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This chapter identifies the operating and dynamic capabilities interactions that are supported by social media use in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), specifically knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). The focus on social media market intelligence accumulation and assimilation as an operating capability which enables dynamic marketing capability development in the SME marketing context, complements the prevalent focus in the literature on SME adoption and use of social media, as well as literature on how dynamic capabilities alter operating capability. The chapter presents a case study of a KIBS SME operating in South East England. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews with key actors and social media data, and thematically analysed. The findings suggest that the company develops absorptive capacity at the operating level by absorbing intelligence through social media use, and this learning is captured and transformed at the marketing planning level as a dynamic capability, reconfiguring future marketing operational capabilities.

The concept of organizational learning receives increasing attention and recognition in recent years as a critical enabler of organizational adaptation, survival, and growth during uncertain times. Our study applies a socio-technical lens to shed light on the organizational learning processes taking place in 40 various sizes and kinds of UK businesses during the critical, volatile, and unprecedented period – February–May 2021. The study identifies learning antecedents and key organizational context enabling and/or impeding learning processes and follow-up evolution within the studied companies. Our research confirms that in an uncertain environment, companies need to develop and apply ad-hoc learning and quick adaptation practices which are critical for survival and growth, and not standard management practices The findings suggest, however, that even if employees have the capability, not all are able to capture and transform intelligence into learning and apply it at a strategic level, reconfiguring purposefully future operational capabilities to respond to environmental changes, as they are not empowered and supported by the organizational management.

This chapter identifies the operating and dynamic capabilities interactions that are supported by social media use in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), specifically knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). The focus on social media market intelligence accumulation and assimilation as an operating capability which enables dynamic marketing capability development in the SME marketing context, complements the prevalent focus in the literature on SME adoption and use of social media, as well as literature on how dynamic capabilities alter operating capability. The chapter presents a case study of a KIBS SME operating in South East England. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews with key actors and social media data, and thematically analysed. The findings suggest that the company develops absorptive capacity at the operating level by absorbing intelligence through social media use, and this learning is captured and transformed at the marketing planning level as a dynamic capability, reconfiguring future marketing operational capabilities.