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The aim of this paper is to report on an exploratory, qualitative study of how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) describe their firm’s relationships with or impact on stakeholders when communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR) on their websites.

Qualitative content analysis was conducted on 22 Australian SME websites from the information media and telecommunications sector. Stakeholder theory was used as the basis for analysis.

An important aspect of CSR communication is reporting the firm’s relationships with stakeholders such as society/communities, ecological environment, employees, customers and suppliers. This paper provides insights into how these relationships are manifested in SME website communications. For example, three-way relationships between the firm and stakeholders were described on some websites, but few explained the impact of their CSR on stakeholders.

This study concentrated on identifying the CSR communication on websites from one industry sector in Australia. These limitations provide the basis for future research to explore and compare CSR communication on websites by SMEs from other industry sectors and countries.

The findings offer SME owner-managers ideas on different ways they can incorporate details of stakeholder relationships in CSR website communications.

There has been little research on how SMEs use channels such as websites to communicate CSR. This paper addresses this gap in knowledge by providing insights into how SMEs describe stakeholder relationships in CSR website communications.

This study aims to investigate how marketing communication (MC) and nascent corporate communication (CC) strategies are juxtaposed in the small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) setting.

A qualitative research method based on a multiple case study approach is elaborated in a South-East Asian emerging economy.

The key findings show that MC and nascent CC strategies coexist in SMEs, and are frequently closely interwoven, enabling the introduction of an integrated hybrid communication (IHC) theoretical perspective in this context. Four requisites inform IHC management: communicate the identity/roots; establish and communicate the relationship with multiple stakeholders; communicate the product/service to customers; and communicate other activities of the firm (e.g. corporate social responsibility and brand identity). SME managers were predisposed to use at least three communication channels among the following: advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing and/or personal selling. Furthermore, managers generally preferred internet-enabled communication.

This study provides fresh insights into how SMEs could integrate their communication strategies to increase their survival chances and business growth. However, the need to develop SMEs is required in every economy. Thus, the present findings could be seen as relevant to various audiences (academic, practitioners and/or policy-makers) such as for managers from Western and/or European settings who are interested in operating in the Malaysian economy.

By using the four requisites that inform IHC, owners/managers of SMEs can adopt a more holistic approach, by strategically planning communication activities using both communication typologies (i.e. product and firm level). Thus, SMEs will be able to enhance clarity and consistency in their communication strategy and achieve brand equity across relevant stakeholders in the long run.

This study introduces the IHC theoretical perspective and reveals the communication tools used by SMEs to communicate product and brand-related messages to multiple stakeholders. These messages tend to stem from and are shaped by the identity/roots of the firm embedded in managerial personality/values.

The purpose of this chapter is to carry out a theoretical review of the state of the art in relation to Latin American Small and Medium Enterprises' (SMEs) communication practices and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from 2009 to 2016. A range of recently published papers (2009–2016) is retrieved in a literature search of the Web of Science and Google Scholar under keywords such as ‘CSR’, ‘SME’, ‘Communication’, and ‘CSR in Latin America’. This chapter provides information about CSR in SMEs, indicating what can be found on this topic and how the management of CSR communication can help those firms. It also recognizes the lack of any real formation in SMEs to solve their problems in this area. This chapter emphasizes that, in general terms, SMEs are aware of CSR management opportunities but, because of the aforementioned constraints, their current CSR communications practices are absolutely basic and their management is still limited and short-term. Instead of a generalized exhaustive study, this is an approach to develop new studies in the future. It does not contain empirical results but rather practical information for reflections on CSR and communication in Latin American SMEs. A useful source of information for SME managers. CSR communications policies generate no value unless they have been taken into account in the overall design of corporate CSR policy, particularly if there is no clear vision of how new stakeholders may be more valuable strategically than operationally. This chapter fulfils an identified information/resources need and offers indications for future lines of research.

This study aimed to develop a generalisable small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) brand equity scale and examine its relationship with consumer response factors.

The study which was done in Thailand included three steps. First, brand communications of 40 successful SMEs and opinions of 56 consumers were collected by document analysis, interview and focus group for generating items and measurement of stimuli. Second, 838 consumers were surveyed to define the dimensions of the brand equity and the top SMEs. Third, surveys with 552 customers of the three most popular SMEs, one from each of the manufacturing, service and trade businesses, were conducted to examine the scale's invariance and its relationships with consumer responses.

The SME brand equity (SMEBE) scale included 23 items that were grouped into five components named brand awareness, functionality, authenticity, attentiveness and resonance. The scale is applicable across consumers that vary in their product involvement and brand engagement. The SMEBE significantly affected the brand's preference, loyalty and word-of-mouth.

Since the SMEBE scale was tested with three brands, one from each of three business sectors, future studies should measure more than one SME for each business type. To allow for potential cultural characteristics that might affect the study, replications in diverse international settings are required.

SME managers should increase the awareness, functionality, authenticity, attentiveness and resonance of their brands as these components are essential for SMEBE, which, in turn, significantly affects consumer behaviour.

This study develops a ready-to-use SMEBE scale and introduces a practical research design for quantitative research on SME branding.

