Thesis Proposal - pure.au.dk · Thesis Proposal Managing social media resources across the organization: building a framework for encompassing social media management from the

Marjan Mohammadreza Thesis Proposal

1

Aarhus University – Business and Social Sciences

Thesis Proposal Managing social media resources across the organization: building

a framework for encompassing social media management from the

operational to the strategic level

April 2017

Marjan Mohammadreza , PhD Student Department of Management

School of Business and Social Sciences Aarhus University

Primary supervisor: Associate Professor Constance Elizabeth Kampf

Co- supervisor: Associate Professor Leila Trapp

http://pure.au.dk/portal/en/persons/id(044083e7-2350-49a1-a399-306ceab7248c).html


2


Contents 1- Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 4

2- Research Questions ............................................................................................................................................ 6

3- Primary Literature review/ Theoretical Framework .......................................................................................... 7

3.1- Marketing Perspective ................................................................................................................................. 7

3.2- PR and corporate communication Perspective ......................................................................................... 11

3.3- IT perspective ............................................................................................................................................ 15

3.4- Organizational strategy and social media; from strategy to open strategy .............................................. 18

4- Tensions between disciplinary perspectives ..................................................................................................... 22

5- Research Design ............................................................................................................................................... 25

5.1- Philosophy of science ................................................................................................................................ 25

5.2- Methods ..................................................................................................................................................... 26

5.3- Analysis strategy ........................................................................................................................................ 28

5.3.1- Thematic analysis ............................................................................................................................... 28

5.3.2- Activity theory (AT)............................................................................................................................. 28

6- Research objective based on research question/ research outline ................................................................... 31

7- Initial finding from Pilot study ......................................................................................................................... 33

8- References ......................................................................................................................................................... 36

9- Appendix ........................................................................................................................................................... 42

9.1-Appendix A: an outline for the remaining two years of the program ......................................................... 42

9.2- Appendix B: Engaged research ................................................................................................................. 44


3


Figure 1: Social media management from Multi-disciplinary approach ............................................................... 5

Figure 2: Research questions ................................................................................................................................. 7

Figure 3: Overlap area between marketing perspective and social media management ..................................... 11

Figure 4: Overlap area between PR/CC perspective, Marketing and social media management ....................... 15

Figure 5: Overlap area between IT, PR/CC and marketing perspective and social media management ............ 18

Figure 6: Overlap area between IT and strategy perspective and social media management ............................. 21

Figure 7: Example, different configuration between Marketing and IT-ASs ........................................................ 22

Figure 8: Three different strategic levels ............................................................................................................. 24

Figure 9: Activity System: Kain, D., & Wardle, E. (2014).Adapted from Engeström (1987) .............................. 29

Figure 10: Two Interacting Activity Systems (Engeström, 2000) ......................................................................... 29

Figure 11: Social media management from different perspectives, contradictions and agreements ................... 30

Figure 12: references to different level in social media management ................................................................. 34

Figure 13: Andrew H. Van de Ven, Engaged scholarship .................................................................................... 44


4


1- Introduction

It is always a fight to be the Social Media Manager--- Respondent A, large company Denmark

In my pilot study, discussions about social media often included a focus on fights for resources

between Marketing and Corporate Communication departments in respondent's organizations.

Understanding tensions brought on by social media uses in organizations seems to point to departmental

territory fights. However, territory is not underlying issue--it also seems that an understanding of what

social media does for the organization is part of the problem. For example, understanding social media

as tools for existing functional strategy versus social media as strategic in itself can be understood as

part of the cause for these tensions. These two key areas--fights for ownership, and understanding of

"what social media does," help demonstrate why Respondent A focuses directly on Social Media

Management as a fight.

Examples of fights for ownership from different organizations can be seen in the following

comments:

Communication focus:

“The social media strategy is part of the communication strategy. So, in that part I do have some

KPIs to get and that’s about getting more, that’s more people (what’s called in English?) getting

more views on a post, on our stuff and also, as that rises, get the interactions to follow so we

keep on having active people..”

--Respondent D, large company, Denmark

Marketing focus:

“As we do, social media strategy follows marketing strategy and sometimes should be matched

to another department in the organization. --Respondent F, Small division from a global company, Denmark

Examples of understanding social media as an operational strategy (tactics) level can be seen in

the following comment:

“I am going to have to say my point of view. Social media are tools like everything else and

other media.”

--Focus Group A, SME Company, Denmark

Examples of understanding social media as strategic tools can be seen in the following comment:

“I think, if you look at social media, if you really want to have success, you need to prioritize it

and need to integrate social media as a business driver generally.”

--Respondent E, large public organization, Denmark


5


These quotes indicate fighting based on differences of practice or use and ownership. This fight

can be understood as being about lack of knowledge related to social media coordination across the

organization. Correspondingly, many scholars recognize this issue when they call for future directions.

They describe this issue in terms of coordinating social media through internal collaboration with more

complex links between departments (Edosomwan et al., 2011; Rodriguez, Peterson, & Krishnan, 2012,

Smith, B. G. 2015; Breakenridge 2012; Deans 2011). Building on this, Kampf and Mohamadreza 2016,

use the term, “Across the organization” to describe the combination of these complex departmental links.

To address this gap, this exploratory project conceptualizes how organizations can understand

social media management across the organization. Expected outcomes focus on building deep

understandings of underlying issues related to the fights that social media managers currently describe

to enable organization and CEOs to understand and develop strategies for managing social media

resources. Therefore, this research project draws on communication perspectives applied to multi-

disciplinary and multilevel lenses which reveal operational (tactical), functional and corporate levels of

strategy.

Figure 1: Social media management from Multi-disciplinary approach


6


2- Research Questions

The proposed research study explores the emerging field of social media management from a

communication focused approach that considers multi-disciplinary perspectives and a multi-level

analysis for strategy, focusing on literature from Marketing, PR/ CC, IT, and open strategy perspectives

to coordinate social media management across organizations.

Thus the main research question is:

How can we (re)define social media management from a holistic view to explain an

organization- focused perspective?

This research question can be broken into the following four sub-questions:

Building an organizational perspective

RQ1: What are underlying issues related to social media management from an

organizational perspective?

Interdepartmental communication at the tactical level

RQ2: To what extent and nature does communication related to social media at

operational strategy levels happen across departmental lines?

a) How do PR/CC professionals and MR professionals interact with respect to

the tactical level?

b) How do PR/CC professionals and IT professionals interact with respect to the

tactical level?

c) How do IT professionals and MR professionals interact with respect to the

tactical level?

Coordinating tactical and functional levels of strategy

RQ3: To what extent do social media professionals coordinate among functions and

between functional strategy and tactical strategy levels?

a) How do social media professionals coordinate social media strategy with

marketing/PR/IT strategy at functional strategy level?

b) How do social media professionals coordinate social media strategy between

the tactical and functional strategy levels?


7


Coordinating open strategy at the corporate level

RQ4: What resources from open strategy are taken in by the organization?

a) How do resources for open strategy flow between levels?

b) To what extent and how do this resources affect strategy at each level?

c) How does communication reflect this process?

Figure 2: Research questions

3- Primary Literature review/ Theoretical Framework

3.1- Marketing Perspective

In the marketing literature, three key lines of argumentation emerge; they describe how to use

social media as a catalyst to facilitate marketing processes in order to achieve marketing objectives.

These can be explained as social media in terms of tools for 1) IMC; 2) branding issues and 3) co-

creation. Together these demonstrate how marketing can take full advantage of social media to support

marketing strategies (functional level) in the organization.

1) Social media as IMC tools

Integrated marketing communications attempts to coordinate the different elements of the

promotional mix–—advertising, personal selling, publicity, direct marketing, and sales promotion–—to

produce a unified customer-focused message and, therefore, achieve various organizational objectives

(Boone & Kurtz, 2007, p. 488). Social media are considered as tools in IMC in two different ways, 1)

Hanna et al. (2011) integrated social media as a new media which is part of traditional media. They draw

on an ecosystems approach for understanding online social media situated with traditional and digital

media environment to integrate social media with marketing communication tools. 2) Social media as

"hybrid elements of the marketing mix" to show the connection of social media strategy with IMC


8


strategy. They describe social media as having two key connections--the traditional media with business

to consumer connections, and the new social media connection, which connects consumers to other

consumers (Mangold and Faulds, 2009). Marketers listen to this new communication paradigm to

improve marketing performance goals (Mangold and Faulds ,2009; Ginger Killian, Kristy McManus,

2015; Berthon et al, 2012).

For getting benefit from social media in the IMC process, scholars provide different insights in

marketing contexts. Felix, et al, (2017), suggest four general social media marketing dimensions.

