University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh UNIVERSITY OF GHANA LEGON ADOPTION AND USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MANUFACTURING FIRMS – SOME EVIDENCE FROM KASAPREKO COMPANY LIMITED AND GUINNESS GHANA BREWERIES LIMITED BY YAA AMPONSAH-TWUMASI (10511390) THIS THESIS IS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE REQUIREMENT OF THE AWARD OF MPHIL MARKETING DEGREE JUNE 2016 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh DECLARATION I do hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own original work. No part of it has been presented for another degree in this university or elsewhere or previously published or written by others except where due reference has been made. .................................................... ................................. YAA AMPONSAH-TWUMASI Date (10511390) i University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that this thesis was supervised in accordance with the laid down procedures of the University of Ghana. ………………………………… ………………………………… DR. KWAME ADOM Date (PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR) …………………………………. ……………………………………. PROF. ROBERT E. HINSON Date (CO - SUPERVISOR) ii University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh DEDICATION This work is dedicated to JEHOVAH the Almighty in whom I have put my trust, to my beloved late father Mr. Yaw Twumasi Amponsah Newman, may his soul rest in perfect peace, and my mother Mrs Esther Owusu Aduemi. iii University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge the support of all individuals and personalities who have contributed in one way or another to the successful completion of this thesis. In this vein I wish to express my utmost gratitude to my principal supervisor, Dr. Kwame Adom, I say thank you and God richly bless you for the understanding and patience you had for me throughout this work: and to my co-supervisor, Professor Robert Ebo Hinson, I say God bless you. I am also indebted to all staff and faculty of the department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship especially Professor Bedman Narteh for the encouragement and belief you had in me – Prof, I say thank you very much and God bless you. To my coordinator and colleagues of the Marketing and Communication Unit (Marcoms) and my good friend and sister Melony Naa Ankamafio, you have been very supportive thank you. In addition, my heart is full of gratitude to Dr. Justice Owusu Bempah and Dr. Ralph Odoom for painstakingly reading through my research work and for their individual contributions, which form the foundation blocks of this work. Last, but not the least, to you Mr. Akwasi Amoako Acheampong for encouraging me to do this course and raising my hopes whenever I felt like quitting - thank you so much. iv University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS PAGE DECLARATION .................................................................................................................. i CERTIFICATION ............................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. ix LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................. x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. xi ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... xii CHAPTER ONE .................................................................................................................. 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1 1.0 Background ................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Research Problem ...................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Research Objectives ................................................................................................... 7 1.3 Research Questions .................................................................................................... 7 1.4 Significance of the Research ...................................................................................... 8 1.5 Scope of the Study ..................................................................................................... 8 1.6 Organisation of Chapters ........................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................................... 10 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................. 10 2.0 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 10 2.1 The Concept and Definition of Social Media .......................................................... 10 2.2 Evolution of Social Media ....................................................................................... 17 2.3 Motivation of Social Media Marketing.................................................................... 19 2.3.1 Motivational Factors ............................................................................................. 21 v University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 2.4 Social Media Adoption ............................................................................................ 24 2.4.1 Compatibility ........................................................................................................ 28 2.4.2 Cost Effectiveness ................................................................................................. 29 2.4.3 Trust ...................................................................................................................... 30 2.4.4 Interactivity ........................................................................................................... 31 2.5 Social Media Usage ................................................................................................. 31 2.5.1 Work Behaviour .................................................................................................... 34 2.5.2 Metaknowledge ..................................................................................................... 35 2.5.3 Organisational Activity Streams ........................................................................... 35 2.6 Benefits and Performance of Social Media ............................................................. 37 2.7 Conceptual Frame Work of the Study ..................................................................... 41 2.8 Chapter Summary .................................................................................................... 42 CHAPTER THREE ........................................................................................................... 43 CONTEXT OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................ 43 3.0 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 43 3.1 Brief Overview of the Ghanaian Industrial Sector .................................................. 43 3.2 Overview of the Ghanaian Manufacturing Industry ................................................ 47 3.3 Background of the Study Organisations .................................................................. 50 3.3.1 Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited ..................................................................... 50 3.3.2 Kasapreko Company Limited ............................................................................... 51 CHAPTER FOUR .............................................................................................................. 53 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................ 53 4.0 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 53 4.1 Overview of Methodology ....................................................................................... 53 4.2 Research Purpose ..................................................................................................... 54 4.2.1 Exploratory Studies ............................................................................................... 54 4.3 Research Design or Strategy .................................................................................... 55 vi University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 4.3.1 Case Study Design/Strategy .................................................................................. 55 4.4 Research Approach .................................................................................................. 56 4.4.1 Qualitative Research Approach versus Quantitative Research Approach ............ 57 4.4.2 Research Approach for the Study ...................................................................... 58 4.5 Data Collection ........................................................................................................ 59 4.5.1 Data Collection Tool for the Study ....................................................................... 60 4.6 Sample Technique .................................................................................................... 60 4.6.1 Purposive Sampling ........................................................................................... 61 4.6.2 Sample Size ....................................................................................................... 61 4.6.3 Determination of Sample Size ........................................................................... 61 4.6.4 Pre-Test .............................................................................................................. 62 4.7 Interviews ................................................................................................................. 62 4.7.1 Structured Interviews ................................................................................... 62 4.7.2 Semi-Structured Interviews ......................................................................... 63 4.7.3 Unstructured or In-Depth Interviews .................................................................... 63 4.8 Data Analysis Techniques ................................................................................... 63 4.9 Ethical Consideration ............................................................................................... 64 4.10 Research Limitations and Practical Challenges ..................................................... 65 4.11 Chapter Summary .................................................................................................. 65 CHAPTER FIVE ............................................................................................................... 67 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS OF FINDINGS ............................................................ 67 5.0 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 67 5.1 Presentation of Findings .......................................................................................... 67 5.1.1 Antecedents Underlying Social Media Usage ...................................................... 67 5.2 Marketing Communication Programme via Social Media ...................................... 71 5.3 Benefits Derived From Social Media Platforms ...................................................... 76 5.4 Discussions of Findings ........................................................................................... 78 5.4.1 Antecedents Underlying the Adoption and Use of Social Media ......................... 78 5.4.1.1 Compatibility ..................................................................................................... 79 5.4.1.2 Cost Effectiveness .............................................................................................. 80 vii University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 5.4.1.3 Trust ................................................................................................................... 81 5.4.1.4 Interactivity ........................................................................................................ 82 5.5 Marketing Communications Programmes via Social Media ................................... 83 5.6 Benefit of Social Media to Firms ............................................................................. 85 5.7 Chapter Summary .................................................................................................... 87 CHAPTER SIX .................................................................................................................. 88 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................ 88 6.0 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 88 6.1 Summary of the Study ............................................................................................. 88 6.2 Major Findings ......................................................................................................... 89 6.3 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 91 6.4 Recommendations .................................................................................................... 91 6.4.1 Recommendations for Practice ............................................................................. 92 6.4.2 Recommendations for Future Research ................................................................ 93 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................. 94 APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................... 107 viii University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1:Industry and subsectors share of GDP, 2006–12 ............................................... 46 Table 3.2 :Share and growth rate in gross manufacturing output by ownership, 1962–67 48 Table 3.3: Relative contribution of subsectors to industrial GDP, 2006–10 (%) .............. 50 Table 5.1: Digital platforms used by organisations ........................................................... 67 Table 5.2: Reasons for choosing the digital platforms ...................................................... 68 Table 5.3: The most widely used platform and reasons for usage ..................................... 69 Table 5.4: Brand messages uploaded on platforms ........................................................... 71 Table 5.5: Number of times messages are updated ............................................................ 72 Table 5.6: Strategies for attracting people to digital platforms ......................................... 73 Table 5.7: Incorporating feedbacks into messages ............................................................ 75 Table 5.8: Impact or benefits of digital platforms ............................................................. 76 ix University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh LIST OF FIGURES Fig 2. 1: Conceptual Framework Conceptual Framework for adoption and use of social media ................................................................................................................. 42 x University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ABC Achimota Brewery Company Limited ABL Ghana Breweries Limited CMC Computer Mediated Communication CPP Convention People’s Party DOI Diffusion of Innovation ERP Economic Recovery Programme Fb Facebook GDP Gross Domestic Product GE General Electric GGBL Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited GGL Guinness Ghana Limited ISI Import Substitution Industrialization KCL Kasapreko Company Limited MMS Multimedia Message Service P&G Procter and Gamble RFID Radio Frequency Identification ROI Return on Investment SAP Structural Adjustment Programme SM Social Media SNOT Sustaining Knowledge over Time SNS Social Networking Sites SOE State Own Enterprise SOEs State Owned Enterprises SMM Social Media Marketing UGC User Generated Content www World Wide Web TOE: Technology Organisation Environment Framework DOI: Rogers Diffusion of Innovation theory xi University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh ABSTRACT Social media provides a virtual network place where individual and organisations are able to enjoy and express their opinions, exchange opinions, distribute and control messages anywhere anytime. The use of SM has aided an exceptional growth in the way people interact with each other and do business. Unlike the traditional advertising tools of marketing communications, SM platforms, allow consumers to make inputs into the brand messages displayed by various companies, making SM a more reliable source of information. The main aim of this study was to assess the promotional strategies that Kasapreko Company Limited and Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited adopt for harnessing user-generated content on their digital platforms. Data was collected using an interview guide, two representatives from Kasapreko Company Limited and Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited were interviewed face-to-face, and their responses audio recorded. The responses were manually transcribe, coded and put into themes. Facebook pages of the two industries were visited and specific promotional messages extracted. The study revealed that, organisations use promotions and sponsorships as a way of attracting both individual and other organisations to their SM platforms. Although the organisations sees SM as a means of reaching their customers in the shortest possible time and helping customers to become aware of existing and new products, yet both organisation were not able to specifically quantify the revenue generated so far as the use of SM is concern. The study concluded that, although the real benefits derived from social media could not be quantified by the organisations, it is still worth staying on the digital platforms. The study recommended that, management of the study organisations find ways to strategically quantify the real benefits derive from social media to justify their continual presence. xii University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.0 Background It is true that in recent years the Internet and virtual communities have changed consumers, societies, and corporations with wide spread contact to information, better social networking and an improved communication capabilities. It is also true that the Internet is now one of the most important communication channels in the world. The growth in internet usage is now motivating some changes in the consumer and corporate purchasing process (Casalo, Flavian & Guinahu, 2007 cited Pookulangara & Koesler, 2011; Kucuk & Krishnamurthy, 2007). As a result, many firms are moving from the use of traditional communication channels to social networking sites (SNS) such as social media (SM) (Berthon, Pitt, Plangger, & Shapiro, 2012; Bruhn, Schoenmueller, & Schäfer, 2012). SM now provides a virtual network place where individuals and organisations are able to enjoy and express their opinions, exchange opinions, distribute and control messages st anywhere anytime (Chung & Austria, 2010). It is now the modus operandi of the 21 century, as the use of SM applications have aided an exceptional growth in the way people interact with each other. Even the way people live and do business is already being redefine by social media (Dumpe, 2015; Lange-Faria & Elliot, 2012). According to Smithee (2011), SM has changed marketing by influencing the way in which consumers share, evaluate and choose information; and with the advent of computer networks, traditional media have lost viewer relevance. Advertising and marketing source promotion are less relevant because of the rapid growth of online communication and multiple information sources. SM has become a developing phenomenon in marketing and 1 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh it is now easy for marketers to reach their consumers and relate with them using social media (Akar & Topçu, 2011; Chung & Austria, 2010). For this reason, marketers have established the fact that the use of SM is now a part of their marketing strategies and campaigns to reach out to customers. Consumers are very important in the sustenance of every business therefore organisations need to be careful in dealing with their consumers; and must do everything possible to attract and retain consumers. Kotler and Keller (2012), in discussing consumers, mentioned that organisations need to develop a product that will attract and always be in the minds of their consumers. Organisations therefore need to market their products and/or services in a way that can influence the choice of consumers. Sawchuk (2011) suggests that organisations needs to listen to their consumers because what they say is very important; and if the voice of the consumer is heard clearly it can lead to a higher degree of productivity. He continues to say that listening to the consumer can be very expensive therefore marketers need not only listen to consumers but rather have to first find them. Consumers can only be found where they meet and honestly express how they feel about a product or service. SM has made it a bit easier to listen and find consumers on social networking sites like Facebook (fb), Twitter, and LinkedIn etc. Consumers tend to trust more user-generated messages, such as peer recommendations or consumer reviews on social media, rather than messages from traditional mass media (Smithee, 2011). Marketing theory states that organisations/marketers needs to entirely understand the needs of their consumers before any target regarding sales or customer satisfaction can be met. When consumers are well understood by organisations/marketers their needs will be fully provided, and the consumer will then be satisfied with a product or service. This will then 2 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh lead to engagement of a product or service, then both loyalty and word of mouth factors will play a role, thus providing repeat purchases and increasing market share (Sashi, 2012). According to Pookulangara, (2011); and Swedowskyi, (2009) consumers are increasingly utilizing technology, especially the Internet, making it one of the most important forms of marketing communication tools for organisations, which allow consumers to search for what they need. Therefore organisations needs to invest so much in the development and expansion of their marketing communications especially social media to attract their target customers. Social media give consumers an opportunity to have conversations with thousands of other consumers around the world. It allows marketers to stimulate conversations about their products and encourage users to adopt a more routine approach by encouraging them to embed brand-related activities into their engagements with the various social media platforms and to observe, analyse and direct those conversations in real-time (Mangold & Faulds, 2009; Nicholls, 2012). Berthon et al., (2012); and Bruhn et al., (2012) stated, SM platforms unlike the traditional advertising tools of marketing communications, allow consumers to make inputs into the brand messages displayed by various companies, making social media a more reliable source of information Social media platform now competes head to head with the traditional media such as television, radio, banners, billboards, and cinemas, which is giving way to these new approaches. The number of consumers on social media platforms who uses social media as a source of information about their favourite brands has increased so much that it leads to the assumption that social media, in addition to traditional marketing communication 3 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh tools, exercises an important impact on a brand’s success (Trusov, Bucklin, & Pauwels, 2009). Bruhn et al. (2012) argued that SM, which are social networks, are rapidly replacing traditional media, and the interest that is being shown about these new marketing opportunities seems unlimited. However, Keller (2009) is of the view that the distribution of information through social media has a greater ability to get to the public faster than “short tail” – media such as TV, radio, and print advertisements. For these reasons, consumers are moving from traditional media and using social media in search of information. Undoubtedly, this is where customers are meeting and businesses needs to be there as well. Social media has the ability to help companies get closer to customers and aid them to increase revenue, reduce costs and be more efficient (Heller, Baird, & Parasnis, 2011). Therefore, organisations needs to invest so much on social media platforms to promote their product/service and increase their market share. The investment in SM platforms was anticipated to rise to more than three billion dollars per year by 2013, as about 75 percent of internet users in the US used SM as a means of communication or in search of the things they want to buy (Kozinets, de Valck, Wojnicki, & Wilner, 2010; Miller, 2009). Recent research has shown that about 88 per cent of marketers are using social media as well as spending over $60 billion every year on social media advertising and contacting consumers via social media. This is making social media usage in manufacturing firms a very important tool of communication to both consumers and marketers (Berthon et al., 2012; Knoll, 2015). A growing body of academic literature on social media use in corporate context are of the view that social media platforms (such as blogs, online discussion forums, and online 4 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh communities) have an effect on marketing performance (e.g., sales), so it is vital to understand their relative importance and their interrelatedness (Stephen & Galak, 2010 cited in Akar & Topçu, 2011). Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited (GGBL) and Kasapreko Company Limited (KCL) who are producers of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, want to keep up with these ‘new forms of customer empowerment’ and need to understand and develop a good message that will help their brand relate and interact with their target consumers (Muntinga, Moorman, & Smit, 2011). 1.1 Research Problem There have been drastic changes in the way people communicate and interact over the past few years because of social media and other social networking. (Swedowskyi, 2009; Casalo et al., 2007). These elements have become core influential aspects of consumer behaviour including awareness, information acquisition, opinions, attitudes, purchase behaviour, and post-purchase communication and evaluation (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). These have brought about a fundamental change in the way marketers communicate with consumers (Kapferer, 2012; Keller, 2001; Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000) making it very difficult for manufacturing firms (e.g., alcoholic beverage producing companies) to reach out to their target consumers, as consumers are no longer stuck to the traditional media because of the changing marketing communications environment. Some studies on SM have focused on marketing communications as it plays a vital role in the fast growing marketing environment (Kotler & Keller, 2009; Pratap, Gupta, Mateen, & Mahto, 2016; Pendleton, 2004). As marketing communication plays a vital role in the growing of every business and there are so many of them, it is becoming very difficult for the two studying manufacturing firms (e.g., Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited [GGBL] 5 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh and Kasapreko Company Limited [KCL]) to find out the communication tools (SM) to influence the choice making of their target consumers. Regardless of the increased presence on the digital platforms, popular business reports and academic literature give marketing managers very few guidelines for incorporating social media into their Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) strategies. Because of the lack of guidelines in the literature, it is difficult for managers to appreciate the full role of social media in their company’s promotional efforts. Although social media is expanding the impact that consumer-to-consumer conversations partake in the marketplace, the methods used in determining those conversations have not yet been pronounced (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Despite the popularity of social networking sites, their significance and influence on commercial activates online are limited so far as consumers are concern (Christodoulides, 2009; Leyson, 2011; Mislove, Marcon, Gummadi, Druschel, & Bhattacharjee, 2007). Killian and McManus (2015) detect that, although social media is now the main source of communication between consumers and their preferred brands, very little academic research has been done to understand how social media is positioned within the existing marketing communications strategy of most firms. However manufacturing firms, especially those in the same business as the case study, who uses social media platform instead of tradition media to attract or harness user-generated content to their digital platforms have received little attention from academia. With the exception of a study conducted in Puerto Rico (Chester, Montgomery, & Dorfman, 2010). Although it is clear that, for better or for worse, social media is very powerful, many executives are reluctant or unable to develop strategies and allocate resources to engage effectively with social media (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, & Silvestre, 2011). This 6 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh study therefore, assesses, from a Ghanaian context, the core strategies that some manufacturing firms adopt for harnessing user-generated content on their digital platforms. 1.2 Research Objectives The main objective of this study is to assess the promotional strategies Kasapreko Company Limited and Guinness Ghana Breweries adopt for harnessing user-generated content on their digital platforms. Specifically, the study seeks to achieve the following objectives: 1. To understand the antecedents underlying social media usage by the selected manufacturing firms; 2. To determine the nature and kinds of marketing communication programmes that are deployed on social media by these selected manufacturing firms; and 3. To understand the benefits that are accrued to the selected manufacturing firms from their social media usage. 1.3 Research Questions The major question to be examined in this study is to “what motivates the manufacturing firms to go on social media platforms, their actual marketing activities, and the benefits/outcomes that they get from social media usage”. Based on the problems and gaps identified both in theory and in practise this research seeks to address these questions: 1. What are the types of social media platforms used by manufacturing firms? 2. How does the manufacturing firm harness user-generated contents on their digital platforms? 3. What benefit has the manufacturing firms had since the usage of their selected social media platform? 7 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 1.4 Significance of the Research This thesis contribute to the promotional strategies that the manufacturing firms in Ghana adopt for harnessing user-generated content on their digital platforms; what motivated these companies to go on social media; the kind (types) of marketing activities they use; and the benefits or outcomes they derive by going on social media. • Contribution to Literature Firstly, this study contributes to the existing literature on consumer behaviour and consumer choice making. The study adds alcoholic products marketing on SM platforms from the Ghanaian perspective. Most of the studies conducted on this subject concentrated on developed countries where access to the digital platform (Internet) is very easy and inexpensive (Carr, 2010). Secondly, the study could stimulate further interest in researching into the manufacturing firms marketing literature and the role social media plays for both organizations and consumers in this industry. • Industry/Policy Makers The use of the Internet and social media has become part of the daily lives of both individuals and industry (Chung & Austria, 2010). This study will expose the flow of information between the organisations and their digital platform users, and could be used as the basis for training of staff. It will aid organisations in formulating their internal policies in such a way so as to improve or enhance their interactions with their digital populace. 1.5 Scope of the Study This study was carried out at Kasapreko Company Limited and Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited, which are within the Accra Metropolitan area of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The researcher selected these two manufacturing firms as the case study because they are among the fastest growing firms in Ghana and are listed in the Ghana Club 100. 8 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh The Ghana Club 100 is an annual official listing of the top 100 companies in Ghana. In 1998, the Ghana Club 100 was commission by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) with the aim of recognising the top 100 companies in Ghana and to encourage competition and improvement of their products and services in the country. Various information, including the company’s financial statements, forms part of the selection process. In 2013, Kasaperko Company Limited was listed as the 6th (sixth) best company in Ghana and 37th position in 2014 while Guinness Ghana Breweries was listed as 92nd (www.estockanalysisblog.com). Finally, the researcher is familiar with the location of the two study organisations which helped her to gain access and information for the data collection. 1.6 Organisation of Chapters This study is divided into five chapters. The first chapter focuses on the introduction of the study, which looks into the research background/overview, research problem, research objective, research questions, scope of the study, significance of the research, and organisation of the chapters. Chapter Two deals with related literature on the subject area, and the theoretical framework of the study. Chapter Three looks at the overview of the industrial sector, the manufacturing subsector of Ghana, and the background of the study organisations. Chapter Four comprises the methodology to be used for the study, sample data collection and data analysis technique used. Chapter Five represents the data presentation, and discussion of findings. Finally, Chapter Six contains the summary of findings, conclusions and recommendations. This is followed by the references used and the interview guide as an appendix. 9 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction In view of the objectives and theoretical parameters outline in the previous chapter of the study, this chapter reviews related and contemporary literature on the concept and definition of social media and how it is different from traditional media; social media evolving; the types of social media tools; motivation; how manufacturing firms are accepting social media usage; and adoption, performance and benefits of social media. The chapter finally proposes a framework that discusses what motivates manufacturing firms to incorporate the features of the digital platforms into the firms’ interactive marketing strategies. 2.1 The Concept and Definition of Social Media The era of social media as we know it today started about 20 years ago when Bruce and Susan Abelson founded a networking site that brought together online diary writers into one community known as “Open Diary” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). However, some researchers are of the view that the term social media or the landscape of social media sites and services first came about in 1997. This was noted when AOL executive Ted Leonsis mentioned that organisations needed to make available for consumers “social media, places where they can be entertained, communicated to create profiles, list their friends, and add friends-of-friends to their own lists, and participate in a social environment” (Bercovici, 2010 cited in Treem & Lenard, 2012; Boyd & Ellison, 2008 cited in Kietzmann, Hermkens, MaCarthy & Silvestre, 2011). SM is not a new concept. Rather it has been evolving since the beginning of human interaction and it is a phenomena that has changed the interaction and communication of people throughout the world (Edosomwan, Prakasan, Kouame, Watson, & Seymour, 2011). 10 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh They further argued that in recent times, SM has impacted on many aspect of human communication, thereby impacting business and has become a daily practice in some users’ lives. They believe that the fastest way to grow any business is through social media and networking. Since the adoption of these technologies raised up, social media has quickly moved from the area of the tech-savvy to the mainstream. For these reasons most individuals and organisations search for products and information on SM sites as they perceive these sources to be more reliable and appropriate than the traditional marketing communications (Bruhn et al., 2012; Sinclaire & Vogus, 2011). Nielsen (2009) realized that most internet users believe the decisions of customers and their approval of products on social media platforms more than that of any other medium. A survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported that 61% of adults (18 years and older) have used SNSs and 32% have read a blog (Zickuhr, 2010; Shirky, 2008 cited in Treem & Leonardi, 2012). For companies, SM represents a marketing and promotion opportunity that goes beyond the average middleman and connects companies directly with clients. This is why almost every organisation on the planet - from giants like Starbucks, IBM to the local ice cream shop - are exploring social media promotion projects (Sajid, 2016). SM, according to Smithee (2011), has recently drawn the attention of both corporations and individuals therefore this subject needs considerable attention. When reviewing literature, it was found that there are different terms describing social media. This has led to different definitions and views of social media. The term SM was created from two areas of research, communication science and sociology. From the communication science background, they said social media is simply a means for interactive connections among customers and brands by sharing information 11 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh and experiences through the web. While social media, from the sociology point of view and in particular social (network) theory and analysis, is a social structure platform that is made up of a set of social performers (i.e., individuals, groups, or organisations) with a complex set of dynamic or binary relationships among them (Peters, Chen, Kaplan, Ognibeni, & Pauwels, 2013; Shojaee & Azman, 2013). SM from a marketing perspective, according to Marzouk (2015), is a technological component of communication, transaction and relationship that helps the building of business functions, which influences the network of customers and views to promote value co-creation. SM plays an important part of an organisation's media mix that changes the way customers and marketers interact, therefore providing new opportunities to reach out to potential customers (Borker, 2014; Lim, Al-Aali, Heinrichs, & John, 2013; Peters et al., 2013; Zhuang, Hsu, Brewer, & Xiao, 2012 cited in Marzouk, 2015). Chung and Austria (2010) further explained that social media provides marketers with an environment where they can have an interactive communication with their consumers and the opportunities to improve existing relationships. SM and social networking has really brought a fundamental change in the way people and marketers communicate and interact with consumers. It employs mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive popular meeting platforms where individuals and communities share information, feel free to communicate with others, co-create, share their views, discuss and gather information, modify user-generated content and then make a decision on what to buy and invite other users of the internet to like a particular product or service. Organisations are therefore able to track how consumers see and feel about their products, problems and the dissatisfaction of their customers (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000; Keller, 2001; Kozinets, 2002; Duan, Gu, & Whinston, 2008; Bercovici, 2010; Kietzmann et al., 2011; Kapferer, 2012). 12 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh The role of social media in marketing has brought about two important opportunities for all kinds of firms. First, firms are now able to have access to a vast range of social media tools that can be used for different marketing purposes. These include marketing communication; marketing intelligence; market research; product management; customer service; and word-of-mouth marketing (Akar & Topcu, 2011; Deans, 2011; Coleman Chandler, & Gu, 2013; Johnson, 2011; Michaelidou, Siamagka, & Christodoulides, 2011; Milewicz & Saxby, 2013 cited in Marzouk, 2015). Second, the use of social media by marketers started as it forms an integral part of their marketing strategies because SM has the power to help them achieve countless results on efficiencies, competitive position and customer value for minimal cost and in less time. (Shadkam & O’Hara, 2013; Schultz, Schwepker, & Good, 2012; Yu, Duan, & Cao, 2013). The emergence of SM has eased the interaction of people that share common interest in music, education, movies and so on and has affected how businesses conducted their transactions, advertisements and products (Edosomwan et al., 2011). However, Mangold, and Faulds (2009) argued that social media includes a wide range of online, word-of-mouth mediums including blogs, company-sponsored discussion boards and chat rooms, consumer-to-consumer e-mail, consumer product or service ratings websites and forums. SM also has the ability to allow consumers to get in touch with each other instantly and has reversed the traditional brand manager/consumer power relationship. (Christodoulides & Jevons, 2011; Christodoulides, 2009, cited in Patino, Pitta & Quinones, 2012). Of critical interest to marketing scholars and practitioners is the recent research that shows about 88 per cent of marketers use SM and collectively spend well over $60 billion every year on social media advertising and contacting consumers via social media. The use of social media is expected to show very high returns for marketers in the coming years. It is for these reasons that the 2013 Social Media Industry Report stated that about 86% of 13 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh marketers believe social media channels are important components of their marketing initiatives (Okazaki & Taylor, 2013; Stelzner, 2011; Whiting & Williams, 2013). Mangold and Faulds (2009) attested that, in conventional marketing, customers will tell or are able to tell seven to ten people about a product, but social media now gives the opportunity to customers to quickly spread the word to ten million people in just a short period. Kotler and Keller (2009) made it clear that modern marketing needs more than just developing a good product, pricing the product attractively or placing the product where customers will easily get access, but there should be proper communication between the company and its present and potential (stakeholders) customers as well as the general public. The exposure of SM in the general press today looks like we are in the midst of a completely new communication landscape (Kietzmann et al., 2011). “Social media’s effects are so far reaching that they represent a revolution in communication” (Patino et al., 2012 p. 234). SM is providing proper communication channels as high-speed Internet access points are growing. This has added to the popularity of the SM concept, which has led to the conception of other social networking sites such as Wikipedia, podcasts, blogs, bulletin board, MySpace (in 2003), Facebook (in 2004) and Friendster (Dwyer, 2007). SM, as define by Kaplan and Haenlein (2011), is "a group of internet-based applications that was built on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which permits the expansion and return of user-generated material". SM can also be “a group of internet- based applications that are built on the conceptual and technical foundations of Web 2.0, that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content” (Whiting & Williams, 2013; Knoll, 2015). They retreated that social media includes a number of online 14 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh information channels, which allows consumers to create, distributed and to educate one another on products, services, and brands that are available in the marketplace. However Sajid (2016) is of the view that social media is the customer’s engagement online and any website which permits consumers to share their views motivates contacts and group development, can be classified as a social media platform. He continue by saying the word ‘social media’ was derived from the term “Community Press” where “Community” infers to the relations within a team or group people and “Press” normally relates to marketing and communication of ideas via publications or channels. Social media is generally referred to by Lange-Faria and Elliot, (2012) as a web application that permits the user to post and share content and the user generated content (UGC). Where UGC is the means by which consumers communicate on social media and share ideas together. However, Mangold and Faulds (2009), discussing social media tools and user generated content, attested that blogs, micro blogs, videos and photos that users of social media share freely, are examples of the generated content. They also stated that mob logs are sites that contain digital audio, images, movies, and photographs; and there are a wide range of social networking websites with activities such as sponsored conversation by companies, word-of-mouth mediums that are part of blogs, and consumer-to-consumer chat and e-mail. Sajid (2016) sum up that social media is a specific method or device that is produced to help interpersonal communication and publication between people as well as a method to interact socially using highly available and accessible publishing methods and that some of the popular social media websites are Wikis, Blogs, Podcast, Facebook (fb), YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Hashtag, MySpace, Stumble Upon, Delicious, Scribed, Flickr etc. Nicholls (2012) and Casswell and Maxwell (2005) refer to these popular social media websites or communication outlets as social media tools. Kietzmann et al. (2011) and Kinsey (2010) are of the opinion that these social media sites or social media tools are 15 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh easier to use, readily available on the internet, free of charge, provide a rich and diverse ecology, and arenan interesting addition to the toolbox of dissemination strategies, which vary in terms of their scope and functionality. Kietzmann et al. (2011) argued that “today, the resulting ‘blogosphere’ have more than 100 million blogs and their interconnections have become an important source of public opinion”. Social media tools have changed the strategies companies use to interact, stating that information is now controlled by consumers. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) agreed by saying that companies go on social media to direct their links from the websites to social media using social media tools like Facebook (fb), YouTube, twitter etc. These social media tools are then used to promote brands and support creation of brand communities. They help in: 1. Shaping commercial activates online; 2. Support brands; 3. Contribute to brand objectives (B2B companies); 4. Communicate with consumers and suppliers to build relationships, trust and to identify prospective partners (Michaelidou et al., 2011). Social media is at present shaping the way people live and do business (Safko & Brake, 2009) and changing the marketing strategies that marketers use to influence the ways in which consumers share, evaluate and choose information (Smithee, 2011). According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), there seems to be confusion among academic researchers and managers as to exactly what should be included when it comes to the term social media and how it differ from the concept of Web 2.0 and User Generated Content as they are normally use interchangeable. However, Marzouk (2015) argued that social media is not here to replace telephones, e-mail communication, or even transactions. Instead, it is here to 16 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh complement them or boost the value of every interaction with the customer; and that all customers are these days “social customers.” 