A number of recent studies have suggested that many small businesses are opting to become members of strategic alliances with other firms in order to minimise the perceived barriers to adoption of electronic commerce (E‐commerce). This study compares the perception of barriers to E‐commerce adoption between a sample of Swedish small to medium enterprises (SMEs) that have become members of some form of strategic alliance and those that have remained outside such arrangements. The results show that, in general, SMEs that are part of a strategic alliance perceive barriers as less applicable than their counterparts that are not part of a strategic alliance.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Marketing and corporate communication coexist among Malaysian SMEs. This integrated communication facilitates the development of the firm's brand equity.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists, and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The formation of alliances between organisations is increasingly common, allowing firms to discover and ensure competitive advantages. This research paper aims to make a critical analysis of studies to understand the role of communication between partners in the process of strategic alliances.

A systematic literature review was carried out, using the Web of Science database to obtain data, associating the terms “communication” and “strategic alliances”, which resulted in 240 scientific articles (published between 1993 and March 2021). After data treatment using VOSviewer software and reading of the contents, the final sample consisted of 179 articles on the subject in question.

The conceptual limits, exploratory descriptive analysis of the data and content analysis of research methods are presented, with five clusters being identified. The results show growing academic interest in studying communication associated with strategic alliances, and authors’ main interest lies in understanding the critical success factors and the relation between communication and knowledge.

This study corroborates understanding of the future of alliances, assuming that learning is the main objective; trust is the factor determining success or failure; technology is the aggregating tool; culture affects the relation; and communication is not an end but a means to construct consolidated, long-lasting and high-performing strategic alliances.

This study is innovative in strategic alliances area. The research confirms that the main factor in forming alliances, in both emerging and international markets, is the learning intention. This fact reinforces the relevance of the learning made possible by this transfer of know-how through communication. In addition, this study gives critical understanding of how the process of communication between partners in an alliance must be distinct; i.e. it must be flexible enough to adjust to the stage in the alliance’s life cycle.

The purpose of this paper is to review recent government policy to provide a context for an exploratory study of broadband take up and use by small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Thames Valley region of the UK. In recent years, the business environment has been fundamentally altered by the information and communication revolution that has changed the way in which businesses are created, operated and managed. However, the take up of broadband amongst SMEs remains low. Recent government policy has focussed on stimulating both supply and demand sides of the market for broadband technology as an entry point for SMEs.

The paper discusses the impact of government policy upon the use of broadband by SMEs and considers how occupiers are using and benefiting from the use of broadband.

The research undertaken indicates that government policy promoting broadband take up amongst SMEs has been effective in terms of the achievement of targets. The majority of SMEs in the case study are now equipped with broadband. However, their use of broadband appears to be limited to the more rudimentary uses for communication and searching for information as opposed to advanced applications such as e‐business and marketing.

Current government policy is aimed at promoting ICT for SMEs, but their effectiveness and success is yet to be measured. There is a need for more research in respect of the impact of broadband upon the working practices of SMEs, their business performance and relative competitiveness.

This paper aims at exploring and describing the tools used by small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to collect customer feedback online, their components and the criteria used in selecting these internet‐based tools.

Multiple in‐depth case studies were conducted on five SMEs all of which are engaged in customer feedback collection online. The data collected by personal interviews was analysed in a cross‐case analysis. Findings: We conclude that e‐mail is the most dominant tool though supported other offline means. Components of Internet‐based customer feedback system and the criteria for assessing Internet‐based customer feedback collection tool by SMEs were also identified.

Five cases were investigated out of 60 and the study was restricted to the northern part of Sweden. Adding other methods could also have cross‐fertilised the study.

The study reinforces the need for SMEs managers to use the Internet to gather feedback from customers online, learn much about the nature and habits of their customers and the best medium to reach out to them – be it Internet‐based, offline or the combination of the two.

Application of the concept of customer feedback collection and theories on the components and the criteria used in selecting Internet‐based tools in a relatively new context.

The purpose of this paper is to review extant literature on social media marketing (SMM) in B2B service markets, by scrutinizing and categorizing potential benefits for firms. The study, in particular, empirically investigates the adoption of social media (SM) tools by firms operating in two conservative B2B service industries.

A systematic literature review is carried out driving to a deeper understanding of the current state of knowledge on SM in B2B services. Leading peer-review international journals are scrutinized performing ad-hoc queries on the Scopus database using pre-defined keywords. Moreover, a quantitative research is conducted on 60 firms, i.e. tanker shipping companies and ocean carriers, providing empirical insights on their SM activity on three SM platforms, i.e., Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The outcomes from sample firms shed lights on the adoption rate of the most diffused SM tools, the size of the digital networks of stakeholders (number of followers), the intensity of the communication activity (number of posts, shares, photos, videos), and the level of customer engagement (number of likes and shares).

Research findings suggest to managers that SMM might be an easy-accessible and low-cost option for keeping the pace of sectorial transformations and creating a competitive advantage even in conservative sectors.

The paper, by investigating B2B service sectors, addresses an interesting gap in SMM literature as prior studies mostly focused on B2C industries and manufacturing contexts.