Social media policy implementation model use for firm performance: policies and procedures

Francesca Di Virgilio, Università Degli Studi del Molise, [email protected].

Gilda Antonelli, Università degli Studi del Sannio, [email protected].

Stefano Consiglio, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, [email protected]. Abstract

Social media use within the workplace is widespread; however, little is known about how organizations manage social media policy implementation especially internally with their employees. The purpose of this theoretical paper is to develop a social media management model to explore whether organizations address social media policy implementation with a formalized management process and the influence that it has on firm performance. Our theoretical model provides a framework for future research on social media management. Keywords: Social Media, Social Media Risk of Use, Social Media Management Model, Firm Performance. 1. Introduction

Social media has become a widely-adopted technology over the past decades, affecting organizations in many ways and providing several managerial approaches (Di Virgilio, 2018a, 2018b; Di Virgilio et al., 2018; Di Virgilio & Antonelli, 2018; Gaál et al., 2015; Usman, & Oyefolahan, 2014; Yassin et al., 2013).

The amount of user-generated contents is growing rapidly thus organizations are able to use social media tools in order to increase the range and richness of their networks, gather information and more recently, to integrate social media into their business processes (Gaál et al., 2015). The social media brings many advantages to companies: it offers values for their business including enhanced brand value (Gensler et al., 2013; Hudson et al., 2016; Nisar & Whitehead, 2016); sales growth (Kumar et al., 2013); e-commerce and social commerce opportunities (Hajli, 2014); customer trust and stickiness (Zhang et al., 2017); innovation and new product development (Palacios-Marques et al., 2015; Roberts & Candi, 2014); knowldege sharing (Munar & Jacobsen, 2014; Di Virgilio, 2018a); customer relationship management (Rosman & Stuhura, 2013), ewom (Ladhari & Michaud, 2015; Di Pietro et al., 2013). Indeed, firms have a great opportunity to determine consumers' requirements and needs by involving consumers in panel questionnaires and interviews (Kim & Ko, 2012; Sashi, 2012, Chang et al., 2015; Culnan et al., 2010; Di Virgilio & Antonelli, 2018) to better understand customers’ needs and improve competitive advantage. Thus, the ability to manage information becomes a firm core competence in creating competitive long-term strategies. In the era of social media every single member of an organization has an equal opportunity to project his/her own perception of the organization via his/her personal social media account and all organizational members can be active communicators (Di Lauro et al., 2018). This power of social media has already been noted by Gioia and colleagues (2013) in an influential literature review on identity formation and change. From how employees project the image of their organizations on social media, it is possible to comprehend organizational culture, as well as, potentially to gather evidence regarding their organizational identity (Price & Gioia, 2008).

Furthermore, there is urgency for studies with a strong theoretical foundation that might offer a path to face a phenomenon that evolves dramatically on a daily basis. in particular, two missing links emerge.

First of all, relatively little attention has been paid to as well as employee use of social media for workplace and corresponding behaviors. Considering the emergence of risks into security issues, the investigation of social media security would be more sophisticated and challenging than ever before, as combined with explosive social users, As of today, researchers and practitioners in the field of social media are still facing with various attacks from (or against) social network and social platforms (NaliniPriya & Asswini, 2015) and endeavor to cope with those challenging security (Guerar et al., 2016, Dhouioui, et al., 2016), privacy and measurement (Sarkar & Banerjee, 2016; Alduaij, et al., 2016). The second missing link concerns on how social media worth for organizations. According to Kim and collegues (2015) researches should try to focus on the identification of variables and moderators that produce impact on business performance rather than focusing on social media principles. Firm capabilities and resources could create sustained competitive advantages (Barney, 2001; Davcik & Sharma, 2016; Wernerfelt, 1984). Therefore, social media enhance firms capabilities to increase their performance (Trainor et al., 2014). Unfortunately, there is a lack of investigating on dimensions that measure the relationship between social media policy implementation and firm performance.

This theoretical paper develops a social media management model to explore whether organizations address social media policy implementation with a formalized management process and the influence on firm performance. In this scenario we organized the paper in different parts. In the first part we discuss background literature related to the use of social media in organizations, how social media impact on firm performance,

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how organizations may use a formalized risk management process to address social media risks. In the second part, we develop a social media management model to explore the manner in which organizations address social media policy implementation with a formalized management process influence on firm performance. Our theoretical model highlighted a new direction on evaluating social media policy implementation, as tool for business organizations.

This approach introduces a new framework relevant both as a tool for enhancing the understanding of the role of social media mechanisms on firm performance, and as a useful guide for future research on social media innovation and social media strategy as a whole.