Companies can apply these when managing their strategic social media marketing. These four central

dimension include scope (both externally and internally), culture (which is characterized by a more

permeable, open, and flexible social media marketing), structure (Networks which all employees are

responsible), social media marketing governance (rules and guidelines). At the operational level,

Tsimonis, et al, (2014), consider the main social media actions of marketing departments to include

announcing new products/ services, interacting with fans, providing advice and useful information, and

handling customer service issues. They discuss the increasing popularity of social media, competitors’

presence, headquarters’ strategy, and cost reduction pressure as marketing manager’s motivation to

engage with social media. In addition, the expected social media outcomes for companies include

interactions with customers, creating/enhancing customer relationships, brand awareness, customer

engagement, product promotion/increase of sales, and the more targeted acquisition of new customers.

They present a flowchart for social media strategy as aligning the corporate and marketing strategies

with external factors such as competitors, viral nature and cost. Together, these scholars demonstrate

that social media is positioned as a subset of integrated marketing communications (IMC). In summary

key concepts are “hybrid elements of the marketing mix”, motivation and action of social media

marketing, media ecosystems and aligning social media strategy with marketing strategy configure what,

how and why social media management can support IMC tools.

2) Social media as branding tools

Hanna, et al. (2011), suggest that social media transforms the internet from a platform for

information to a platform for influence; this influence comes from the brand experience. Engaging in

social media will lead to brand building by supporting the brand experience, for instance through the

impact of online word of mouth on branding key concept include the effect of eWOM in brand

awareness, image, loyalty, market research, consumer behavior, sales, and other marketing variables.


9


Word-of-mouth has been a topic of interest to marketing research for more than five decades. Kaplan

(2011) defined viral marketing as the sharing of information about product, or brand between a

consumer, friends, and acts, in social media platforms. So viral marketing can be seem as electronic

WOM for everything about brands and the company or product with in social media. Viral marketing is

created through a focus on the right target group, message (memorable and interesting) and environment

(Kaplan, 2011). eWOM affects consumer perceptions of value and customer loyalty (Gruen, et al, 2006).

They considered customer to customer know-how exchange has impact on customer brand loyalty and

brand awareness by survey and using MOA theory (motivation, opportunity, ability).Although Kaplan

and Haenlein (2012) consider that social media has effects on brand image and brand awareness by

analyzing the Britney Spears social Medias. Besides, who and how create eWOM in the organization

are critical issue for marketing scholars. For instance, Schivinski and Dabrowski (2016), examine how

created and user generated content affects brand equity, brand attitude and purchasing, through an online

survey across three different companies. Their findings illustrate that UGC has effects on brand equity

and awareness. Although they suggested marketer induce consumer to participate in social media

campaign by providing relevant content and information for consumers. Gamboa, et al. (2014), by

examining fans and non-fans of the Zara brand on Facebook through online surveys, discovered that

Facebook enhances relations that increase loyalty via trust, customer satisfaction, perceived value, and

commitment. The results show that these relationships are stronger for fans than non-fans.

Moreover, from a sales organization perspective, Andzulis, et al. (2012) argue that no matter

how organizations view selling, selling processes will be “affected by the organization’s adoption of

social media’’. For instance, Moncrief, et al, (2015) focus on understanding the changing sales world

through social media. They consider sales functions and performance as affected by social media. They

found social media affects 1) sales functions by these five factors: way of supervision, recruitment

process, training employees, compensation and deployment, and 2) sales performance by sales role,

skill, and motivation. De Valck, et al. (2009), focus on how virtual communities have effects on

decision-making processes. Their findings show that online communities have effects on various phases

of the consumer decision-making process, particularly in phases of searching information, as well as

social network effects on need recognition and actual post purchase behavior. Park, et al. (2007),

consider the quantity and quality of online consumer review on social media platforms. Their findings

include: a) the quality and quantity of consumer reviews has a positive impact on consumer purchasing

intention, and b) the importance of managing online consumer reviews strategically by way of a


10


communication channel. In addition, Chen (2011) focuses on relationships between eWOM and

marketing variables (price and quality). They analyze consumer online posting behavior (who post

review about what), together with price, and quality of products. The study showed that most of the

consumers have a tendency to post their comments on both high and low price of products, and brand

image affect the number of posts. Kozinets (2002) refers to social media, as important source for market

research. He focuses on two main reasons for companies to be interested in online brand communities:

word of mouth and market research. On the other hand, Kaplan (2012) defines mobile social media and

how companies can use social media for market research, communication and sales promotion by

presenting four I’s (individualizing, involve, initiate, and integrate).

To sum up, this part focuses on the literature review supporting social media as a new channels

of brand management for marketing scholars to explain how social media communication affects

branding issues such as: brand equity, image, attitude and acts, and, consequently, consumer purchase

intentions. Therefore, scholars in marketing contexts focus their investigation on social media as a

catalyst in branding and sales process.

3) Social media as co-creation tools

Co-creation is an interactive process which developed by Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004).

They defined it as, “the value co-creation process is not just by the manufacturer or supplier, but is

collaboration between the manufacturer/supplier and the consumer of the product or the service.” Based

on this concept, marketing scholars investigate into value co-creation by developing models to engage

customers with manufacturers or suppliers.

Kao et al. (2016) focus on the concepts co-creation with consumers by social media. This study focused

a five-stage model (Interact-Engage-Propose-Act-Realize, IEPAR) for applying social media to co-

create with consumers through in-depth interviews. More recently, Ng et al. (2010) investigate business-

to-business services using the value co-creation framework. Payne et al. (2008) explore the nature of

value co-creation in the context of service-dominant logic by developing a conceptual framework for

understanding and managing value co-creation. Echeverri, P., and Skålén, P. (2011) argued that

interactive value formation is not only associated with value co-creation but also with value co-

destruction. They identify five interaction value practices – informing, greeting, delivering, charging,

and helping – and how interactive value formation takes place, as well as how value is inter subjectively


11


assessed by actors at the provider–customer interface. Hajli, et al. (2017) focus on co-creation of value

in the branding process with members of online communities through 45 interviews with members

together with three interviews with top managers of the three brands in these communities. They used

content analysis to show that there is a relationship between interactions of customers in online brand

communities with customer brand loyalty. They recommend that companies focus on online brand

communities to facilitate relationships with consumers in order to build brand loyalty for branding co-

creation purposes.

In conclusion, Figure2 illustrates key issues in a marketing perspective related to social media.

Marketing scholars set up particular purposes for social media management in the organization such as

promoting products or services or brands, managing consumer relationships, brand management, and

sales. In addition, marketing scholars tend to have close collaborations with other department in order

to co creation of value in branding processes. They also demonstrate marketing’s focus on aligning the

social media strategy with marketing strategy. Marketing perspectives investigate two-way connections

with external environments for achieving marketing strategy via social media platforms. This literature

configures social media management in two different levels, 1) operational strategy level (e.g. eWOM,

brand awareness and image), and 2) functional level (social media strategy and marketing strategy).

Figure 3: Overlap area between marketing perspective and social media management

3.2- PR and corporate communication Perspective

In PR and corporate communication, both researchers and practitioners point to the importance

of social media in a holistic perspective with respect to communication, revealing a PR and corporate

communication viewpoint. Managing online corporate reputation, stakeholder management, crisis

communication and social media management are main issues that configure social media in this

perspective. Here, one can say that it is the catalyst to facilitate online corporate reputation processes in

order to achieve PR/CC objectives. These keys area demonstrates social media as a central contribution


12


to an online organizational reputation. There PR/CC leads most of these activities in two level

(operational and functional) to support PR/CC goals in the organization.

1) Social media as an online corporate reputation tool

A review of the literature demonstrates research on how Public Relations practitioners manage

social media on different platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and blogs to manage online reputation

(Wright& Hinson, 2012; Macnamara and Zerfass, 2012). Through a survey of German and Australian

PR managers, Macnamara & Zerfass (2012) found key factor with regard to the dynamics of social

media use in PR could be seen in the regulatory framework for social media policy. This study suggests

that the PR field should focus on developing basic structures for social media management in the

organization, which should not be limited to communications activities. Regulatory frameworks include

1) guidelines and social media policy towards ways in which employees use social media platforms, 2)

dedicated budgeting and social media team, 3) training employees, 4) organizational structures and 5)

organizational cultures supporting social media (Zerfass, 2012). Dijkmans, et al. (2015) found that

engaging consumers with company's online activities is positively related to online corporate reputation,

based on survey among 3531 customers and non-customers of an international airline. Neill & Moody

(2014) focused on the growth of social media affecting PR practitioners’ power because of their role in

online reputation management. They identify nine strategic roles for social media communicators

including internal collaborator, policy maker, policing, technology tester, communication organizer,

issues manager, relationship analyzer, master of metrics and employee recruiter. These roles were based

on two focus groups and a survey of Public Relations and Human Resource practitioners. The focus

groups included several departments PR, Marketing, Human Resources, Legal, IT, Sales and Customer

Service. In their framing of social media management Public Relations leads most of these activities;

also, Human Resources is presented as a close collaborator.

