Antecedents and consequences of social media marketing use: an empirical study of the UK exporting B2B SMEs

Eid, R, Abdelmoety, Z and Agag, G ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5513-0828, 2019. Antecedents and consequences of social media marketing use: an empirical study of the UK exporting B2B SMEs. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing. ISSN 0885-8624

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Abstract

Purpose: The social media have enabled companies to reach out to global markets and provided them with the opportunity to customize their strategies and offerings in an unprecedented way. Given the scant empirical evaluation of social media use in the SMEs Business-to-Business (B-to-B) context, this paper aims to offer a comprehensive description of the antecedents and consequences of social media use in international B-to-B Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and the way in which this use affects their export performance.

Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a sample of 277 British Business-to-Business SMEs and employs positivist research with a quantitative approach, adopting a survey strategy through questionnaires and structural equation modeling (SEM).

Findings: The results reveal that the use of social media influences export performance through the quality of international business contacts – understanding customers’ views and preferences; brand awareness and knowledge of the competition in various international markets. This study contributes to the emerging literature on B-to-B SMEs digital marketing by determining the mechanism through which B-to-B SMEs may benefit from using the social media in their efforts to export.

Originality/Value: Despite the promising potential of the social media, especially for export-oriented companies, very limited attention has hitherto been paid to the relationship between the use of social media and export performance. This study attempts to fill the gap by investigating the extent to which actual use of social media impacts on the performance of exporting firms.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing
Creators:	Eid, R., Abdelmoety, Z. and Agag, G.
Publisher:	Emerald
Date:	18 October 2019
ISSN:	0885-8624
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1108/JBIM-04-2018-0121 DOI 1118254 Other
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	16 Sep 2019 08:56
Last Modified:	24 Oct 2019 13:12
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/37664

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