Examining the Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted Social Media Marketing on the Performance of Small and Medium Enterprises: Toward Effective Business Management in the Saudi Arabian Context

Abstract

A B S T R A C TPurpose: To examine the impact of artificial intelligence-assisted social media marketing (AISMM)on the performance of startup businesses of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia. Design/methodology/approach: A survey technique was employed whereby primary and secondary data was collected, analyzed, and interpreted. Participants involved business operators or employees of start-up businesses and SMEs in the Saudi Arabian context. Data were analyzed by using partial least squarestructure equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings: AISMM, which exhibits an increasing trend among start-up businesses and SMEs in Saudi Arabia, accounts for an overall increase in the number of customers and customer bases-and an additional tertiary effect of increased profitability. AISMM increases the effective business management and SMEs performance (SMEP). Moreover, effective business management increases the SMEP Originality/value: This study is quite unique as it is investigated that AISMM practices has significant role to enhance SMEP in which effective business management playing a mediating role. Implications: The practitioners can get help from this study to increase the performance by decreasing various problems of marketing by using AISMM.

Artificial Intelligence and Reduced SMEs’ Business Risks. A Dynamic Capabilities Analysis During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Moreover, AI advances big data collection and processing, analysis, drives conclusions and provides recommendations (Drydakis, 2021;Jablonska & Polkowski, 2017;Bengio et al, 2013). AI is utilised by SMEs to support their business operations in areas such as sales and marketing, conversational commerce, customer service support, data analytics, sustainable development, credit evaluations, risk assessments, cybersecurity and legal services (Basri, 2021;Camacho-Miñano et al, 2015;Hamal & Senvar, 2021;Ikumoro & Jawad, 2019;Kim et al, 2019;Pérez et al, 2019;Rebón et al, 2015;Sood, 2020;Watney & Auer, 2021), helping to improve the quality optimisation, operational efficiencies and overall development of SMEs (Hansen & Bøgh, 2021;Kumar & Kalse, 2021).…”

“…These data enable firms to gain insight into customer behavioural patterns, creating personalised advertisements and advertising impact evaluation (Li, 2019;Qin & Jiang, 2019). AI leads to higher conversion rates, advanced customer services, increased customer experience, satisfaction, purchases and operational efficiency (Davenport et al, 2020;Jablonska & Polkowski, 2017;Köse, 2017), helping SMEs in marketing and sales platforms to increase the number of customers and profitability (Basri, 2021).…”

“…Sensing describes the assessment of opportunities and needs existing outside of the firm, with AI helping SMEs to sense as it can identify opportunities such as finding and engaging with the right customers, improving customer retention, experience and purchases, offer personalised services and 24/7 communication (Basri, 2021;Hansen & Bøgh, 2021;Kumar & Kalse, 2021;Li, Du, et al, 2018;Li, Su, et al, 2018;Pérez et al, 2019).…”

“…It has been shown that SMEs that adopt digital technology aided by AI enhance their competitive advantage and productivity (Chan et al, 2018;Chan, Morgan, et al, 2018;Kumar & Kalse, 2021). SMEs invest in AI technologies to track users' habits and provide recommendations, improve customer's purchasing decisions, search results, media communication, trade raise sales, improve organisational performance, and lower costs (Basri, 2021;Chan et al, 2018a, b;Hansen & Bøgh, 2021;Jablonska & Polkowski, 2017;Ulas, 2019;Ulrich et al, 2021).…”

Efectos de la inteligencia artificial en las estrategias de marketing: Revisión de literatura

“…Por ejemplo, en las PYMES de Arabia Saudita, la IA es fundamental para promover los negocios mediante la incorporación de tecnologías de comercialización de última generación. En dicho país, las empresas se enfrentan a los problemas de marketing apoyados por completo en la IA (Basri, 2019).…”