Social media marketing system: conceptualization, scale development and validation

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT OF THE PAPER: Social media marketing system: conceptualization, scale development and validation Authors: Varela Neira, Concepción; Dwivedi, Yogesh Kumar; Camoiras Rodríguez, Zaira Cite: Varela-Neira, C., Dwivedi, Y. K., & Camoiras-Rodriguez, Z. (2023). Social media marketing system: conceptualization, scale development and validation. Internet Research, 33(4), 1302-1330. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-06-2021-0393 Internet Research Social Media Marketing System: Conceptualization, scale development and validation Journal: Internet Research Manuscript ID INTR-06-2021-0393.R3 Manuscript Type: Research Paper Keywords: Social media, Management, Scale development, Firm outcomes http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research Internet Research 1 Social Media Marketing System: Conceptualization, scale development and validation Abstract Purpose: Understanding what organizational factors enable a successful social media presence is a relevant issue for academics and practicing managers. The purpose of this investigation is to thus develop and validate a scale to measure a Social Media Marketing System (SMMS). Design/methodology/approach: This paper follows a rigorous scale development process based on three stages: item generation, measurement development and instrument testing. The validity and reliability tests were conducted using data provided by social media managers and their supervisors. Finding: The results validate a 25-item multidimensional SMMS scale that exhibits adequate internal consistency, reliability, construct validity and nomological validity. The results also show that the SMMS scale positively correlates with outcomes that are key to firm success (social media strategy success and marketing performance). Originality: This paper conceptualizes SMMS through four dimensions: formalization, human resource management, co-creation, and marketing planning, and associates it to important firm outcomes. The newly developed measurement instrument adds to the small repository of research scales relevant to social media and can serve as a springboard from which future work can understand social media from both an internal management perspective and an integrated outlook. Research type: Research paper 1. Introduction Over the last 20 years, researchers and professionals have witnessed a true marketing revolution. The digital transformation has fundamentally changed the marketing landscape, enriching the tools that firms use in their relationship with consumers and empowering consumers by facilitating their interaction with firms (Sridhar and Fang, 2019). Social media and online communities, which are Internet-based collaborative systems, in which users consume, generate and exchange content whilst socially interacting beyond geographical boundaries, enable and encourage bidirectional communication between firms and customers (Steinhoff et al., 2019). Consequently, social media has fundamentally changed the way customers and firms communicate (Liu et al., 2016). According to Hootsuite Digital (2021), the number of active social media users has grown more than 13% on average over the last year, reaching 53% of the global population as of 2020, which implies a rise of more than 1.3 million users each day, while the daily time devoted to social media has also increased. In particular, since the COVID-19 pandemic, social media usage has seen an explosive growth due to worldwide social distancing directives and lockdowns Page 3 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research 2 (Nabity-Grover et al., 2020). As a result, nowadays, firms need to integrate social media marketing in their overall business strategy to stay competitive, as social media helps to create, nurture and maintain robust customer relationships, build brand awareness, impact consumers’ attitudes and behaviors, obtain feedback, improve current products and services, and increase sales (Dwivedi et al., 2021). Leung et al. (2013) conclude that the effective management of a firm’s social media is key to achieving their desired performance, whilst McCarthy et al. (2014) argue that the effective management of a firm’s social media presence has the potential to generate commercial value and brand equity. Therefore, it is necessary for firms to strategically use and leverage social media to obtain competitive advantages and achieve superior performance (Lamberton and Stephen, 2016). However, despite prior research emphasizing the potential benefits of firms’ active presence on several digital platforms, critical questions remain unanswered (Borah et al., 2020); in particular, those related to social media marketing management and the key success practices to strategically implementing social media (Dwivedi et al., 2021; Li et al., 2021). Whilst past conceptual studies and comprehensive qualitative reviews of social media marketing management (e.g., Effing and Spil, 2016; Malthouse et al., 2013; Panagiotopoulos et al., 2015; Weinberg et al., 2013) provide valuable albeit mainly theoretical guidelines, the literature has failed to provide any widely accepted and empirically validated tools to measure social media marketing management factors. This investigation therefore develops and empirically validates a scale for a Social Media Marketing System (SMMS). An SMMS is conceptualized as an integrated configuration of practices designed by the company or organization to create value for its stakeholders and achieve desirable marketing outcomes through social media technology. Several reasons justify the need for an SMMS scale that, from a holistic perspective, clearly defines the key practices for the strategic use of social media marketing. First, there is a lack of research on social media marketing management from an overarching holistic standpoint (Felix et al., 2017), likely because studying social media marketing management requires access to organizational managers, who are usually harder to access (Dwivedi et al., 2021), resulting in prior social media studies mainly having focused on the design of marketing messages and content (Chen et al., 2020). In other words, investigations do not usually examine social media from an internal management perspective and an integrated outlook and, hence, do not explicitly identify the dimensions that comprise it and give it consistency in order to achieve high performance. This situation