A strategic communication perspective on social media use in small to medium sized industrial organizations
(2023) SKOM12 20221Department of Strategic Communication
- Abstract
- Social media is a well-studied area within strategic communication. However, among small to medium-sized industrial organizations (B2B), the research remains sparse. Therefore, this thesis aims to get a better understanding of social media usage among industrial small to medium-sized organizations from a strategic communication perspective. With the main focus being the CEO’s perception of social media as they are often involved in many different processes in such organizations, and have more power compared to a CEO in a larger organization. The literature review revealed a pattern of the area as rather understudied, although a united view of the possible pros of social media for the organizations, however, it also showed that social media... (More)
- Social media is a well-studied area within strategic communication. However, among small to medium-sized industrial organizations (B2B), the research remains sparse. Therefore, this thesis aims to get a better understanding of social media usage among industrial small to medium-sized organizations from a strategic communication perspective. With the main focus being the CEO’s perception of social media as they are often involved in many different processes in such organizations, and have more power compared to a CEO in a larger organization. The literature review revealed a pattern of the area as rather understudied, although a united view of the possible pros of social media for the organizations, however, it also showed that social media is not well understood by some of the organizations due to a number of factors. To fulfill the purpose of this study a qualitative methodology was deployed. This included semi-structured interviews with 9 CEO’s from different small to medium sized industrial organizations in Sweden. To analyze the empirical material, this study produced a theoretical framework consisting of the communication value circle (CVC) and auto communication theory. From the empirical material and the conducted analysis, three main themes were identified. The conclusion of this study is that while social media are used by the organizations they lack some understanding of them. Several reasons were presented for this, one being a generational perspective. Another conclusion reached was that the organizations auto-communicate in the process of using social media. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9113923
- author
- Isberg, Per LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SKOM12 20221
- year
- 2023
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Industrial organizations, Auto communication, Social media, SME, Communication Value Circle, Industrial marketing, Strategic communication
- language
- English
- id
- 9113923
- date added to LUP
- 2023-06-09 12:16:25
- date last changed
- 2023-06-09 12:16:25
@misc{9113923,
abstract = {{Social media is a well-studied area within strategic communication. However, among small to medium-sized industrial organizations (B2B), the research remains sparse. Therefore, this thesis aims to get a better understanding of social media usage among industrial small to medium-sized organizations from a strategic communication perspective. With the main focus being the CEO’s perception of social media as they are often involved in many different processes in such organizations, and have more power compared to a CEO in a larger organization. The literature review revealed a pattern of the area as rather understudied, although a united view of the possible pros of social media for the organizations, however, it also showed that social media is not well understood by some of the organizations due to a number of factors. To fulfill the purpose of this study a qualitative methodology was deployed. This included semi-structured interviews with 9 CEO’s from different small to medium sized industrial organizations in Sweden. To analyze the empirical material, this study produced a theoretical framework consisting of the communication value circle (CVC) and auto communication theory. From the empirical material and the conducted analysis, three main themes were identified. The conclusion of this study is that while social media are used by the organizations they lack some understanding of them. Several reasons were presented for this, one being a generational perspective. Another conclusion reached was that the organizations auto-communicate in the process of using social media.}},
author = {{Isberg, Per}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{A strategic communication perspective on social media use in small to medium sized industrial organizations}},
year = {{2023}},
}