2. Background

2.1 Social media and firm performance

Social media can be described as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p. 61). Whereas Web 1.0 technologies facilitated largely one-way information flows with limited opportunities for user engagement and interaction, Web 2.0 technologies allow for the active creation of content by their users or members. Social media tools include social networking (e.g., Facebook and LinkedIn), blogs (e.g., Blogger and WordPress), reviews and rating services (e.g., Amazon, Trip Advisor, and Yelp), photo and video sharing (e.g., Instagram, Flickr and YouTube), document and content sharing (e.g., Dropbox and Google Docs), podcasts (e.g., iTunes), and knowledge sharing (e.g., Wikipedia) (Scott and Jacka, 2011; Chen et al., 2011; Di Pietro et al., 2013; Di Virgilio, 2018a). Indeed, social media attract information seekers to obtain information about the product/ service which they are going to purchase and, at the some time, it can influence the consumers intention to buy (Hajli, 2013; Di Virgilio & Antonelli, 2018). Social media is changing how organizations engage externally with customers and other stakeholders, as well as how they interact and collaborate internally with their employees (Kane et al., 2014; Demek et al., 2018). Internally, organizations started using social media to quickly integrate employees into organizational culture or to increase their engagement by creating a sense of community (Goldwasser & Edwards, 2014).

Organizations are represented on social media not only by the official company pages, but also through the personal accounts of their employees or their private social media activity (Di Lauro et al., 2018). Researchers argue that social media use enhances relations with customers and employees and improves the effectiveness and efficiency of organization's internal operations (Investis, 2015; Demek et al., 2018).

By using social media, customers have access to different sources of shared information from other customers in regard to their experiences and recommendations. This influences their purchasing decisions (Chen et al., 2011; Di Virgilio & Antonelli, 2018). Moreover, the development of online communities has expanded the interconnectivity between businesses and consumers and enables the latter to faster exchange information even at international level (Aichner & Jacob, 2015).

Furthermore, the social media company influence branding strategies which leads to eWOM (electronic word of mouth) (Barreda et al., 2015). Therefore, eWOM attracts consumers and enhances their purchasing intention (Xie et al., 2016). Based on network approach, firms are taking advantage of networking activities which lead to superior performance (Naude et al., 2014). The majority of previous studies regarding networking approach emphasized networking advantages for firms (Ladkin & Buhalis, 2016; Naude et al., 2014; Trainor et al., 2014; Watson, 2007). Moreover, social media has been seen as an effective billboard for a firm's commercial goals and better business performance (Rapp et al., 2013). Nowadays, most customers are encouraged to buy either directly online from social media, this possibility inerenth in social media, will positively affect the sales growth of firms. Nevertheless there are few studies that consider the effect of social media policy implementation on improving firm performance (Tajvidi & Karami, 2017; Zhang et al., 2017). 2.2 Social media security and user behavior in the business organizations

While social media use can be beneficial to an organization, it can pose increased risks due to its interactivity, spontaneity, and likelihood of unedited content (Scott & Jacka, 2011). Since social media represent a communications channel that resides on an organization's information technology (IT) platform, it can cause risks at the IT security (Di Virgilio, 2018a).

Given that social media is complex and touches have an impact on many areas of an organization, and the content of social media is more likely to be spontaneous and unedited compared to other types of organizational communication, it engenders risks not encountered in other methods of data transmission (Bennett, 2008).

Specifically, social media risks can stem from the organization's use of it, from employees' use, from external sources to the organization, or from a combination of these sources.

Additionally, social media use may threaten employee productivity. Social media presents employees with the challenge of navigating the boundaries between their personal and professional identities (Ollier-Malaterre et al., 2013). An overuse of social media for personal purposes during working hours may result in productivity losses and misuse of resources (Ernst & Young, 2012; Field & Chelliah, 2012; Khansa et al., 2017). Finally,

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damage to an organization's reputation may occur when employees post negative comments about its products or policies (Brivot et al., 2017; O'Leary, 2011a). In addition to reputational risk concerns that can arise from negative, embarrassing, or incriminating employee comments, hackers may infiltrate an organization's social media accounts and post false or misleading information (Castillo et al., 2011). Brivot et al. (2017) further note that controlling reputational risk is difficult as there are multiple, conflicting viewpoints on how social media risk should be controlled and if at all.

Considering the emergence of trust and even risk into security issues, the investigation of social media security would be more sophisticated and challenging than ever before, as combined with explosive social users, as well as their various identifications, roles, groups and corresponding behaviors. Therefore, security of the fundamental platforms is important to various aspects of social media system in order to establish a credible, safe, and lasting social platform (Zhang, 2017; Di Virgilio et al., 2018).

Any violation to security hinders directly with economic growth of the organization. The business organizations are also making more efforts in protecting their consumers’ private information because any harm will lead to loss of consumer trust. The social media research still lacks sufficient quantitative and qualitative analysis of security. They cannot deal well with the present security and privacy challenges.

Each of these risks comes with a potential cost (Di Virgilio, 2018a, pp. 12-16). Management, internal auditors, and external assurance providers recognize the importance of addressing social media risk as part of an organization's risk management and internal control program (Brivot et al., 2017; Deloitte, 2009, 2012; Ernst & Young, 2012). Even so, a gap exists within many organizations between concerns about social media risk and the existence of formal social media risk management strategies that are applied throughout the organization (Deans, 2011; Geyer & Krumay, 2015; Larcker et al., 2012; Scott & Jacka, 2011; Demek et al., 2018).