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This study aims to use a social media management framework and strategic orientation framework to explore how small restaurants manage social media.

The authors content-analyzed social media activity and interviews with 14 managers of social media in small independent restaurants in the northeast region of the USA that employed fewer than 20 employees.

The results of the study show that most small restaurants can be classified as anarchic, hierarchical and conservative defenders, and that they mainly focus on promotional activities on social media. The majority use social media also to drive traffic to a restaurant and, thus, act as calculative pragmatists. Very few use social media strategically or creatively in any of the social media management stages, and very few monitor or use social media information to improve their operations.

This study shows that the adopted theoretical framework in this study for social media management helps analyze social media operations in small restaurants, points to the strategic orientations applied in small restaurants, shows the intricacies of each stage and helps show what small restaurants do well and how they can improve. Future research may use larger samples, investigate frameworks particularly relevant to small restaurants, such as the resource-based view (RBV) framework, and may focus on creative and diverse strategic approaches toward social media management for small establishments.

As customers continue shifting to social media and review sites, more restaurants may want to invest in developing more creative approaches toward social media and do it in more structured, integrated and continuous ways. The study describes a process they may want to follow and specific tactics that could be implemented to use social media more strategically in all stages of social media management.

Not only are small business establishments the backbone of the restaurant industry, but they also appeal to customers more than large chains. This study shows how these small businesses can utilize social media to attract more customers, engage them, learn about them and their competitive environment to market and improve their operations.

The authors focus on the supplier side of social media for restaurants, a perspective lacking in the literature, and specifically small restaurants that receive less attention in prior research. Few studies exist that explore how social media is incorporated in all stages of social media management. The study points to the unique challenges that small restaurants experience in the process of using social media for marketing, monitoring and using social media to improve their operations. The study uses a relatively large sample of qualitative interviews conducted with managers of small restaurants and a content analysis of their actual social media activity.

This research aims to investigate the current patterns of social media adoption for marketing in the restoration industry and analyse the strategies used by those restoration companies that have adopted social media. Social media marketing has been proven as a cost-effective way to engage new customers, and especially useful for small businesses. The disaster “restoration industry” is the special sector of general contracting that serves both commercial and residential property owners in terms of restoring their disaster-affected property. The restoration industry is characterised by small-business domination and constant need of new customers to survive in the market. Many restoration contractors have started adopting social media for marketing. However, goals and social media marketing strategies have not yet been clearly articulated.

Data were collected through a systematic content analysis (CA) of sample restoration companies’ Facebook and Twitter posts over a 30-day study period. After a preliminary investigation of the industry, the researchers selected the Restoration Industry Association (RIA) member companies, as the research population. Sixty companies were randomly selected from the 1,165 RIA member companies, which equals to 5 per cent of the population. Reliability was tested statistically using Cohen’s Kappa.

Three levels of adoption were derived from the data: active users, non-active users and non-adopters. More than half of the sample companies were found to have adopted at least one social media channel for marketing. However, only 26 out of the 60 sample companies were active on the social media that they have adopted. Active adopters showed, on average, relatively frequent usage patterns, with 10 Facebook posts and 37 tweets in a 30-day period. Sampled restoration companies which were active social media users posted mostly announcements and educational information of Facebook and used Twitter for news and direct interaction with customers. The observed companies revealed a mix of business-relevant content and personalised content including personal greetings, sharing of photos about holidays and fun events.

Three levels of adoption were derived from the data: active users, non-active users and non-adopters. More than half of the sample companies were found to have adopted at least one social media channel for marketing. However, only 26 out of the 60 sample companies were active on the social media that they have adopted. Active adopters showed, on average, relatively frequent usage patterns, with 10 Facebook posts and 37 tweets in a 30-day period. Sampled restoration companies that were active social media users posted mostly announcements and educational information of Facebook and used Twitter for news and direct interaction with customers. The observed companies revealed a mix of business-relevant content and personalised content including personal greetings, sharing of photos about holidays and fun events.

The results showed that social media adoption has not yet penetrated the restoration industry – the adoption rate of 65 per cent is significantly lower than the 77 per cent of companies in all industries. In-depth CA of active social media users revealed patterns of engagement on Facebook and Twitter. This paper built on those patterns to emphasise strategies restoration companies can use to build interpersonal relationships and trust, which can lead to increased word-of-mouth recommendations; facilitate customer contact through a cross-linking strategy; and engage in simple methods for search engine optimisation. These strategic recommendations are grounded in existing practices and, therefore, are feasible and accessible for disaster restoration companies.

