If you love something,let it go mobile: Mobile marketing and mobile social media 4x4

Social media applications—including collaborative projects, micro-blogs/blogs, content communities, social networking sites, and virtual worlds—have become part of the standard communication repertoire for many companies. Today, with the creation of increasingly powerful mobile devices, numerous social media applications have gone mobile and new entrants are constantly appearing. The purpose of this article is to take account of this evolution, and provide an introduction to the general topic of mobile marketing and mobile social media. Herein, we define what mobile social media is, what it is not, and how it differs from other types of mobile marketing applications. Further, we discuss how firms can make use of mobile social media for marketing research, communication, sales promotions/discounts, and relationship development/loyalty programs. We present four pieces of advice for mobile social media usage, which we refer to as the ‘Four I's’ of mobile social media. Finally, we conclude by providing some thoughts on the future evolution of this new and exciting type of application.     

Corporate Use of Social Media: Technology Affordance and External Stakeholder Relations

Business organizations are beginning to recognize the substantial potential of social media for enhancing corporate communications with external stakeholders, including investors, customers, and the general public—all of whom can affect firms’ financial future. Social media applications reach a wide spectrum of external stakeholders, help them express themselves and connect with one another, and engage them in ongoing conversations with the firm. Despite growing interest in this area, there has been limited research on this important topic. Accordingly, we focus on wikis, social networking sites, micro-blogging sites, and video-sharing sites, among many social media applications, and identify their respective beneficial attributes within the context of external communication. In so doing, we illuminate the prominent technical features of the four social media applications and review the existing literature in order to identify how business organizations take advantage of the unique features to facilitate their communicative activities in practice. We ground our analyses in validated conceptual frameworks in the fields of information systems and communication, such as the notion of technology affordances and Hutton’s (1999) framework for public relations. As a result, we suggest the “Eight Affordances” of the four social media applications that help corporate communicators. This study expands the social media and technology affordance literature into the important, yet understudied, external communications field.     

Business performance and social media: Love or hate?

The social media space has become a common place for communication, networking, and content sharing. Many companies seek marketing and business opportunities via these platforms. However, the link between resources generated from these sites and business performance remains largely unexploited. Both managers and financial advisors can profit from the lessons learned in this study. We conceptualize four channels by which social media impacts financial, operational, and corporate social performance: social capital, customers’ revealed preferences, social marketing, and social corporate networking. An empirical test of our framework shows that ‘followers’ and ‘likes’ positively influence a firm's share value, but only after a critical mass of followers is attained. Our estimates suggest that Twitter is a more powerful tool to enhance business performance than Facebook.     

Integrating Knowledge and Developing Critical Thinking in a Capstone International Business Course: A Never-Ending Work in Progress

More and more is heard from scholars, accrediting institutions, and the business world about the importance of developing critical thinking and written communication skills in college graduates. This is perhaps especially true, in a business school, for international business graduates who lack a traditional functional major. Often, the development of these skills is thought best accomplished through courses that integrate knowledge, take a problem-based approach, and include a signature work for each student. In this article, we discuss one institution’s international business capstone course, illustrating how it adheres to these ideals. From the standpoint of informal assessment, we discuss how student results from the course are used to tweak feeder courses to the capstone. We also discuss the more formal assessment of the course learning objectives, which we are just beginning.     

Useful Web Sites for International Business Communication Education

Abstract

The World Wide Web presents many opportunities for improving the instructional quality of international business communication related classes by providing access to a large variety of information sources. These sources can be used as supplements to traditional texts, as the basis for specific program assignments, or even as the main focus of a course. An especially useful aspect of these sites is that they can improve information recency and depth when compared with sole reliance on traditional texts. Unfortunately, the sheer quantity of available Web pages can make it difficult to find appropriate sites for a given international business communication topic. To assist educators in locating such relevant sites, we offer summaries and addresses for pages in some of the major areas of international business communication. These selections were chosen both for their relevance to international business communication training and evaluation by Cornell's suggested quality criteria. The article concludes with a discussion of potential applications, problems, and implications for web based international business communication instruction.     

