Abstract

In recent times, social media has been increasingly playing a critical role in response actions following natural catastrophes. From facilitating the recruitment of volunteers during an earthquake to supporting emotional recovery after a hurricane, social media has demonstrated its power in serving as an effective disaster response platform. Based on a case study of Thailand flooding in 2011 – one of the worst flooding disasters in more than 50 years that left the country severely impaired – this paper provides an in‐depth understanding on the emergent roles of social media in disaster response. Employing the perspective of boundary object, we shed light on how different boundary spanning competences of social media emerged in practice to facilitate cross‐boundary response actions during a disaster, with an aim to promote further research in this area. We conclude this paper with guidelines for response agencies and impacted communities to deploy social media for future disaster response.

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PurposeThe research documented in this paper aims to explore e‐business uses in small and medium‐sized tourism enterprises compared with their larger counterparts.Design/methodology/approachFive case studies were conducted with Thai tourism SMEs to investigate their technology adoption and use experiences. For large‐sized enterprises, an extensive review of industry's practice was conducted. A comparison was then carried out based on the scope of the technology, namely inter‐organisation, intra‐organisation, and front‐end side linking to customers.FindingsIn terms of e‐business use, it is not surprising that Thai SMEs remain less advanced in utilising e‐business technology. However, size is found to be a significant factor in determining SME behaviour not only in comparison to larger travel agencies or hotels, but also with the SME sector itself. Associated with this is application complexity that is again significant and linked to relative size. Finally, the choices made by small hotels and travel agents are shown to be influenced by the technology providers.Research limitations/implicationsThe main research limitation is a limited generalisibility. Future research on SMEs in developing countries would make the comparison more sound and increase generalisability.Practical implicationsSMEs should pay more attention on strategic use of IT in order to compete with their larger competitors. At the policy level, more education on IT development skills and business potentials of IT are needed.Originality/valueThe paper adds to the literature on IT adoption in SMEs particularly with respect to size within the SME sector, the importance of complexity and the role of technology provider.

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