MSM capability is developed as a result of the overlap between individuals’ and organisational knowledge and memory, contradicting existing theory on the subject.
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Elvira Bolat, Julie Robson, Kokho Jason Sit, Shannon Birch-Chapman, Samreen Ashraf, Juliet Memery and Caroline Jackson
This paper aims to understand consumers’ response to the trust repair mechanisms adopted by corporate brands in a service sector context following prominent trust damaging…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand consumers’ response to the trust repair mechanisms adopted by corporate brands in a service sector context following prominent trust damaging organizational transgressions.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting a qualitative approach, six focus group discussions are used to investigate three high-profile consumer trust erosion cases within the service sector.
Findings
Consumer trust varies by context. Despite the severity of trust damage, corporate brands can recover trust towards their brands amongst consumers not directly affected by transgressions. Not all trust repair mechanisms are equally applicable to all service contexts, and re-branding could be used as a trust repair mechanism. Corporate brands in the service sector should focus on sense-making, relational approaches and transparency. Orchestration of trust repair mechanisms needs to be integrated within the trust rehabilitation processes.
Research limitations/implications
This study illustrates it is important to reconsider trust repair processes to accommodate context and integrate post-transgression consumer research.
Practical implications
Successful corporate brand rehabilitation of consumer trust requires examination of the trustworthiness dimensions consumers express before and after the transgression to select the most appropriate trust repair mechanisms. Findings suggest organizations also have preventative trust repair management programs.
Originality/value
This research is the first to empirically apply the conceptual framework of Bachmann et al. (2015) to explore consumer responses to the trust repair mechanisms adopted by corporate brands by context.
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Nnamdi O. Madichie, Elvira Bolat and Nasiru Taura
The purpose of this paper is to explore opportunities and challenges of accelerating digital entrepreneurship development in key economic growth sectors in West Africa.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore opportunities and challenges of accelerating digital entrepreneurship development in key economic growth sectors in West Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses case illustrations from the media and agriculture sectors to highlight some of the opportunities and challenges that have shaped current business practices in this digital space in West Africa.
Findings
Technological infrastructure featured as one of the main challenges for fostering success in the media-tech cases and perhaps linked to the low internet penetration rates. Likewise, infrastructure proved to be a challenge in the agri-tech sector cases.
Originality/value
This study highlights the importance of partnerships within the entrepreneurship ecosystems as a critical condition for ensuring positive benefits for all stakeholders within the entrepreneurial ecosystem taken from the lens of West Africa.
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Pantea Foroudi, Charles Dennis, Dimitris Stylidis and T.C. Melewar