The open academic: Why and how business academics should use social media to be more ‘open’ and impactful

The mission of Business Horizons is to publish research that practitioners can understand to help them change their thoughts and actions. However, this mission remains an elusive ideal for many business school academics as they struggle to overcome the research-practice gap. To help scholars bridge this gap, we present social media as a boundary-spanning technology to be open to connecting with, learning from and working with academics and other stakeholders outside their field. Social media can be used as a boundary-spanning technology to help bridge the research-practice gap. To support this idea, we present a process model of five research activities—networking, framing, investigating, disseminating, and assessing—and describe how social media can make each activity more open. We present a framework of four social media-enabled open academic approaches—connector, observer, promoter, and influencer—and outline some do’s and don’ts for engaging in each approach. We also discuss the potential dark side of openness through social media and offer some coping strategies. As per the mission and scope of Business Horizons, this article aims to help business academics rethink and change their practices so that our profession is more widely regarded for how our research positively impacts business practice and society in general.     

The use of social media to detect corporate fraud: A case study approach

Social media is a rapid and dynamic medium of communication that forms a crucial component of the modern business toolkit. It can be used to detect corporate fraud by tapping into collective user wisdom, also known as the wisdom of crowds. This article highlights both the potential and limitations of social media in detecting corporate fraud by examining information from traditional media and social media for a recent corporate fraud case (i.e., Empowered Products Inc.). Using text analysis of information posted on traditional media compared to social media, this article illustrates how social media provides an increased level of relevant information in a faster manner. By using wisdom of crowds in this way, social media platforms such as Twitter can improve organizational knowledge quality. We identify methods for managers to utilize social media to improve their organizational knowledge management.     

论商务文化对国贸专业英语教学的影响 ——以高职院校为例

伴随经济全球化进程加深,国际贸易的发展跌宕起伏,亟待重新整合社会需求,培养更具商务文化意识的复合型国贸人才。以高职院校为例,从国贸专业英语教学的理论与实践切入,发掘商务文化的内涵,思考商务文化嵌入对英语教学的影响。语言教学需以传授语言文化背景为基础不断深化学生对语言结构形式的语用能力,国贸专业英语教学则应建构以商务文化为框架的丰富化、高效化、交际式、品质化教学模式。商务文化对国贸专业英语教学发挥基础性、多元化的作用,自觉树立商务文化意识、处理商务交际障碍、辩证把握母语文化与目的语文化关系是促进教学成果、提升学习效率、灵活商务交际、对标能力素质的必由之路。     

Advertising in social media: a review of empirical evidence

This article presents an up-to-date review of academic and empirical research on advertising in social media. Two international databases from business and communication studies were searched, identifying 51 relevant studies. The findings of the identified studies were organized by seven emerging themes: use of advertising in social media, attitudes about and exposure to advertising, targeting, user-generated content in advertising, electronic word-of-mouth in advertising, consumer-generated advertising, and further advertising effects. Besides researched topics and major results, year of publication, journal, theoretical framework, research method, sample, measured constructs, and way of analysis were examined regarding each article. The review concludes by providing an agenda for future research.     

Teaching International Business via Social Media Projects

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the outcomes of an experiential learning technique coupled with social media in an international marketing course. It was conducted among 155 students placed in groups that were assigned to develop a YouTube video for use as a country branding marketing tool. Measured evaluations of the students’ perceptions of the experience reveal that it was both beneficial and positive, and it helped to promote an understanding of the importance of teamwork and the uses of technology. Factor analysis grouped the perceptions and attitudes regarding the exercise into four categories.The differences in perception are evaluated based on gender, country of study, and level of education. The study highlights the importance of incorporating experiential learning pedagogies with social media to teach country branding.     

