The Obstacles in Social Media Engagement: the Need for an Overarching Management Process

The use of social media for marketing has become a common practice across all industries. However, practitioners are struggling to manage related social media activities, in particular, fan engagement. To address this, case study research method, involving seven case companies from a retail group, was conducted to understand practitioners’ difficulties in managing their social media campaigns. This study finds that, besides ROI and fan engagement, the nature of an industry, lack of well-defined standard procedures and insufficient financial resources present the fundamental obstacles in brand page engagement management. Based on the best practices from the case companies and together with professional literature, this paper (1) proposes a basic social media management process to guide businesses to unify their social media fan engagement management and performance evaluations; and (2) integrates various social media marketing tools, readily available in the market, to assist in social media performance monitoring and data analysis

Examining An ERP Customization System: Implications To System Fit, Acceptance And Maintenance Costs

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is a complete and complex information system that consists of firms’ business best practices. However, the business best practices provided by the supplier do not always suitable and/or sufficient for all organizations. Misfit happens when differences exist between what the ERP system can provide and what a company actually requires and expects from the system. This study examines an ERP add-on/bolt-on system of a medium-sized computer memory producer that has global business units around the world. This study aims to provide the implications of the customized system from the perspectives of (i) system fit, (ii) user acceptance, and (iii) subsequent maintenance and upgrade costs. We adopt the survey method to collect data on system fit (using the IS Balanced Scorecard and the well-established task-technology fit questions), user acceptance on the system (using the popular technology acceptance survey instrument), and conduct cost and benefit analysis of subsequent maintenance and upgrade costs on the add-on/bolt-on system. The results of the study show that from the overall organizational point of view the system fit, acceptance and performance of the add-on/bolt-on is only marginal. There are a lot of improvements for the add-on/bolt-on system. Although in developing the add-on system the case organization follows the best practices of obtain full support and involvement of top management, utilize reasonable work flow as a focus direction, provide tutorial and employee training to each level at different stages and conduct regular performance review and feedbacks, these are not sufficient. The empirical data indicates that IS personnel needs to understand more of the user’s business needs and monitors the users daily business operation before developing an add-on/bolt-on system for the ERP system so that the users will use the customized system to assist their daily job. Also, IS department need to provide more training to improve ease of use of the system and users’ attitude towards the add-on system and IS department. Based on cross-tabulation, we find that job title and the degree of automation/computerization in a module (or system) may affect the system users’ rating for system fit and user acceptance. From the cost-benefit analysis, the additional maintenance costs for the add-on do not necessarily cost more, when the opportunity costs of not having the custom system are taken into consideration. Instead, the benefits of having an idiosyncrasy system may actually bring a lot of benefits to the company

A Resource-Based Perspective on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Capabilities and Upgrade Decision

The complexities in making an enterprise resource planning (ERP) upgrade decision have been widely cited in the trade press. As a consequence, a significant percentage of ERP clients deferring the upgrade decision is resulted. Yet, to date we observe paucity of research with which to conceptualize and explain the important factors influencing ERP upgrade decision. This study attempts to explain the rationales behind the upgrade decision (regardless for short- or long-term) using the resource-based view (RBV). The hypotheses derived from the theoretical perspective are proposed and the research method is discussed

Factors Affecting the Business Performance of Firms Utilizing Social Media

A company can experience various benefits and effects on business performance from advertising on a social networking site, including an increase in its number of fans and advertisement views and/or an increase in sales and return on investment (ROI). While some companies find Facebook an effective platform for social networking advertisements, others deem it ineffective. These mixed results of the impact of social networking services on business performance, in addition to the fact that many companies are expected to be influenced by social media in this social economy due to its growth and popularity among consumers, have motivated this research in progress. This study aims to address and understand the reasons for such differing results on business performance and identify the factors affecting the outcomes of organizations’ social media projects. A multiple case study is adopted to meet these aims. First, a thorough review of literature and content analysis of several prior and publicly available case studies on firms that were either successful or unsuccessful with social media advertising are conducted. These steps are done to identify the underlying factors that contribute to the impact of social media on business performance. Next, the multiple case study method is adopted to identify and explain the behaviors of the contextual factors that cause differing impacts of social media on business performance. To understand the varying effects of social media on business performance, institutional theory, transaction costs theory and symbolic interactionism are applied in this study. The expected outcomes from this study include: (1) proposing a conceptual model of factors affecting the performance of businesses utilizing social media, and (2) producing a better understanding of the issues and factors impacting the performance of businesses utilizing social media

An Examination of Factors that Influence Social Networking Community Participation among Millennials

This study investigates main and moderating factors that influence Millennials\u27 intention to participate in a social networking community (SNC). The authors modified the unified theory of consumers\u27 acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) to incorporate six main and two moderating factors to explain Millennials\u27 SNC participation intention. By considering the implications of the unique characteristics of Millennials on their social networking behavior, the authors\u27 model is better suited to answer what drives these tech-savvy individuals to participate in a SNC via such sites as Facebook. Specifically, the authors find that hedonic motivation, trust in technology, trust in community, and social influence are significant factors in influencing Millennials\u27 SNC participation intention, with hedonic motivation being the most influential factor. In addition, gender and educational background moderate the main effects of these determinants in different manner. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed

Impact of Social Media Management Styles on Willingness to Be a Fan: A Transaction Cost Economics Perspective

This study investigates the impacts of different styles of social media management on user’s willingness to be a fan. Six companies’ brand-pages on a social media site are examined. Data are collected using survey and interview with a group of social media users. Qualitative data analyses are conducted based on 30 observation reports and 60 open-ended surveys, with follow-up interviews. Grounded on the theoretical lens of transaction cost economics, we find that companies successful in attracting more fans adopt the bilateral governance structure (with frequent updates and mixed asset specificity) in their social media transactions. They are relatively more dedicated and allocate more amounts of resources in their social media interactions. Practicing the right governance structure is demonstrated to be more preferable to the fans, able to attract more engagement and generate organic media in the long run. This is because it is helpful for creating positive perceptions of a brand-page, and fans find it useful in reducing their efforts in information searching and product procurement and social networking costs; and this in turn shows to positively impact one’s willingness to be a fan of the page, which can possibly create the opportunities to be a potential customer, leading to future purchases from the brand. This study also identifies the key concepts or sub-constructs of (user’s) willingness to be a fan of a brand-page in the context of social media. They are brand-page management style (dedicated, caring, responsive), contents (quality, usefulness, diversity) and product (uniqueness, variety, popularity). Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/pajais/vol11/iss2/2

Examining The Cultural Difference In The Intention To Purchase In Social Commerce

This study attempts to investigate how culture pl ays a role in influencing peers’ online shopping intentions in social commerce, conducted in Faceb ook – a social network site in a cross-national settings. We are interested in studyi ng the moderating effects of the culture factor on the relationship between social interaction and social commerce purchasing intention, and trust; and the mediating effect of trust on the relationship between social interaction and social commerce purchasing intention. In order to achieve this, social influence theory and social impact theory are investigated and used to explain how social interaction potentia lly causes the intention to purchase in a social commerce context. And, Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture are considered in analyzing the culture difference among the countries considered in this study. Online su rveys are conducted. The expected main outputs from this research are: (1) better understanding of the impact of culture difference on social commerce user’s behavior and acceptance, (2) bett er comprehension of the social commerce user characteristics and the impacts of so cial interaction on social commerce purchasing decision to design appropriate level of interactions with customers and fans in word-of-mouth marketing, and (3) a foundation for a better conception of social commerce model in the futur