Effects of Social Media Usage on the Speed of International Growth of an International New Venture

Abstract

Abstract

Social Media and Small Entrepreneurial Firms’ Internationalization

“…Marketing literature has already provided numerous insights on social media use, most notably as a marketing and brand-building tool (Andzulis et al 2012;Kannan 2017;Karjaluoto et al 2015;Rapp et al 2013). Many of these insights apply to international marketing, and international activity in more general, but there also are features related to international expansion that are less well covered and understood (e.g., Fraccastoro and Gabrielsson 2018).…”

“…Considering an even more specific context-that of internationalizing and growing small entrepreneurial firms-there is a need to understand the premises, benefits, and limits of social media use. In fact, existing research has almost completely neglected the relationship between social media and the internationalization endeavors of SMEs (Brouthers et al 2016;Fraccastoro and Gabrielsson 2018;Mathews et al 2016). In a recent study, Cao, Ajjan, Hong and Le (2018, 228) state that "[as] the research on social media evolves, more studies may examine what specific forms of social media are most influential in achieving the performance goals of organizations beyond national boundaries-in global market contexts."…”

“…Generally speaking, scholars in international entrepreneurship indicate that the use of social media can ease entry to online networks and allow managing of multiple international relationships (Sigfusson and Chetty 2013). Social media decreases the liability of outsidership that foreign firms face (Fraccastoro and Gabrielsson, 2018). This is relevant, as limited resources set constraints, and consequently, push expanding SMEs to co-operate with other actors (Oviatt and McDougall 1994).…”

“…Based on the above considerations, while there are challenges also, the benefits of social media for internationalizing small entrepreneurial firms seem to be at least two-fold. It may open the access to the international markets relatively directly by increasing brand awareness/image, and by reducing uncertainty regarding a firm among potential customers (Andzulis, Panagopoulos and Rapp 2012;Fraccastoro and Gabrielsson 2018). Additionally, support for internationalization may be reached also more indirectly, through the improved chances to entering different networks that enable foreign entry (Durkin et al 2013;Laurell, Achtenhagen and Andersson 2017).…”

“…Some of these earlier studies focus on specific ibusiness firms or born-digitals (Monaghn, Tippmann and Coviello 2019;Shaheer and Li 2020;Vadana, Torkkeli, Kuivalainen and Saarenketo 2019), which are firms providing internet-based platforms or digital artefacts (Brouthers et al 2016;Stallkamp and Schotter 2018). Within this stream of studies, Ojala et al (2018) argue that technology related bottlenecks may limit entrepreneurial firms' early phase internationalization, whereas Fraccastoro and Gabrielsson (2018) show that the use of social media increases the speed of a software firm's (digital artefact) early phase internationalization, yet acknowledging that more studies are needed.…”