2.2 Evolution of Social Media Social media sites have evolved from the way people just meet and chat, making friends and dating to a worldwide communications tools that plays an essential role in business and economies (Calloway, & Reach, 2011). Apart from SM transforming the way in which society communicates it has also changed societal perceptions and norms, and consumers’ abilities to contact each other. Examples of SM’s ability to prompt actions are “flash-mob” events or even political demonstrations during the “Arab Spring” movement that have toppled government, and the YouTube video of Dave Carroll’s guitar which was broken during a United Airlines flight in 2008. United Airline refused to pay therefore Carroll recorded this video on YouTube portraying United Airline in a very unfavourable light. This has been viewed by over 9.5 million times showing the power of SM (Kietzmann et al., 2011; Patino et al., 2012). SM can make and unmake both individuals and organisations for this reason. BBC Business Editor Tim Weber (2010) cited in Kietzmann et al. (2011, p. 242) advised that “...these days, one tweet, one clever blog post: one devastating video – forwarded to hundreds of friends at a click of a mouse – can snowball and kill a product or damage a company’s share price”. Social media comprises of social and media components, which is characterized by contributing and sharing abilities for user-generated content, relationship building qualities, and is easy to access and flexible to use. The phrase “social media” became a household name at the beginning of the 21st century, when most of the table developed in its domain came with the advent of Wikipedia (Naim, 2014). Social media comprise both the conduits and the content disseminated through interactions between individuals and organisations (Kietzmann, et al. 2011). However, it is noted that SM is the creation of internet-based 17 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh applications and its concentration is on content, and consumer generation who’s technology was developed on the foundation of Web 2.0 (Berthon et al., 2012). This is not too far from how Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) defined the term social media. They said that it first requires one drawing a line between two related concepts that are frequently used together which is known as Web 2.0 and User Generated Content. Therefore, Web 2.0 could be referred to as the technical infrastructure that aids the social phenomenon of shared media that enables consumer-generated content which places the consumer, rather than the firm, on centre stage and does not put any restrictions on the consumer when it comes to designing and collaboration on the World Wide Web (www). It is undoubtedly useful to view Web 2.0 as a series of application advancements rather than seeing it as an entirely new thing, which has enabled the use of technology to quench the thirst of consumers for information (Berthon et al., 2012). Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), on the other hand, argued that the term Web 2.0 was first used in 2004 to describe a new way in which software developers and end-users were making use of the World Wide Web as a platform where content and applications were not just created by individual publishers, but were being improved upon by all users. However, Madden and Fox (2006) say that the term Web 2.0 was created in the year 2004 by Dale Dougherty and popularized by Tim O’Reilly in 2005, who then explained the term as a platform, which is, in a way, beyond the collection of web sites. The evolution of social media and social networking has seen interesting definitions and forms from researchers and academia; Web 2.0 is seen as the platform for the evolution of social media. According to Berthon et al. (2012), the Web 2.0 platform has been exploited by consumers because, instead of just retrieving information as was the case of World Wide Web, now consumers can create and consume information with these new phenomena 18 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh which provide users with a richer user friendly interfaces that encourages and facilitates sharing. Web 2.0 gave marketers, analysts and other stakeholders in the technical field the opportunity to huddle the new generation of internet applications and businesses that were emerging to form part of the social media platforms as we know today. 2.3 Motivation of Social Media Marketing The social media marketing concept (SSM) can be defined as the use of social media networks to promote a company and its products. SSM is a marketing process (Akar & Topçu, 2011) that gives individuals and organisations the opportunity to present their own Web sites, products or services via online social networks to enable them to communicate to a wider community and then listen to that community, which is not likely with traditional advertising channels. However, Gunelius (2011) cited in Marzouk, (2015) suggested that SSM is any form of direct or indirect marketing that can be used in building awareness, recognition, recall, and action for a brand, business, product, person, or other entity and is carried out by using the tools of the social Web, such as blogging, microblogging, social networking, and content sharing. The use of social media is predicted to show very high returns for marketers in the coming years (Okazaki & Taylor, 2013; Whiting & Williams, 2013). Marketing of this nature, according to Akar and Topçu (2011), can be classified as a sub- set of online marketing activities that aid traditional Web-based promotion strategies, such as online advertising campaigns and e-mail newsletters. They further discuss that social media sites are very useful when it comes to creating social networks and for exchanging thoughts and information on the internet. However, Sajid (2016), in discussing SSM, assert that SSM is significantly different from conventional or traditional promotion methods, and offers three different benefits. One, it offers marketers the opportunity to not only present 19 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh items or solutions to clients but also to pay attention to customers’ complaints and suggestions. Two, it allows marketers to identify various professional groups or influential people, who in turn can become spokespersons and help in new product development. Three, all this is done at nearly zero price (as compared to conventional or traditional client outreach programmes) as most of the social media websites are free. Such an example was a study conducted by Chester et al. (2010) on Heineken the leading beer company, when it decided in 2007 to create a marketing campaign that would “energize its brand among Puerto Rican youth”. Heineken realised that the few seconds TV ad and other forms of traditional media was not the most effective means of reaching its target audience. Instead, the company seized upon the architecture of the online world (social media) to build a powerful, interactive “virtual universe” named Heineken City. This “virtual city” was designed to mimic a “real world” luxury residential development. The price to acquire a piece of this property wasn’t cash but, attention, time, and engagement with the band. Points called “heikens” are earned by playing Heineken branded games on the site or on Facebook. Winners and users who sent weekly e-mails to the brand could win “VIP” status to attend parties and special events, free drinks and other paraphilia. The company boasted that the award winning campaign generated “10,000 loyal Heineken drinkers but most importantly 10,000 people sending and receiving e-mails with our brand each day”. Based on empirical research, Clark and Melancon (2013) established that the followers of social media marketing of a firm sees higher levels of quality relationship, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and are also able to share positive word-of-mouth with their social networks, than those who are not in their social network. Most firms are now using social media marketing as a new sales channel, which influences transactions, supports sales and even serves as a selling platform. Some experts term them 20 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh as ‘‘F-commerce’’ or social commerce (Shadkam & O’Hara, 2013; Yadav, De Valck, Hennig-Thurau, & Hoffman, 2013). Additionally, social media marketing uses social media sites in order to increase a firm’s prominence on the internet for the purpose of presenting its products and services and also as a strategic sales tool that influences sales performance. With social media, marketing is creating an important effect on the marketing strategies of companies. This type of marketing is increasingly expanding, and taking the place of older methods in some companies. For example, traditional marketing applications, such as direct and brand marketing are losing their significance (Marzouk, 2015). 2.3.1 Motivational Factors The importance of motivational factors differs between individuals; nonetheless, the understanding of these factors could be seen, to a certain degree, to be general. However, when introducing a new way or channel for knowledge sharing, can we assume that the general motivational factors prevail, especially, in a situation where one has to learn to use new technologies and ways of communicating. Consequently, there are several organisational and individual factors that can affect their implementation (Ardichvili, Page, & Wentling, 2003; Jeon, Kim, & Koh, 2011 as cited by Vuori & Okkonen, 2012). According to Ryan and Deci (2000), Lin’s (2007) motivational factors can be categorised into intrinsic and extrinsic; that is, those internal and those external to an individual. However, Ryan and Deci (2000) referred to intrinsic motivation as …Derived to do something that is self-rewarding and extrinsic motivation is a drive to do something for external sanction. In the case of extrinsic motivation, the issue is either to avoid negative sanction or to gain positive sanction. However, even if extrinsic motivation is more obvious, and easily comprehended, there are also some 21 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh underlying intrinsic factors as well, for example, someone wanting financial rewards for altruistic reasons. Frey (2002, p. 75), Lin (2007) and Walters (2000 referred to intrinsic motivation as: ….. Derived directly from the work itself, for example altruism as in feeling good about doing the work in the first place, regardless if there is no extra reward. Knowledge self-efficacy and enjoyment in helping others are also distinct motivational factors. Moreover, the main point on intrinsic motivation is to do something that externally may seem utterly pointless, but leads internally to fulfilment and is thus self-rewarding. Extrinsic motivation, according to Jeon et al. (2011), is influenced by the indirect or the instrumental needs which convey satisfaction independently of the outcome of the actual work done; for example, getting financial or social rewards. The drivers of extrinsic motivation, are self-promotion, expected reputational advantages, or other advances in social or organisational status (Frey, 2002; as cited by Vuori & Okkonen, 2012). On the other hand, Lin (2007) emphasises that the key bases of extrinsic motivation is expected organisational rewards and reciprocal benefits. When intrinsic motivation is compared to extrinsic motivation, it is realised that they are directly interconnected with sanction, thus it makes sense also externally. It is therefore debatable whether a motivational factor is intrinsic or extrinsic because some of their influential factors are overlapping, and it depends on the interpreter of internal or external. The key motivational factors that absolutely affect and enhance knowledge sharing are:  contributing to organisation’s success;  getting incentives and rewards;  feeling empowered; 22 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh  getting knowledge in return, i.e. reciprocity;  boosting own reputation;  adding value to knowledge; and  trusting that sharing is worthwhile. (Osterloh & Frey, 2000; Pirkkalainen & Pawlowski, 2014; Vuori & Okkonen, 2012). However, affordance play a vital role in motivation, that is, if a technology is affordable it can motivate it use. And social media platforms being affordable motivates its usage and eventually leads to knowledge sharing motivation. (Bower & Sturman, 2015; Hartson, 2003) According to Zeiller and Schauer (2011), the acceptance of the users is a critical indicator when considering how motivated people are when it comes to the use of any social software in their day-to-day work. They went further to say that, whether the changes are part of support activities or just an updates or even modifications of a particular software, its acceptance and use is not taken easily is like organisational changes. They argued that the system being introduced could be accepted right from the onset, not accepted at all, or accepted only after consideration has been undertaken. Other indicators of motivation for users is by using the application frequently; that the system is simply and easy to use; it is necessary and crucial to fulfil ones duties; or the social software has come to replace another system and that the previous system is no longer available. Firms are motivated to use SM because it helps communications to spread faster and with a wider reach. Social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp just to mention a few) is cheaper and easier to use than traditional mass media; social media channels also support a many-to-many distribution mechanism (Storey, Singer, Cleary, Figueira Filho, & Zagalsky, 2014). That is to say, there are fewer barriers so far as participation is concern, and simply interacting with the media is an implicit form of participation (e.g., clicking on 23 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh a link reinforces the value of that link). Sajid (2016) also sees social media websites as almost free compared to conventional client outreach programmes or conventional promotion methods. SM increases transparency, it is able to support itself in terms of participation and bring with it new forms of value. Social media is recognized as a very important force in many fields and has been increasingly adopted in corporate settings and bring about a sharing culture (Archambault, & Grudin, 2012; Jenkins, Clinton, Purushotma, Robinson, & Weigel, 2012 as cited in Storey et al., 2014). 2.4 Social Media Adoption The recent widespread adoption of social media, although seen by many as a major change in human culture, is viewed differently by Standage (2013) as cited in Storey et al. (2014). Standage (2013) speculates that SM is a repossession of the previous two-way horizontal models of communication that depend on social networks rather than the one-way vertical communication that is typical of mass media. However, managers of organisations believe that these new social media tools are helping to improve very important organisational processes and therefore should be adopted (Treem & Leonardi, 2012). SM plays a vital role so far as organisational communication processes is concern, it Help Bridge the gap between organisations, employees and customers. However Leonardi (2009) argued that, so far as organisations are concern, the type of social media tool the organisation uses does not depend on the social media tools’ compatible with the organisational context in which it is embedded, but rather focuses on people’s attention on what the technology itself does or does not do. Kietzmann et al. (2011) are of the view that social media consists of people who are connected by a shared object (e.g., a group on, text, video, picture, sound, link, location). Sharing alone is a way of interacting in social media, but whether sharing leads to users wanting to converse or even build a relationship with each other depends on the functional 24 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh objective of the social media platform. For the successful adoption of any SM, the role of the chief executive and of the marketing/sales department within the organisation that will house the social media function, is to make sure that they sufficiently include members of every department in the firm from the beginning; and to also ensure that the exact communicate being developed (and why) should be the same throughout the organisation (Andzulis, Panagopoulos, & Rapp, 2012). They continue by saying that when employees realise that their positions are not at risk and social media is the key strategy that can move the organisation forward, and that teamwork inside and outside the company will be necessary, then they will come to better understand and appreciate the flexibility and benefits that social media can bring to the firm. Employees must not be pushed to accept the changes but rather be provided with the information and made to feel like a valued part of the process so that they can come to accept and respect it on their own terms. However, Hoffman and Fodor (2010) argued that the next phase in social media implementation is to regulate how the firm will outline success for its social media efforts. This requires measurement, but measurement of what exactly? They further explain that it depends on the types of social media tool adopted by the firm which will determine the different matrix and tools used to measure the impact. Not forgetting that social media is about engagement and collaboration, most practitioners agree that traditional metrics needs to be redefined. To further explain the organisational strategy and adoption of technological usage in organisations, Wang, Wang, and Yang (2010) used the technology organisation environment (TOE) framework which was proposed by Tornatzky and Fleischer (1990) that explains the adoption of technological innovations (Tornatzky, Fleischer & Chakrabarti, 1990). They argued that the decision to adopt a technological innovation should be based on factors that influence the organisation and its environment, as well as 25 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh the characteristics of the technology itself. This framework envisages the background for adoption and implementation of technological innovations which are: (1) technological context; (2) organisational context; and (3) environmental context. They continue to argue that the technological context of the framework denotes the applicable technologies that the firm uses. This includes the firms existing technologies, and the emerging technologies relevant to the firm. Other characteristics of the technology can also influence its adoption. The organisational context defines the characteristics of an organisation, which are the size firm; degree of centralisation; formalisation; the managerial structure of the firm; the quality of its human resources; and the amount of internal resources available. These characteristics of an organisation can restrain or aid the adoption and implementation of technological innovations. Whereas the environmental context is the playing field where the organisation conducts its business, it includes how the firm deals with its business partners, competitors, and government. This external factor determines the threats and opportunities for organisational technological innovations. Although the technology organisation environment (TOE) framework provides a decent starting point when studying and considering the right factors for understanding the innovation-adoption decision, it also has many consistent empirical support. This framework has some weaknesses as well. It does not clearly point out what the major constructs in the framework are and the variables in each context, and does not specify the specific factors identified within the three contexts (technological, organisational and environmental) that may vary across different studies (Wang et al., 2010). To understand how organisations adopt technology such as SM and social networking, the word adoption needs to be well understood. The Rogers (1983) theory of innovation diffusion, which is one of the most commonly applied theories in the prediction of organisational level technology adoption, further explains adoption. Rogers’ Diffusion of 26 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Innovation (DOI) theory states that DOI plays an important role in increasing adoption intention and actual adoption of a technology. However, innovation includes change, either in the media we use or the means by which we involve a traditional process. The theory also involves interactivity, cost effectiveness and trust in social media (Ainin, Parveen, Moghavvemi, Jaafar, & Mohd Shuib, 2015; Wang et al., 2010). Rogers’s DOI theory identified five technological characteristics as the background to any adoption decision: relative advantage; compatibility; complexity; trial ability; and observability. Rogers’ theory of innovation diffusion is consistent with the TOE framework by Tornatzky, Fleischer & Chakrabarti (1990). Many researches have advocated that social media strategies and approaches differ among firms or industry groups. Therefore, several firms and industries adopt a strategic approach to the use of social media in their marketing practices with a tough objective toward developing very strong product groups from its current or potential customers and to link a consistent message across all their social media platforms. Other firms and industries use the tactical approach by situation advertisements or promotion campaigns on different social media platforms without any contact with their communities (Järvinen, Tollinen, Karjaluoto, & Jayawardhena, 2012; Jussila, Kärkkäinen, & Aramo-Immonen, 2014; Sinclaire & Vogus, 2011). There are many factors that influence the choice of social media tools therefore firms and industries should be very particular when it comes to the adoption of any social media tool. In support, Wang et al. (2010) stated that a number of studies showed that factors such as compatibility (does the selected social media tool selected conform with the existing practice of the firm?); cost effectiveness (meaning the cost involved or how much the selected social media tool is going to cost) (Chong & Chan, 2012); trust (Chai et al., 2011); and interactivity (is the selected social media tool easy to communicate with by users:) (Lee & Kozar, 2012) influence social media adoption (Ainin et al., 2015). However, Alkhoms 27 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh and Alnsour (2013) mention that there are three factors of social media that can have an influence on a customer’s relationship quality: (1) trust, which tells the customers' willingness to rely on the firm fan pages; (2) satisfaction, which results from utilizing services that are provided by the firm fan page; and (3) commitment, which indicates continuity of the relationship with the firm on its fan page. However, Zeiller and Schauer (2011) indicated that firms will only use social media if its applications provide a significant amount of relevant and high-quality up-to-date content. Other factors that can significantly impact the influence of SM (e.g., twitter) adoption includes the firm’s innovativeness, age and geographic location. A study on some SMEs’ managers in the USA, the UK, Australia and India gave these indications (Wamba & Carter, 2014). However, some researchers in their studies highlighted that the importance of cost in the adoption and utilization of the technology is also a factor that influence adoption and that there is a direct and significant relationship between cost and adoption of technology (Alam & Noor, 2009; Ernst & Young, 2001 as cited in Ainin et al., 2015). Other studies have found cost effectiveness to be an important variable in the adoption of new technologies (Chong & Chan, 2012; Premkumar & Roberts, 1999 as cited in Ainin et al., 2015). The success of SM adoption, according to Andzulis et al. (2012), will vary by industry, company, and customer; but goodwill, brand equity, and trust are the types of intangibles that will likely keep a customer from becoming another firm’s prospect. 