Purpose Despite the blossoming nature of social media marketing, the nuances and implications among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) appear to be under-researched in literature. The purpose of this paper is to progress knowledge and offer extended understanding of the motivations and performance benefits of social media accrued by SMEs with an empirical study from an emerging economy. Design/methodology/approach Based on past research, the study hypothesizes that interactivity, compatibility and cost effectiveness are motivations germane to social media usage, which consequently offer performance benefits. Data from 210 SMEs (having Facebook and/or Twitter accounts) are employed to investigate the proposed conceptual model using structural equation modeling with sub-group analysis. Findings Finding from this study demonstrate that the interdependencies of social media motivations, as well as effects of social media usage are positive but erratic across product-based and service-based SMEs. Moreover, SMEs who offer physical products are more likely to employ social media based on cost-effective motives while service SMEs are more likely to consider interactivity as a key motivation. Additionally, findings from the study data suggest that in a tale of two sites, Facebook proved to edge Twitter in terms of engendering performance benefits among SME users. Originality/value The findings provide evidence to issues of potential research and managerial interest, offering insightful implications to the academic and practitioner communities. Evidently, irrespective of some usage bottlenecks, SMEs in emerging markets appears to be reaping enhanced social media benefits by deploying their marketing campaigns via multiple platforms.
Purpose The increased practitioner and academic interest in negative brand phenomena highlight the need for the development of practical scales to be used for empirical investigations. Therefore, this paper aims to draw on existing conceptualisations to provide a theoretically grounded yet practically oriented scale for examining brand avoidance and its protocols. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a sample of 575 consumers from two developing countries to create a parsimonious brand avoidance scale. Partial least squares structural equation modelling is used to analyse the data through a systematic formative measurement approach Findings This paper finds brand avoidance to be a multidimensional, second-order construct with five first-order dimensions: moral avoidance, identity avoidance, deficit–value avoidance, experiential avoidance and advertising-related avoidance. The paper further validates this scale by testing with non-purchase intention and identifies its positive relationship with brand avoidance. Originality/value This study fulfils the calls in the literature to provide a measurable scale for studying negative brand phenomena in consumer–brand relationship research.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine brand-building efforts within small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in an attempt to understand the extent to which such efforts are undertaken in high- and low-performing enterprises. Design/methodology/approach The study uses data from 430 SMEs in an emerging market. After evaluating scale measures with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, multiple stage analyses involving cluster analysis, ANOVA and hierarchical regression with sub-group analysis were used to examine the theoretical relationships among the constructs. Findings Findings from the study identify four composite brand-building efforts that influence SMEs’ performance. These are implemented in varying extents, culminating into proportional levels of performance within high- and low-performing SMEs. Significant differences with regard to profit margin, market share, sales volume, customer base and new product success are also exhibited in the two enterprise segments. Originality/value The results provide evidence to issues of research and managerial interest, offering insightful implications to the academic and practitioner communities. The paper offers a preliminary attempt to progress literature by synthesizing various brand-building efforts under four broader theorizations in SMEs setting.
Purpose This study aims to investigate the moderating effects of innovation capabilities and social media capabilities on the relationship between brand orientation and brand performance among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on the size differential feature from the organizational ecology theory, the paper further tests variations in these conditions across disaggregated SME levels. Design/methodology/approach The empirical part of the study was carried out with a sample of 484 enterprises in an emerging market context via exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, along with a moderated hierarchical regression. Findings Results from the moderated hierarchical regression analysis indicate that although the two capabilities generally offered positive moderating effects across all enterprises, these are conditional and not invariant when disaggregated based on enterprise sizes (small vs medium). Originality/value The study suggests the need for enterprise owners/managers to identify optimal combinations of enterprise capabilities, based on their sizes, for which their complementarities with brand orientation efforts are more potent.
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