Dreher (2014) examines the risks of employee social media use in the organization. She presents

an eight point strategy for encouraging social media use across an organization, based on a case study

of “Domo—a business intelligence company.” These eight points are research, access, commitment,

social media team, guidelines & policies, training & education, integration, and goal setting &

measurement. She mentions social media team as responsible for planning and implementing social

media projects. This team reported to the communications department, and worked in close

collaboration with other departments, including Human Resources, IT, and Marketing. This structure


13


for managing the social media implies that social media can be seen as central contributor for managing

organization’s online reputation (Arthur et al, 2012; Brito, 2012).

Floreddu at al. (2014), focus on optimizing online corporate reputation by examining relations

between social media communication strategy and online reputation. Dekay (2012) focuses on negative

comments on Facebook by analyzing corporate reactions. He finds that there is a general lack of

corporate strategy in responses, and general negative fan responses to marketing postings. Smith (2015)

focuses on a collaboration among all communication functions in the organization (i.e., marketing,

advertising, communication, PR). This study shows that social media communication strategies may be

flexible and adaptive to control and promote the organization or its products and services.

Based on a multi case study approach, Allagui, et al. (2016) examine four award-winning PR

campaigns in different social media platforms to determine effective uses of social media for Public

Relations. They find the following trends in best practices: digital storytelling techniques, content

sharing, target audience involvement, optimized for mobile displays, and timely content. They conclude

by suggesting that, while marketers believe social media has effects on brand awareness and reputation

management, the effective use of social media in Public Relations is to generate conversation, help brand

positioning, and maintain brand.

To summarize, PR/CC literature about social media focuses on research designs with support for

PR/CC practitioners in managing online corporate reputation through mentioning the key role of

communication departments as controlling social media across the organization by close collaboration

with other departments (i.e., Marketing, IT). Therefore, scholars in this field try to investigate basic

structures for social media management in order to manage online corporate reputation.

2) Social media as stakeholder and crisis management tools

Stakeholder Relationship Management becomes a strategy focus for Corporate Communication

in social media contexts (Men, et al. 2013). Men et al assume that the purpose of strategic

communication is to manage stakeholder relations through building long-term relationships. This

research focuses on a conceptual model incorporating social media dependency and several social

relationship factors, including parasocial interaction, perceived source credibility, and community

identification, that publics’ engagement on social media by online survey. The results showed social


14


media usage and relationship-oriented factors play an important role on public engagement. Men et al,

conclude with implications for internal organizational actions, but also highlights external

communication practices as well as understanding stakeholder motivations for engaging with companies

in social media. Haigh et al. (2013) examine Facebook as a Public Relations tool to focus on corporate

presentation of information and subsequent effects on stakeholders.

Online crises with reflections on strategic risks and responses (Etter and Vestergaard, 2015;

Romenti et al, 2014) and practitioners’ experiences of the Internet in crisis communication (Molesworth,

2006) are other issues related to social media from Corporate Communication perspective. Huang et al

(2013) examine social media effects on organizational rhetorical practices, considering social media as

an extension of internal communication via organization’s intranet. With multiple case studies, they

find that 1) social media affects ways in which employees communicate publicly with each other, and

2) in internal communication contexts, social media allows for multiple voices and targeted

communication, simultaneous wider reach and richness, as well as combined production and

consumption of the rhetorical context. Veil, et al. (2011) demonstrate how communicators can use social

media tools to manage risks or crisis communication. They explain how social media tools can be used

to manage risks and crises by providing recommendations for practitioners in this situation. Kim, et al.

(2016) focus on the Alibaba case, which they found was successful at averting a social media reputation

crisis by adopting the crisis response strategy of humorous self-mockery. Kim, et al’s study illustrates

the importance of utilizing a CEO’s personality and parasocial relationship in a crisis response. Through

qualitative and quantitative content analyses, Ott and Theunissen (2015) investigate potential risks of

social media for stakeholder relations inappropriate strategies trough on analysis of three cases of social

media crises. Each case applied different strategies for engaging with their audience, with different

outcomes. In comparing these cases, authenticity of voice and transparency were recognized to be

factors for success, while risk factors included engaging indiscriminately with emotional individuals

who could potentially increase an issue. Together, these cases offer strategies for engagement during

social media crises.

Figure3 shows the overlap of concepts between the PR and social media management. These

key concepts developed by PR scholars describe the role of social media in online corporate reputation

management from PR and CC perspectives through different concepts: managing stakeholder, crises

communication, risk management, close collaboration with other department, and aligning the social


15


media strategy with corporate communication strategy. They configure social media management as

communication tools to communicate with their stakeholders in order to manage crisis or manage online

corporate reputation. Particularly, PR/CC scholars consider social media as a catalyst at the tactical

strategy level (crisis or stakeholder management) to achieve their functional goal (online corporate

reputation) in the organization.

Figure 4: Overlap area between PR/CC perspective, Marketing and social media management

3.3- IT perspective

IT perspectives could be seen as related to the supportive roles of IT practitioners in

organizations from internal and external user perspectives. 1) Internal user perspective: help other

functions to achieve their functional goals, and to adopt and implement social media in the organization.

2) External user perspective: figure as an important technology to enable organizations related to support

collaborative knowledge sharing, engaging the stakeholders by focusing on UGC, promoting the value

co-creation process in the organization. Particularly, social media from an IT perspective include a

highly developed sense for support throughout the organization to improve organizational performance

(Andriole, S. J. 2010).

1) Internal user perspective

Concepts related internal user perspectives configure an understanding of using social media, a)

successful adoption in the organization, and b) help for other sections in the organization (e.g.

marketing). Benefits of adopting social media throughout organizations has been interest for IT/IS

scholars. For example, such as Chung, et al., (2017) focus on understanding the effects on adoption and

usage of social media, by developing social media stages-of-growth. Based on their findings,

organizations should be aware about, 1) “what growth type they are in order to learn from organizations


16


of the same type”; (2) understand “what to expect in the future as the adoption process grows”; and (3)

know “how to proceed to reach the next stage”.

In addition, sholars in IT/ IS help other field to construct a better understanding about how social

media influence customers and organizations. For instance, Dellarocas (2003) investigate effects of

online feedback on management activities in the company, including brand building, customer

acquisition and retention, as well as product development. Overlapping with marketing perspectives, IT

scholars also mention eWOM as communicating with customers about a company, product, or service

through Internet-based technology (Lee, et al., 2013). IT scholars also investigate the impact of eWOM

on sales (Forman, et al. 2008), and sales distribution (Lee, et al, 2011). Increase in product purchase

generated by eWOM was also mentioned as the effect of customers’ trust in products (Kim, et al., 2009;

Cheung, et al., 2009; Forman, et al., 2008).

To sum up, IT perspective has a tendency for close collaboration with other departments to successfully

adopt with social media in the organization and support them to achieve their functional goals. Their

main concerns of IT scholars are shaped by the supportive role of IT systems to increase the efficiency

in the organization, demonstrating the internal user perspective.

2) External user perspective

Regarding the external user perspective, IT/IS Scholars, efforts to support organizations focus

on managing the data which comes from external audiences. Stakeholder engagement, value co-creation,

and knowledge management, are keys areas to support organizations from an external user perspective.

Regarding stakeholder engagement, they focus on the content generated by users. IT scholars investigate

why users generate content and how companies can managed it. For instance: Herrero, et al. (2017) use

the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) as a reference, and find in a

sample of 537 tourists, three main drivers of users' intentions to use social network sites to generate

content about their experiences. These are habit, performance expectancy, hedonic motivation. Silva, et

al, 2017, claim the content generated by users should be taken to account by companies, particularly

during crisis situations. Kim, et al. (2016) examined the influences of positive brand-related user-

generated content shared via Facebook on consumer response showing a significant impact on brand

engagement, and potential brand sales.


17


IT/IS scholars focus on better understandings of the interconnections between customers and

companies by examining their points of view towards engagement in co-creation process as follows:

1) From the customers purpose: Zhang, et al., (2015) developed a model to improve customers’

co-creation experiences and affect consumer’s intention due to participate in co-creation in the future,

based on the stimulus–organism–response paradigm. The results of their study illustrated that the future

participation purposes are influenced by customer learning value, social integrative value, and value

received by consumer. Kao, et al., (2016) also examined factors that drive consumers to engage in co-

creation in social media. According to their findings, the relationship between perceived usefulness and

customer attitudes toward co-creation via connected to level of consumer engagement. 2) From the

company’s purpose: Ho (2014) focused on the trust and value co-creation to analyze how electronic

Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) affects purchase intention in social network sites (SNSs). Based on their

results eWOM had an impact on value co-creation, and consequently value co-creation had an effect on

purchase intention.

