Unpacking the impact of social media analytics on customer satisfaction: do external stakeholder characteristics matter?
International Journal of Operations & Production Management
ISSN: 0144-3577
Article publication date: 17 June 2020
Issue publication date: 19 September 2020
Abstract
Purpose
Underpinned by the lens of Contingency Theory (CT), the purpose of this paper is to empirically evaluate whether the impact of social media analytics (SMA) on customer satisfaction (CS) is contingent on the characteristics of different external stakeholders, including business partners (i.e. partner diversity), competitors (i.e. localised competition) and customers (i.e. customer engagement).
Design/methodology/approach
Using both subjective and objective measures from multiple sources, we collected primary data from 141 hotels operating in Greece and their archival data from TripAdvisor and the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels (HCH) database to test the hypothesised relationships. Data were analysed through structural equation modelling.
Findings
This study confirms the positive association between SMA and CS, but it remains subject to the varied characteristics of external stakeholders. We find that an increase in CS due to the implementation of SMA is more pronounced for firms that (1) adopt a selective distribution strategy where a limited number of business partners are chosen for collaboration or (2) operate in a highly competitive local environment. The results further indicate that high level of customer engagement amplifies the moderating effect of partner diversity (when it is low) and localised competition (when it is high) on the SMA–CS relationship.
Originality/value
The study provides novel insights for managers on the need to consider external stakeholder characteristics when implementing SMA to enhance firms' CS, and for researchers on the value of studying SMA implementation from the CT perspective.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
We thank the Editors and anonymous referees for their constructive comments on earlier versions of our paper. The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Mr. Thanos Goulas, who assisted in the data collection for this study.
Citation
Wang, Y., Zhang, M., Tse, Y.K. and Chan, H.K. (2020), "Unpacking the impact of social media analytics on customer satisfaction: do external stakeholder characteristics matter?", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 40 No. 5, pp. 647-669. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-04-2019-0331
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited