Social media marketing and business competitiveness: evidence from South African tourism SMMEs

  • Received January 28, 2017;
    Accepted May 4, 2017;
    Published September 1, 2017
  • Author(s)
    Patient Rambe
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.15(2-2).2017.10
  • Article Info
    Volume 15 2017, Issue #2 (cont. 2), pp. 411-423
  • TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯ
  • Cited by
    18 articles
  • 1907 Views
  • 1417 Downloads

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

The increasing prominence of social media marketing in advancing the global reach and visibility of products and services is ideal for the South African tourism industry, which depends on local and international visitors for leveraging its business activities and competitiveness. However, what remains under-explored in tourism literature is the depth of integration of social media marketing into the competitive strategies of emerging tourism small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs). To address this grey area, this study explored the extent to which tourism SMMEs utilize social media technologies (SMTs) to extend their market share and the implications thereof for the competitiveness of their business operations. Drawing on a quantitative approach, a survey was conducted on 234 tourism SMMEs’ owner/managers in the Free State province of South Africa to establish the impact of social media marketing on the competitiveness of their businesses. Evidence suggests that tourism SMMEs employed social media marketing predominantly for online marketing of their products/services, promoting their products/services, attracting existing customers, and sometimes, for integrating it into their marketing strategies. Results of correlation analysis revealed that social media marketing is positively and significantly related to the competitiveness of tourism SMMEs. The recommendations for leveraging the integration of social media marketing into the competitive strategy of the small business are provided.

