The Influence Mechanism Of Enterprise Social Media Utilization On Innovation

The use of social media has brought about a myriad of benefits to organizations in the 21st century.Numerous studies have proved beyond reasonable doubt that social media,if utilized appropriately can increase brand visibility,customer engagement,collaborations amongst other crucial functions.Recently a new crop of social media has sprouted-called enterprise social media(ESM).ESM are social media utilized by organizations to,connect and communicate internally with employees’ examples include IBM connections,Mingdao,Jive and Yammer.These social platforms are said to improve workplace collaborations,knowledge sharing and communication visibility among other things.As such organizations have been rapidly deploying the use of ESM to achieve various business goals.Initially organizations made use of external social media such as Facebook,Twitter however recently on top of the “usual” external social media platforms,organizations have started to deploy internal social platforms such as IBM connections,Jive,Yammer for communication/engagement amongst employees.Organizations are adopting and utilizing social media platforms to achieve various business goals,innovation included.Innovation has become a pre-requisite for obtaining a sustainable competitive advantage in this era of dynamic business environments.Therefore,this dissertation seeks to explore the influence of enterprise social media(ESM)on the innovation profiles of affected organizations.The literature on the role of ESM utilization in driving the innovation profiles of organizations has not much provided an understanding of the mechanisms of this positive relationship.The study also explores how market orientation acts as a mechanism which mediates the relationship between ESM and the innovation profiles of an organization.In as much as there is a rapid uptake of ESM platforms by organizations there is dearth of research and little understanding on how they affect organizational goals chief among them innovation.Hence both industry practitioners and academicians will be interested in understanding how ESM utilization affects the innovation profiles of organizations.This study contributes to theory in several ways;firstly,the study conceptualizes ESM to incorporate both the external use and internal use of ESM by organizations.The study is amongst the first to study ESM in an integrated/ holistic manner.The study provides an understanding of how ESM utilization affects the various innovation typologies in affected organizations.The study also provides an understanding of the mechanisms that drive the relationship between ESM use and innovation.It explores how market orientation(customer orientation,competitor orientation,inter functional coordination)acts as a mediator in this relationship.In order to have an in-depth understanding of the emerging concept of ESM utilization and its influence on innovation,the research adopted an exploratory sequential mixed method research design.Whereby the preliminary research is a qualitative study(interviews)followed by empirical studies.The preliminary qualitative study involving interviews was conducted at a large ICT organization in Harare,Zimbabwe,33 managers were interviewed.Using grounded research method,the results from the interviews revealed that there are two specific types of enterprise social media being utilized by organizations,that is internal enterprise social media(IESM)and external enterprise social media(EESM),this revelation led to the conceptualization of ESM to be a variable that consists of two constructs.Furthermore,results showed that ESM utilization has a direct impact on innovation and that there are three innovation typologies that were being positively impacted that is product,organizational and service innovation.Results from the interviews revealed market orientation to be the mechanism that mediates the relationship between ESM utilization and innovation.Basing on the interview results,the research model for this dissertation is proposed.To test the applicability of the model in a different environment an empirical study(with the use of questionnaires)was conducted in South Africa and also to further cement its applicability and to draw more inferences another empirical study was conducted in Zimbabwe.The second study an empirical investigation which tests the applicability of the mode suggested from the initial qualitative study was conducted in South Africa with a sample of 251 respondents.The results of structural equation modelling(SEM),among a sample of organizations based in South Africa,confirmed and support extant studies that ESM utilization has a positive effect on both product innovation and organizational innovation and that market orientation largely mediates this relationship.More specifically the findings from the structural equation modeling show that IESM had a positive total effect on product innovation,.343;p(.000)hence confirming the positive influence of IESM on product innovation.The results also showed that IESM had a positive total effect on organisational innovation of.480;p(.000).Market Orientation largely mediated the relationships between ESM and both product and organizational innovation hence largely supporting the hypothesized relationships.The third study conducted in Zimbabwe with a sample size of 380 respondents is another empirical investigation which further tests the applicability of the research model in a different environment.Zimbabwe and South Africa are in different economic zones.South Africa is classified as an emerging economy,whilst Zimbabwe is classified as a low income economy,Hence the need to investigate the influence of ESM on innovation in an environment which is less technologically advanced.The results of structural equation modeling in Zimbabwe also further confirm and support extant studies that ESM utilization has a positive effect on both product innovation and organizational innovation.More specifically the findings from the structural equation modeling reveal that IESM as a total positive effect of.340(001)on service innovation.However,the relationship between EESM and service innovation was not supported with a total negative effect of-121(001)hence this hypothesized relationship was not confirmed.To a greater extend results from the structural equation modeling confirmed the positive relationship between ESM and the three typologies of innovation and to a greater extend market orientation mediated this relationship.Results from the studies conducted imply that organizations that wish to pursue innovation(and perhaps strategies of differentiation)should use ESM,leveraging their value in knowledge generation and assimilation.It is suggested that management should also endeavor to train and encourage employees to fully utilizes the organizations ESM platforms so as to derive maximum benefits from them.Results also show the importance of utilizing ESM in a holistic manner,utilizing ESM in a holistic manner ensures that the organization is fully equipped with relevant information from both inside and outside the organization which further improves the organizations capacity to make better decisions.It also enables the organization to successfully manage both its internal and external stakeholders successfully.It enables the organization to involve both its internal and external stakeholders in its innovation initiatives through the use of social media platforms.