Social media marketing and advertising

Social media has recently gained tremendous fame as a highly impactful channel of communication in these modern times of digitised living. It has been put on a pedestal across varied streams for facilitating participatory interaction amongst businesses, groups, societies, organisations, consumers, communities, forums, and the like. This subject has received increased attention in the literature with many of its practical applications including social media marketing (SMM) being elaborated, analysed, and recorded by many studies. This study is aimed at collating the existing research on SMM to present a review of seventy-one articles that will bring together the many facets of this rapidly blooming media marketing form. The surfacing limitations in the literature on social media have also been identified and potential research directions have been offered

Pay-per-click advertising: A literature review

Digital marketing is being widely employed to efficiently and effectively market products/services to achieve increased sales and generate higher revenues. It allows businesses to effectively communicate desired content to their consumers. Pay-per-click (PPC) is one such form of digital marketing. PPC is often acknowledged for the different advantages it offers, and at the same time, it is notably criticised for fraud and other issues associated with its use. The literature on this subject, although limited, has invested considerable efforts in unveiling the pros and cons of employing PPC as a marketing/advertising strategy. This paper reviews 50 publications on PPC advertising to synthesise their findings and arrive at a common ground for understanding the digital presence and impact of this form of marketing. Alongside discussing the findings, observed limitations and opportunities for future research have been identified and reported

Conceptualising the role of innovation--attributes for examining consumer adoption of entertainment--related innovations

Several enhancements and new features have been introduced in the television entertainment industry to offer the viewers with a high quality viewing experience when it comes to contemporary home entertainment services. Tata SKY’s direct-to-home (DTH) service is one such service that has been recently introduced in the Indian context. For achieving an increased adoption rate of this innovation, it is important to gain an understanding of the behaviour of different factors that influence the potential consumers to form positive intentions about such innovations, in turn attracting them to accept and use of such innovations. This paper, thus aims at developing a theory-based conceptual framework for examining the consumer adoption of entertainment related innovations using the innovationattributes that have been acknowledged in the recent literature as having considerable influences on the acceptance of various innovations. Innovation-attributes from Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory, Tornatzky and Klein’s meta-analysis, and Moore and Benbasat’s perceived characteristics of innovating theory will be used here to develop a conceptual framework suitable for investigating the adoption of entertainment related innovations

Examining consumer acceptance of green innovations using innovation characteristics: A conceptual approach

In the wake of global warming and environmental preservation, all processes and actions are now being directed along the lines of creating a greener environment. Household solar equipments are one such initiative, whereby people around the world are being encouraged to adopt green innovations even within homes. Recent emphasis is particularly along the usage of solar energy for home lighting, heating and cooking. To achieve increased adoption of these green innovations, it is important to understand the behaviours of various factors that may influence consumers in forming favourable intentions towards such innovations. This article aims to develop a theory-based conceptual framework for examining user adoption of household solar innovations. Attributes from Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations theory, Tornatzky and Klein’s Meta-Analysis, and Moore and Benbasat’s Perceived Characteristics of Innovating theory will be used to design the intended framework for examining the adoption of household solar and other green innovations

Sustainable consumption from the consumer's perspective:Antecedents of solar innovation adoption

Rising focus on solar power and better world environment have set ambitious plans in motion on the amount of solar power generation, worldwide, for the coming years. In the interest of socially responsible use of energy, both developed and developing countries are exploring their potential of going green. However, low solar adoption rates are a cause of pressing concern for some of these countries. This study investigates consumer intentions to adopt solar innovations, with particular empirical interest in the adoption of solar equipment by Indian households. We use a cross-sectional field survey approach to gather relevant data from four most populous cities in India. Structural equation modelling and logistic regression are employed to deduce results by analyzing data from 320 respondents. Building on characteristics from diffusion of innovation theory, this study finds that relative advantage and compatibility strongly influence consumer intentions, and such behavioral intentions have a positive and significant effect on the adoption of solar equipment

Skills and Attributes of IT Graduates: Evidence from Employer’s Perspective

In the past, when employers were recruiting Information Technology (IT) professionals, they were keen on hard skills to perform the job. However, recently there is a rising awareness that technical skills alone are insufficient for the success of IT professionals and they must also develop a broader set of soft interpersonal skills. This shift is primarily due to the rapidly evolving IT landscape and the widening portfolio of organization wide responsibilities expected to be undertaken by IT professionals. Therefore, it is imperative for potential IT professionals to be equipped with the most current soft skills pursued by employers. This study uses a horizon scanning of the current job market in the UK to capture a snapshot of the most in demand soft skills. In doing so, this study seeks to answer the research question: what soft skills do IT graduates need in the current market

Exploring the root causes of servitization challenges:an organisational boundary perspective

Purpose: This paper explains how servitization disrupts long-established internal and external boundaries of product-focused manufacturers and investigates the root causes of servitization challenges. Design/methodology/approach: The authors draw from the collective experiences of 20 senior executives from ten multinational manufacturers involved in servitization, using a multiple case study approach, and employ a codebook thematic analysis technique. Findings: The authors develop an integrative framework based on the theoretical notions of power, competency and identity boundaries to offer insights into the root causes of various servitization-related challenges. Research limitations/implications: Although the extant literature discusses servitization challenges, it does not examine the underlying root causes that create them in the first place. This study contributes to the extant research by establishing rational links between organisational boundaries (internal and external) and servitization challenges in the interest of building a coherent and systematically integrated body of theory that can be successfully applied and built upon by future research. Practical implications: This study provides a foundation for managers to recognise, anticipate and systematically manage various boundary-related challenges triggered by servitization. Originality/value: It is one of the first studies to employ the concept of organisational boundary to understand the challenges created by servitization and to account for both internal (between different functions of the same organisation) and external boundaries (between an organisation and its external stakeholders) to establish a holistic understanding of the impacts of servitization on manufacturers

How is COVID-19 altering the manufacturing landscape? A literature review of imminent challenges and management interventions

Disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major upheavals for manufacturing, and has severe implications for production networks, and the demand and supply chains underpinning manufacturing operations. This paper is the first of its kind to pull together research on both—the pandemic-related challenges and the management interventions in a manufacturing context. This systematic literature review reveals the frailty of supply chains and production networks in withstanding the pressures of lockdowns and other safety protocols, including product and workforce shortages. These, altogether, have led to closed facilities, reduced capacities, increased costs, and severe economic uncertainty for manufacturing businesses. In managing these challenges and stabilising their operations, manufacturers are urgently intervening by—investing in digital technologies, undertaking resource redistribution and repurposing, regionalizing and localizing, servitizing, and targeting policies that can help them survive in this altered economy. Based on holistic analysis of these challenges and interventions, this review proposes an extensive research agenda for future studies to pursue

Group behavior in social media: Antecedents of initial trust formation

This study investigates the influence of antecedents of user trust amongst peers on social media platforms that they apply without sufficient cognitive judgment. Based on extensive literature review and analysis of social theories, we propose a theoretical framework for social media trust (SMT). Based on the SMT model, we conduct empirical analysis using structural equation modeling to verify the cause-effect relationships hypothesized in this study. The findings reveal that initial formation of SMT relies on five predictors - fulfilled expectations, predictability, familiarity, monitor, and norms. These findings have significant theoretical and practical implications. The study finds that peers are likely to invest blind faith in the content shared on social media groups without subjecting it to verification. It also identifies the threat of biased peers, who spread irresponsible content with predetermined motives to influence members of certain social media groups. Policymakers can use insights from this study to highlight the ills of non-verification, and its potential to cause harm at the very extreme