In addition, IT/IS scholars mention roles of social media in knowledge management for

organizational survival (Yates, 2011). Yates, D., & Paquette, S. (2011) showed social media has effect

on knowledge sharing, and decision-making process in emergencies management through the lens of

the 3-T framework (transfer, translating, and transforming). Mäntymäki, and Riemer. (2016) focused

on adopting a knowledge management perspective on Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) to provide

guidelines for developing organizational ESN policies based on a mixed methods approach. They

investigated employee’s use enterprise social networking to obtain new ideas for work and finding

solutions for work-related problems.

External and internal user perspective, demonstrate key trends emerging in IT literature.

Analyzing IT perspective demonstrated the supportive role of IT in the organization. On one hand, there

is overlap between the IT, MR perspective (such as eWOM and co-creation process), and IT and PR in

operational level. On the other hand, close collaboration between IT strategy to support other functional

strategies and align with the social media strategy cloud be mention as a challenge at the functional

level. Tavakoli et al (2017) bridge IT support strategy with open strategy, thus leading to next section

examining social media in the context of open strategy.


18


Figure 5: Overlap area between IT, PR/CC and marketing perspective and social media management

3.4- Organizational strategy and social media; from strategy to open strategy

In recent strategy literature, we can observe a growing interest in various forms of open strategy

making processes (Whittington, Cailluet & Yakis-Douglas, 2011; Doz & Kosonen, 2008). Open

strategy-making refers to the inclusion of actors in the strategy-making process who have been

previously excluded, and are often situated outside of an organization’s formal boundaries. Social media

play a vital role in this process. From the strategic perspective, social media configure as vital technology

which create new opportunities for internal and external audience to collaborate with organizations in

corporate level.

Strategy considers as the long-term direction of company. According to the strategy literature

review, three levels of strategy can be seen in the organization; Operational, functional and corporate

strategy levels, which will be explained in the following section. Strategy development has traditionally

been exclusive to the C-suit level (top management) and regarded as secret and high control

(Whittington, Cailluet, and Yakis- Douglas, 2011). The strategy guides actions implement by Lower

levels of management and the employees through mobilizing allocated resources and translating the

strategy into coordinated functional goals and activities at the operational level (Johnson et. al., 2008;

Watson, 2006; Hatch, 1997). However, there was the Lack of notice on the potential value of external

sources, were over looked. For example, innovation or sources of value creation in the strategy process.

Firms have focused “closed innovation” by keeping development of new tools or products or production

processes internal (Ahlstrom, 2010). To obtain external knowledge from interaction with environment

and external sources, organizations are increasingly adopting with Web 2.0 technology as open

innovation.


19


According to Henry Chesbrough (2003), open innovation is a paradigm that shows companies can

use purposive inflows and outflows of ideas to accelerate internal innovation for external use of

innovation to expand their paths to markets (Chesbrough et al., 2006, p. 1). The scope of the concept

“open” in open innovation requires a rethinking of strategy (Chesbrough and Appleyard, 2007). To

obtain competitive advantage through implications of strategic sense of innovation a need for a new

approach to strategy “open strategy” was proposed by Chesbrough and Appleyard (2007). In open

strategy, the traditional business strategy is balanced with the open innovation (Chesbrough and

Appleyard, 2007). The created balance in an effective open strategy helps the organizations to use the

openness as a mean of expanding value creation to not to lose the sight of value capture during the

pursuit of innovation.

Open strategy (OS)

More openness in the strategy process and promoting broader actors’ participation were key

aspect of open strategy as developing by Chesbrough and Appleyard (2007), and Doz and Kosonen

(2008). The open strategy has been picked up by various authors using different labels, for instance:

“democratizing strategy” (Stieger et al., 2012), or “open-source strategy” (Newstead and Lanzerotti,

2010), or “strategy as a practice of thousands” (Dobusch and Muller-Seitz, 2012). A number of benefits

for organizations are offered by open strategy including: First, facilitating on approach for strategy ideas,

commitment, and understanding in strategy implementation across the organization (Whittington et al.,

2011). Second, expanding sources for knowledge and expertise from all parts of the organization through

pulling and tapping into the wisdom of the crowd (Surowiecki, 2004). In addition, Open strategy (OS)

refers to the diffusion of strategic decision making across organizational levels and among a wide cross-

section of internal and external stakeholders. In the other words, open strategy goes against the

traditional strategy thinking in two respects, challenging traditional notions of innovation as secret, and

as controlled.

Whittington et al. (2011) explained the concept of open strategy by focusing on two general

principles of inclusiveness and transparency. Inclusiveness refers to participation in the “strategic

conversation” of an organization where views are exchanged intended to shape the evolution of the

organizational strategy. Transparency refers to the visibility of information about an organization’s

strategy during the strategy formation process (Mantere and Vaara, 2008). Aten and Thomas (2016)

used a case analysis to explore organization use of crowdsourcing technology in a move from a


20


traditional to an open strategizing approach. Drawing on technology affordances and communicative-

as-constitutive perspectives. They identified individual and collective crowdsourcing technology

affordances for strategizing. Subsequently, results showed that crowdsourced strategy was constituted

as multi voice, divergent, egalitarian, and inclusive. Hutter, et al. (2016) drew on community research

to demonstrate that OS enhance to the development of strategies, and organizational learning due to

employees' increased sense of community and stronger organizational commitment. They examined

forms of participation behaviors and their effects on organizational and virtual senses of community.

They illustrated the three forms of participation behavior as submitting ideas, commenting, and

evaluating or voting.

OS currently takes place in social media and online environments (Aten and Thomas, 2016;

Dobusch and Kapeller, 2013; Stieger et al., 2012). From a strategic standpoint, social media enables

activities of organizational actors inside a company to actively shape strategy (Haefligeret al, 2011). A

McKinsey survey, for instance, has found that social networking, blogs, and other web 2.0 applications

are used by many companies in strategy processes to scan the external environment, to find new ideas,

to develop strategic plans, or allocate resources. (Bughin, Manyika, and Miller, A. 2008)

On the other hand, IT scholars claims that “IT is central to the doing of strategy itself. In other

words, they are not strategizing about IT use, but using IT for strategizing”. Recently, Open approaches

to operational work in organizations (e.g., crowdsourcing and open source development, open strategy,

co- creation) have been of particular interest to information systems (IS) researchers. Tavakoli, et al.

(2015) analyzing the characteristics most commonly attributed to open strategy, and propose a

consolidated definition of open strategy. They develop an open strategy process model and use it to re-

analyses four open strategy case studies, Later in 2017, they develop a theoretically comprehensive

conceptualization of open strategy as a practice with the heighted the role of IT in this process. Their

findings mention that organizations with appropriate IT platforms, such as social networks, wikis, can

interact with all practitioners and react to their discussion (“transparent discourse”). Ideas are

collaboratively and iteratively developed (co - creation) during the conversations. The practitioners can

take decision to follow the interesting issues (“democratic decision making”).


21


From the open strategy perspective, the role of social media is determined in terms of action at

the corporate level in the organization. Through an open strategy, all organizational levels and among

a wide cross-section of internal and external stakeholders are engaged with the corporate strategy.

Figure 6: Overlap area between IT and strategy perspective and social media management


22


4- Tensions between disciplinary perspectives

A) Different configurations of concepts

Different disciplines focus on subsets of concepts to describe social media interactions, which

can be used by different divisions in an organization. For instance, Stakeholder Management, crisis

communication and online corporate reputation are key social media concepts from the PR/CC

discipline. In contrast, eWOM and branding issues are key social media concepts from a marketing

perspective. For instance, during a crisis, marketing perspectives conceal the broader concerns of crisis

communication such as corporate reputation beyond the brand level.. These groupings of concepts can

be understood as configurations. Table 1 illustrates different configurations of concepts related to social

media management across disciplines. Figure 6 illustrate different configuration between MR and IT

fields. Consequently, in considering social media management from multi-disciplinary perspective, a

broader range of available concepts enable a holistic perspective. This, in turn, offers a synergy, that

draws on divers expertise across the organization because social media expands the interfaces an

organization needs to manage (Kampf, Haahr, and Mohammadreza, 2017).

Table 1. Configurations of social media concepts across disciplines Figure 7: Example, different configuration between Marketing and IT-ASs

B) Tensions in levels of focus across the organization related to strategy

Tensions emerge due to different configurations of concepts between disciplines in turn leading

to tensions in levels of focus across the organization related to strategy. To understand these levels of

focus, I categorized these different configurations at three strategy levels based on coordinate

Activity theory: The triangles represent each of actor (disciplines)

and circles shows their goals/ desired outcomes about social media

and online environments. The overlapping parts of the circles

indicate areas of agreement between the affected actors’ outcomes

while the rest of the circles cover areas of contradictions resulting

from their practices.