2.4.1 Compatibility Compatibility, according to Wang et al. (2010), is the actual point at which an innovation is said to be consistent with the needs or the existing practices of the potential adopters. Therefore, compatibility may be an important determinant of Radio Frequency Identification RFID adoption. On the other hand, compatibility is referred to as the degree 28 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh to which innovation fits with the potential adopter’s current values, previous practices and current needs and has been considered as an important factor for innovation adoption based on the DOI theory (Wang et al., 2010; Rogers, 1983). According to Ainin et al. (2015), technology is said to be compatible when it is compatible with work application systems; that is when firms are likely to consider the adoption of this new technology. Numerous researchers have studied the influence of compatibility on technology adoption, and found both positive and negative results. A study by Brown and Russell (2007) underlined the effect of compatibility on the adoption of radio frequency identification technology in the South African retail sector and argued that for the RFID adoption and implementation to be successful, it is necessary that organisations develop a flexible IT infrastructure that will be able to accommodate RFID systems. Various studies on the adoption of SNS and SM tools show that compatibility is a very significate factor. For example, Hsu, Lu, and Hsu (2007) found the significant effect of compatibility in Multimedia Message Service (MMS) adoption which indicated that MMS user will adopt MMS if only they feel that using MMS is compatible with their values and beliefs. However, Wang et al. (2010) studied the influence of compatibility and found that it is also a significant factor in the adoption of SNS and SM tools, whereas other studies found that compatibility is not always significant when it comes to SNS and SM tools adoption. Example of such studies are those conducted by Low, Chen, and Wu (2011) and Ramdani, Kawalek, and Lorenzo (2009) on the adoption of cloud computing. The study found out that compatibility is an insignificant factor in the adoption of enterprise systems and cloud computing. 2.4.2 Cost Effectiveness Cost is said to be an integral part of adoption, with most research emphasising on the importance of cost in the adoption and utilization of technology. A direct and significant 29 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh relationship has been found to exist between cost and adoption of technology (Alam & Noor, 2009). Cost effectiveness has been proven by different studies to be an important variable in the adoption of new technologies (Chong & Chan, 2012; Premkumar & Roberts, 1999). SM, according to Derham, Cragg, and Morrish (2011), is suitable for SMEs (firms) because users do not require any high IT skills before using, cost of operating is low, and barriers of entry or participation are also low. However, if the initial set-up cost to adopt ICT/SM is high, SMEs/firms are less likely to use them (Dixon, Thompson, McAllister, & Britain, 2002). A study conducted by Alam, (2009) on SMEs in Malaysia confirmed that the cost of adoption has a significant effect on internet adoption among SMEs. In contrast, Sin Tan, Choy Chong, Lin, and Cyril Eze, (2009) established that cost had no significant effect with the ICT/SM adoption. Additionally, a study by Alam and Noor, (2009) alleged that costs have no direct impact on ICT/SM adoption. However, Kaplan and Haenlein, (2010) reached the conclusion that, as social media is a cost effective technology and organisations are able to have direct communication with their customers at moderately low costs, it is most likely for an organisation to use. 2.4.3 Trust Trust is a multidimensional construct and there are different types of trust according to Ainin et al. (2015). In their study, Ainin et al. (2015) cited Mcknight, Cummings, and Chervany (1998) to have described two types of institution-based trust, namely, situational normality and structural assurance. Situational normality refers to the belief that success is expected because the situation is normal; while the structural assurances refer to the belief that positive outcomes are likely because of contextual structures such as contracts, regulations and guarantees. On the other hand, Sajid (2016) suggested that trust and goodwill are the basis of social media, therefore these fundamental notions of social media promotion need to be followed. This is because trust and goodwill are perhaps the only 30 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh promotional system that motivates certified interaction and accountability among sellers as well as customers. The rate at which social media is developing is amazing and the speed at which it is improving is unthinkable. 2.4.4 Interactivity Interactivity stands out among the various design characteristics as a main and distinguished factor that influences users’ response to new technologies including web sites. Different studies have shown that the design and implementation of any information system considers the successful interaction between human and technology as a key factor (Agarwal & Venkatesh, 2002; Jiang & Benbasat, 2007; Lee & Kozar, 2012). Social media like Facebook or any other SM tool is considered as an interactive media. It enables two- way communication rather than one-directional transmissions or distributions of information to an audience (Mayfield, 2008). However, Handayani and Lisdianingrum (2011) in their study of adoption and use of Fb in two Indonesian SMEs found that Fb can be used as an effective free online marketing tool if it can be well managed. Therefore, considering the interactive nature of Facebook, the interactivity construct might have a strong influence on Facebook usage. 2.5 Social Media Usage The use of social media applications or tools such as Facebook, twitter, YouTube, blogs, wikis and other social networking sites in organisations is known as internal social media and is said to be one of the most common practices in the workplace today. It has improved communication and teamwork among employees, and because of this companies have started the setting up of SM based networks with their business partners to enable them to engage in public social media for purposes of marketing, customer relationship and reputation management, recruitment, and product/service innovation (Ainin et al., 2015; Bughin, Byers, & Chui, 2011; Parveen, 2012; Treem & Leonardi, 2012). According to 31 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Meske and Stieglitz (2013), recent studies shows that at least 72% of large enterprises are now using one SM tool and about 40% are using both social networking tools and blogs. The use of SM helps in the promotion of organisations and their products therefore most organisations are incorporating SM into their Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) strategies and promotional efforts. A study conducted by Procter and Gamble (P&G) and General Electric (GE) on the use of SM as a promotional tool, demonstrates that SM has two related promotional roles in the marketplace. First, SM enables companies to talk to their customers, and second, it enables customers to talk to one another. SM also enables customers to talk to companies (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Burton and Soboleva (2011) and Michaelidou et al. (2011) agreed that there is no difference between manufacturing and services regarding their usage of social media marketing. The Internet supports communication media and helps organisations to get business done anytime and from anywhere in world (Ainin et al., 2015). Meske and Stieglitz (2013) in their study analysed that the use of social media is an additional way to getting in contact with a firm’s customers and to support internal communication and collaboration. Investigation from most studies show that some SM tools are used for various organisational purposes such as marketing; communication; sales; advertising; problem resolution; innovation; human resources; customer service; information technology; driving cultural change; advertising on the social network; and internet marketing. Therefore, developing a SM strategy should be based on the aims of the strategy and the usage of SM among a firm’s target market (Marzouk, 2015). People’s perception of the efficacy of a technology is shaped differently when that technology is used in the workplace rather than outside of it. The use of SM in the organisation is more affordable than the use of any other traditional computer mediated 32 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh communication (CMC) technologies such as e-mail or instant messaging. SM technologies used makes a person ‘knowledge visible’, that is, it enables people to easily and effortlessly see information about other people; where visibility “refers to the means, methods, and opportunities for presentation; in our usage it primarily addresses the speakers’ concerns with the presentation of self”. SM also give users the ability to make their behaviours, knowledge, preferences, and communication network links that were once unseen, or at least very hard to see, available to others in their organisation. Research shows that, if people perceive that information is hard to access, or they do not know what information exists for them to access, then it is unlikely for them to look out for it. Academics have noted that social media’s ability to offer improved visibility into both behaviours and information separates them from other technologies and creates exceptional significances. Contributions to social media are visible to all who have access to it whether through posts, comments, status updates, votes, friending, revisions, or pictures (Bregman & Haythornthwaite 2001, pp.5; Grudin, 2006; O’Mahony & Barley, 1999; Wellman, Salaff, Dimitrova, Garton, Gulia, & Haythornthwaite, 1996 as cited in Treem & Leonardi, 2012). SM, unlike other technologies used for organisational knowledge management, may not require a great deal of investment or maintenance by organisational officials. A study concerning the use of blogs in a large IT company indicated that newer workers used social media to gain access to an established community of information and resources (Jackson, Yates, & Orlikowski, 2007 as cited in Treem & Leonardi, 2012). In addition, researchers noted that the ability to easily access and keep employees contributing information in social media was particularly attractive to new employees; meaning new employees could access the SM application instead of having to ask colleagues basic questions such as where to find office supplies or where are the nearby places to eat. The use of SM in organisations 33 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh brings about: (a) work behaviour; (b) Metaknowledge; and (c) organisational activity streams. 2.5.1 Work Behaviour Work behaviour is one of the most common and basic features of SM that presents contents together, which means contributions can be easily located and viewed by other employees. People who use SM in organisations at times recognise the visibility of their work behaviour by the use of the technology, therefore strategically presenting themselves to others (Treem & Leonardi, 2012). A study conducted on the use of internal blogs, wikis, social tagging, and SNS at IBM4 by Farrell, Kellogg, and Thomas (2008) concluded that SM helped people communicate and share work across organisational boundaries. They noted specifically that comments on blogs could reach most users in no time so far as organisational conversations were concerned, and that the iterative nature of wiki contributions could sustain and share communication. Research was conducted at Microsoft where 34 employees were interviewed regarding the reasons why individuals maintained organisational blogs and how they perceived readership. The interviewed bloggers felt that the ability to self-publish content allowed employees to more easily communicate directly about work (Efimova & Grudin, 2008 as cited in Treem & Leonardi, 2012). The use of SM in organisations encourages informal collaboration and supported knowledge sharing among workers. It also has an “open-source ideology that helps employees to communicate freely and eliminate decisions regarding who to include, which is a choice workers face when using other traditional computer mediated communication (CMC) (Kosonen & Kianto, 2009). 34 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 2.5.2 Metaknowledge Metaknowledge is another source of visibility of social media, which talks about the type of people in the organisation and what they may know. It helps employees to use the visible information contributed to learn more about the backgrounds, interests, and activities of other co-workers. It is also a strategy use to advertise one’s areas of knowledge and it helps promote social media use in organisations. Lastly, organisational activity streams is how social media can give individuals the ability to view information associated with the status of on-going activities in the organisation (DiMicco, Millen, Geyer, Dugan, Brownholtz, & Muller, 2008; Jackson et al., 2007; Rober & Cooper, 2011 as cited in Treem & Leonardi, 2012). 2.5.3 Organisational Activity Streams SM help keep up conversations that has past the time of their initial posts. This is known as “persistence”. Communication is said to be persistent if it “remains accessible in the same form as the original display after the actor has finished his or her presentation” (Bregman & Haythornthwaite, 2001; Donath, Karahalios, & Viegas, 1999 as cited in Treem & Leonardi, 2012). An example of SM persistence is when an employee is given an assignment during a teleconference or over an instant message conversation and later finds another co-worker claiming responsibility for the task, and has insufficient evidence to clarify the dispute. On the other hand, if the task was assigned via any team SM application, there will be a public record available to challenge the assertion. Persistence can help in the development of common ground in communicative backgrounds, which has been made known to support the transmission of complex ideas (Clark & Brennan, 1991 cited in Treem &Leonardi, 2012). According to Treem & Leonardi (2012), persistence of content created and stored in social media by users allows the knowledge contributed to the technology to develop and remain 35 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh accessible over time, which they call sustaining knowledge over time (SNOT). However, SM affords reuse of organisational content, which supports the formation of close-fitting relationships within organisations. That is, if information and communications are persistent, content can be reused and reanalysed over time, which can be refined and made useful and robust thereby creating robust forms of communication (Mejova, Schepper, Bergman, & Lu, 2011 as cited in Treem & Leonardi, 2012). An example of this is when there is any form of internal social media being used by an organisation, employees will prefer using or reusing this data or a presentation stored on an organisation’s SM as references instead of using others from outside the organisation. The internet has become an essential component in the navigation of everyday life (Amichai-Hamburger & Vinitzky, 2010). The internet influences all aspects of human endeavour from the way in which organisations operate to the way people shop and spend their leisure time. Yet, perhaps the biggest transformations have been in the way in which we socialise and seek-out and spread information (Amichai-Hamburger & Ben-Artzi, 2000). Via the internet, vast amounts of information can be disseminated to worldwide audiences in an instant, whilst the web simultaneously offers an arena for public and private social interaction. Sajid (2016), in discussing the use of SM, asserts that social media is now gradually becoming an in-built feature of political strategies, national defence methods, public policy, advertising, item management and even intra organisation interaction. SM can be used to identify a companies and the items or solutions that they offer, creating connections with those who might not otherwise know about the items or support, or what the companies represent, and be used to associate themselves with their colleagues that may be serving the same industry. Social media can also be used as a promotional tool with a communication device that makes the companies accessible for those fascinated in their item and makes them 36 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh noticeable to those that don't know their item. It should be used as something that creates a character behind their item and creates connections that they otherwise may never gain. This creates not only repeat-buyers, but also client commitment. Reality in social media is so diversified that it can be used in whatever way best suits the interest and the needs of the organisation (Barnes & Mettson, 2008 as cited in Sajid, 2016). 2.6 Benefits and Performance of Social Media The benefits of SM to manufacturing firms are enormous, with several studies on social media marketing testifying to this fact. Marzouk, (2015) confirmed that social media marketing helps in the development of customer value and differentiates firms from their competitors by educating customer on relationship building and creating a unique product identity. However, Johnson (2011) attested that social media marketing improves customer support services and reduces its development cost by connecting with a firm’s customers, get real benefits from customer feedback, and then manage the support at the right time. Empirically social media has strongly proven to have communication influence on most manufacturing firms such as those in the pharmaceutical and telecommunications industries. These empirical insights on benefits of social media to firms and users (according to the opinions of marketing managers) includes brand reach and awareness; consumer interactions through transactions; referrals; reputation management; create/enhance relationships with customers; promote products/increase of sales; and the more targeted acquisition of new customers. Apart from the benefit of social media to firms, it has been confirmed by Yu, Duan, and Cao (2013) that SM has more influence on a firm’s stock market performances than traditional media especially for publicly traded firms across pharmaceutical, retail, software, savings institutions, health care, and hotel industries. They also found that both social media applications and traditional media influence stock in different directions. As 37 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh traditional media positively affects brand awareness, social media communications strongly affect brand image (Bruhn et al., 2012; Neti, 2011; Tsimonis & Dimitriadis, 2014). SM assists firms to deliver brand and product related information and builds brands in terms of creating awareness, improving brand attitude, and increasing purchase intentions (Järvinen et al., 2012; Shojaee & Azman, 2013). SM also offer fewer barriers to input, and just interacting with the media is an implicit form of participation (e.g., clicking on a link reinforces the value of that link). Social media often result in increased transparency, self-reinforcing in terms of participation and it brings with them new forms of value. They continue to argue that, although social media is seen as a disruptive force in many domains, it has been increasingly adopted in corporate settings. However, Sajid (2016) added that everything that happens in the social media landscape is certified; therefore, companies cannot forge authenticity in an effort to get more people engaged on their sites. Members can also choose to connect with the organisation or opt out. Sajid (2016) went further to say that there is transparency when it comes to social media and that “No cheat code engaged. No black hat methods allowed”. And the opinions created on social media are taken seriously and the more authoritative the companies get, the more seriously they are taken. In contribution to the transparency of SNS and SM, Meijer and Thaens (2010) and Chua, Goh, and Ang (2012) argued that Web 2.0 applications are creating new features of innovation, improving transparency and in a way stakeholders are seen as partners and co-creators, not just consumers. According to Järvinen et al. (2012), most firms’ main reason for using social media as a marketing tool is the possibility of increasing sales. They explained that, with the help of social media, a firm’s sales to its existing customers can be increased meaning social media helps in facilitating a firm’s transaction process; whereas sales to new customers can be 38 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh improved by driving traffic to a website and thus creating good sales. However, Marzouk (2015) as cited in Altimeter Group (2009) reported that there is a positive link between a brand’s or a firm’s social engagement and its financial performance. Therefore, brands or firms that seriously engage in social media marketing show an increase in revenue growth and gross margins as compared to the ones that are not involved in social media marketing. Mora and Barnes (2011) agreed that a firm’s revenue and social media marketing usage patterns have a positively influence on each other. The annual social media marketing (SMM) report revealed that the top benefits of social media marketing is to help reduce marketing expenses and improved sales (Stelzner, 2011). However, Marzouk (2015) argued that research showed that there is no solid method to calculate social media marketing Return on Investment (ROI), because this forward- thinking channel mostly involves communications among customers, online communities and firms (i.e. positive/negative reviews, word-of-mouth), which cannot be calculated using traditional mathematical calculation. Therefore, the success of social media marketing practices in firms must involve both financial (i.e., increase in online sales) and non-financial (i.e., consumers’ involvements on the social media sites, increase in positive mentions) outcomes of the campaign. On the other hand, Rodriguez, Peterson, & Krishnan (2012) buttressed that social media marketing usage has a positive relationship with sales processes (creating opportunities and relationship management) and sales performance relationship but not with conclusion based sales performance in terms of quota achievement, growth in average billing size, increases in sales productivity, and overall revenue gain. SMM practices in firms should involve both financial (i.e., increase in online sales) and non-financial (i.e., consumers’ involvements on the social media sites, increase in positive 39 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh mentions) outcomes of the campaign to be very effective. For instance, Pradiptarini (2011) examined the relationships amongst Twitter activities and sales performances of five companies from the Fortune (Wealthy) 500 companies (AT&T, Microsoft, Merck’s Claritin, P&G’s Charmin and Wal-Mart) and then compared it to their main competitors (Johnson & Johnson’s Benadryl, Kimberly-Clark’s Cottonelle, Oracle, Target, and Verizon Wireless). The outcomes revealed some mixed indications of these relationships because most companies use more than one social media in their marketing communication strategies, therefore it is very difficult to conclude that the companies’ Twitter activities were the main contributor to their business success. It is therefore predictable to say that there is a positive relationship between social media marketing usage and sales performance of a firm centred on the above. The extent to which SSM helps build a product and a firm’s loyalty has been discussed extensively by researchers. In social media, a firm or brand communities have a positive influence on brand trust, and in turn, trust has a positive impact on brand loyalty (Laroche, Habibi, & Richard, 2013). The effectiveness of a SMM campaign, according to the Erdoğmuş and Cicek (2012), is the most important influence on a firm or brand loyalty followed by relevancy of the content, acceptance of the content among a firm’s or brand communities, and posting consistent content on various social media sites. The effectiveness of social media marketing needs to be measured in relation to its ability to produce a positive impression on a firm, as well as its products and services. This, in turn, would transform into measurable business results for the firm - whether in the form of increased awareness, increased sales, or increased loyalty (Marzouk, 2015). However, Andzulis et al. (2012, pp. 310) posited that these critical questions determine the appropriate measures of success for a firm’s adoption of social media: What does the customer get from the equation? Will the 40 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh customer’s positive opinion of a firm increase or decrease from the social media presence? Does the customer advocate for the brand? Does the prospect get the information and positive reinforcement he or she needs to move forward in the decision to risk capital by building a relationship with the firm? Metrics must be customized to yield actionable data for use in decision points related to the social media effort. If they do not, a firm risks not only damaging the brand but also losing the opportunity to craft and revise future social media strategy and tactics that enhance the customer/company relationship. 2.7 Conceptual Frame Work of the Study A number of studies have been done on the adoption and use of social media, as reviewed earlier in the previous section (Ainin et al., 2015; Meske & Stieglitz, 2013; Standage, 2013; Storey et al., 2014; Treem & Leonardi, 2012). However, the conceptual framework provides a broader perspective on adoption and use of social media, the main marketing programmes or activities on social media and the benefits derived by manufacturing firms from the use of social media. The framework assumes that adoption and use of social media is influenced by a multiplicity of factors as identified from the review. 41 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Compatibility Cost Effective Cost Effective Marketing Communication Benefits to Firms P r o g r aMmamrkeest viniag SPorcoigarl a Media Trust Interactivity Fig 2. 1: Conceptual Framework for adoption and use of social media Source: Adapted from Ainin et al. (2015) pp. 574 This conceptual framework will be used in the discussion of findings in chapter five of this study. 2.8 Chapter Summary In summary, it is no longer adequate for manufacturing firms to only rely on traditional media for marketing as social media sites are now the meeting place where individual and organisations are able to enjoy and express their opinions, exchange opinions, and distribute and control messages anywhere, anytime. This exceedingly interactive social media tool holds immense potential for firms to become more connected to customers and, by so doing, increase revenue, reduce costs and improve efficiencies. 42 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CHAPTER THREE CONTEXT OF THE STUDY 3.0 Introduction This chapter reviews journal articles, magazines as well as internet publications on the Ghanaian industrial sector, the manufacturing subsector and provides a brief background of the study area. 3.1 Brief Overview of the Ghanaian Industrial Sector The industrial development of Ghana started from the post-independence era and has evolved from an import substitution industrialization (ISI) strategy to the current programme of private sector-led industrialization. Before Ghana’s independence in 1957, the industrial sector, an outcome of the colonial economic system, was small. It was made up mainly of the domestic manufacturing sector, which contributed very little to economic growth of the nation. The industrial sector, which the country inherited, was underdeveloped mainly because the colonial rulers had only focused on the extraction of raw materials from the Gold Coast (Ghana) while at the same time creating an economic system heavily dependent on manufactured products from Britain (Ackah, Adjasi, & Turkson, 2014). According to Ackah et al. (2014) the Nkrumah-led Convention People’s Party (CPP) government considered industrialization to be a key factor in the modernization and development of the country; that is, after Ghana gained independence from Britain. The aim of this extensive programme was to emphasize the import substitution to transform the industrial structure of Ghana and reduce dependence on colonial powers and other foreign economies for imports. Killick (2010) argued that the CPP government put in place those import changes because it believed that it would be able to eliminate the distortions of the 43 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh earlier system, and then provide an escape from the dependence on primary exports and break the vicious circle of poverty. Killick (2010, p. 50) continued to argued that, ….it was Nkrumah’s belief that every imported item which could have been manufactured locally, provided that conditions allowed it, added to Ghana’s continuing economic dependence on the colonial system and delayed industrial growth. Baah-Nuakoh (1997) indicated that the strategy adopted by the Nkrumah’s government after independence was to extensively promote the industrialization of Ghana with specific emphasis on manufacturing development. Since independence, Ghana has undergone three major industrialization episodes: the inward over-protected ISI strategy of 1960-83; the outward liberalized strategy during 1984-2000; and since 2001, the private sector-led accelerated industrial development strategy. Inward over-protected ISI strategy (1960-83): This strategy was aimed at substituting industrialization through high levels of effective protection by way of:  Dependence on large-scale public sector investment as the primary edge of industrial development and to protect and support the ISI strategy during the 1960s - early 1970s, application of import measureable restrictions and import tariffs were introduced.  Widespread use of administrative controls to regulate incentives and allocate resources for industrialization were introduced in 1962, but was extensively used from the beginning of the 1970s to 1983. Outward liberalized industrialization strategy (1984-2000): This strategy included industrial restructuring under the SAP/ERP, which was to create a globally competitive industrial sector based on highly efficient import substitution and increased export approach supported by: 44 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh - The deduction of price and distribution controls, eliminating import licensing and resorting to market-determined prices as part of ERP from late 1984; — Privatization of the SOEs, launched in 1988; and — Industrial policies to assist distressed but potentially viable SOEs in the early 1990s. Private sector-led accelerated industrial development strategy (since 2001): This is the industrial architecture based on value-added processing of Ghana’s natural resource endowments through the private sector-led accelerated industrial development strategy (Ackah et al., 2014). Killick (2010) noted that, by the beginning of the 1970s, the ISI strategy by the Nkrumah- led government was facing structural problems because of the shift from a centrally planned to a market based economy by the Busia government in 1969. According to Ackah et al. (2014), the industrial sector of Ghana, after the rebasing of the national account estimates in November 2010, is presently made up of five subsectors, namely, manufacturing, construction, mining and quarrying, electricity and water and sewerage. The manufacturing activities of the industrial sector include the production of food, beverages, tobacco, textiles, petroleum refinery and cement, etc. Ghana’s industrial sector is a great contributing factor to the national GDP, which continues to support the growth of the Ghanaian economy. Products of the industrial sector are crucial to foreign exchange earners. The sector satisfies almost all of the nation’s power and water supplies at the household and industrial level. In terms of its contribution to GDP, since 2011 industry has overtaken agriculture, which used to be the backbone of the nation, as the second largest sector. Cautious estimates for 2012 (GSS 2012) show that industry contributed 27.6 per cent to GDP, making it the second largest after the service sector (49.3 per cent) and exceeding agriculture (23.1 per cent). 45 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh The table below displays the growth rates of the industrial sector of Ghana from 2006-12. Table 3.1:Industry and subsectors share of GDP, 2006–12 Total industrial Share of industrial subsectors of GDP% Sector (% of GDP) Manufacturing Mining &quarrying Electricity Water &sewerage Construction Year 2006 20.8 10.2 2.8 (0.0) 0.8 1.3 5.7 2007 20.7 9.1 2.8 (0.0) 0.6 1.0 7.2 2008 20.4 7.9 2.4 (0.0) 0.5 0.8 8.7 2009 19.0 6.9 2.1 (0.0) 0.5 0.7 8.8 2010 19.1 6.8 2.3 (0.4) 0.6 0.8 8.5 2011 25.9 6.7 8.5 (6.8) 0.6 0.8 9.2 2012* 27.6 6.7 8.8 (6.9) 0.5 0.7 10.9 Notes: (a) Figures in parentheses refer to the contribution of crude oil. Source: ISSER (2010) The table shows that growth rates of the industrial sector have fluctuated in recent times. After decreasing from 9.5 per cent in 2006 to 6.1 per cent in 2007, the sector then rebounded to a 15.1 per cent rate the following year. The performance improvement of the industrial sector in 2008 was underscored by the strong showing of the construction and the electricity subsectors, which expanded 39 per cent and 19.4 per cent, respectively. The strong showing of the construction subsector in 2007 and 2008 largely reflects the massive infrastructure projects (stadia, real estate, roads etc.) that were constructed to celebrate Ghana@50 in 2007, host the Cup of African Nations (CAN) 2008 tournament and the African Union Heads of State conference in 2008. Ghana’s industrial sector is now overwhelmingly owned by private investors, most of whom are Ghanaians. Approximately 87.6 per cent of the total industrial sector’s workers 46 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh are employed by privately-owned establishments, with the remainder in establishments that are the state owned. According to GoG (2011), Ghana’s industrialization strategy is currently aimed at creating an industrial architecture based on value-added processing of the country’s natural resource through a private sector-led enhanced industrial development strategy. 3.2 Overview of the Ghanaian Manufacturing Industry Ghana's manufacturing industry got a helping hand in 1957 when the government launched an industrialization drive. The drive brought about the creation of a variety of industrial enterprises in Ghana’s manufacturing subsector which includes the production of food, beverages, aluminium processing, timber processing, cocoa processing, breweries, tobacco, textile manufacturing, oil refining, and cement manufacturing among others. As a result of this industrialization, the manufacturing industry's share of GDP grew from 10% in 1960 to 14% in 1970 (CommerceGhana.com, 2012). The dominance of the manufacturing subsector in the distribution of firms explains the almost two-thirds contribution to industry output until the mid-2000s. It also explains why the industrial policies pursued since independence have concentrated mainly on this subsector (Ackah et al., 2014). The table below shows the share and growth rate in the manufacturing industry of Ghana from 1962-67. 47 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Table 3.2 :Share and growth rate in gross manufacturing output by ownership, 1962– 67 Ownership type % Share Average annual growth rate (%) 1962 1966 1967 1963-64 1965-66 Wholly state-owned 11.8 19.5 24.1 34.4 36.6 Joint state-private ownership 7.1 12.7 17.5 24.9 51.4 Private ownership 80.9 67.6 58.2 20.5 7.1 Source: Based on data adapted from Steel (1972: 214). Table 3.2 shows the creation of a state-managed ISI strategy through large-scale, state owned capital-intensive manufacturing industries which had the envisioned impact. Compared to a contribution of 18.9 per cent in 1962, SOEs (including joint ventures) in 1966 and 1967 generated 32.2 per cent and 41.6 per cent of gross manufacturing output, in that order. Over the same period, the contribution to gross manufacturing output of the mainly non-Ghanaian privately owned enterprises decreased. From a contribution of 80.9 per cent in 1962, privately owned production within the Ghanaian manufacturing sector dropped to 67.5 per cent in 1966 and further down to 58.2 per cent in 1967 (Ackah et al., 2014). According to CommerceGhana.com (2012), after 1970 harsh economic conditions, poor management, and shortage of resources made it difficult for businesses to stay afloat in the manufacturing industry, and this lead to a decline through the 70's and 80's. Trade liberalization further added to the difficulties of the industry as the markets became flooded with cheap imports (mostly from China) with which local companies could no longer compete. Over 120 manufacturing firms have closed down since the trade liberalization, which resulted in the loss of many jobs in Ghana. 48 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh In 1986, the government stepped in and established the Ghana Investment Centre, which supported the creation of new enterprises in the manufacturing sector and other industries. In 1989 over $100 million was allocated by the government for the development of the industrial sector, two thirds of which were joint ventures in the manufacturing sector. By 1999, manufacturing was contributing about 30% of GDP and 15% of employment in the country. According to Ackah et al. (2014) the manufacturing subsector dominated almost two-thirds of the distribution in the industrial sector’s output until the mid-2000s. Unfortunately, in the second decade of the 2000 the manufacturing sector had a huge set back because of the cheaper goods imported from the eastern world. This made the importance of the manufacturing subsector in terms of its relative contribution to GDP worsened in 2011 when it was overtaken by mining and quarrying as the second largest subsector. The mining and quarrying subsector rose from a relative 12.2 per cent share in 2010, to 32.8 and 32.0 per cent in 2011 and 2012, respectively, as compared to manufacturing at 25.9 and 24.2 per cent for the same period (Ackah et al., 2014). The table 3.3 shows the decline of the manufacturing subsector compared to the other subsectors. 49 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Table 3.3: Relative contribution of subsectors to industrial GDP, 2006–10 (%) Industrial subsectors (%) Year Manufacturing Mining & quarrying Electricity Water & sewerage Construction 2006 49.0 13.5 3.8 6.3 27.4 2007 44.0 13.5 2.9 4.8 34.8 2008 38.9 11.8 2.6 3.9 42.7 2009 36.6 10.9 2.5 3.6 46.4 2010 35.5 12.2 3.2 4.4 44.7 2011 25.9 32.8 2.3 3.3 35.7 2012(a 24.2 32.0 1.8 2.7 39.4 Note: (a) Provisional. Source: ISSER (2010). 3.3 Background of the Study Organisations This section gives a brief background of the two study organisations, Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited (GG BL) and Kasapreko Company Limited (KCL). 3.3.1 Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited Guinness Ghana Limited (GGL) was established in 1960 as a private owned company at Kaase in Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana. Guinness Ghana Limited started manufacturing in 1971, and the only product they were producing back then was the Foreign Extra Stout, an alcoholic beverage popularly known in Ghana as Guinness. By 1989, Guinness Ghana Limited added a new a non-alcoholic beverage Malta Guinness to their production. They were listed on the stock index of the Ghana Stock Exchange, the GSE All-Share Index in 1990. The operations of GGL continued until 2004 when a merger process began between Guinness Ghana Limited and Ghana Breweries Limited (GGBL). Ghana Breweries Limited (GBL) formerly known as Achimota Brewery Company Limited (ABC) was established in 1992. GBL in 1994 acquired the assets of Achimota Brewery Company Limited (ABC) at Achimota in Accra, but later on in 1997 Heineken International 50 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh acquired about 90% of the remaining shares of ABC and then renamed the company Ghana Breweries Limited. Ghana Breweries Limited later merged with Kumasi Brewery Limited (KBL) in 1998. Kumasi Brewery Limited partly owned by Heineken International and its subsidiary Limba Ghana Limited, was established 1959 at Ahensan in Kumasi. Meanwhile these two companies Ghana Breweries Limited (ABL) and Guinness Ghana Limited (GGL) were being run separately until 2008 when the merger was completed and they came under the name Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited (GGBL). Now GGBL has three operational sites: Achimota, in Accra; Ahensan in Kumasi; and Kaase in Kumasi. Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited is now in business with the Diageo Spirit Brands, Baileys/J&B and Johnny Walker (Red or Black Label), as they (GGBL) put it, we are “the most vibrant and iconic business in Ghana”. 3.3.2 Kasapreko Company Limited Kasapreko Company Limited (KCL) popularly known as Kasapreko was established in 1989 by Dr. Kwabena Adjei, at Nungua, a suburb of Accra. Kasapreko is a privately own Ghanaian company and a member of the Ghana Club 100. Their main aim was to provide Ghanaians with authentic herbal‐based alcoholic products that are derived from rich herbs, locally sourced from Ghana’s wealth of organic ingredients. Kasapreko Company was the first of the local alcoholic beverage manufacturers in Ghana to establish a modern quality control, product development laboratory and the first to introduce its own branded custom-made bottles and caps. Kasapreko was also responsible for the conceptualization, research, design and development of the first scientifically formulated, herbal-based alcoholic beverage in Ghana – Alomo Bitters which is now the company’s flagship product. KCL products are now sold mostly in Africa and across the world especially in the Nigeria market. The range of brands being sold are bitters, whisky, 51 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh gin, liqueur, brandy and wine. In the last quarter of 2013, CNN Money identified Alomo Bitters to be among the top five emerging brands in the world. Apart from the alcoholic beverages, the company is now in the production of Carbonated Soft Drinks (CSD) and water. KCL has won a lot of awards including: the 2015 and 2014 championing excellence in trade investment in the agro processing sector by the Millennium Leadership Forum on agro processing in London UK; the manufacturing company of the year award by the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana; life time product of the year (Alomo Bitters), awarded by West Africa Magazine; exporter of the year, awarded by Ghana Investment and Promotion Council; manufacturing company of the year; the most innovative company of the year; and was also ranked 6th in the Ghana Club 100 in 2012. 52 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CHAPTER FOUR METHODOLOGY 4.0 Introduction In the previous chapter, relevant literature to this thesis was reviewed. This chapter outlines in a systematic order the details of the methodology used for the research. The chapter is further divided into sub-sections which discusses methodological overview; research design/approach; research strategy; sample frame; data collection methods; data analysis techniques; ethical considerations; quality criteria and research limitations; and practical challenges. 4.1 Overview of Methodology According to Malhotra and Birks (2007), a research methodology can be defined as the procedural framework through which a research is conducted in order to derive at a meaningful conclusion where the procedural framework of the data collection must be appropriated and applicable. Myers (2009) also refers to a research method as a strategy of enquiry, which moves from the fundamental assumptions to research design, and data collection. However, Ghauri and Grønhaug (2005) defines research as a systematic way of collecting, analysing and interpreting data, thereby increasing knowledge. They further discuss that methodologies can be built on existing data or a new collected data which has properly been organised and that the findings either positive or negative are then used in answering the research question(s). The main features of research methodology are based on the problem statement of the study, which must be clearly stated. Therefore, the basis of a research problem and the stated research questions determines the methodology to be used in a research (Collins & Hussey, 2013). Any type of research should be directed by a well-defined research methodology, which is based on precise values such as the research 53 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh purpose, research design and approach, data collection, and data analysis methods (Eldabi, Irani, Paul, & Love, 2002). These are discussed in the following sub-sections. 4.2 Research Purpose A research purpose is the essence of a study and it provides the basic direction for conducting the research. There are three categories of research purpose in a social research, which are descriptive, exploratory, and explanatory studies (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). 4.2.1 Exploratory Studies An exploratory study is usually used when there is very few or no studies done on a research problem and therefore there is no information that can be referred to on the problem or issue; the researcher seeks to examine a new interest in a particular subject; or when the subject of study or finding is comparatively new. The aim of exploratory research mostly lies on the discovery of new ideas and new insights and also looks for designs and ideas to develop instead of test hypotheses (Collin & Hussey, 2013; Saunders et al., 2009). Since there are very few studies conducted on the area under study an exploratory research studies was followed. First, to get an insight on the kinds of messages uploaded on various digital platforms of the organisations, involved having a face-to-face interview with personnel of the organisations to find out from them how they come to have those messages and why, and whether specific messages are designed for each digital platform. How users’ visits are tracked and traced was found, together with how the companies are able to attract people to their digital platforms and engage them in conversations. Then the kind of messages users of the organisations digital platforms leave behind (example feedbacks) and how such messages are incorporated into the company’s brand messages. Secondly, messages on their respective digital platforms were assessed and compared. Thirdly, the policies (if any) guiding interactions and brand messages were consulted for information. 54 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh These three approaches were combined and used to allow for comparison. This design so adopted allowed for a deeper understanding of the strategies alcoholic beverages producing companies put in place to harness user-generated contents on their digital platforms. 4.3 Research Design or Strategy A research design/strategy is the over-all plan, which the researcher will use in answering the research question(s). The choice of research design/strategy is guided by the research questions and objectives. It must clearly state the objectives derived from the research questions; that is, the extent of existing knowledge, where the researcher intends to collect the research data and constraints such as location, time, money and ethical issues (Churchill & Iacobucci, 2009; Creswell, 2009; Kumar, 2005; Saunders et al., 2009). This study adopted a case design/strategy. 4.3.1 Case Study Design/Strategy A case study is one of the numerous ways of doing research. Sanders et al. (2009) defines a case study as a research strategy, which consist of an empirical investigation of a specific up-to-date phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of evidence. According to Yin (2009), a case study is an empirical investigation that examines an existing phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the limitations amongst the phenomenon and the context are not clearly defined. This approach is mainly useful in situations where contextual conditions of the incident being studied are critical and where the events that are being unfolded are out of the researcher’s control. Therefore, a case study can be selected as a suitable research strategy if the phenomena to be investigated is complex and intensely embedded in the organisational context. He went further to say that, when conducting a case study, the researcher can focus on using single case or multiple cases. A single case study is use when the investigation being done is on one organisation and a multiple case study when investigating two or more organisations. The case under 55 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh study can also be a program, an event, or particular activity that is limited in time and place. McMillan and Schumacher (2001) suggest that a case study can give the researcher a better understanding of why an instance occurred, what can be done and what to look out for in future research concerning that particular instance. This strategy has the ability of helping the researcher answers to the ‘why?’, ‘what?’ and ‘how?’ questions, and that is why the case study strategy is often used in explanatory and exploratory research. Many data collection techniques can be use when it comes to a case study strategy and these techniques can be used together. They include interviews, observation, documentary analysis and questionnaires (Sanders et al, 2009). In addition, the case study strategy uses data collection methods such as interviews, document reviews, archival records, observations and focus group where both quantitative (such as a questionnaire) and qualitative (using semi-structured group interviews) techniques can be useful (Yin, 2009). A multiple case study strategy investigating two organisations GGBL and KCL was used as the method of gathering primary data from respondents for this particular study; the main reason being that case studies has the ability of helping the researcher answer the ‘why?’, ‘what?’ and ‘how?’ questions. 4.4 Research Approach Quantitative and qualitative research approaches are the main two research methodology used by most research scholars, although some researchers have adopted a combination of both approaches (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000; Potter, 1996).However, each of the method is significantly different in the way data are collected and analysed. Both the qualitative and the quantitative approaches are largely used so far as the field of marketing is concern (Boyd, Westfall, & Stasch, 2002). 56 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 4.4.1 Qualitative Research Approach versus Quantitative Research Approach The quantitative research approach, according to Creswell (2009), is a research approach where the researcher mainly uses post positive claims for developing knowledge (i.e., cause and effective thinking, reduction to specific variables and hypotheses and questions, use of instrument and observation, the test of theories), employs strategies of inquiry such as experiments and surveys and collects data on predetermined instruments that yield statistical data. Whereas the qualitative research approach refers to a series of techniques, normally used in social science research, whereby data is developed from small groups of research units and are analysed with or without statistical techniques. Usually qualitative data involved a comprehensive, verbal description of characteristics, case and setting, themes and dimensions (Meurer, Frederiksen, Majersik, Zhang, Sandretto, & Scott, 2007). According to Creswell (2009), a qualitative research approach is one in which the inquirer often makes knowledge claims based primarily on constructivist perspective (i.e. the multiple meaning of individual experiences, meaning socially and historically constructed, with an intent of developing a theory or pattern) or advocacy/participatory perspectives (i.e. political, issue-oriented, collaborative or change oriented) or both. It also uses strategies of inquiry such a narratives, phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory studies or case studies. The researcher collects open-ended, emerging data with the primary intent of developing themes from the data. Both approaches have their individual benefits uses in respect to the fundamental objective(s) of a research. When the objective of a research is to discover a new relationship, the exploratory/qualitative approach to research is applied; but when the objective is to make a decision, then the conclusive/quantitative method is paramount (Boyd et al., 2002; Cassell & Symon, 2006; Malhotra & Birks, 2007). However, data 57 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh collection in a qualitative research approach differ from a conventional quantitative research approach of data collection because the former uses less structural data collection tools, and in certain cases some researchers uses both approaches together (Engstrom & Salehi-Sangari, 2007; Meurer et al.,2007). Both quantitative and qualitative research approaches have their strengths and weakness. When the strength of both quantitative and qualitative approaches are combine, it is referred to as mixed-methods research approach (Boateng, 2014). 4.4.2 Research Approach for the Study Based on the objectives of this research, an exploratory/qualitative approach to research, specifically an unstructured or in-depth interview guide and a face-to-face interview approach where the data collecting was through audio-recording and notes taking was employed. Since this study is purposive in nature, it was easier to use the triangulation approach. The combination of data gathering techniques in a particular study is referred to as triangulation (Olsen, 2004; Singleton Jr. Straits, & Straits, 1993; Sunders et al., 2007). Sarantakos (1998) grouped triangulation into two types as inter-method triangulation (within method) and intra-method (between or across methods) triangulation. Inter-method triangulation employs two or more methods of different methodological origin and nature while intra-method triangulation employs two or more techniques of the same method. He went further to say that triangulation allows the researcher to obtain a variety of information on the same issue and the weaknesses of one of the methods is covered by the strength of the other and this achieves a higher validity and reliability. Finally, triangulation helps to overcome the deficiencies of single-method studies. Sunders et al. (2007), in discussing triangulation, attested that triangulation provides better opportunities for answers to research questions and enables the researcher to evaluate 58 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh research findings to an extent to which they could be trusted and inferences can be made from them. It is for the above reasons that Sunders et al. (2007); Bogdan and Taylor (1998) and Singleton Jr. et al. (1993) agreed that the used of triangulation method in a particular study ensures that data collected tell the story exactly as the researcher think they are telling. In the view of Jick (1979), triangulation allows researchers to be more confident of their results. Bogdan and Taylor (1998) found that using multiple methods for data collection helps the researcher to address various issues from a number of different perspectives in a particular study. For instance, Saunders et al. (2007) said that a researcher might employ interviews during the exploratory phase of their work to get a good sense of key issues in the research work and use a questionnaire to collect descriptive data. For the purpose of this study, in addition to the face-to-face interviews with the respondents, policy documents governing communication (if any), messages on the various digital platforms were reviewed. By adopting such data collection approach, the needed information that helped answer the research questions was obtained. 4.5 Data Collection Data collection can be classified into two; primary data collection and secondary data collection. The difference between these two types of data collection is that the primary data is collected specifically by the researcher for the particular purpose for which the data are require, or in the event where there is no existing secondary data to answer a specific research problem. Secondary data is a data that has already been collected for another primary purpose, which include the ones in journal articles, catalogues, books and websites that was collected for a different purpose. Both primary and secondary data can be collected through surveys, interviews, observations, and experiments. (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2005). 59 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 4.5.1 Data Collection Tool for the Study The data collection tool used was through an unstructured or in-depth interview using an interview guide: asking of the demographic data of respondents, which was optional and a face-to-face interview which was used to solicit respondents’ opinions and views regarding the strategies manufacturing firms adopt to harness user-generated content on their digital platforms; identifying the various digital platforms that are being used by the selected manufacturing firms; and to investigate strategies put in place to attract customers. The type of messages put on the firms digital platform, promotional messages on the firm’s digital platform and how this messages influences firm’s sales, profits, and market share, as well as customer base were also investigated. It was relevant to get information directly from the respondents on their views and opinions concerning what key factors motivate them in choosing a particular or several social media platforms. The responses received from the respondents was audio-recorded, and notes were also made as the interview was in progress. 4.6 Sample Technique Sampling provides a series of methods that allows a researcher to reduce the amount of data being collected; bearing in mind that the researcher needs to collect only data from a subgroup needed rather than all possible cases or elements. Because of time restrictions, financial constraints and often access, it will be impossible for a researcher to collect or to analyse all the data available. However, when the researcher is supposed to collect and analyse data from every possible case or group member to enable a better conclusion, this is then known as census (Sander et al. 2009). Sampling techniques includes probability or nonprobability. Probability sampling is a procedure in which each component of the population has an equal chance of being selected for the sample (Malhotra et al. 2007; Panneerslvam, 2007). Some examples of probability 60 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh sampling are systematic sampling, random sampling, stratified sampling and cluster sampling. On the other hand nonprobability sampling techniques do not use chance selection procedures, rather the population to be studied are selected on equal chances basis or rather the researcher’s own decision (Malhotra et al. 2007; Dooley, 2007). These sampling techniques include purposive sampling, quota sampling, convenience sampling, and snowball sampling. 4.6.1 Purposive Sampling A non-probability sampling, specifically purposive sampling, was used for this study as it was most fitted for the researcher’s choices of study as the sample size of the study is very small. This was adopting from Sander et al. (2007, pp.228) 4.6.2 Sample Size A sample size of two (2) respondents working at the SM office were selected from two (2) food and beverage manufacturing firms in Ghana for this study. 4.6.3 Determination of Sample Size According to Lincoln and Guba (1985), sampling is a very complex issue in qualitative research as there are many differences in qualitative sampling described in literature and there is much confusion and overlapping of types of sampling when it comes to the case of purpose and theoretical sampling. There is a common misconception about sampling in qualitative research, which says numbers are not insignificant in ensuring the adequacy of sampling strategy. However, the adequacy of sample size in qualitative research is relevant, and a matter of judging a sample neither small or large, but rather too small or too large for the intended purpose of sampling and for the intended qualitative product. Sander et al. (2009) suggested that when it comes to sampling size, generalisations about populations from data collected using any probability samples are based on statistical probability. 61 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 4.6.4 Pre-Test Pretesting of the interview was done on some colleagues of the author and some experienced lecturers for their input with regards to lines of conversation with respondents. This was to test the clarity and to understand the ability of the interview guide. The feedback received from the pre-test helped eliminate any form of complexity or unimportant questions. 4.7 Interviews Interviews, according to Sander et al. (2007), may be very formal and structured, where questions that are standardised can be used for each respondent or the questions to be discussed in the interview may be informal and unstructured. Interviews are well- formulated questions to enquire and acquire responses from respondents. They can be categorised as structured interviews, semi-structured interviews, and unstructured or in- depth interviews (Panneerslvan, 2007; Twumasi, 2001). 4.7.1 Structured Interviews Structured interviews, also known as interviewer-administered questionnaires or quantitative research interviews, are used to collect measureable data. With this type of interview, questionnaires are focused on a set of prearranged and standardised set of questions, which are identical. Here the researcher usually reads out each question with a pre-coded answer to the respondent and then records the interview. Social interaction between the researcher and the respondent is very important; the researcher initially explains and reads out the questions exactly as written and providing the needed pre-coded answers to the respondents in the same tone of voice so that there will not be any indication of bias (Sander et al., 2009). 62 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 4.7.2 Semi-Structured Interviews Semi-structured interviews are non-standardised and are often referred to as qualitative research interviews (King, Cassell, & Symon, 2004). The researcher needs to group what is to be discussed into well define themes and questions, although these may differ from interview to interview due to the nature of events within a particular organisation (Sander et al., 2009; Robson, 2002). In this case, the researcher may have to omit some questions in particular interviews and in others, additional questions may be required to explore the researcher’s research question and objectives given in accordance to the organisational context that is encountered in relation to the research topic. The order of questions may also vary depending on the flow of the conversation. The conversation (data) should be audio-recorded. 4.7.3 Unstructured or In-Depth Interviews Unstructured or in-depth interviews are informal and non-standardised. The researcher uses this type of interview to explore in depth a general area of interest (Sander et al., 2009; Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2005; Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, & Lowe 2002). They all agreed that this type of interview does not need a prearranged list of questions to work through with, although the researcher needs to have a clear idea about the particular topic under exploration. Unstructured interviews are sometimes called non-directive because the interviewee (or respondent) is given the chance to talk without obstruction about events, behaviour and beliefs in relation to the topic area; and the conversation (data) should be audio-recorded. 4.8 Data Analysis Techniques Qualitative data has various approaches to its analysis; some may be highly structured, whereas others adopt a much lower level of structure. Some of the approaches may also be highly formalised, whereas others rely much more on the researcher’s interpretation. 63 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Therefore, one could say that there is no standardised approach to analysing qualitative data (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996; Dey, 1993; Miles & Huberman, 1994 as cited in Sander et al., 2007). The data collection and analysis were done concurrently by transcribing the responses manually, and were analysed under pre-determined themes, and presented in tables where appropriate. The findings were discussed using specific anecdotal statements from the respondents to support or refute the arguments made. The study investigated two organisations GGBL and KCL, both interviews took place at the company’s offices at their premises. The first interview was with KCL and conducted on 12th April, 2016 at 12.30 pm and 1.45 pm. GGBL was the second and the interview was conducted on 26th April, 2010 at 10 am. Settings for the interviews were at a very quiet and conducive environment. All interviewees were male under the ages of 40, of the Cooperate department, and part of their company’s social media personnel. There were no female staff in the social media office of either of the companies visited. In general, the interviews went well and afterwards further data was collected from the various SM sites of the studying organisations. After manually transcribing the audio-recorded interview, the researcher went back to the respondents of the study organisations to make sure if that was exactly their view, meaning validation of the interview was done. Data was then analysed, coded, put into themes and tables. 4.9 Ethical Consideration Ethics, according to Malhotra and Birks (2007), is an imperative consideration when it comes to academic research. Responding representatives of the organisations used for this study were very hesitant when it came to giving out information on their firms that have a lot of competitors in the market. The representatives were assured of anonymity and promised that the information they provide would be analysed in such a way that nobody 64 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh could be able to trace back to any of them. Secondly, their names and any personal information were not recorded and they were asked to be themselves and could ask to remove any question that may give them any discomfort. Apart from this, proper permission was sought and the aims and objectives of the study made known to the management of the organisations and the respondents to solicit approval. The organisations were assured of the fact that the study is only for academic purposes and not for any other purpose that will conflict with their interests. When permission was finally given, the information used for this study was then sought from the nominated respondents. 4.10 Research Limitations and Practical Challenges The findings of this study cannot be generalized to all manufacturing firms in Ghana as only two companies were selected and the number is not representative of all manufacturing firms in Ghana. According to Sander et al. (2009), when describing data quality issues involving semi-structured and in-depth interviews, there is likely to be a concern surrounding the generalizability of findings from qualitative research, if the cases are normally based on the use of a small and unrepresentative number. However, these are not enough to negate the contributions the study makes. This is because the findings of this study has brought out valuable revelations which could prove valid for most manufacturing firms in Ghana. 4.11 Chapter Summary This chapter is aim at presenting the methodology used in this study. It is summarized as follows: the methodological review was discussed and the researcher suggests that the current study be an exploratory/qualitative study using a face-to-face interview approach. The research strategy is a multiple case study; the sample selection based on non- probability samples; the data collection method is primary in nature; the data analysis 65 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh technique used is qualitative data analysis; and careful attention has been given to create high reliability validity in the study. 66 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CHAPTER FIVE RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS OF FINDINGS 5.0 Introduction This chapter presents the analysis of the results and findings from the two study and the interpretations associated with the findings have been presented in line with the main objectives of the study and some emerging issues that came out from the responses. However, for the purpose of ensuring anonymity which was emphasized by the respondents, extracts from the interviews supporting the presentation of results are coded alphabetically (JJ Company and BB Company). 5.1 Presentation of Findings 5.1.1 Antecedents Underlying Social Media Usage The adoption and use of social media has become the current order for organisations, with the manufacturing firms being no exception. The findings revealed that both of the organisations in the study used similar social media tools with a few exceptions that were unique to JJ Company. Table 5.1 below shows that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Google+ were the common social media platforms the two organisations are using; however, JJ Company used WhatsApp and BlackBerry messaging in addition. Table 5.1: Digital platforms used by organisations JJ Company BB Company Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter YouTube YouTube Instagram Instagram Google+ Google+ WhatsApp Blackberry messaging (BBM) Source: Researcher’s own developed from data collection 67 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh The usage of Blackberry messaging was surprising as it was assumed that it was an application for people who own blackberry phone. However, the respondent from JJ Company stated that BBM is now an android application, which could be downloaded on any android phone and that a message on that application goes to all the people in your contacts. Therefore, if you have about a thousand contacts just one message could get to all the people and it is effective. The respondent further reiterated that the only reason why they got hooked to BBM was because of its wider reach and that people do not know how efficient this digital platform is, otherwise all organisations would have exploited its usage. Other reasons for using the above mentioned social media platforms have been presented in Table 5.2 below. Table 5.2: Reasons for choosing the digital platforms JJ Company BB Company Social media is the new trend and it is the Social media helps us to reach our old and fastest way to reach customers and the loyal customers and also find and reach general public new ones Social media is borderless and in terms Social media has a global reach so it helps reach it can reach many in various us to tell the world what we offer and new countries compared with the traditional things we bring from time to time media such as television, & radio Social media has a global reach For instance, on Instagram we have 21 We use certain social media to do selective thousand followers and we have over 774 targeting, for instance, people do not think posts on YouTube and 89 thousand viewers WhatsApp is good but for us we are of one of our post alone on YouTube. strengthening our presence on WhatsApp For us any new platform that comes if our as it is one area growing very fast. agents believe there is action on that platform we’re there. Source: Researcher’s own developed from data collection Both organisations have similar reasons for using various social media platforms; they both believe that the digital arena is the way to go in this digital age and in order to reach their customers all over the globe they have to be on the digital platforms. For instance, JJ Company believe that social media is the new trend and it is the fastest way to reach their customers and the general public and has a wider reach compared with the traditional forms 68 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh of advertisement such as the television and the radio. BB Company, expanding on the above, gave an example that on Instagram alone they have 21 thousand followers whereas a video they posted on YouTube on one of their products have so far received 89 thousand viewers. The ease with which these organisations could track and trace the number of users on their respective platforms gives the motivation to find and be on any platform that becomes available. For instance, BB Company mentioned that any new SM platform that comes, which is believe by their agents to have enough patronage. The company will be willing to join. However, as seen in Table 5.1, whereas JJ Company is on WhatsApp and BBM, BB Company are not on these platforms. Table 5.3: The most widely used platform and reasons for usage JJ Company BB Company Facebook & Twitter Facebook These two platforms have the most Facebook is well-known and widely used as audience especially Facebook. If it is very user friendly and used by both Facebook was a country on the globe it illiterates and semi-illiterates. And it is would have been considered the third most interesting that people with low level of populous country in the world education use it as well. On Facebook, you only tell people to like and there you go. Twitter is the next but people do not know much about it and its mostly for the We take advantage of the business and educated and the enlightened ones and political advertisements on Facebook to therefore the population of Facebook is advertise. about four times that of twitter Our visitors are able to leave messages and Our visitors leave us messages on our comments on our platforms. Example Facebook page on our products and where “we love your drinks” to get some to buy and sometimes “we enjoy your last event and hope suggestions with regards to some products. to have another one soon” Some also come to our page because they want to do business with us Some also leave suggestions like adding flavor to some of our products or change the bottle shapes or change bottles to plastics or cans Source: Researcher’s own developed from data collection 69 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Facebook was noted as the most widely used SM (Table 5.3, above) by the two organisations. However, JJ Company added Twitter as the other SM platform that they also use. Several reasons were given by both organisations why Facebook remains their mostly used platform. The key reason given was that Facebook has many users; also, it is user friendly and allows for feedback from the users, which helps with relationship building. Thus, with Facebook, the organisations get to know how customers feel about their products and activities through the comments they leave behind; and the organisations get to know the preferences of their customers so that they can meet them. This helps the organisations to meet the demands of their customers and stay in business. This situation also acts as a foundation for a deeper relationship between the organisations and their customers. For instance, BB Company representative said their visitors are able to express their opinions on what they prefer or wish they would do for them on their Facebook page. Similar sentiments were expressed by the representative of JJ Company (see Table 5.3). The representative at JJ Company said that one other key reason for using Facebook is that it offers a platform for business in the form of advertisement or linking up to business opportunities. By asking for outlets and ways to become agents or distributors, customers use Facebook to transact business with the organisations. For BB Company, the representative mentioned that they specifically place advertisement on Facebook (see Table 5.3). By implication, the user friendliness of Facebook and their customers’ ability to leave their concerns and wants or likes, connects the organisations to their customers, which then becomes the foundation for relationship building. 70 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 5.2 Marketing Communication Programme via Social Media Brand messages used by the study organisations brings out what makes each organisation unique. Each of the organisations send messages but the content and direction are different as expected, although the main focus is to reach out to the general public with the hope of attracting new customers in addition to maintaining the existing ones. Table 5.4: Brand messages uploaded on platforms JJ Company BB Company We do upload all our adverts on our digital Consumers have the perception that the platforms. The key messages we put on more people know of their selected brand, these platforms include: it puts that product on a different level or class of its own, and BB Company wants  The essentials of a particular the consumers to be on a higher level or to alcoholic beverage brand be seen as class persons.  The benefits consumers are going to derive from consuming our The central message is that our consumers products are in a non-comparable class  Where to get that particular beverage from and offices locations Source: Researcher’s own developed from data collection Table 5.4 shows that the two organisations upload messages about their product on these SM platforms. However, whereas JJ Company specifically tell their consumers that they will receive some benefits from consuming their alcoholic beverage products, for instance the representative said, “The key messages we put on these platforms include the benefits consumers are going to derive from consuming our products”, BB Company try to portray their products as being in a class of their own as are their consumers and that they are not comparable to any other. Several reasons might have accounted for such a sharp distinction between the messages both organisations upload on their platforms. First, one of the companies have been around for a longer period of time and have taken over other companies and therefore have a wider 71 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh consumer base and are producing in relatively very large quantities nationwide as compared to the other company, which is relatively younger. Thus, both the younger and the older population have a good knowledge of the company and their products and this might have accounted for the message they upload on their SM platforms as against other, which is relatively younger and have to convince their customers of the benefits of their products. Secondly, it could be that the company, which is specialized in highly alcoholic content beverages and soft drinks, probably needs to let their customers know that taking in their products would not have any bad effects but they stand to gain instead. The one that specializes in soft drinks and lower alcoholic beverages content is targeting the elite in society. Table 5.5: Number of times messages are updated JJ Company BB Company Messages are updated twice daily between We do update our platforms twice or thrice 6am to 9am and 4pm to 7pm. These times a day whenever the need arises. Because are noted as the high traffic periods. we do not want to fall behind, as our consumer’s visit all the time we are also These are noted times that people are on there all the time, they leave their their way to office or have closed form comments and we change or update work and go on the various platforms so we something to suit the comment left for us. try to be current. Source: Researcher’s own developed from data collection There were no clear differences between the two study organisations with regards to the number of times they updated their social media platforms with messages (Table 5.5). Each of the organisations updated the platform twice within a day taking advantage of the time of the day. JJ Company was specific with the exact times their platforms were updated giving the reason that those times have been identified as the peak periods. Thus they update in the morning while they believe workers in traffic are able to squeeze time and surf the 72 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh internet before they get to their offices and then after working hours while they are coming home or are at home. Although BB Company could not give the exact time, they were convinced that users visit their platforms all the time and leave their comments and so based on the comments they update their platform messages accordingly. It must be noted, however, that the main platform the two organisations were focused on is Facebook and it is on this platform that they interact more with their clients. Table 5.6: Strategies for attracting people to digital platforms JJ Company BB Company We do promotions on our platforms and We do several musical concerts most times sometimes we ask people to like a product we even invite artiste from outside Ghana and win T’ shirt or a bottle of drink and we give out free tickets and drinks on our platforms so people who visit and win We do sponsorships programmes and such tickets also invite their friends and advertise upcoming shows where people this is one of the ways we do attract visitors are to like a product or comment and win to our platforms tickets. We also do several promotions on the We know that as they win they are likely various platforms and offer free drinks and going to invite their friends to also come in paraphilia to visitors and sometimes we and like to also win. This is the way we offer cash for liking our platforms attract visitors to our page. We also do sponsorship programmes in the form of scholarships for needy students and football clubs. With the football clubs they also encourage their numerous funs to visit our platforms and like our page or products Source: Researcher’s own developed from data collection The study organisations adopt similar strategies in attracting users to their digital platforms (Table 5.6 above). The organisations adopt strategies like promotions by telling users to like a particular product or make a comment and win something for free. However, there is a slight distinguishing practice between the two organisations with regards to the 73 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh promotions. BB Company, in addition to offering free drinks and paraphernalia, they also offer cash sometimes. The organisations believe that by giving out free drinks and paraphernalia to users who visits their social media platforms, they are motivated to also spread the news of their win and what is trending on the platforms to their colleagues, friends and family members on the platforms or on other platforms. In so doing, the number of visits to their platform will increase as the desire to always win something would cause people to constantly visit their platforms. Both organisations do sponsorships on their platforms; but of particular interest is the approach BB Company adopts which is different from JJ Company. BB Company sponsors football teams and needy students using their platforms. Within the Ghanaian context this strategy could be a strong bait, because the government is constantly removing subsidies on utilities and academic facility user fees especially at the higher levels of education. If students get the hint that there is a sponsorship package on a particular SM platform, it would be interesting to know the number of students that could get to such platform and scramble for the few openings available. Possibly this could be the reason why the management of BB Company decided to use their platform for such activity. It is therefore not surprising that they have over 50,000 likes on Facebook and 21,000 likes on their Instagram platforms alone. 74 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Table 5.7: Incorporating feedbacks into messages JJ Company BB Company The feedbacks we get are sifted through We take the feedbacks we receive very and the laudable ones incorporated into seriously. “We believe that a business that our messages. It must be noted that about listens to customers is the ones that 90% of the feedbacks we receive from those survive” one strategy we adopt with these who visits our platforms are taken into feedbacks is that sometimes we invite some consideration and necessary actions taken of the people who visit our SM sites and leave feedbacks to visit our production unit “for instance we withdrew a product from and undertake a sensory evaluation the market because of the customer (Tasting). feedback we received” For us we take about 65% of customer Before we introduce new products we use feedback into consideration, especially the our consumers and do focus group good ones discussions on that new product, blind tasting by the consumers so by the time a product is out we have done extensive consumer research before we bring out a product. Source: Researcher’s own developed from data collection Both organisations believed that feedback from those who visit their platforms are very important as it makes them stay current and be in a better position to respond to customer needs. Therefore, they treasure and treat the user feedback with all seriousness. This is clearly seen in the statement made by the representative from BB Company (see Table 5.7). The two organisations have a common belief that, as long as they listen to their customers, they stand in a position to always meet their needs; and as long as they keep doing this they will stay in business. For instance, if JJ Company takes up to 90% of the feedback of their visitors into consideration, it shows the seriousness they attach to visitor feedback. 75 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 5.3 Benefits Derived From Social Media Platforms Table 5.8: Impact or benefits of digital platforms JJ Company BB Company We cannot actually quantify the actual Social media promotes sales but don’t benefits we derive directly from social make sales. It enables us to create a media and cannot tell how much it has presence and we cannot directly attribute contributed to our sales but we know that it the part sales it made. has open us to cross border and business opportunities where some few years ago it We know that once people become aware would have taken us a long time writing of our products on our platforms there is a letters and even visits but now it takes just high tendency that if they go out shopping, few seconds and a business is transacted. they may buy our product but how do we measure that component? I can say it We also get instant feedbacks form our creates avenues for sales but I cannot say customers and most importantly we are it has a direct impact on sales. able to track and trace what our competitors are doing so we can match A lot of people have come to know us and them or do something different. our products especially the newer additions, and they are doing so well and I will give the credit to social media because we gave them heavy presence on our digital platforms before they came to the market so we were able to create massive publicity and customer awareness which made market penetration easier. Source: Researcher’s own developed from data collection The two organisations pointed out that they believe SM brings many benefits to them. However, they were not certain as to whether they would be able to quantify or point to the exact or specific area that such benefits are evident. JJ Company representative was very clear on the above when it comes to the actual contribution they derive from their digital platforms (see Table 5.8) One would have thought that with all the concert promotions and the monetary investments made on the various digital platforms, these organisations would be able to see a direct translation or impact on their sales. However, this study found that it was not so. For instance, with regards to sales, BB Company is of the view that, although social media 76 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh promotes their products it does not make sales. This is captured in the statement the representative made. Why then should these organisations keep investing in the various digital platforms? One would have thought that as long as the actual benefits accruing from the social media platforms cannot be quantified then organisations would quit, but this is not the case. The organisations believes that though they could not quantify the exact contributions the various digital platforms make to their sales, but it gives them a certain kind of presence; and possibly this presence has created some awareness of their products and their organisation to their targeted population (see Table 5.8). It stands to reason that, although the organisations are not able to point to the exact benefits of their respective digital platforms, they are harnessing the platforms as a communication strategy where they can sell themselves to their targeted population, and as a means of market penetration. Judging by the statement made by the representative of BB Company in Table 5.8, even their new products are doing well in the market because of the heavy promotion they give to them on their respective social media platforms. This could explain why the representative from BB Company believes that, although social media do not make sales, it promotes sales. If they use their respective digital platforms as a means for market penetration and its working well then implicitly there is a huge advantage of being on such a platform. Of course, the wider reach of the digital platform in comparison with the traditional media makes it more advantageous for these organisations to remain on them. As mentioned earlier in Table 5.3, if a platform like Facebook was a nation it would be the third largest nation in the world, and what organisation would not want to promote their business in such populous nation? Thus, apart from the platforms having the numbers in terms of clients, it also has an added advantage of speed with regards to the time taken for these organisations to transact 77 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh businesses and even to reach far beyond their borders of operation. For JJ Company, one of the main benefits they derive from their digital platforms is that they are able to track and trace the activities of their competitors and match them. The implication here is that, although the organisations could not exactly point out the benefit they derive or are deriving from the various digital platforms, they could visibly see its impact on the market penetration of their products, especially the newer ones. Again, the digital platforms provide a means for them to reach clients within and outside their borders of operation and they are able to transact business with speed - something they could not do with the traditional media; and lastly, they use the platforms to gain competitive advantage over their competitors as they are able to monitor what their competitors are doing and vary theirs. 5.4 Discussions of Findings The finding are discussed in connection with the main objectives of the study, which is based on the conceptual framework in Chapter Two (2) of this study and to test the propositions which were identified. 5.4.1 Antecedents Underlying the Adoption and Use of Social Media There are several reasons underlying the adoption and use of social media by organisations. Ainin et al. (2015), in their discussion of predicting the organisational level of technology adoption, further developed some antecedents that underline the adoption of an innovation and technology which they said involves compatibility, cost effectiveness, trust and interactivity. This findings from this study confirmed that the adoption and use of social media of the study organisations goes through similar antecedents. 78 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 5.4.1.1 Compatibility For every organisation to accept innovation, it needs to be consistent with the needs or the existing practices of the organisation or those who are likely to use it. This is what compatibility is all about (Wang et al., 2010). Therefore, compatibility is seen as an important contributing factor when it comes to the selection of an innovation or a social media tool for organisations. Organisations are only likely to consider and adopt a new technology when it realises that this new technology is compatible with their work application systems. The DOI theory argued that, for an innovation to be compatible with the organisation and its potential users, it has to be able to fit into their current values, previous practices and current needs (Ainin et al., 2015). The organisation’s main concern is that the technology or social media tools selected have the ability to draw the attention of their target customers rather than what the social media tool does or does not do (Leonardi, 2009). A representative from one of the study organisations confirmed the above by saying; “For us any new platform that comes if our agents believe there is action on that platform we’re there”. According to the data collected on the two study organisations social media is now the order of the day (see Table 5.2) Nevertheless, organisations choose from among the number of social media tools, the one that has more patronage where people or user are likely to see their products, like them and become potential customers. This is the main reason why they selected Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Google+, with the most preferred being Facebook (Table 5.1). According to Facebook (2015), at the third quarter of the year 2015, it had over 1.55 billion monthly active users (Duggan, Ellison, Lampe, Lenhart, & Madden, 2015). However, numerous researchers have studied the influence of compatibility on technology adoption, and both positive and negative results were found. Examples are the studies by Low et al. (2011) and Ramdani et al. (2009) conducted on the adoption of cloud computing 79 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh where it was found that compatibility is an insignificant factor in the adoption of innovation enterprise systems and cloud computing. Hsu et al. (2007) and Wang et al. (2010) however, found that there is a significant effect of compatibility when it comes to the adoption and use of SNS and SM. 5.4.1.2 Cost Effectiveness Cost is perceived to comes with durability whereas things with a lower cost is at times seen as not durable but this perception does not stand when it comes to the adoption of a new technology. According to Alam and Noor (2009), the cost of technology is an integral part of its adoption and use to most organisations, and social media is no exception. Most research laid emphasis on the importance of cost in the adoption and use of technology and found that there is a direct and significant relationship between cost and adoption of technology. Dixon et al. (2002) attested to the fact that if the initial set-up cost to adopt technology (especially social media) is high SMEs/firms are not likely to use them. This was confirmed by a study conducted by Alam (2009) on SMEs in Malaysia, which found that the cost of adoption has a significant effect on internet adoption among SMEs. On the other hand, Burton and Soboleva (2011) and Michaelidou et al. (2011) explained that, because of the low cost of social media, even firms with relatively limited financial resources are able to adopt and use social media. Cost effectiveness has also been seen in many studies to be an important variable in the adoption of new technologies (Chong & Chan, 2012; Premkumar & Roberts, 1999). However, Sin Tan et al. (2009) are of the view that, so far as the adoption of ICT/SM are concerned, cost had no significant effect. Additionally, a study by Alam and Noor (2009) alleged that cost have no direct impact on ICT/SM adoption. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) emphasised that, so far as social media is a cost effective technology and organisations are able to have direct communication with their customers 80 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh at moderately low costs, it is most likely that an organisation will use it. Talking of cost effectiveness, Derham et al. (2011) was of the view that social media’s cost of operating is low. Even though the researcher did not ask the study organisations about the cost involved in their adoption and use of social media, the number of SM platform used by each of these organisations is more than three. If the initial cost of adoption were higher they would not have been able to adopt this number of SM tools. Therefore, it can be ascertained that there is a direct and significant relationship between cost and adoption of social media. 