Incorporating a Short-Term Study Abroad Service Trip for Educating International Entrepreneurship in the BOP Market

ABSTRACT

The bottom of the pyramid (BOP) market has gained importance in international entrepreneurship due to its large market potential. Drawing on the literature of international business education, as well as social entrepreneurship and international entrepreneurship education, we propose a course to educate students how to develop business intimacy with the BOP community. We employ the experiential-learning pedagogical framework and design elements including a short-term study abroad service trip, an entrepreneurship project, and structured reflections. Using both qualitative and quantitative data, we demonstrate that the course facilitates students’ learning in the key areas of international and social entrepreneurship, including the economic and social value of community embeddedness for BOP ventures, the emotional intelligence in interacting with BOP communities, and the attitude toward social entrepreneurship.     

The integrated use of social media,digital, and traditional communication tools in the B2B sales process of international SMEs

Social media and digital tools are gradually changing the way firms market themselves. Understanding how these communication tools are used by sales functions within business-to-business (B2B) markets could clarify the dynamics underpinning the sales process in an increasingly technology-mediated world. This paper explores how social media, digital, and traditional sales communication tools are leveraged during the three main phases of the B2B sales process within international SMEs.The article’s grounded-theory approach illustrates that social media can be particularly helpful in engaging international prospects. Digital communication tools seem to be most prevalent in the persuasion phase, whereas more traditional communication tools still prevail in customer relationship management. However, there seem to be some important potential boundary conditions, including relationship culture, location proximity, technology innovation/resources, and strategic importance of the customer that affect the way international SMEs use different communication tools during a sales process. We develop a framework for understanding the B2B sales process flow with sales communication tools included for international SMEs.     

New opportunities in social media for ad-restricted alcohol products: The case of ‘Yeni Rakı’

The rapid diffusion and technological evolution experienced in the new format of the Internet, particularly social media, have forced many brands to keep pace with this ongoing process in order to engage with their customers. Social media utilize multiple Internet-based communication platforms, including, but not limited to, blogs and social networking sites. This paper aims to examine how social media can be used to interact with consumers in the case of ad-restricted alcohol products, providing a case study from Turkey. The explored case provides an example of a well-planned, creative campaign that successfully exploits the opportunities provided by interactivity. The analysis of an alcohol product is critical due to the fact that such products face many restrictions, thus calling for a more creative and efficient approach to the design and implementation of social media practices, and their integration into integrated marketing communication (IMC) campaigns. This case will contribute to the articulation of the best ways to shape both business-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer dialogue and fruitful applications of this new IMC tool.     

Internationalisation of SMEs from the perspective of social learning theory

Internationalisation is seen as an important issue for the globalised economy. Therefore, it has been widely investigated among multinational enterprises and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Even though earlier work acknowledges that internationalisation consists of entrepreneurial actions (e.g. discovery and exploitation of an international business opportunity) and learning from the market, detailed understanding of the process of social learning in internationalisation is still lacking. In this study, we use the cycle of expansive learning as a conceptual framework. It shows that entrepreneurial actions between SMEs construct international business opportunities. More specifically, entrepreneurial actions are about learning that constructs and co-creates knowledge. The cycle of expansive learning assumes that such knowledge is social in nature making the very nature of knowledge the basis of claims to explicate what the process of social learning entails. In the context of international entrepreneurship, there is also a by-product of that type of co-created and object-oriented action: the internationalisation of SMEs. The purpose of this study is to explore the internationalisation of SMEs through the cycle of expansive learning to better understand how such a by-product can be created. In examining a story of collaboration between two entrepreneurs, we found the start of the cycle to be more significant than the later stages. From the perspective of social learning, this suggests that entrepreneurs create meanings rather than exploit international opportunities in the business-sense alone. That said, internationalisation happens as a by-product of social acting.     