23


preliminary data with concept from literature review (Figure7). The three levels can be defined as 1)

Operational strategy level or Tactics (Schultz, et al 1987), 2) Functional strategy level (Platts, et al.

1998), and 3) Corporate strategy level (Rumelt, 1974). Although, Kampf and Mohamadreza 2016, found

that the dominant coalition in their case organization discussed social media using more references to

tactics than middle level managers and the online team. This implies tensions between organizational

structures and levels of understanding social media strategy

1) Operational strategy level or tools

Operational strategy level can be defined as front office uses for social media (Van Looy, 2016)

as two-way connections between the organization and the public (Kaplan, 2012). Schultz et al, (1987)

describe a taxonomy of tactics and strategy to distinguish between them. Their description of tactics

related to project management includes Mid-to-lower levels of management, as well as short term,

narrow and problem specific level of details. Some organizations adopt an operational strategy to deal

with all of the minutiae that encompass the organization's day-to-day routine, such as dealing with

customer complaints. This description can be applied in social media management to understand a

tactical level because social media management requires collaboration across the organization much like

projects. Social media management in tactical level approaches social media as a tool, such as using

bloggers to improve eWOM in marketing contexts and increase the reach in advertising campaigns.

2) Functional Strategy level

The functional strategy level can be seen an area of operational management based on a specific

department or discipline within an organization, such as Human Resources, IT or Marketing which

derived from corporate strategy (Platts, et al. 1998). Front office departments interact with the external

audience, which should pass relevant information on to the back-office departments to create value by

providing efficient knowledge for other functions (Van looy, 2016). For instance, social media can give

insights, to evaluate organization’s marketing strategy, to proactively build brands (MR), or to avoid a

crisis in PR strategy. In addition, the R&D department (OS) can profit for innovating its products and

services by encouraging new ideas from its customers (Van Looy, 2016).

From a functional strategy level, Each discipline use social media as a catalyst to achieve their

functional goals such as Marketing scholars describe the role of social media strategy as promote a


24


product or service to achieve marketing goals, managing consumer and building long relationship, brand

management, sales, and acts.

3) Corporate strategy level:

Social media creates strategic value at a corporate level when it is applied in systematic ways

(Van looy, 2016, Arora & Predmore, 2013). The main concerns in Corporate level strategy is what set of

businesses should this corporation, “be collection of businesses" (Hedley, 1977). Companies can use

strategic management to social media to take advantage and create business value by analyzing the

recent situation of each business (market research by social media), (Van looy, 2016), and using for

strategizing. The roles of social media is highlighted in corporate strategic level in the organization by

open strategic perspective (Dobusch and Kapeller, 2013). Social media is engaged with all

organizational levels and among a wide cross-section of internal and external stakeholders in order to

managing online platforms to create and capture value in the organization (Aten et al, 2016).

Figure 8: Three different strategic levels

Consequently, Figure7 shows social media management from multi-level perspective and multi-

disciplinary approach, a comprehensive set of activities in the organization enables a holistic

perspective, which offers 1) consistency the social media content between MR/IT/PR, managing the

front office in online environment (operational strategy level). 2) Align social media strategy with

marketing and PR and IT strategy congruent between the functional and operational strategy level

(Functional strategy level). 3) Align social media strategy with corporate values, mission and strategy

and using it to give insight for corporate strategy (Corporate strategy level). Regarding the multilevel

approach, Kampf and Mohammadreza 2016, illustrate that social media can be used across the

organization in different level. However, there is lack of knowledge about How CEOs can understand

social media management from tactical to strategic level in multidisciplinary approach. (Kampf et al,

2016)


25


5- Research Design

The methodology part presents my plan for answering the research questions of this study. This

section emphasizing the philosophy of science and the methodology. Research design analysis requires

1) consistency between the purpose of the study, research paradigm, research design and theoretical

contributions; 2) selecting methods that permits the study to answer the research questions.

5.1- Philosophy of science

The PhD project is positioned within the social constructivist paradigm. Social constructivism is based

on some assumptions such as reality, knowledge, and learning. Social constructivists rely on reality

mentation to relationships between the members of the society create the properties of the world (Kukla,

2000). Knowledge is a human product also socially and culturally Constructed (Prawat & Floden, 1994).

People understand the meaning through their connections with other and with their environment.

Learning take place only when individuals are involved in social activities. This means that I am not

seeking to determine what social media management is, but effort to highlight how social media

management is discursively constructed by interaction with practitioner in work place. This paradigm

able me to understand the interaction between the people to identify the tension between different

functions. When subscribing to a social constructivist position, it follows that there is no one true reality

and science is subjective and created through the interplay between the researcher and the researched

(Moses and Knutsen, 2012). The interplay between the subject and the object is a premise within the

constructivist position, contrary to the naturalistic position, which considers it a problem (ibid.). The

implications of this interplay between the subject and the object will be elaborated on in the following

sections.


26


5.2- Methods

Research Question Figure Methods


RQ1: How can we (re)define social media management

from a holistic view to explain an organization- focused

perspective?

Thematic analyzing: Three

focus group across the

organization from a Danish

SME fallowed by 7

interviews in Danish

organizations.

Interdepartmental interactions at the tactical level

RQ2: To what extent and nature does communication

related to social media at operational strategy levels

happen across departmental lines?

a) How do PR/CC professionals and MR

professionals interact with respect to the tactical

level?

b) How do PR/CC professionals and IT

professionals interact with respect to the tactical

level?

c) How do IT professionals and MR professionals

interact with respect to the tactical level?

Engaged research(Van de

Ven 2007) (Appendix B).

Data to be gathered

includes Participant

observation, and follow up

interviews in a case

company. By using

Activity Theory to identify

tensions in interactions and

agreements between

activity systems in three

levels.

Thematic analyzing for

exploring pattern and

themes.

Coordinating tactical and functional levels of strategy

RQ3: To what extent do social media professionals

coordinate among functions and between functional

strategy and tactical strategy levels?

a) How do social media professionals coordinate

social media strategy with marketing/PR/IT strategy

at functional strategy level?

b) How do social media professionals coordinate

social media strategy between the tactical and

functional strategy levels?


27


Coordinating open strategy at the corporate level

RQ4: What resources from open strategy are taken in by

the organization?

a) How do resources for open strategy flow between

levels?

b) To what extent and how do this resources affect

strategy at each level?

c) How does communication reflect this process?

Data to be gathered

includes Participant

observation in a case

company.


28


5.3- Analysis strategy

The analysis strategy for this study is based on 1) Thematic analysis (Stirling , 2001), and 2)

Activity theory (Engestrom , 2000). Thematic analyzing enable researcher to deep understanding and

construct pattern and themes from collected data. Activity theory identify contradictions resulting from

different discipline to elaborate and discover tensions, and discuss their implications for the different

perspective (IT, MR, PR/CC, and OS) in related to managing the social media in holistic way in the

organization.

5.3.1- Thematic analysis

Thematic analysis offers an effective method for analyzing qualitative data (Attride-Stirling’s,

2001) by presenting guideline to develop themes from the collected data. Thematic networks enable that

research code by levels of themes, basic, organizing theme (cluster of basic themes), and to construct

global themes (principal metaphors in the all data). The steps of analyzing data in thematic analysis

include; 1) develop familiarity with data: by transcribing and coding collected data with Nvivo, which

increase the accuracy in analyzing the qualitative data and enable a systematic understanding of the

interviewer’s perspectives. (Leech and Onwuegbuzie, 2007, 2011). 2) Developed themes by finding the

relationship between codes, and providing themes. 3) Develop Thematic Network, by arranging basic

themes and organizing themes, then deduce global Theme(s). 4) Describe and explore thematic network

leading to deeper analysis. 5) Summarizing TNs. 6) Develop understanding of pattern based on

summaries of all networks. Patterns are recognized in the data compared to the research questions and

theoretical focus of the study. This process is not a linear. It is iterative process throughout the phases.

(Ely et al., 1997)

5.3.2- Activity theory (AT)

For analyzing, tensions between different disciplines in operational and functional levels can be

seen through employing activity theory exploring and understanding the core components the

perspectives of the each actors. This highlights the tension points between the actors (marketers, PR/CC

experts, and IT experts) which helps in understanding source(s) and contributor(s) to existing tensions

for respective actors.


29


Activity theory offers a lens to use for analyzing and understanding practices of the actors

(marketing, PR/CC, IT, OS) in two different ways. First, Actors are considered as individuals engaged

in practice. Second, are examined in the interconnections between the actors in activity systems, and are

considered their impact to each other. This understanding is developed based on analysis of the seven

components in activity systems for each actor: individual(s) or subgroup(s) whose point of view is

chosen as analysis (Subject); An activity is a form of doing directed to an object, An activity is motivated

by the need or expectation to transform the object into an outcome, using tools (instruments). Also

included are individuals that share the same general object (Community), those responsible for doing the

job (Division of labor) as well as (Rules) constraining actions within the system (Engestrom, 1987).

Engeström (2000) illustrates these with the first, second and third objects. First order objects

emphasize the individual objects of each ASs (Object 1). The second order object is known by

comparing the objects of all actors which highlight the contradicting aspects between the various actors’

objects (i.e. object 2). The third order object (Object 3) overlap objects that have been collaboratively

developed by all ASs.

Figure 9: Activity System: Kain, D., & Wardle, E. (2014).Adapted from Engeström (1987)

Figure 10: Two Interacting Activity Systems depicting First order (Object 1), Second order (Object 2) and third order objects (Object 3) (Engeström, 2000)


30


Figure 9 depicts the current state of social media management as understood by different fields.

The direction of the arrows shows actors as are affected by the actions of the other actors. The triangles

represent each actor and circles denote their goals/ desired outcomes in social media in online

environments. The overlapping parts of the circles indicate areas of agreement between the affected

actors’ outcomes while the rest of the circles cover areas contradictions resulting from their practices

(Figure 10).

Figure 11: Social media management from different perspectives, contradictions and agreements


31


6- Research objective based on research question/ research outline

Research Question Figure Expected Contribution Potential journals


RQ1: How can we (re)define social media

management from a holistic view to explain

an organization- focused perspective?

The aims of first article include:

Develop insights about

social media management

from organizational

perspective.

Three level model for social

media management across

the organization informed

by multi-disciplinary

perspectives.

First Monday

Journal of

Communication

Management

Interdepartmental interactions at the tactical

level

RQ2: To what extent and nature does

communication related to social media at

operational strategy levels happen across

departmental lines?

a) How do PR/CC professionals and MR

professionals interact with respect to the

tactical level?

b) How do PR/CC professionals and IT


tactical level?

c) How do IT professionals and MR


tactical level?

The aims of article include:

Exploring a conceptual

framework for

understandings tensions

across disciplinary

perspectives related to

social media uses at the

operational level.

Journal of Business

communication

Coordinating tactical and functional levels of

strategy

RQ3: To what extent do social media

professionals coordinate among functions and

between functional strategy and tactical

strategy levels?

a) How do social media professionals

coordinate social media strategy with

marketing/PR/IT strategy at functional

strategy level?

The aim of paper consist of:

Explore and established

multi-disciplinary space for

managing social media at the

functional level to support

other functional strategies.

Develop insight about social

media in Activity systems

that connect functional and

operational strategy levels.

Journal of Business

Research


32


b) How do social media professionals

coordinate social media strategy between

the tactical and functional strategy levels?

Coordinating open strategy at the corporate

level

RQ4: What resources from open strategy are

taken in by the organization?

a) How do resources for open strategy flow

between levels?

b) To what extent and how do this

resources affect strategy at each level?

c) How does communication reflect this

process?

The aim of paper consist of:

Develop insights about

supporting corporate

strategy by social media and

engaged external audience

in strategic process.

Develop a conceptual

framework for

understandings social media

management across the

organization in three levels

by introducing the new AS

base on social media

management across the

organization.

Strategic

Organization


33


7- Initial finding from Pilot study

My preliminary study is based on seven interviews with social media managers, marketing

managers and CCO s to identify the initial problem formulation from different perspectives. In addition,

I worked on other data (three focus groups) that came from a separate study of Danish SME in the food

and beverage industry. focus group members include: focus groups—1) employees in the dominant

coalition, including the owner, and C-suite level managers; and 2) mid-level managers across different

company divisions including brand managers, the HR manager, Global Relations/Export manager,

Logistics manager, and two employees working with merchandise displays and interpersonal customer

marketing. 3) The social media manager and his assistant.

My pilot research questions were framed by the notion of examining social media “beyond

marketing” in the initial problem formulation based on literature analysis. My focus in interviews was

on understanding ways in which social media is perceived through different organizational functions

across the organization.

First, by transcribing and coding the focus groups and interviews initial codes were developed.

Data and codes at initial and cluster level were entered into Nvivo. This data was coordinated with

literature concepts in the notes. Through thematic analysis, evidence to demonstrate how these three

strategic levels were present in the case, and interviews were correlated with other findings related to

social media from literature.

I needed to see whether it was possible to build a different level based on combinations of codes.

In this case, I could build three levels based on the combination of codes in Table 1. These codes

correlated with focus group data and interviews.

Different levels Code

Corporate strategy Level Analyzing environment

Analyzing competitors

Social media as a strategic tool vs social media as marketing mix element

Two way connection i.e. Social Media drives strategy, strategy drives social media

Social Media strategy reflects organizational culture

Functional strategy level HR strategy(employee/er branding)

Building corporate reputation

Marketing strategy/IMC


34


PR/ communication strategy

Market development

Logistic strategy

Operational strategy level Increasing reach in advertising campaign

Internal guide line for using social media

Market research

Managing event

Managing the complaint

Finding the potential partner

Creating new apps

Table 2. Building the “the corporate strategy level”, “functional strategy Level” and “Operational strategy level” factor

Moreover, three focus groups’ frequency of related comments is addressing operational,

functional and corporate strategy level. Figure 2 compares the percentage of frequency to these three

levels by focus groups data, demonstrating awareness of these different types of activities at all three

levels in the organization.

Figure 12: references to different level in social media management cross the organization- focus groups

Operational strategy level

37%

Functional strategy level

26%

Corporate strategy level22%

Lack of knowledge15%

Comments related to diffetent level

Operational strategy level Functional strategy level

Corporate strategy level Lack of knowledge


35


Secondly, I followed same structure coding for analyzing interviews. Table2, Illustrate few

samples of data, which support the different levels in different perspectives.

Different

Level

Different

perspective

Support from the Data /as Example

Operational

strategy

Marketing Focus group: Social media are tools like everything else and other media for me it is just a tool.

Interview: I would say that if you do not use the marketing department in what you do, social media in 2016, you won’t

hit the right people. You won’t have high click rates.

Interview: If I post something they really like which I do sometimes, I reach 250000 people. So, you can have a higher

reach than people actually like page. It is just about my things. So, if the content is correct and you consistently only

publish the right things to the right people, you benefit in your own page brand over time. That is the important.

PR/CC Focus group: we use social media for showing videos for our huge events, our party. Right now, we’re very good at

communicating, party, and huge events and like this.

IT --

Functional

strategy

Marketing Focus group2: Brand manager , “I think that our online team is quite good at sharing the data with us in the marketing

department and we can use it in our communication with audiences and marketing strategy.”

Focus Group3: “we had this cross channel campaign everything was really nice and actually at the same time we had

television as well, as marketing mix”

Interview: I believe that the social media strategy should follow marketing strategy and sometimes should be matched to

another department in the organization,

PR/CC Interviews: “The social media strategy is part of the communication strategy. So, that part I do have some KPIs to get and

that’s about getting more, that’s more people (what’s called in English?) getting more views on a post on our stuff .

IT ---

Corporate

strategy

Focus group : “Using social media for next product development”4 quotes

Focus group: logistics, using likes on Facebook to hear about products and rethink our distribution practices. 3quotes

Interview: To me, then I think, if you look at the social media, if you really want to have success, you need to prioritize it

and need to integrate the social media as a business driver generally.

Preliminary results currently show two types of issues emerging 1) different configurations of

concepts about social media use, and 2) tension between levels of strategy in focus relative to the

organization. Findings demonstrate tensions that appear similar to tensions evident across disciplinary

approaches in social media literatures. Finally, the aims of first article is develop insights about social

media from organizational perspective. This leads to a three level model for social media management

across the organization informed by multi-disciplinary perspectives


36


8- References

Ahlstrom, David. "Innovation and growth: How business contributes to society." The Academy of

Management Perspectives 24.3 (2010): 11-24.

Allagui, I., & Breslow, H. (2016). Social media for public relations: Lessons from four effective

cases. Public Relations Review, 42(1), 20-30.

Andriole, S. J. (2010). Business impact of Web 2.0 technologies. Communications of the ACM, 53(12),

67-79.

Andzulis, J. M., Panagopoulos, N. G., & Rapp, A. (2012). A review of social media and implications for

the sales process. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 32(3), 305-316.

Arora, P., & Predmore, C. E. (2013). Social media as a strategic tool: Going beyond the obvious.” In Social

Media in Strategic Management. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing, pp. 115-28.

Aten, K., & Thomas, G. F. (2016). Crowdsourcing strategizing: Communication technology affordances

and the communicative constitution of organizational strategy. International Journal of Business

Communication, 53(2), 148-180.

Attride-Stirling, J. (2001). Thematic networks: an analytic tool for qualitative research. Qualitative

research 1 (3), 385-405.

