Social media assimilation in firms: Investigating the roles of absorptive capacity and institutional pressures

Abstract

Firms are increasingly employing social media to manage relationships with partner organizations, yet the role of institutional pressures in social media assimilation has not been studied. We investigate social media assimilation in firms using a model that combines the two theoretical streams of IT adoption: organizational innovation and institutional theory. The study uses a composite view of absorptive capacity that includes both previous experience with similar technology and the general ability to learn and exploit new technologies. We find that institutional pressures are an important antecedent to absorptive capacity, an important measure of organizational learning capability. The paper augments theory in finding the role and limits of institutional pressures. Institutional pressures are found to have no direct effect on social media assimilation but to impact absorptive capacity, which mediates its influence on assimilation.

Advances in Social Media Research: Past, Present and Future

“…Bharati et al (2014;p258) refer to social media as a technology Bnot focussed on transactions but on collaboration and communication across groups both inside and outside the firm.^Lastly, Tang et al (2012;p44) also identify social media as user-generated media, which is a source of Bonline information created, initiated, circulated, and used by consumers intent on educating each other about products, brands, services, personalities, and issues. ll of the aforementioned descriptions clearly regard social media as communication tools supported by internet-based technologies for dissemination of information. Most of them acknowledge the high concentration of user generated content across such platforms.…”

The Perils and Promises of Self-Disclosure on Social Media

“…By carefully constructing social media profiles and posts otherwise invisible information can be shared (Leonardi 2014). Such material can include posts about an individual's expertise, the extent of their social networks and their association with specific projects, which can help make them more noticeable and facilitate new opportunities (Bharati et al 2014;Treem and Leonardi 2012). With these end goals in mind individuals give extensive thought to what they share in order to ensure that the inferences fostered via social media are favourable.…”

Enhancing Organisational Competitiveness Via Social Media - a Strategy as Practice Perspective

“…Functional execution is not very helpful in the long run; however, due to the complexity of company-wide implementation, organisations can start with functional strategies then embark on the company-wide strategy (Piskorski 2014). The tactical choice is significant especially when considering that social media can be deployed by multiple departments within the organisation such as customer service, marketing, public relation and design (Bharati et al 2014). Nonetheless, the use of social media in multiple functions has the potential of exposing organisations to social media risk that can have detrimental impacts on the organisation (Gangi Di et al 2016), with issues such as privacy and security (Muhammad et al 2017).…”

“…Nonetheless, the use of social media in multiple functions has the potential of exposing organisations to social media risk that can have detrimental impacts on the organisation (Gangi Di et al 2016), with issues such as privacy and security (Muhammad et al 2017). Upon reflection of the literature and in light of the three main areas of focus of existing studies examining social media as aforementioned -social media marketing, social media and predictive power and social media strategy -it is fair to say that insofar, organisations have tended to take a more functional approach when it comes to social media and strategy (Bharati et al 2014). For instance, owing to the significant use of social media within the marketing departments within organisations, the marketing function within an organisation would be more responsive to competition and active on social media platforms (Kaplan and Haenlein 2011).…”

“…For instance, how to formulate social media strategies (Kietzmann et al 2011) and how to implement and strategically use social media strategies (Bharati et al 2014;Kietzmann et al 2011). Furthermore, organisations face challenges regarding how they should organise and manage social media within their organisation and what broader changes in organisational structure and processes are needed for the implementation of social media (Aral et al 2013).…”