is surprising, given that adequate social media marketing management involves a complex and systemic mix, developed through a carefully designed process, as well as the appropriate resources and infrastructure to tackle it (Weinberg et al., 2013). Correspondingly, prior investigations have shown that, when defining critical success practices for the implementation of information technology, research should take Page 4 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research 3 into consideration factors associated with people and processes (Chen et al., 2013), not just the related technologies. Second, the consumers of social media demand an equal amount of interactivity with firms as with peers (Berthon et al., 2012; Hanna et al., 2011; Rainie et al., 2011); thus, social media requires a firm’s constant attention, overstretching conventional organizational communication procedures. This shift in consumer expectations implies that organizational participation in social media requires the development of skills to enable more direct and personal customer-firm exchanges in (semi) public spaces (Andzulis et al., 2012; Trainor, 2012). Third, the need to manage (semi) public social media interactions has repercussions across internal processes and resources. For example, firms must establish the degree of investment and internal reorganization required to successfully engage in social media (e.g., to employ or relocate adequate employees), while internal learning procedures must incorporate training programs for social media usage and good practice, as well as to be rapidly formalized to help handle new social media challenges (Panagiotopoulos et al., 2015). The fourth and final consideration surrounds the interactive nature of social media, which means that consumers have currently become active value co-creators, i.e., they are no longer value takers (Hajli, 2013; Zwass, 2010). This co-creation environment enabled by social media highlights the need for firms to enable and utilize consumers’ active participation in the business process (Kaltcheva et al., 2014). In other words, firms must prepare for and invest in their own capability to acquire, administer, and make the most of customer-generated content (Dwivedi et al., 2021). A scale designed to identify key social media management factors will help understand how firms must adapt to reflect the peculiarities of this environment to positively impact their organizational outcomes. This new scale responds to professionals’ need for a deeper understanding of the effective management of social media (Effing and Spil, 2016) and researchers’ call to develop scales relevant to social media that capture and measure the complexity of this phenomenon (Dwivedi et al., 2021). 2. Conceptual background 2.1 The Social Media Marketing System definition To conceptualize an SMMS, it is vital to first explore the definitions of the underlying terms. Previous literature reveals that there are multiple definitions for social media marketing and social media marketing strategy (see Table I). However, when analyzing the definitions of social media marketing (e.g., Felix et al., 2017; Yadav and Rahman, 2017; Tuten and Solomon, 2017), two common claims appear: the use of social media technology and the need for social media marketing to have value for the organization’s stakeholders. Additionally, definitions of social media marketing strategy (e.g., Ananda et al., 2016; Effing and Spil, 2016; Li et al., 2021) Page 5 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research 4 incorporate a single differential and common characteristic with respect to those of social media marketing: the need for actions, activities or processes to be integrated to achieve a common goal. [Insert Table I around here] Since the definitions of social media marketing strategy highlight the complexity of managing social media marketing, systems theory (Kast and Rosenzweig, 1972) appears to be the appropriate theoretical background for its study, as this theory helps synthesize and analyze complexity. According to systems theory, a system is composed of interconnected parts or elements within a relationship designed to achieve a goal, where the whole cannot be explained as the sum of the parts but as a totality. A system is therefore more than work processes but involves management processes and structural arrangements shaped to direct the organization toward its goals. In this line, Deming (1986) argued that variations on firm performance result from the capability of the organizational system, so that individual workers or specific technologies only account for a minimal fraction of the variation. Consequently, managers should concentrate on designing a total system capable of attaining the preferred level of performance. This is in line with recent applications of systems theory, which consider concrete second-order systems that emphasize specific characteristics and relationships. The most prominent example thereof is seen in the field of strategic human resource management (e.g., Huselid, 1995; Boon et al., 2019), where there has been a consensus on the need to study human resource systems rather than individual practices. Other examples of a systems approach are demonstrated by Ravichandran and Rai (2000) in the field of total quality management, and Smith et al. (2009) in the examination of service recovery. To define SMMS, the attributes identified in the definitions included in the previous section have been taken as a basis, while simultaneously incorporating the systems theory approach, which defines systems as organizational design endeavors. Thus, SMMS is conceptualized as an integrated configuration of practices designed by the company or organization to create value for its stakeholders and achieve desirable marketing outcomes through social media technology. 2.2 Social media marketing management research Because the SMMS scale has not been operationalized in prior literature, a comprehensive literature review was carried out. Replicating the approach used by Olanrewaju et al. (2020), two prominent business/management databases were employed to source the literature: Business Source Complete (EBSCO) and Scopus. These databases offer a focus on business management, while indexing a variety of journals. Books, book chapters, reports and conference proceedings were removed due to the variabilities present in their peer review processes and more limited availability. On the other hand, journal articles were considered to be properly validated (Podsakoff et al., 2005). This approach is coherent with prior review papers on social media that have also restricted their scope to journal articles (e.g., Ngai et al., 2015). The keywords used Page 6 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research 5 were “social media management”, “social media strategy” and “social media marketing”, together with strategy, strategic, implementation or management. Consequently, in this first phase, the search returned 702 articles from EBSCO and 964 articles from Scopus published in English up to 2022. In the second phase, duplicates were excluded. Moreover, after reviewing the articles’ abstracts to ensure their relevance to the purposes of this research, most articles identified in the initial search were dismissed, since they did not focus on social media marketing management. Furthermore, several studies that focused on the specificities of a sector, such as B2B (e.g., Drummond et al., 2020; Lashgari et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2017) were also removed. At the end of this procedure, only 54 articles remained. In the third phase, these articles were read in full to verify that they focused on the organizational practices necessary for the strategic implementation of social media marketing from a general perspective. Out of the 54 articles read, 17 met the established requirements. Based on the methodological stream, these 17 articles were classified into three groups: theoretical, empirical with qualitative methods and empirical with quantitative methods. The first group incorporates theoretical articles that, based on the previous literature, develop frameworks or propositions. In this group, there are articles such as Kietzmann et al. (2011) which offer a guideline of how companies should develop strategies for social media, called the 4 Cs: cognize, congruity, chase and curate (which implicates human resources and policies). Next, Malthouse et al. (2013) present the components of the social-CRM house, which they identify as social-CRM strategy, data and information technology, the organization of people and the measuring of outcomes. Ananda et al. (2016) propose the N-REL framework for social media marketing activities, which divides social media strategy into three stages: strategic decisions and plans, tactical plans (social media mix decisions and networking) and social media strategic actions, which are then decomposed into three groups: representation, engagement and listening in. Moreover, Parsons and Lepkowska-White (2018) offer a framework that consists of four dimensions that summarize the actions managers perform when implementing and engaging with consumers on social media: messaging/projecting, monitoring, assessing and responding (which involves procedures and guidelines). Finally, Li et al. (2021) present a conceptual paper that identifies four distinct social media marketing strategies representing increasing levels of strategic maturity: social commerce strategy, social content strategy, social monitoring strategy and social CRM strategy. In the latter strategy, the firm’s key activity is to empower and engage customers to obtain customer engagement and co-creation. The second group contains articles that employ different types of qualitative methods, such as case studies, in-depth interviews or qualitative surveys. Since this is the larger set of articles, we have divided them into three subgroups attending to their main focus of analysis: strategic marketing planning, social media management and social media marketing management. Page 7 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research 6 The strategic marketing planning subgroup comprises articles that primarily focus on elements related to a strategic approach to social media marketing communication but do not tackle other important management challenges, such as the people responsible for managing the firm’s social media presence or the rules that must be established to achieve the successful management of social media marketing. In this group, there are articles such as Killian and McManus (2015), who through in-depth interviews conclude that there are four Cs of social media integration strategies or principles to approach customer engagement strategies for social platforms: (1) the need for consistency and integration across all marketing communications, (2) the need for customization to allow the brand messaging to feel personally crafted for individual audiences on each platform, (3) the need for commitment to relevant platforms and (4) the need for managers to respond with caution to consumer commentary in social media. More recently, Al-Essa and Yahia (2019) use a qualitative survey to detect 11 critical success factors of social media integration: understanding the variety of social media platforms, interacting with users, keeping an eye on user content, understanding the overall marketing plan, knowing the company’s products/services and actions, harmonizing the brand identity between offline-online communications, having a specific social media budget, understanding the variety of audience profiles across platforms, understanding the variety of interaction tools across platforms, timing and, finally, choosing a suitable tone of voice. The social media management subgroup involves articles that focus on the organizational pillars of a successful social media presence but do not consider the specific challenges related to a strategic approach to social media marketing planning, such as the need to integrate communication actions. In this group, there are articles such as Weinberg et al. (2013), from the study of one organization, identify several lessons to be learned from what they called a “social business”, which refers to an organization that has immersed itself in social media and suffered a significant organizational transformation to integrate these collaborative technologies. Later, Felix et al. (2017), based on the results of a qualitative survey, offer a framework of social media marketing that covers scope, culture, structure and governance. The social media marketing management subgroup incorporates articles that employ a broader perspective, considering both strategic marketing planning success factors, as well as other relevant aspects of social media marketing management. In this group, there are articles such as Panagiotopoulos et al. (2015), who analyze five organizations and establish a framework of social media engagement structured around three topics: channels, audience and interactions (which includes a policies and resources subdimension). Subsequently, Choi and Thoeni (2016) employ in-depth interviews to identify four organizational processes (and their corresponding organizational activities) that firms need to adopt and implement to embrace social media, specifically: initiation, coordination, engagement and measurement. Similarly, Effing and Spil (2016) examine nine organizations and recognize three stages of social media development Page 8 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research 7 (initiation, diffusion and maturity), anchored in seven benchmark variables: target audience, channel choice, goals, resources, policies, monitoring and content activities. Additionally, Valos et al. (2017), based on in-depth interviews, telephone interviews and a qualitative survey, propose a social media marketing capability model, which presents a sequential decision-making process that integrates unique social media strengths and implementation enablers. Finally, Pour et al. (2021) employ qualitative content analysis to study focus group discussions and identify six success factors of social media marketing strategies, namely: strategy, process, technology, content, performance evaluation and people. The final group of papers involves three articles that employ quantitative surveys to support their frameworks or to test their hypotheses. In this group, Chung et al. (2017) follow a stages-of-growth approach and recognize five stages of social media maturity (experimentation and learning, rapid growth, formalization, consolidation and integration, and institutional absorption) anchored across eight valid benchmark variables: strategy, business processes, structure, technologies adopted, application of technologies, impact on internal stakeholders, impact on external stakeholders and return on investment. Later, Tafesse and Wien (2018) argue that these staged models of social media maturity are unwieldy for operationalization; consequently, they conceptualize social media implementation as a construct integrated by four dimensions, namely: social media strategy, active presence, customer engagement initiatives and social media analytics, but examine the impact of these dimensions separately. Finally, Marchand et al. (2021) discover that social media employee activities, social media measurement and social media budget impact social media performance; nevertheless, their work does not follow a systemic approach. Table II shows a review summary of the approaches, methodologies and outcomes of the papers reviewed. As most of the reviewed papers provide only theoretical frameworks and/or use qualitative methodologies such as case studies, this investigation tries to validate a measurement instrument that integrates key management practices for the strategic use of social media marketing from a holistic and systemic standpoint. [Insert Table II around here] 2.3 The Social Media Marketing System dimensions The comprehensive literature review carried out shows that prior investigations focused on the organizational practices necessary for the strategic implementation of social media marketing have always considered them from a multidimensional perspective. However, the number and definition of these practices are different in each of the studies analyzed, although there are some common features. As a result, based on the identification of the common features in the previous literature review (see Table III), this investigation considers an SMMS to be composed of four dimensions: formalization, human resource management, co-creation, and marketing planning. Page 9 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research 14 Construct reliability and convergent validity were supported for all dimensions, as well as the second-order factor, as they manifest a composite reliability and an average variance extracted (AVE) greater than the recommended threshold values of 0.6 and 0.5, respectively (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). Moreover, all constructs show a Cronbach’s alpha greater than 0.7 (Nunnally, 1978). In addition, all standardized lambda parameters were greater than 0.5 and thus significant, as recommended for newly developed items (Awang, 2015). Together, these tests (see Table VI) provide evidence of reliability and validity (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988). [Insert Table VI around here] Finally, as displayed in Table VII, the discriminant validity was also supported, since correlations among all dimensions showed confidence intervals that did not include the unit value, and their squared value did not exceed the AVE (Boudreau et al., 2001; Fornell and Larcker, 1981). [Insert Table VII around here] 3.3.2.3 Predictive validity To ensure the predictive validity of the SMMS construct, it is necessary to relate its scores to scores on theoretically associated outcome variables (Walsh et al., 2016); in this study, this denotes social media strategy success, consumer-related marketing performance and financialrelated marketing performance (see Table VIII). Social media strategy success was measured in a range of 1 to 7 using four items adapted from Kuester et al. (2017). Consumer-related marketing performance metrics were evaluated in a range of 1 to 7 against the firms’ objectives in the year prior to the study using three items commonly referred to in the literature (Furrer et al., 2007): consumers’ level of satisfaction, loyalty and staying with the firm and brand knowledge. The reference to firms’ internal goals helps to control for variances across different tourism sectors; hence, making comparisons between individual firms in the sample more meaningful (Briggs et al., 2020). Financial metrics include two items commonly referred to in the literature (O’Sullivan and Abela, 2007; Tippins and Sohi, 2003), namely sales and profitability, as prior investigations have indicated that managers counteract profitability and sales growth (McKee et al., 1989; Slater and Narver, 1996). Financial-related marketing performance metrics were evaluated in a range from 1 to 7 against firms’ main competitors to introduce an explicit reference to the attainment of competitive advantages (Weerawardena et al., 2006) at the same time as decreasing the subjectivity of the response as it establishes a point of reference from which to make the comparison (Kraft, 1990). While perceptual judgments have a potential for self-reporting bias, prior research has also shown that perceived performance can serve as a reasonable substitute for objective measures and that it helps to increase response rates as managers prefer to avoid offering precise quantitative data (Taylor and Wright, 2003). [Insert Table VIII around here] Page 16 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research 15 Data for the independent variable – SMMS – were provided by social media managers, whereas data for the dependent variables – social media strategy success and marketing performance – were provided by their supervisors. Thus, data for the independent and dependent variables were provided by different informants in order to reduce the possibility of commonmethod biases (Podsakoff et al., 2003). The correlations between the average SMMS score and the average score of social media strategy success was positive and significant (r = 0.43, p < 0.01), as were the correlations between the average SMMS score and the average scores of consumer-related marketing performance (r = 0.39, p < 0.01) and financial-related marketing performance (r = 0.28, p < 0.01). These results confirm strong relationships between the constructs and suggest criterion-related validity of the SMMS scale. However, to expand the study of the SMMS scale, we also analyzed the correlations between the average scores of the different dimensions of the SMMS scale and the outcome variables. The results inform the study that all dimensions of the SMMS were significantly and positively related to all outcome variables. Nevertheless, these relationships differ in their level of intensity, being marketing planning and formalization the dimensions with a greater effect on the outcome variables. Means, standard deviations and correlations appear in Table IX. [Insert Table IX around here] Next, to further provide evidence of criterion-related validity, SMMS was used as a predictor of these three outcomes (i.e., social media strategy success, consumer-related marketing performance and financial-related marketing performance) in a structural equation model using Stata 15.0 (Table X and Figure 2). We included social media investment, communication investment and firm size (all measured with data provided by supervisors) as control variables to isolate any potential systematic impact of these factors on the study variables, given their potential effect on these outcomes. Firms that have larger social media and communication budgets and size will have greater opportunities to finance social media marketing activities, such as social media advertising, develop their digital infrastructure and/or hire social media consultants, which could have a subsequent positive impact on social media strategy success and marketing performance. [Insert Table X around here] [Insert Figure 2 around here] The goodness-of-fit indices are indicative of a satisfactory fit of the model to the data. SMMS was significantly and positively related to social media strategy success [β = 0.28, p < 0.05, 95% CI (0.14, 0.41)] and consumer-related marketing performance [β = 0.40, p < 0.05, 95% CI (0.21, 0.58)], thus supporting H1 and H2, but SMMS was not significantly related to financialrelated marketing performance [β = 0.01, p > 0.05, 95% CI (–0.15, 0.17)]. However, strategy success has been associated with performance (Krush et al., 2015) and social media with market value (Kim et al., 2015); consumer metrics, such as loyalty and satisfaction, have also been shown Page 17 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research 16 to lead to financial ones, such as sales and profits (Lehmann and Reibstein, 2006; Otto et al., 2020). Consequently, the indirect effect of SMMS on financial-related marketing performance was then computed using bootstrapped 95 percent confidence intervals (derived from 5,000 replications) in line with Preacher et al. (2007). Results show that the indirect relationship via social media strategy success and consumer-related marketing performance was positive and significant [β = 0.02, p < 0.10, bias-corrected 95% CI (0.01, 0.06)], as well as the indirect relationship through consumer-related marketing performance [β = 0.04, p < 0.05, bias-corrected 95% CI (0.01, 0.09)], partially supporting H3. Thus, SMMS has significant criterion validity with respect to these outcomes. 4. Discussion The main purpose of this paper was to develop and validate a scale that uncovers firm SMMS that could potentially result in better firm outcomes. The findings demonstrate that SMMS consists of four dimensions: formalization, human resource management, co-creation, and marketing planning. The scale also exhibits acceptable validity and reliability. Additionally, the scale possesses predictive validity since it is positively correlated with key outcome indicators: social media strategy success, consumer-related marketing performance and financial-related marketing performance. 4.1 Theoretical implications This research responds to the need for a deeper understanding of the strategic use of social media (VanMeter et al., 2018), which will help practitioners act more effectively in this area, as well as to the call for validated scales specific to the social media domain (Dwivedi et al., 2021), which will help researchers test potential models on how a firm’s management of social media marketing impacts behavior. In current times, firms’ competitiveness necessitates that they incorporate a systemic approach to social media marketing management to give an effective response to consumer needs. A systemic approach to social media marketing management implies that a firm accepts that the comprehensive management of firm-consumer interactions achieves a superior result than that obtained when using interventions that are independent or inconsistent with each other. This agrees with firms’ ongoing interest in promoting integrated, systematic approaches in the search for operational excellence (Smith et al., 2009). To the best of our knowledge, this investigation constitutes the first empirical attempt to develop and validate a scale to measure interconnected social media management factors that contribute to firm outcomes. Utilizing a rigorous scale development process (Baldus et al., 2015; Hille et al., 2015; Walsh et al., 2016), this investigation builds on prior qualitative studies (e.g., Effing and Spil, 2016; Malthouse et al., 2013; Panagiotopoulos et al., 2015; Weinberg et al., 2013) which consider social media management to be a complex multidimensional endeavor. Page 18 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research 17 Given that a firm’s social media managers are in a privileged position to report upon the design and implementation of the firm’s social media management system, unlike many prior studies on social media that employ consumer data (see Busalim and Hussin, 2016, for a review), we use data provided by social media managers to validate the SMMS scale. Moreover, in line with DeVellis’s (2016) proposal that it is key in scale development to obtain the concept definition of the rater, this investigation also incorporated the opinions of practicing managers in the elaboration of the initial pool of items, and later in the pre-test of the scale. The SMMS scale extends the literature’s theoretical understanding of the key factors of social media management. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis results support a fourdimensional structure for the scale items. At a general level, this investigation suggests the need for firms, when approaching social media management, to tackle it from a systemic perspective and simultaneously consider it from a multidimensional perspective in order to adequately address the different aspects related to effective social media management. The findings show that a more developed SMMS is related to greater social media strategy success and consumer-related marketing performance, and through these outcomes to greater financial-related marketing performance. Firms are focusing their social media presence on the improvement of brand evaluations (Naylor et al., 2012) and the nurturing of closer connections with customers (Rapp et al., 2013). Since these outcomes are enclosed in the customer-related performance indicator, it seems reasonable that the successful management of social media marketing impacts financialrelated marketing performance via customer-related marketing performance. Finally, the results obtained in relation to the dimensions that make up the SMMS construct show that marketing planning and formalization are the dimensions that load most strongly, followed by human resource management and, lastly, co-creation. These findings exhibit the special relevance of an integrated, consistent and adapted presence on social media, as well as clear procedures and guidelines on the development of a firm’s social media presence, bringing clarity to its social media marketing management. Likewise, they facilitate a greater understanding of and better practice of social media marketing management by firms. 4.2 Managerial implications Managerially, this investigation has relevant implications for firms. First, the findings show that an SMMS positively correlates with key organizational performance indicators. Consequently, digital marketing courses could focus not only on the impact of different social media content or strategies on social media success, but also consider organizational factors. Universities and employment counseling agencies should consider the four dimensions of an SMMS when designing social media courses, emphasizing the relevance of marketing planning and formalization, as well as human resource management and customer co-creation. Second, managers can use the SMMS scale as a diagnostic tool. In this line, any firm can compare its social media marketing management system with the system defined in this work. By Page 19 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research 18 using the dimensions identified in the SMMS as a reference, it can assess whether its current management system is complete or should be modified to include dimensions not yet integrated within it. Likewise, those firms that are starting out in this environment and even those that are not yet present on social media can use this conceptualization of the SMMS to establish the guidelines and fundamental bases that will govern their social media marketing management model. Our findings confirm that to successfully engage in social media firms need to increase the availability of the appropriate procedures and guidelines, in addition to other regulations. 4.3 Limitations and future lines of research Despite the contributions made, this research is not without its limitations. The validation of the SMMS was carried out using firms from the tourism sector only. Even though it is one of the activity sectors in which social media has the most presence and relevance (Leung et al., 2013) – and even though only a few empirical investigations in the hospitality industry examine the impact of using social media on firm performance (Tajvidi and Karami, 2021) – focusing only on this sector limits the generalizability of the results obtained. Thus, a more comprehensive investigation into the SMMS is needed to evaluate how the four dimensions defined here (formalization, human resource management, co-creation, and marketing planning) play out across different contexts and sectors. Furthermore, this study employs individual SMMS perceptions at the social media manager level. This represents a positive development since most studies on social media have been carried out with consumer or general management data. Nevertheless, further research is needed using data in and across firm levels; for example, SMMS perceptions of middle or senior management may vary. The core objective of this study was to propose an acceptable scale for social media marketing management, not to develop a nomological network. Future investigations could employ this new scale as a basis on which to test a broader net of interrelations. Identifying the antecedents of an SMMS could help the literature understand why some firms show a more developed SMMS. Likewise, future studies should analyze through which processes the SMMS construct impacts social media strategy success and marketing performance. 5. Conclusion To understand the critical success practices that impact social media implementation, this paper defines an SMMS as an integrated configuration of practices designed by the company or organization to create value for its stakeholders and achieve desirable marketing outcomes through social media technology. Based on this conceptualization, it proposes a four-dimensional scale that correlates positively with social media strategy success, consumer-related marketing performance and financial-related marketing performance. In particular, the results show that marketing planning and formalization are the most important dimensions, followed by human resource management and co-creation. 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Understanding the functional building blocks of social media”, Business Horizons, Vol. 54 No. 3, pp. 241-251. Killian, G. and McManus, K. (2015), “A marketing communications approach for the digital era: Managerial guidelines for social media integration”, Business Horizons, Vol. 58 No. 5, pp. 539-549. Kim, S., Koh, Y., Cha, J. and Lee, S. (2015), “Effects of social media on firm value for U.S. restaurant companies”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 49, pp. 40-46. Page 25 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research Table I. Social media marketing and social media marketing strategy definitions Social media marketing Felix et al. (2017, p. 123) An interdisciplinary and cross-functional concept that uses social media (often in combination with other communications channels) to achieve organizational goals by creating value for stakeholders. Yadav and Rahman (2017, p. 1296) A process by which companies create, communicate, and deliver online marketing offerings via social media platforms to build and maintain stakeholder relationships that enhance stakeholders’ value by facilitating interaction, information sharing, offering personalized purchase recommendations, and word of mouth creation among stakeholders about existing and trending products and services. Tuten and Solomon (2017, p. 18) The utilization of social media technologies, channels, and software to create, communicate, deliver, and exchange offerings that have value for an organization’s stakeholders Social media marketing strategy Ananda et al. (2016, p. 173) The integrated means and set of actions by which a company or organization expects to achieve its marketing objectives and meet the requirements of its target market through the use of social media tools. Effing and Spil (2016, p. 2) A goal-directed planning process for creating user generated content, driven by a group of internet applications, to create a unique and valuable competitive position. Li et al. (2021, p. 54) An organization’s integrated pattern of activities that, based on a careful assessment of customers’ motivations for brand-related social media use and the undertaking of deliberate engagement initiatives, transform social media connectedness (networks) and interactions (influences) into valuable strategic means to achieve desirable marketing outcomes Page 32 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research Table II. Literature review summary Study Group Approach Methodology Outcome Kietzmann et al. (2011) Theoretical Not specified Based on bloggers ideas Theoretical framework Malthouse et al. (2013) Theoretical Not specified Literature review Theoretical framework Weinberg et al . (2013) Qualitative – social media management Community approach (Tönnies, 1887) Case study. 1 organization Theoretical framework Killian and McManus (2015) Qualitative – strategic marketing planning Not specified In-depth interviews. 7 senior managers responsible for the digital strategy of brands and agency managers responsible for the digital strategy of a firm Theoretical framework Panagiotopoulos et al. (2015) Qualitative – social media marketing management Responsiveness approach (Meehan and Dawson, 2002) Case study. 5 organizations Theoretical framework Ananda et al . (2016) Theoretical Marketing organization theory (Hult, 2011) Literature review Theoretical framework Choi and Thoeni (2016) Qualitative – social media marketing management Organizational process approach In-depth interviews. 17 managers, executives or owners of 14 organizations Theoretical framework Effing and Spil (2016) Qualitative – social media marketing management Stages-of-growth approach Case study. 9 organizations Stage of evolution Chung et al. (2017) Quantitative Stages-of-growth approach Survey. 52 managers (mainly upper management not directly involved in social media implementation) Stage of evolution Felix et al. (2017) Qualitative – social media management Discovery-oriented, theories-in-use approach Qualitative survey. 50 social media marketing experts Theoretical framework Valos et al. (2017) Qualitative – social media marketing management Resource-based theory (Barney, 1991) Interviews. 20 senior executives. Qualitative survey. 20 new senior executives. Theoretical framework Parsons and LepkowskaWhite (2018) Theoretical Not specified Literature review Theoretical propositions Al-Essa and Yahia (2019) Qualitative – strategic marketing planning Not specified Qualitative questionnaire. 90 business personnel Theoretical framework Page 33 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research Tafesse and Wien (2018) Quantitative Not specified Survey. 141 marketing, brand, commercial, communication or information managers Social media performance, marketing performance Li et al. (2021) Theoretical Customer engagement theory (Harmeling et al., 2017) and stagesof-growth approach Conceptual paper Theoretical framework Marchand et al. (2021) Quantitative Resource-based theory (Barney, 1991) Survey. 165 brands and 198 social media, marketing or communication managers Social media performance Pour et al. (2021) Qualitative – social media marketing management Not specified Focus group. 9 social media marketing managers Theoretical framework Page 34 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research Table III. Common practices for a strategic implementation of social media marketing FORMALIZATION HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CO-CREATION MARKETING PLANNING Corporate regulations Interaction guidelines Human resource provision Training Recognition Promoting participation Using feedback Audience monitoring Communication consistency Platform adaptation Strategy alignment Set and monitor objectives Content planning Kietzmann et al. (2011) X X X X X X X Malthouse et al. (2013) X X X X X Weinberg et al. (2013) X X X X X X X Killian and McManus (2015) X X X X X X X Panagiotopoulos et al. (2015) X X X X X X X X X Ananda et al. (2016) X X X X X Choi and Thoeni (2016) X X X X X X Effing and Spil (2016) X X X X X X X X X X X Chung et al. (2017) X X X X Felix et al. (2017) X X X X Valos et al. (2017) X X X X X X X Parson and Lepkowska-White (2018) X X X X X X X Tafesse and Wien (2018) X X X X X Al-Essa and Yahia (2019) X X X X Li et al. (2021) X X X Marchand et al. (2021) X X X Pour et al. (2021) X X X X X X Page 35 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research Table IV. Dimensions and items of the SMMS scale Formalization FORM1There are written guidelines and protocols that regulate corporate communication on social media (e.g., employee’s code of conduct). FORM2The firm’s guidelines for interacting on