Berthon, P. R., Pitt, L. F., Plangger, K., & Shapiro, D. (2012). Marketing meets Web 2.0, social media, and

creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy. Business horizons, 55(3), 261-271.

Biernacki, P., & Waldorf, D. (1981). Snowball sampling: Problems and techniques of chain referral

sampling. Sociological methods & research, 10(2), 141-163.

Brady, M., Saren, M., & Tzokas, N. (2002). Integrating information technology into marketing practice–

the IT reality of contemporary marketing practice. Journal of Marketing Management, 18(5-6), 555-577.

Breakenridge, D. (2012). Social Media and Public Relations: Eight new practices for the PR professional.

Pearson Education.

Bughin, J., Manyika, J., & Miller, A. (2008). Building the Web 2.0 Enterprise: McKinsey global survey

results. The McKinsey Quarterly, 10

Candace Deans, P. (2011). The Impact of Social Media on C-level. MIS Quarterly Executive, 10(4).

Chen, Y., Fay, S., & Wang, Q. (2011). The role of marketing in social media: How online consumer reviews

evolve. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 25(2), 85-94.

Chesbrough, H. W., & Appleyard, M. M. (2007). Open innovation and strategy. California management

review, 50(1), 57-76.

Chesbrough, H. W., & Appleyard, M. M. (2007). Open innovation and strategy. California management

review, 50(1), 57-76.

Chesbrough, H., Vanhaverbeke, W., & West, J. (2006). Open innovation: Researching a new paradigm.

Oxford University Press on Demand.


37


Cheung, M. Y., Luo, C., Sia, C. L., & Chen, H. (2009). Credibility of electronic word-of-mouth:

Informational and normative determinants of on-line consumer recommendations. International Journal of

Electronic Commerce, 13(4), 9-38.

Chung, A. Q., Andreev, P., Benyoucef, M., Duane, A., & O’Reilly, P. (2017). Managing an organisation’s

social media presence: An empirical stages of growth model. International Journal of Information

Management, 37(1), 1405-1417.

D. Stieger, K. Matzler, S. Chatterjee, F. Ladstaetter-Fussenegger Democratizing strategy: how

crowdsourcing can be used for strategy dialogues California Management Review, 54 (4) (2012), p. 44

De Valck, K., Van Bruggen, G. H., & Wierenga, B. (2009). Virtual communities: A marketing

perspective. Decision Support Systems, 47(3), 185-203.

Dellarocas, C. (2003). The digitization of word of mouth: Promise and challenges of online feedback

mechanisms. Management science, 49(10), 1407-1424.

Detomasi, D. (2002). International institutions and the case for corporate governance: Toward a distributive

governance framework?. Global Governance, 8(4), 421-442.

Dijkmans, C., Kerkhof, P., & Beukeboom, C. J. (2015). A stage to engage: Social media use and corporate

reputation. Tourism Management, 47, 58-67.

Dobusch, L., & Kapeller, J. (2013, January). Open strategy between crowd and community: Lessons from

Wikimedia and creative commons. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2013, No. 1, p. 15831).

Academy of Management.

Dobusch, L., Mueller-Seitz, G., 2012. Strategy as a practice of thousands: the case of Wikimedia. In:

Academy of Management Annual Meeting (AOM).Boston, USA.

Doz, Y. L., & Kosonen, M. (2008). Fast strategy: How strategic agility will help you stay ahead of the

game. Pearson Education.

Dreher, S. (2014). Social media and the world of work: A strategic approach to employees’ participation

in social media. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 19(4), 344-356.

Echeverri, P., & Skålén, P. (2011). Co-creation and co-destruction: A practice-theory based study of

interactive value formation. Marketing theory, 11(3), 351-373.

Edosomwan, S., Prakasan, S. K., Kouame, D., Watson, J., & Seymour, T. (2011). The history of social

media and its impact on business. Journal of Applied Management and entrepreneurship, 16(3), 79.

Elbers, W. (2004), “Doing business with business: development NGOs interacting with the corporate

sector”, available at: www.evertvrmeer.nl/download.do/id/100105391/ce/true/

Ely, M., Vinz, R., Downing, M., & Anzul, M. (1997). On writing qualitative research: Living by words.

London: Routledge/Falmer.

Engestrom, Y. (2000). Activity theory as a framework for analyzing and designing work. Ergonomics,

43(7), 960-974

Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive learning at work: Toward an activity theoretical

reconceptualization. Journal of education and work, 14(1), 133-156.


38


Engeström, Y. (2006). Activity theory and expansive design. Theories and practice of interaction design,

3-24

Erdoğmuş, İ. E., & Cicek, M. (2012). The impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty. Procedia-

Social and Behavioral Sciences, 58, 1353-1360.

Etter, M. A., & Vestergaard, A. (2015). Facebook and the public framing of a corporate crisis. Corporate

Communications: An International Journal, 20(2), 163-177.

E. W., & Ho, K. K. (2014). Value co-creation and purchase intention in social network sites: The role of

electronic Word-of-Mouth and trust–A theoretical analysis. Computers in Human Behavior, 31, 182-189.

Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P. A., & Hinsch, C. (2017). Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic

framework. Journal of Business Research, 70, 118-126.

Fjeld, K., & Molesworth, M. (2006). PR practitioners' experiences of, and attitudes towards, the internet's

contribution to external crisis communication. Corporate Communications: An International

Journal, 11(4), 391-405.

Forman, C., Ghose, A., & Wiesenfeld, B. (2008). Examining the relationship between reviews and sales:

The role of reviewer identity disclosure in electronic markets. Information Systems Research, 19(3), 291-

313.

Gamboa, A. M., & Gonçalves, H. M. (2014). Customer loyalty through social networks: Lessons from Zara

on Facebook. Business Horizons, 57(6), 709-717.

Gast, A., & Zanini, M. (2012). The social side of strategy. McKinsey Quarterly, 2, 82-93.

Gruen, T. W., Osmonbekov, T., & Czaplewski, A. J. (2006). eWOM: The impact of customer-to-customer

online know-how exchange on customer value and loyalty. Journal of Business research, 59(4), 449-456.

Haefliger, E. Monteiro, D. Foray, G. von Krogh Social software and strategy Long Range Planning, 44

(2011), pp. 297–316

Haigh, M. M., Brubaker, P., & Whiteside, E. (2013). Facebook: examining the information presented and

its impact on stakeholders. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 18(1), 52-69.

Hajli, N., Shanmugam, M., Papagiannidis, S., Zahay, D., & Richard, M. O. (2017). Branding co-creation

with members of online brand communities. Journal of Business Research, 70, 136-144.

Hanna, R., Rohm, A., & Crittenden, V. L. (2011). We’re all connected: The power of the social media

ecosystem. Business horizons, 54(3), 265-273.

Hedley, B. (1977). Strategy and the “business portfolio”. Long range planning, 10(1), 9-15.

Herrero, Á., & San Martín, H. (2017). Explaining the adoption of social networks sites for sharing user-

generated content: A revision of the UTAUT2. Computers in Human Behavior, 71, 209-217.

Hutter, K., Nketia, B.A., Füller, J., 2016. Falling short with participation—different effects of ideation,

commenting, and evaluating behavior on open strategizing. Long Range Plan

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0963868712000157#b0145

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0963868712000157#b0145


39


John Sterling, (2003) "Translating strategy into effective implementation: dispelling the myths and

highlighting what works", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 31 Issue: 3,pp. 27-34

Kain, D., & Wardle, E. (2014). Activity theory: An introduction for the writing classroom. Writing about

writing (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin.

Kampf, C., & Mohammadreza, M. (2016, May). Social Media Management across the Organization. In

conference on corporate communication 2016 (p. 206).

Kao, T. Y., Kao, T. Y., Yang, M. H., Yang, M. H., Wu, J. T. B., Wu, J. T. B., ... & Cheng, Y. Y. (2016).

Co-creating value with consumers through social media. Journal of Services Marketing, 30(2), 141-151.

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2011). Two hearts in three-quarter time: How to waltz the social

media/viral marketing dance. Business Horizons, 54(3), 253-263.

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2012). The Britney Spears universe: Social media and viral marketing at

its best. Business Horizons, 55(1), 27-31.

Kenneth R. Andrews, The Concept of Corporate Strategy (Homewood, IL: Irwin, 1987).

Killian, G., & McManus, K. (2015). A marketing communications approach for the digital era: Managerial

guidelines for social media integration. Business Horizons, 58(5), 539-549.

Kim, A. J., & Johnson, K. K. (2016). Power of consumers using social media: Examining the influences

of brand-related user-generated content on Facebook. Computers in Human Behavior, 58, 98-108.

Kim, D. J., Ferrin, D. L., & Rao, H. R. (2009). Trust and satisfaction, two stepping stones for successful e-

commerce relationships: A longitudinal exploration. Information systems research, 20(2), 237-257.