The research results showed how the construction industry, especially small businesses, has adopted social media for marketing. A snapshot of the industry’s level of social media adoption for marketing strategy can provide a useful reference point about the industry’s practices and potential future directions. This paper provides suggestions about effective social media marketing strategies. The paper also illustrates the use of CA as a promising method for research in construction management.

The chapter discusses the characteristics of audiovisual (AV) media sectors in the Baltic Sea region. Therein it focuses on the specifics of media industries in small countries in the region as they are challenged in ways notably different from large countries with large domestic markets for media content. It discusses the differences between the AV media industries in the Nordic and Baltic countries and suggests that while in the first case long-term welfare society policies and conscious policy-driven system building have conditioned growth and international success then also in the second case innovation policy rationales have facilitated recent growth and dynamics. It then discusses the specific challenges, especially platformisation to small media industries in contemporary globalising media markets, and suggests that opportunities to resist these challenges may be in local inter-sectoral cooperation, that is, in building cross-innovation systems.

Despite the blossoming nature of social media marketing, the nuances and implications among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) appear to be under-researched in literature. The purpose of this paper is to progress knowledge and offer extended understanding of the motivations and performance benefits of social media accrued by SMEs with an empirical study from an emerging economy.

Based on past research, the study hypothesizes that interactivity, compatibility and cost effectiveness are motivations germane to social media usage, which consequently offer performance benefits. Data from 210 SMEs (having Facebook and/or Twitter accounts) are employed to investigate the proposed conceptual model using structural equation modeling with sub-group analysis.

Finding from this study demonstrate that the interdependencies of social media motivations, as well as effects of social media usage are positive but erratic across product-based and service-based SMEs. Moreover, SMEs who offer physical products are more likely to employ social media based on cost-effective motives while service SMEs are more likely to consider interactivity as a key motivation. Additionally, findings from the study data suggest that in a tale of two sites, Facebook proved to edge Twitter in terms of engendering performance benefits among SME users.

The findings provide evidence to issues of potential research and managerial interest, offering insightful implications to the academic and practitioner communities. Evidently, irrespective of some usage bottlenecks, SMEs in emerging markets appears to be reaping enhanced social media benefits by deploying their marketing campaigns via multiple platforms.

This failure case study tells the story of All World Media, a start-up offering internet-based media planning and buying tool created by ambitious Estonian entrepreneurs in 2011. A few years earlier the two founders had come up with an idea that in their opinion would revolutionize the process of media planning and buying for advertisers. They had noticed that the industry worked in an intransparent and inefficient way. Based on their own extensive experience in various internet ventures and following first consultations with key industry players they were confident that the market was ready for a self-service online media marketplace.

The (A) case focusses on the initial business idea and on the events before the launch of the internet platform. The case includes the entrepreneurs' concept, the main contents of the business plan, and the operational steps until the launch of the service on the market. The (B) case outlines the events after the launch of the online service, analyzes the possible reasons for the failure of the original business model and discusses potential strategic alternatives that are still open for the entrepreneurs.

The two-case sequence can be used for a 90-minutes session in marketing, entrepreneurship or strategic management courses in graduate and executive programs. The case is accompanied by an instructor's manual which also includes suggested assignment questions and proposed session plan.

The purpose of this paper is to understand marketing–sales–service (M-S-S) interface from the point of how social media marketing (SMM) platforms are prioritized and associated business-to-business (B2B) sales process influence. This study also seeks to understand whether effective triadic alignment is achieved between marketing, sales and service.

This study combines literature review and the analytical hierarchy process model. In total, 30 M-S-S managers of a multinational electronics firm situated in Africa and the Middle East participated in this study. The authors collected data from M-S-S managers during training sessions on marketing, sales, service alignment and SMM role in sales process.

In their drive for customer orientation and improved organizational performance, marketing, sales and service managers view understanding the customer as the most important sales process attribute. Considered second most significant sales process attribute is needs discovery, whereas approaching the customer is ranked the least important. From the ratings of sales process attributes evaluation and rankings of SMM platform alternatives, the results show a significant hierarchical influence of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter on sales process. The results also show an enabling influence of SMM activity on M-S-S interface alignment.

