Search results

This paper aims to investigate how social media support startups in accessing international markets and interacting with foreign customers and stakeholders, focusing primarily on the social network LinkedIn.

Given the explorative research aim, the paper adopts a multiple case study approach, analyzing seven Italian food tech startups. 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted, also involving startup accelerators and a business angel to deepen the knowledge on the investigated phenomenon. In addition, a content analysis of the LinkedIn pages of the seven selected startups was conducted using NVivo 14 software.

The results of this study show that social media support startups to (1) diffuse brand awareness in international markets, (2) position their offering abroad and (3) develop relationships with international stakeholders to penetrate the local business. Furthermore, the main challenges and difficulties related to the use of social media by startups for these purposes were identified.

This study provides useful managerial implications to enable startups to strategically use social media to access international markets and connect with key foreign networks. Also from a policy perspective, incentives to support the expansion and consolidation of startups into international markets are crucial.

Although a vast literature has dealt with internationalization strategies, this study clarifies the role of social media in changing these dynamics speeding up startups’ access to foreign markets and identifying key local stakeholders.

This paper aims to investigate small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) adoption of social media platforms and how they integrated them within their marketing strategies during the COVID-19 outbreaks. Dynamic capabilities – observed as the interplay between sensing, seizing and reconfiguration capabilities – represent the principal theoretical framework used in this research to explain challenges in social media adoption and their effects on these businesses.

This study adopts the grounded theory approach to analyze semistructured interviews with 19 key informants from Italian SMEs belonging to diversified industries.

The findings of this research are summarized in a holistic framework that explores three types of capabilities (i.e. sensing, seizing and reconfiguration capabilities) and the marketing outcomes of social media adoption among SMEs.

This study attempts to unpack the specific dynamic capabilities that allowed SMEs to be successful in social media adoption during COVID-19 outbreaks.

Through the theoretical lens of social practice theory, the aim of this research is to investigate how business-to-business (B2B) high-tech startups build their brands in an omni-digital environment, particularly by focusing on the most important digital touchpoints implemented to interact with stakeholders.

A qualitative analysis was performed by conducting 36 semi-structured interviews with key informants operating in B2B high-tech startups, including founders, CEOs, managing directors, marketing managers and other actors from this sector.

The results reveal the enablers, inhibitors and specific objectives of startups in their brand-building processes across digital touchpoints in an omni-digital environment.

This study offers new theoretical insights into new ventures’ brand management strategies through the development of a theoretical framework in which the enablers, inhibitors and specific objectives of the brand-building process of startups are identified. Although the recent literature has addressed the topic of startup brand building, this is the first study, to the authors’ knowledge, focused on the brand-building process of B2B high-tech startups in an omni-digital environment.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how business-to-business (B2B) companies operating in durable goods use digital communications after the COVID-19 outbreak. In particular, this paper focuses on the objectives of these digital communication tools for the marketing strategies of B2B white goods firms.

As the research objective is explorative, the authors conducted a qualitative analysis by collecting 13 semi-structured interviews with B2B marketing professionals working for white goods firms in Italy. Primary data was triangulated with secondary data about the white goods industry, such as sector reports.

The findings of this paper show an acceleration in the adoption of digital communication tools among B2B firms after COVID-19. The authors also discuss the effects in the use of such tools both in the short and long term.

This paper attempts to contribute to the B2B marketing literature by providing an original analysis of the consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak focusing on the use of digital communication tools among white goods firms. It also provides managerial implications for firms operating in B2B.

Because of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, online platforms where travelers' comments and reviews are published have grown considerably. More specifically, in the tourism sector, these social evaluations have been shown to have a strong influence as online platforms, such as online travel agencies (OTA), represent a main touchpoint for the formation process of the online corporate reputation. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate how the pandemic has influenced the online reputation formation of tourism companies and which are the new reputation pillars emerging from the COVID-19. To achieve this research aim, we analyzed the customers' reviews as reported publicly on TrustPilot.com, an online platform that allows customers to review businesses after a purchase or contact with their customer service, before and after COVID-19 so as to identify significant changes in the corporate reputational drivers of LastMinute.com. With this study we have identified the four topic clusters and their sentiment in the two periods of consideration, and we have found that the corporate reputation of tourism companies is formed today starting from different consumer needs. Finally, managerial implications for communication professionals operating in tourism firms are presented.