Kozinets, R. V. (2002). The field behind the screen: Using netnography for marketing research in online

communities. Journal of marketing research, 39(1), 61-72.

Kukla, A. (2000). Social constructivism and the philosophy of science. Psychology Press.

Kvale, S., & Brinkmann, S. (2009). Interviews: Learning the craft of qualitative research. California, US:

SAGE.

Lee, J., Lee, J. N., & Shin, H. (2011). The long tail or the short tail: The category-specific impact of eWOM

on sales distribution. Decision Support Systems, 51(3), 466-479.

Lee, S. H., Noh, S. E., & Kim, H. W. (2013). A mixed methods approach to electronic word-of-mouth in

the open-market context. International Journal of Information Management, 33(4), 687-696.

Leech, N. L., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2007). An array of qualitative analysis tools: A call for data analysis

triangulation. School Psychology Quarterly, 22, 557–584.

Lindlof, T. R., & Taylor, B. C. (2002). Asking, listening, and telling. Qualitative communication research

methods, 170-208.

Luo, N., Zhang, M., & Liu, W. (2015). The effects of value co-creation practices on building harmonious

brand community and achieving brand loyalty on social media in China. Computers in Human

Behavior, 48, 492-499.


40


Macnamara, J., & Zerfass, A. (2012). Social media communication in organizations: The challenges of

balancing openness, strategy, and management. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 6(4),

287-308.

Mangold, W. G., & Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion

mix. Business horizons, 52(4), 357-365.

Mantere, S., & Vaara, E. (2008). On the problem of participation in strategy: A critical discursive

perspective. Organization Science, 19(2), 341-358.

Mäntymäki, M., & Riemer, K. (2016). Enterprise social networking: A knowledge management

perspective. International Journal of Information Management, 36(6), 1042-1052.

Men, L. R., & Tsai, W. H. S. (2013). Beyond liking or following: Understanding public engagement on

social networking sites in China. Public Relations Review, 39(1), 13-22.

Moncrief, W. C., Marshall, G. W., & Rudd, J. M. (2015). Social media and related technology: Drivers of

change in managing the contemporary sales force. Business Horizons, 58(1), 45-55.

Moses, J., & Knutsen, T. (2012). Ways of knowing: Competing methodologies in social and political

research. Palgrave Macmillan.

Myers, M. D. (1997). Qualitative research in information systems. Management Information Systems

Quarterly, 21(2), 241-242.

Neill, M. S., & Moody, M. (2015). Who is responsible for what? Examining strategic roles in social media

management. Public Relations Review, 41(1), 109-118.

Ngai, E. W., Tao, S. S., & Moon, K. K. (2015). Social media research: Theories, constructs, and conceptual

frameworks. International Journal of Information Management, 35(1), 33-44.

Ott, L., & Theunissen, P. (2015). Reputations at risk: Engagement during social media crises. Public

Relations Review, 41(1), 97-102.

Payne, A. F., Storbacka, K., & Frow, P. (2008). Managing the co-creation of value. Journal of the academy

of marketing science, 36(1), 83-96.

Platts, K. W., Mills, J. F., Bourne, M. C., Neely, A. D., Richards, A. H., & Gregory, M. J. (1998). Testing

manufacturing strategy formulation processes. International Journal of Production Economics, 56, 517-

523.

Prahalad, C. K., & Ramaswamy, V. (2004). Co-creation experiences: The next practice in value

creation. Journal of interactive marketing, 18(3), 5-14.

Prawat, R. S., & Floden, R. E. (1994). Philosophical Perspectives on Constructivist Views of Learning.

Educational Psychologist, 29(1), 37-48.

Rodriguez, M., Peterson, R. M., & Krishnan, V. (2012). Social media’s influence on business-to-business

sales performance. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 32(3), 365-378.

Romenti, S., Murtarelli, G., & Valentini, C. (2014). Organisations' conversations in social media: applying

dialogue strategies in times of crises. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 19(1), 10-33.


41


Rumelt, R. Strategy, Structure and Economic Performance in Large Industrial Corporations, Harvard

University Press, Boston, 1974

Schivinski, B., & Dabrowski, D. (2016). The effect of social media Communication on consumer

perceptions of brands. Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(2), 189-214.

Schultz, R. L., Slevin, D. P., & Pinto, J. K. (1987). Strategy and tactics in a process model of project

implementation. Interfaces, 17(3), 34-46.

Silva, L., & Panahi, H. (2017). Catch me if you can: Online protests on sites powered by user-generated

content. Information & Management, 54(1), 103-114.

Smith, B. G., & Gallicano, T. D. (2015). Terms of engagement: Analyzing public engagement with

organizations through social media. Computers in Human Behavior, 53, 82-90.

Surowiecki, J. (2004). The wisdom of crowds: Why the many are smarter than the few and how collective

wisdom shapes business. Economies, Societies and Nations, 296.

Tavakoli, A., Schlagwein, D., & Schoder, D. (2015). Open Strategy: Towards a Shared Understanding.

In Developmental Workshop on Open Research and Practice in IS (pp. 1-5).

Tavakoli, A., Schlagwein, D., & Schoder, D. (2017). Open strategy: Literature review, re-analysis of cases

and conceptualisation as a practice. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems.

Tsimonis, G., & Dimitriadis, S. (2014). Brand strategies in social media. Marketing Intelligence &

Planning, 32(3), 328-344.

VAN de, V. E. N., & ANDREW, H. (2011). Building a European community of engaged scholars.

European Management Review, 8(4), 189-195.

Van Looy, A. (2016). Social Media Management. Springer International Publishing: Imprint: Springer,.

Veil, S. R., Buehner, T., & Palenchar, M. J. (2011). A work‐in‐process literature review: Incorporating

social media in risk and crisis communication. Journal of contingencies and crisis management, 19(2), 110-

122.

Waddell, S. (2001), “The role of civil society in business strategy”, The Corporate Ethics Monitor. July-

August, pp. 57-59

Whittington, R., 2014. Information systems strategy and strategy-as-practice: a joint agenda. J. Strateg. Inf.

Syst. 23 (1), 87–91

Whittington, R., Cailluet, L., & Yakis‐Douglas, B. (2011). Opening strategy: Evolution of a precarious

profession. British Journal of Management, 22(3), 531-544.

Yates, D., & Paquette, S. (2011). Emergency knowledge management and social media technologies: A

case study of the 2010 Haitian earthquake. International journal of information management, 31(1), 6-13.


42


9- Appendix

9.1-Appendix A: an outline for the remaining two years of the program

Marjan Mohammadreza PhD Activity Plan 2016-2018

Timeline Activities

1st Half year

From

February

2016

Research

Conference paper in CCI: Social Media Management Across the Organization:

Building a conceptualization from engaged research in a Danish company, as

co-author (Completed)

Literature Review

Gathering data and pilot study (not completed)

PhD courses

Introducing the Philosophy of Science: A Multi-Perspective Approach (5

ECTS) (completed)

Qualitative content analysis (10 ECTS) (Completed)

Teaching

- Corporate Media exam and Re-exam, 18 hours

2nd

Semester

from

September

2016

Research

Literature Review

Gathering data and pilot study(completed)

Preparing Thesis Proposal - TP (not Completed)

PhD courses

Thesis Research Design (5 ECTS) (completed)

Teaching

Social Media Management (Completed)

Communication Theory (Completed)

Total teaching hours completed so far: 424 hours (175 hours Remaining)

3rd Semester

from

February

2017

Research

Hand-in TP (Completed)

Read literature on PR/corporate communication, strategy, marketing,

approaches, Activity theory.

Carry out TP, refine project based on feedback

Gathering Data

First Article (Not completed)

Conference

Co-author paper accepted to AOM

Attending in EGOS conference (subthemes: open strategy, Activity theory)


43


PhD courses

Advanced Qualitative Methods (5 ECTS) ( not completed)

4th Half year

From

September

2017

Research

Continue Literature review

Data collection: semi structured interviews

Analyzing data

Second paper

PhD Course

The Research Process and the Role of Theory in Business Research: (5 ECTS)

(Not completed)

Total ECTS: 30 ECTS, all coursework completed

Teaching

Social media management

Total Teaching hours :600

5th Half

from

February

2018

Research

Data collection: semi structured interviews

Analyzing data

Third article

Conference

AOM article

Stay abroad

Working to visit Andreas M. Kaplan, ESCP Europe, Berlin

6th Half year

From

September

2018

Research

Analysis/Discussion

Implications and Conclusion

Writing and concluding the final version of the Dissertation

Fourth article


44


9.2- Appendix B: Engaged research

Figure 13: Andrew H. Van de Ven, Engaged scholarship

Documents

Thesis Proposal - pure.au.dk · Thesis Proposal Managing social media resources across the organization: building a framework for encompassing social media management from the