view full abstract hide full abstract
    • Table 1. Reliability testing using Cronbach’s alpha
    • Table 2. Sample demographics
    • Table 3. Status and utilization of social media technologies
    • Table 4. Utilization of social media technologies
    • Table 5. Marketing
    • Table 6. Competitiveness of tourism businesses
    • Table 7. Correlations (competitiveness vs business activity’s variables)
    • Ananda, A., Hernandez-Garcia, A., & Lamberti, L. (2015). Social media marketing in Italian luxury fashion.
    • Arca, C. (2012). Social Media Marketing benefits for businesses: Why and how should every business create and develop its Social Media Sites? Master of International Marketing, Aalborg University, Denmark.
    • Boyles T. (2011). Small Business and Web 2.0: Hope or Hype? Entrepreneurial Executive, 16, 81-96.
    • Burgess, S., Sellitto, C., Cox, C., & Buultjens, J. (2014). Strategies for Adopting Consumer-generated Media in Small-sized to Medium-sized Tourism Enterprises. International Journal of Tourism Research, 1-10.
    • Carson M. (2013). An Expanding Network of Risk and Opportunity: How UK SMEs are Under-estimating the Growing Complexity of Technology. The Economist Intelligence Unit (2 May 2013).
    • Carson, M., Maxwell, L. Lyons, L., & Roy, A. (2016). Under-skilled and out-of-time: How SMEs are marketing through social media. Journal of Business Administration, 1-7.
    • Cesaroni, F. M., & Consoli, D. (2015). Are small businesses really able to take advantage of social media? The Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, 13(4), 257-268.
    • eMarketer, (2012). eMarketer.
    • Frost, D. (2016). SATSA initiative fast-tracks Gauteng SMEs to tourism mainstream. Bojanala second edition.
    • Gilbert, S. W. (2002). The beauty of low threshold applications. Campus Technology.
    • Gilmore, A., Carson, D., & O’Donnell, A. (2004). Small business owners and their attitude to risk. Market Intelligence and Planning, 22(3), 349-360.
    • Hoffman, D. L., & Fodor, M. (2010). Can you measure the ROI of your social media marketing? MIT Sloan: Management Review, 52(1), 41-49.
    • Internet World User. (2016).
    • Karami, S., & Naghibi, H. (2014). Social media marketing (SMM) strategies for small to medium enterprises (SMEs). International Journal of Sales & Marketing Management Research and Development, 4(4), 11-20.
    • Kimani, E. (2015). Role of social media marketing on organisational performance in Kenya. Journal of Business and Management, 17(1), 101-105.
    • Kotler, P., Wong, V., Saunders, J., & Armstrong, G. (2005). Principles of marketing (4th European Edition ed.), 174-186. Harlow Essex: Pearson Prentice Hall
    • Lekhanya, L. M. (2013). The use of social media and social networks as the promotional tool for rural small, medium and micro enterprises in Kwazulu-Natal. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 3(7), 1-7.
    • Levinson, J. C., & Gibson, S. (2010). Guerrilla Social Media Marketing: 100+ Weapons to Grow your Online Influence, Attract Customers and Drive Profits. Entrepreneur Media Inc., Canada.
    • Michaelidou, N., Siamagka, N., & Christodoulides, G. (2011). Usage, barriers and measurement of social media marketing: An exploratory investigation of small and medium B2B brands. Industrial Marketing Management, 40, 1153-1159.
    • Moeti, M. (2016). The development of a business social responsibility (BSR) model to promote the long-term sustainability of hospitality SMMEs in the Free State region. Masters Thesis, Central University of Technology, Free State.
    • Mosweunyane, L. (2016). Free State tourism SMMEs’ utilisation of social media technologies for marketing and branding: A stakeholders’ perspective. Doctoral Thesis, Central University of Technology, Free State.
    • Musa, H., Azmi, F., Rahim, N., Shibghatullah, A., & Othmana, N. (2016). Analyzing the Effectiveness of Social Media Marketing. The European proceedings of the Social and Behavioural Sciences, 4-10.
    • Nieman, G. H., & Nieuwenhuizen, C. (2014). Entrepreneurship: A South African perspective. 3rd Edition. Hatfield: Van Schaik Publishers.
    • Oztamur, D., & Karakadılar, İ. (2014). Exploring the role of social media for SMEs: as a new marketing strategy tool for the firm performance perspective. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 511-520.
    • Salminen, J. (2015, 3 31). Thesis interview on brand awareness and digital marketing. (N. Soininen, Interviewer).
    • Singh, Y. K., & Nath, R. (2010). Research methodology. New Delhi: A P H Publishing Corporation.
    • Soininen, N. (2015). Improving SME’s brand awareness by digital marketing – a guide for SMEs. Turku University of Applied Sciences.
    • Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA). (2012). Analysis of the needs, state and performance of small and medium businesses in the agriculture, manufacturing, ICT and Tourism Sectors in South Africa. Mthente research and consulting services.
    • Statistics South Africa (2016). Tourism: jobs, the economy and spending.
    • Statistics South Africa (2015). Tourism, 2015 / Statistics South Africa.
    • Rambe, P. Mosweunyane, & Dzansi, D. (2015). The SMME adoption of social media technologies to enhance business competitiveness: Towards a Conceptual Framework. Published in Global Conference on Business Management and Social Sciences GCBMS (pp. 14-26). 24th-25th April 2015, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
    • Rogerson, C. M. (2008). Developing tourism SMMEs in South Africa: The need to recognise difference. Acta Academica, 40(4), 140-165.
    • Razak, S., & Latip, N. (2016). Factors that influence the usage of social media in marketing. Journal of Research in Business and Management, 4(2), 01-07.
    • Taiminen, H., & Karjaluoto, H. (2015). The usage of digital marketing channels in SMEs. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 22(4), 633-651.
    • Taneja, S., & Toombs, L. (2014). Putting a face on small businesses: Visibility, viability and sustainability-The impact of social media on small business marketing. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 18(1), 1-12.
    • Tiago, M., & Verissimo, J. (2014). Digital marketing and social media: Why bother? Business Horizons, 57(6), 703-708.
    • Wei, L., & Kang, R. (2011). Integration of the Social Networking Media into Relationship Marketing Strategy: An investigation of sustainable cooperation between Newman and PetroChina, University of Galve.
    • Xasa, T. (2011). Message deputy Minister of Tourism. In Tourism National Sector Strategy. pp. 4-5. Department of Tourism, Republic of South Africa.
Related Articles