This study has a twofold limitation. First, it explored only one major B2B firm in the electronics industry. Second, only the African and Middle East settings are considered in this study. These limitations could be addressed in future research.

This paper provides practical insights into how M-S-S managers may leverage social media to enhance customer orientation and boost organizational performance. The use of SMM can help M-S-S managers of the focal firm to predict purchase behavior of customers more accurately and as a result effectively manage and improve sales performance. In that drive of using SMM-based competitive intelligence to deliver superior customer experience and enhance sales performance, B2B marketing-oriented firms can also leverage the interdependence (information sharing and involvement) in the M-S-S interface during the SMM activity to enhance triadic alignment.

This study contributes to the literature by developing a framework for modeling SMM influence on M-S-S and B2B sales process to deliver superior customer experience and drive business performance.

While the importance of the corporate spokesperson in the media‐organisation relationship is consistently recognised in the literature, little is known in terms of the actual practices and perceptions of the various parties involved. Based on a survey of media personnel, corporate spokesperson and CEOs, this paper identifies the respective perceptions and discusses their implications.

Given the significant contributions of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across several economies, calls for investigations into their branding strategies are burgeoning. However, the literature is unclear, scattered and relatively scanty. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the existing literature on branding with a focus on SMEs.

The study uses a systematic review by identifying and evaluating peer-reviewed journal publications focusing on branding within the context of SMEs. The systematic design is based on papers published within the period of 2004-2014.

The review shows that significant progress is being made in the area under discussion. With several gaps in issues and empirical evidence, as well as in theoretical and methodological approaches, the paper signals promising lines of inquiry for both empirical and theoretical research.

By highlighting the research issues, as well as providing some pertinent research questions across various themes, the paper aims at directing future research efforts to critical areas which require immediate attention. The implications of the review are discussed in the paper.

The study identifies and describes the state of research issues and evidence in branding literature within the context of SMEs over a 10-year period, prompting insightful avenues to the academic and practitioner communities.

The aim of this study is to analyze over time the evolution of associated costs of direct marketing in Spain and offer operational conclusions for the optimization of marketing budgets intended for the establishment of contact and/a relationship with the customer.

This study analyses and compares the relationship between advertising messages sent through direct mail, electronic mail, telemarketing and short cell‐phone messages (SMS), over five years. In the context of a loyalty program, and by means of a historical analysis, an alternating media marketing test is presented: a total of 10,000 contacts per medium studied per year were made.

The relationship that exists between the cost per contact and the cost per effective response for each one of the above mentioned direct and interactive media.

A series of operational conclusions can be extracted for direct media planning and its marketing budget optimization with regard to choice of medium according to expected response and choice of medium according to cost per response.

The relevance of this work is based on the relative lack of information in Spain over the cost of communications channelled through direct media. Besides, the inclusion of advertising by SMS in this work is particularly relevant due to the fact that the novelty of this media channel means that it has only been analyzed independently by very few existing studies.

This study aims to explore how Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed companies manage their statutory continuous disclosure (CD) obligations.

Employing aspects of Gibbins et al.'s corporate financial disclosure framework, this study conducts semi-structured interviews with 22 experienced senior managers from diverse companies to examine in depth the key antecedents, structures and issues influencing the CD process.

The findings indicate that companies' preference to deal with CD as a commercial or legal issue, managers' practical CD experience, who assumes responsibility for CD, owners' and market expectations, third parties, environmental uncertainties and media are important antecedents in the CD process. The importance of these is contingent on company characteristics. Large companies primarily use structured processes and responsive communication networks whereas small to medium companies rely on informal processes and interpersonal communications. Despite following best practice guidelines, companies face multiple issues in managing CD.

Prior disclosure beliefs and personal biases may have a disproportionate impact on CD behaviour. Future research can examine more closely how these behavioural characteristics influence companies' disclosure policies.

This study offers insights for managers interested in managing CD more effectively. The findings suggest the importance of experience, behaving in a proactive manner and educating employees on companies' CD obligations. It offers insights for regulators on aspects of guidance that could be improved.

The study draws on Gibbins et al.'s theoretical framework to furnish a more complete and refined understanding of the CD process.