social media indicate what content is appropriate. FORM3The firm’s guidelines for interacting on social media establish how to manage different situations (e.g., negative and positive comments). FORM4A formal description of the brand positioning is provided to employees empowered to act in social media to guide their communication. Human resource management RRHH1This firm assigns full time employees with professional experience to manage social media. RRHH2Employees receive specific training for the use of social media. RRHH3Social media managers receive training to have the skills and knowledge necessary to work on social media. RRHH4Social media managers are rewarded for successful interactions on social media. Co-creation COCRE1Consumers social media participation is encouraged to identify desirable currently unavailable characteristics for products/services. COCRE2The firm asks consumers through social media their opinions and feedback for the development of new products/services. COCRE3The firm allows consumers to get actively involved through social media in the development of communication campaigns (e.g., message design, ads choice, etc.). COCRE4The firm asks social media users to provide information about its new products/services to other potential consumers. COCRE5The firm uses communication among social media users as feedback to develop/improve its products/services. Marketing planning PLAN1Before committing to a social platform, this firm identifies in which social platforms its main audiences are. PLAN2Before committing to a social platform, the firm carefully analyzes the types of consumers and conversations held on said platform. PLAN3Before choosing a social platform, the firm considers the different characteristics, advantages, and limitations of the various platforms available. PLAN4The social media strategy is closely aligned with the firm’s marketing strategy. PLAN5The firm’s interaction with consumers through social media is consistent with that it has in other contact points (e.g., customer service). PLAN6Interactions through social media are consistent in content and tone of message (e.g., a tweet and a Facebook). PLAN7The firm’s presence in social media (e.g., content, design, communication style) is adapted to the different platforms. PLAN8The firm’s presence in social media is adapted to different access devices (e.g., smartphones). PLAN9The different motivations of the users of the various social platforms are considered when defining their presence in them. PLAN10In social media planning, concrete and measurable objectives are set. PLAN11Social media updates are carefully planned. PLAN12The firm periodically assesses whether its social media objectives have been reached. Page 36 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research Table V. Exploratory factor analysis of the SMMS scale: Rotated component matrix Component 1 2 3 4 FORM1 0.21 0.23 0.69 0.30 FORM2 0.34 0.12 0.83 0.17 FORM3 0.38 0.14 0.80 0.12 FORM4 0.45 0.24 0.58 0.27 RRHH1 0.54 0.01 0.08 0.45 RRHH2 0.22 0.17 0.16 0.84 RRHH3 0.18 0.21 0.18 0.82 RRHH4 0.22 0.17 0.28 0.63 COCRE1 0.36 0.69 0.12 0.04 COCRE2 0.21 0.74 0.12 0.26 COCRE3 0.04 0.82 0.13 0.08 COCRE4 0.07 0.76 0.17 0.09 COCRE5 0.38 0.69 0.04 0.26 PLAN1 0.75 0.16 0.23 0.13 PLAN2 0.81 0.15 0.23 0.19 PLAN3 0.80 0.18 0.12 0.15 PLAN4 0.77 0.03 0.16 0.16 PLAN5 0.66 0.33 0.13 0.17 PLAN6 0.64 0.16 0.26 0.11 PLAN7 0.66 0.11 0.16 0.14 PLAN8 0.62 0.29 0.23 0.06 PLAN9 0.64 0.44 0.15 0.09 PLAN10 0.65 0.23 0.35 0.29 PLAN11 0.78 0.12 0.26 0.23 PLAN12 0.68 0.17 0.41 0.21 Page 37 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research Table VI. Reliability and convergent validity of the SMMS scale Variables Standardized Lambda parameters Composite reliability AVE Cronbach’s Alpha Formalization 0.88 0.66 0.88 FORM1 FORM2 FORM3 FORM4 0.71* 0.90* 0.88* 0.74* Human resource management 0.81 0.53 0.79 RRHH1 RRHH2 RRHH3 RRHH4 0.51* 0.88* 0.84* 0.61* Co-creation 0.86 0.54 0.86 COCRE1 COCRE2 COCRE3 COCRE4 COCRE5 0.72* 0.78* 0.71* 0.67* 0.79* Marketing planning 0.94 0.59 0.94 PLAN1 PLAN2 PLAN3 PLAN4 PLAN5 PLAN6 PLAN7 PLAN8 PLAN9 PLAN10 PLAN11 PLAN12 0.79* 0.88* 0.83* 0.75* 0.72* 0.68* 0.65* 0.67* 0.71* 0.81* 0.85* 0.83* SMMS 0.85 0.60 0.95 Marketing planning Co-creation Formalization HR management 0.89* 0.67* 0.82* 0.69* * p < 0.05 NOTE: AVE: Average variance extracted. Page 38 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research Table VII. Discriminant validity of the SMMS scale AVE 1 2 3 4 1. Formalization 0.66 0.81 [0.460.70] [0.350.64] [0.640.83] 2. Human resource management 0.53 0.58 0.73 [0.400.66] [0.480.70] 3. Co-creation 0.54 0.49 0.53 0.74 [0.480.74] 4. Marketing planning 0.59 0.74 0.59 0.61 0.77 NOTE: AVE: Average variance extracted. Bolded diagonal elements are the square roots of AVE for the constructs. Values below the diagonal correspond to the correlations whereas values above the diagonal correspond to the confidence intervals. Page 39 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research Table VIII. Predictive validity of the SMMS scale: Dependent measures’ scales and properties Variables Standardized Lambda parameters Composite reliability AVE Cronbach’s Alpha Social media strategy success 0.96 0.86 0.96 In overall terms, the social media strategy has met or exceeded its target goals The results of the social media strategy have been satisfactory The social media strategy has succeeded in achieving its main objectives We are pleased with the results of the social media strategy 0.88* 0.95* 0.94* 0.92* Consumer-related marketing performance 0.79 0.56 0.79 Consumer satisfaction Consumer loyalty Brand knowledge 0.82* 0.73* 0.69* Financial-related marketing performance 0.89 0.81 0.89 Sales Firm profitability 0.87* 0.93* * p < 0.05 NOTE: AVE: Average variance extracted. Page 40 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Internet Research Table IX: Predictive validity of the SMMS scale: Correlations, means and standard deviations SMMS Formalization Human resource management Cocreation Marketing planning Mean S.D. Social media strategy success 0.43** 0.41** 0.28** 0.26** 0.49** 5.26 1.36 Consumerrelated marketing performance 0.39** 0.35** 0.21** 0.30** 0.45** 5.54 .98 Financialrelated marketing performance 0.28** 0.23** 0.18* 0.23** 0.29** 5.29 1.14 Mean 4.70 4.63 3.97 4.80 5.40 S.D. 1.26 1.68 1.69 1.44 1.31 * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01. Page 41 of 44 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/intr Internet Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60