  • Social media marketing, functional branding strategy and intentional branding

    Mohammad Fahmi Al-ZyoudORCID doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.16(3).2018.09
    Problems and Perspectives in Management Volume 16, 2018         Issue #3         pp. 102-116 Views: 5021 Downloads: 2108 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯ

    It has been suggested that social media marketing may be inclined more towards functional branding than intentional branding. The present study empirically examined the relationship between social media marketing strategies, intentional branding and functional branding with a view to determining where social media marketing strategies are more strongly inclined towards intentional than functional branding. Quantitative data were collected from 133 participants from Jordan marketing departments using questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS. The results of the study confirmed the relationship between social media marketing strategies. However, results showed that social media marketing strategies are more strongly inclined towards intentional branding than functional branding suggesting that social media marketing strategies are oriented towards intentional branding. The study recommends examining the idea of intentional branding and its role in controlling the image of the brand among customers.

  • Analysis of organizational culture with denison’s model approach for international business competitiveness

    Sri Handari WahyuningsihORCID , Achmad SudiroORCID , Eka Afnan Troena , Dodi W Irawanto doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.17(1).2019.13
    Problems and Perspectives in Management Volume 17, 2019         Issue #1         pp. 142-151 Views: 3090 Downloads: 3432 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯ

    This paper is mainly to study implementation of organizational culture in enhancing business competitiveness. Culture is seen as a soft system tool that reflects beliefs that are able to drive business performance in an international environment. Today, culture is a part of instrument to measure organizational readiness in managing business in an international environment. The research is focused on evaluatiny organizational culture in international-scale hotel in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. International-scale hotels are faced with differences in the nature of employees and customers, so management needs to develop a culture type as a strategy to encourage business competitiveness. The research applies Denison’s organizational culture model with four dimensions: involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission. Sample includes 248 working people at four star hotels with various positions, that is managers, supervisors and employees. The results of the study found that international hotel chains have the power to carry out internal alignment as a strategy to increase competitiveness through employee empowerment programs, team orientation, skills development, and alignment of work values. The results of the study illustrate the importance of internal and external dimension consistency for international business competitiveness.

  • Communication policy of cinema industry enterprises in the context of COVID-19 (on the example of cinema chains)

    Svitlana MelnychenkoORCID Researcher ID, Anatolii MazarakiORCID Researcher ID, Nadiia VedmidORCID Researcher ID, Alla OkhrimenkoORCID Researcher ID, Aliona ShtanovaORCID doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/im.17(2).2021.11
    Innovative Marketing Volume 17, 2021         Issue #2         pp. 112-124 Views: 1157 Downloads: 1151 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯ

    The global pandemic caused a crisis in the Ukrainian cinema industry. Some entities were closed, but the biggest market players were able to concentrate their efforts on interacting with visitors through social networks, public attention, frequent press mentions and discussions of influencers as synergies of communication policy tools.
    The purpose of the paper is to make proposals for improving the communication policy of cinema chains under new challenges. Based on a system analysis and indices of activity in social media of ten key Ukrainian cinema chains during the COVID-19 period, the main trends of their behavior and vision of development were determined. Changes were detected in the product strategy. To increase the effectiveness of communication policy, a focus should be on enhanced communications with consumers, especially through the implementation of a content-plan for publications on Facebook and Instagram, including facts from the lives of actors or filmmaking process, uniting followers around the filming theme, interacting, etc. Based on the above, the proposals are made to strengthen communication policy: activating posting frequency, generating more interesting content, and focusing on engaging with the followers. It turned out that such changes affect the key quality efficiency of social media marketing in two cinema chains. Such events rebuild the online community of moviegoers, which fosters loyalty and increases in visitors in the post-pandemic period. In this context, the implementation of online cinema in cooperation with distributors will contribute to formatting an online platform aimed at attracting a larger number of consumers, regardless of external circumstances.

Download Preview
Close
Problems and Perspectives in Management
Problems and Perspectives in Management