Industry and agency views of social media: Issues implementing dialogic communication

The technologies and culture of social media present issues for organisations implementing dialogic communication. The ubiquity of social media and the dialogic nature of communications in the digital age are raising awareness of the necessity of a total stakeholder approach to integrated communications. Yet, while the Marketing discipline argues that dialogic communication represent communication par excellence, this research finds that implementing a total stakeholder approach to dialogic communication is proving to be extremely elusive for many organisations exploring social media applications. The empirical findings of this research explore how marketing and communications professionals from a diverse range of industry and agency role contexts view social media, and presents issues that organisations face in implementing dialogic communication. It is suggested that these implementation issues inhibit the ability of organisations to move beyond ‘control’ and implement a total stakeholder approach to social media for dialogic communication that can engage with an organisation's stakeholders to gain their support.     

Best practice network business model for internationalization of small and medium enterprises

Small and medium enterprises’ entry to international markets leads to their continuous growth and facilitates national and global economic development. In an attempt to substantiate these outcomes, they seek to acquire best practices and experiences in order to facilitate entering, surviving, and growing in global markets. To address this challenge practically, the present paper introduces a media for networking and a system for transferring internationalization best practices across small and medium enterprises under the concept of Best Practice Network. Subsequently, the paper tries to depict Best Practice Network as a viable business and establish a guideline for implementing it by developing its business model. To achieve this objective, the authors have administered multi-case study research among the top managers of international small and medium enterprises in the information and communication technology sector of Iran. The resulting model is based on business model ontology and proposes a bird’s eye view of the Best Practice Network including product, customer interface, infrastructure management, and financial aspects. Moreover, by proposing a media for sharing related best practices, this paper can lead to the decline of the stage theory of internationalization and can excel the born global theory of small and medium enterprises.     

The Role of Infomediaries: CSR in the Business Press During 2000–2009

Given the important role that business media play in corporate life, scarce attention has been paid to the role of media in the construction and popularization of corporate social responsibility (CSR). In this article, we understand media as a key infomediary and examine how the business press has framed and presented CSR over the last 10 years. Based on a content analysis of how CSR is presented in two English-language business newspapers with an international readership, we develop a framework for understanding the role of business media setting the corporate CSR agenda. The results show that business media contribute to the construction of what CSR means in corporate practice by creating links between CSR and certain corporate activities, between CSR and arguments that strengthen the view of CSR as a business case, and between CSR and certain spokespersons. These links contribute to create a notion of what CSR stands for, what it means in practice, and why it is important that one should pay attention to.     

The Internet and the Book: Media and Messages in Teaching Business Ethics

The central idea advanced by this article is that thecombination of the Internet and the book in networkinglearning technologies while teaching business ethicsis not only a matter of methodology, but also a matterof educational message. The concept of reflectiveequilibrium underlies the curriculum of a one semestercourse in business ethics. A Phase-model of moraldecision making in business serves as the central axisof the course schedule. Each phase outlines theframework of the ``class' discussion as the courseprogresses. The actual teaching experiencedemonstrates that networking may enrich bothindividual and group learning processes, and advancethe growth of business leadership capable ofincorporating moral considerations within managerialdecisions.     

Building relationships through dialogic communication: organizations,stakeholders, and computer-mediated communication

Online media are integral to daily life, and while many organizations use them to reach broad audiences, others still appear to be uncomfortable with online media because they do not understand how to maximize their potential to interact effectively with stakeholders. Numerous organizations use online media for one-way communication to disseminate information, despite the affordances of the media platforms for two-way, dialogic communication. This article draws on two dominant interpersonal theories of computer-mediated communication—social information processing theory and the hyperpersonal model—to propose dialogic strategies that organizations can use to improve their online communication with their stakeholders. We illustrate the application of these principles through three stages of relationship building: initiating/experimenting, intensifying, and integrating/bonding. The article integrates the applications within an overall dialogic communication strategy, and provides organizations and practitioners with a model with which they can engage stakeholders with dialogic methods via social media.     

探析“微信”应用对网络社交的深刻影响

随着“微信”的崛起，它已成为现代社交人际沟通中的新媒体和新方式，越来越多的现代人步入了这种“微时代”。微信的广泛应用给人际沟通带来了机遇与挑战。文章从心理学角度来深刻剖析微信功能对社交的影响，从而正确构建和谐的网络社交。