Empirical Study on How Social Media Promote Product Innovation
22 Pages Posted: 1 Oct 2016
Date Written: September 30, 2016
Abstract
Large numbers of firms use social media for various business activities. Japanese firms, however, still less use it. This paper aims to clarify how social media is effective for business activities of Japanese firms. For this purpose, the followings are cleared:
(i) whether social media use is useful for company activities;
(ii) what kinds of business activities are affected by using social media; and
(iii) how social media improves the final outcomes.
This study uses the data of business activities and social media conducted in 2014. Probit and path analysis are employed. The former enables to clarify the relationships between the effects of social media and social media use. The latter can clarify the relationships among the effects of social media use to business activities. In path analysis, an explained variable is the final outcomes effect of social media, while explanatory variables are first and intermediate effects of social media. The results indicate social media has effective for business activities and the first effects such as “awareness of consumer needs” affect the intermediate effects such as “joint development with opinion leaders” and finally sales are improved for example. This study may help to promote social media use in Japanese firms.
Keywords: Social media; Sales promotion; Path analysis; SEM
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