5.4.1.3 Trust Within the community of social networking and social media, trust is the main determining factor as social media have so much influence on a customer’s relationship with the firm (Alkhoms & Alnsour, 2013; Sajid, 2016). Trust, as suggested by Alkhoms and Alnsour (2013), relates to a customer’s willingness to rely on the firm’s social media page. There are different types of trust, according to Ainin et al. (2015), including institution-based trust, which are situational normality and structural assurance. Organisation that chooses to be on social media should show situational normality trust and promised to be very transparent in their activities because everything that goes on in the social media landscape should be certified, ensuring that companies do not forged authenticity. (For example companies may claim to have about 10,000 likes on their SM platforms but in actual fact, might not be so). All users go on SM platforms by choice that is by their own free will. Both individuals and organisations can leave such sites whenever they wish. That is why opinions created on social media are taken seriously, the more authoritative the companies get, the more seriously they are taken (Sajid, 2016). However, Laroche et al. (2013) showed that, in social media, the company that manufactures a particular product have a positive influence on the trust people will have for that product, and in turn, trust has a positive 81 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh impact on product loyalty. Ab Hamid, Akhir, and Cheng (2013) revealed that trust is the only thing that can build a good relationship between the organisation and the customer on social media, and customer retention as well. According to the organisations under study, their trust in SM platforms is one of the drivers that motivated them to move from the traditional media into SM for most of their marketing communication programmes. 5.4.1.4 Interactivity Interactivity as seen by the author as the actual point at which the users of a new technology are able to communicate well with the technology and other users. However, other studies argued that the key factors of interactivity is the designing and the implementation of any information system that is able to support the successful interaction between human and technology (Lee & Kozar, 2012). The use of SM in organisations improved communication and teamwork among employees because it brings easy interactivity between management and employees, employees and other employees; and it help with their business partners for purposes of marketing, customer relationship and reputation management, recruitment, and product/service innovation (Ainin et al., 2015; Parveen, 2012; Treem & Leonardi, 2012; Bughin, Byers & Chui, 2011). According to the study organisations, they select social media especially Facebook because it is the most well-known and widely used SM tool and also very user friendly and could easily be used by both literates and semi-illiterates. (See Tables 5.3) They continued to say that SM helps the organisations build good relationships with their customers; most of these customers leave messages on their platforms, and some of these messages and suggestions are incorporated into the organisation’s decision making. Thus, they note some of the comments and use them into their product development. As can 82 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh clearly be seen in Table 5.7, both organisations take comments seriously and even go beyond the comments to physically inviting some of their visitors to their organisations and involve them in sensory evaluations of their products onsite. Derham et al. (2011) reiterated that most firms use social media because users do not require any high IT skills, cost effective and barriers of entry or participation is also low thus making social media a very interactive technology. In addition, both study organisations attested to the fact that SM is borderless and in terms of reach it can reach many people in various countries compared with traditional media such as television, radio and print media. It has a global reach so “it helps us to tell the world what we offer and new things we bring up from time to time”. SM, according to the studying organisations, is very interactive, and it helps them to easily interact by way of communicating, sharing ideas and receiving feedback with and from customers and business partners anywhere, anytime. 5.5 Marketing Communications Programmes via Social Media Some of the marketing communications programmes like sales promotions, events and experiences, sponsorship, advertising and direct marketing are the means by which firms attempt to inform, persuade and remind consumers directly or indirectly about their products via social media (Kotler & Keller, 2006). According to Mangold and Faulds, (2009), the use of SM as part of an organisation’s promotional tool and their integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategies helps in the promotion of organisations and their products. Social media helps companies to talk to their customers, other companies and give customers the opportunity to talk to one another. An example is the promotional strategy adopted by Heineken in Puerto Rico in attracting the youth to their social media site (Chester et al., 2010). Both study organisations adopt similar strategies in attracting users to their digital platforms. They organize events such as 83 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh beach parties, musical concerts, drink ups and many more; these events are then advertised on their social media platforms. Users of these SM platforms are therefore asked to like a particular product or other and also to make a comment and win something for free. The organisations believe that, by giving out free drinks and paraphernalia and others, it serves as a motivation for users who visit their social media platforms, and this will encourage them to invite their colleagues, friends and family on the same platform or on other platforms. Apart from the promotions, the study organisations do sponsorships on their respective platforms (see Table 5.7). First, it is part of the marketing communication strategy that the organisations adopt to harness users to their SM platforms; and second, it can be considered part of their corporate social responsibility to Ghanaians. For example, one of the organisations told the researcher they do sponsorship programmes in the form of scholarships for needy students and football clubs; and this helps in attracting other students and supporters of the football clubs to their social media sites “We also do sponsorship programmes in the form of scholarships for needy students and football clubs. With the football clubs we also encourage the numerous funs to visit our platforms and like our page or products” Other marketing programmes that organisations gain via social media are customer feedback in the form of suggestions and contributions. One such suggestion made by one of the study organisations was to withdrew a product that was not doing well from the market. The study organisations made it clear that most of the messages, feedback and suggestion they received was via their Facebook page. These messages are either inquiring as to where and how to get some of the organisations’ products to buy. “Some also come to our page because they want to do business with us”. Some of the feedback helps the organisation to re-call some of their product from the market and make changes in others. 84 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh “For instance we withdrew a product from the market because of the customer feedback we received” 5.6 Benefit of Social Media to Firms SM has the power to help organisations achieve countless results on efficiencies, competitive position and customer value for very minimal cost and in less time (Shadkam & O’Hara, 2013; Schultz et al., 2012; Yu et al., 2013). SM marketing also helps in the expansion of customer value and differentiates firms from their competitors by educating customers on relationship building and creating a unique product identity (Marzouk, 2015). As confirmed by Johnson (2011), the benefits of social media to firms and users according to the opinions of marketing managers includes brand reach and awareness; consumer interactions through transactions; referrals; reputation management; create/enhance relationships with customers; promote products/increase of sales; and the more targeted acquisition of new customers. The study organisations made it clear that some of the benefit they derive from social media use are product awareness; customer feedback; tracking what competitors are doing; and having a global reach. These digital platforms are an effective means for market penetration which is a huge advantage to firms on such platforms. Although they cannot quantify the actual benefits derive from social media and cannot tell how much it has contributed to sales, the respondents in this study know that it has helped them cross borders to gain business opportunities where previously it would have taken a long time: now it takes just a few seconds and a business is transacted. One of the study organisations believes that, although social media does not make sales, it promote sales therefore they are using it as a means of harnessing communication strategy, where they can sell themselves to their targeted population. 85 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Product Awareness Many people have come to know about the study organisations and their products with the newer ones especially doing so well: credit for this was given to social media. According to the respondents the organisations normally give their new products heavy presence on their digital platforms before these products come to the market therefore creating massive publicity and customer awareness that makes market penetration easier. Customer Feedback Most of the feedback and suggestions received were via their Facebook page, with many inquiring as to where and how to get particular products to buy and offering suggestions with regards to other products. “Some also come to our page because they want to do business with us”. Some feedback may help the organisation to make the decision to withdraw a product from the market, and/or make changes to others. Tracking Competitor One of the main benefits the organisation said they derive from SM is that it gives them the opportunity to track and trace the activities of their competitors and match them. This helps them to know what others are doing in the market and can be used as a yard stick to ascertain whether they are lagging behind or out of place in the market. Simply social media platforms helps an organisation gain competitive advantage over their competitors as they are able to monitor what their competitors are doing and vary theirs accordingly. 86 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Global Reach Social media platforms provide a means for organisations to reach clients within and outside their borders of operation and they are able to transact business with speed across the globe, something they could not do with the traditional media. 5.7 Chapter Summary This chapter brought to light the presentations and discussions of findings in line with the objectives as well as research questions as discussed in Chapter One of the research thesis. The next chapter discusses the conclusions and recommendations as well the summary of the research thesis. Applicable wordings and tables have been used to interpret the responses to the interview to give a better elucidation. A qualitative analysis was used to support the findings’ relevance to the conceptual framework presented in Chapter Two of this study. Most of the findings presented in this study are shown to have some consistencies with preceding empirical studies in this area. 87 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 6.0 Introduction This chapter summarises the main findings and conclusions of the study. It begins with a summary of the entire thesis. It then proceeds with a discussion on the major findings, based on the objectives of the thesis. Conclusions, recommendations for practice and research limitations as well as directions for future lines of research are presented at the end. 6.1 Summary of the Study The aim of this study was to examine the types of social media tools that manufacturing firms use to influence the choice making of their target consumers and the core strategies that they use in harnessing user-generated content on their digital platform, the main marketing programmes, and the benefits and/or outcome of using these digital platforms. In order to achieve this, a literature review on social media was conducted. Issues discussed within the literature review included the concept, definitions and evolution of SM; what motivates SM marketing and adoption, usage and benefits of SM to manufacturing firms. The review culminated in the development of a testable conceptual framework. A whole chapter was dedicated to a brief overview of the Ghanaian industrial sector, in particular the manufacturing sector, starting from the post-independence era where issues peculiar to the said sector were discussed. The chapter included a brief descriptive background of the two study organisations. Data were gathered from two (2) respondents from two (2) manufacturing firms within Ghana, through the use of a face-to-face in-depth interviews, using an interview guide and audio recording. Data was also collected from the various SM sites of the study organisations. 88 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh After the data collection the responses were transcribed manually, they were coded, and put into themes and tables. 6.2 Major Findings Responses from the interviews were analysed and manually transcribed, coded, and put into themes and tables, which were then presented with specific anecdotal statements from the respondents to support or refute the arguments made. It was established that social media has the ability to help organisations achieve countless results on efficiencies, competitive position and customer value for very minimal cost and in less time. The major findings of the analysis are presented in the subsequent paragraphs, and are discussed in relation to the objectives of the study. Objective I The first objective was to understand the antecedents underlying social media usage by the selected manufacturing firms. Following the example of Ainin et al. (2015) there are some antecedents to follow when developing or predicting an organisational level technology adoption and innovation which they said involves compatibility, cost effectiveness, trust and interactivity. Both study organisations attested to the fact that, for any technology such as social media to be well accepted by the users (that is the firm), it must be compatible, cost effective and trust worthy. For the employees, it must be very interactive and compatible with their existing technology; and to customers trust and interactivity is the most important. 89 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Objective II Objective two was to determine the nature and kinds of marketing communication programmes are deployed on social media by these selected manufacturing firms. Mangold and Faulds (2009) suggested the use of SM as part of an organisations’ promotional tool and their integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategies helps in the promotion of organisations and their products. The study organisations argued that they use social media tools as part of their IMC which helps them bring their organisations and products to the outside world following the example of Chester et al. (2010) in the promotional strategy adopted by Heineken in Puerto Rico in attracting the youth to their social media site. Objective III The third objective was to understand the benefits that are accrued to the selected manufacturing firms from their social media usage. SM gives firms countless benefits including efficiencies, competitive position and customer value for very minimal cost and in less time (Shadkam & O’Hara, 2013; Schultz et al., 2012; Yu et al., 2013). Marzouk (2015) also said that doing marketing with social media helps in the expansion of customer value and differentiates firms from their competitors by educating customers on relationship building and creating a unique product identity. Although SM is of great benefit according to study organisation, they were not able to quantify the actual benefits derived from social media and could not tell how much it has contributed to sales. But they know that SM has helped them cross borders and given them business opportunities where some few years ago it would have taken a long time transacted. Product awareness, customer feedback and tracking what competitors are doing are also some of the benefit derived from SM. 90 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 6.3 Conclusions Based on the findings of this study the following conclusions have been made;  There are several considerations the study organisations note before they adopt a particular digital platform. These includes the reach they enjoy, the number of probable customers they could tap into, and business opportunities the digital platforms offers.  The organisations use promotions, programmes and sponsorships as a means to attract visitors onto their digital pages. These also double as their corpoarate social responsibility contributions to society.  The digital platforms bring several benefits to the organisations in terms of customer interactions, market penetration for new products, and the indirect impact it has on their sales. The study sought to employ the motivation for manufacturing firms to go on social media platforms, their actual marketing communication programmes and the benefits/outcomes that they get from social media in the Ghanaian context. It found that social media has the ability to help organisations achieve countless results on efficiencies, competitive position and customer value for minimal cost and in less time.. 6.4 Recommendations This study found that the organisations were not in a position to quantify the direct benefits derived from SM usage, therefore, it is recommended that the study organisations come out with measurable indicators that would help them quantify the direct benefit they are deriving from SM. In order for them to be in a position to compare the investment they are making with regards to the revenue generated by being on the various digital platforms. Again, the study found that the organisations take customer feedbacks very seriously 91 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh therefore inculcating most of these feedbacks into their marketing strategies and production as well. This study recommends that the organisations come up with specific policy guidelines especially as the users on their platforms keep increasing. This would help them properly harness the feedback into productive outcomes. Finally, the organisations did not have any policy guidelines regarding their choice of digital platforms, or the kinds of messages to be uploaded on the identified platforms. This study therefore, recommends that the organisations come up with policies to guide this entire process as the digital platforms becomes more and more proliferated and sophisticated. In the subsequent paragraphs, managerial implications for practice as well as theoretical implications for future lines of research are provided. 6.4.1 Recommendations for Practice In broader teams the study recommends that management should put in place mechanisms that will actually monitor the real benefit so far as sales are concern when it comes to social media marketing. Most organisations seems not to know the actual benefit they derive from SM when it comes to sales. If such mechanisms were to be put in place this will allow these manufacturing firms to realise the amount of revenue generated from social media usage. 92 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 6.4.2 Recommendations for Future Research i. This study was conducted in the food and beverage manufacturing industry, and hence outcomes could be said to be applicable to that industry alone. Replications of this study could therefore be conducted on other industries such as the pharmaceutical sector, hotels etc. ii. Only two manufacturing firms and two respondents were selected therefore the findings cannot be generalized to all manufacturing firms in Ghana. Further research should be conducted on a number of firms to ascertain whether SM has an impact on sales and revenue. iii. Since this study employed manual transcribing of the responses, coding, and putting data into themes and tables, future studies could employ a CAQDAS programme packages or NVivo to analyse the data. The gender variation should also be taken into consideration because the SM office of the study organisation which is under the cooperate department has only male staff. 93 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh REFERENCES Aaker, D.A., & Joachimsthaler, E. (2000). Brand leadership, New York; Free Press. Ab Hamid, N. R., Akhir, R. M., & Cheng, A. Y. (2013). Social media: an emerging dimension of marketing communication. Journal of Management and Marketing Research, 12, 1. Ackah, C., Adjasi, C., & Turkson, F. (2014). Scoping study on the evolution of industry in Ghana (No. 2014/075). WIDER Working Paper. Agarwal, R., & Venkatesh, V. (2002). “Assessing a firm’s web presence: a heuristic evaluation procedure for the measurement of usability”, Information Systems Research, 13(2), 168-186. Ainin, S., Parveen, F., Moghavvemi, S., Jaafar, N. I., & Mohd Shuib, N. L. (2015). Factors influencing the use of social media by SMEs and its performance outcomes. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 115(3), 570-588. Akar, E., & Topçu, B. (2011). An examination of the factors influencing consumers' attitudes toward social media marketing. Journal of Internet Commerce, 10(1), 35-67. Alam, S.S. (2009). “Adoption of internet in Malaysian SMEs”, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 16(2), 240-255. Alam, S. S., & Noor, M. K. M. (2009). “ICT adoption in small and medium enterprises: an empirical evidence of service sectors in Malaysia”, International Journal of Business and Management, 4(2), 112-125. Alkhoms, A., & Alnsour, M. S. (2013). “Social media marketing and relationship quality: Zain Jordan customers’ perspective”, European Journal of Business and Management, 5(25), 2222 - 2839. Altimeter Group. (2009). The world’s most valuable brands. Who’s most engaged? www.engagement.com. Amichai-Hamburger, Y., & Ben-Artzi, E. (2000). The relationship between extraversion and neuroticism and the different uses of the internet. Computers in Human Behavior, 16, 441–449. Amichai-Hamburger, Y., & Vinitzky, G. (2010). Social network use and personality. Computers in human behavior, 26(6), 1289-1295 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, XXXII(3), 305–316. Archambault, A., & Grudin, J. (2012). A longitudinal study of Facebook, LinkedIn, and twitter use. In Proc. SIGCHI Conf. Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '12), 27412750, NY, USA, ACM. 94 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Ardichvili, A., Page, V., & Wentling, T. (2003). “Motivation and barriers to participation in virtual knowledge-sharing communities of practice”, Journal of Knowledge Management, 7(1), 64-77. Baah-Nuakoh, A. (1997). Studies on the Ghanaian Economy, I. Accra: Ghana University Press. Barnes, N. G., & Mattson, E. (2008). Still setting the pace in social media: The first longitudinal study of usage by the largest US charities. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research. Bercovici, J. (2010). Who coined ‘social media’? Web pioneers compete for credit,”. Forbes. Disponivel. 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. Boateng, R. (2014). Research Made Easy, Accra: Pearl Richards Foundation. Bogdan, R., & Taylor, S. J. (1998). The social construction of humanness: Relationships with people with severe retardation. Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource, 242-258. Borker, D. R. (2014). Social Media Marketing in Emerging Economies: A Mongolian Case Study. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 6(2), 31. Bower, M., & Sturman, D. (2015). What are the educational affordances of wearable technologies?. Computers & Education, 88, 343-353. Boyd, D., & Ellison, N. (2008). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210—230. Boyd, H.W., Westfall, R., & Stasch, S.F. (2002). Marketing Research-Text & Cases, 7th ed, AITBS, New Delhi. Bregman, A., & Haythornthwaite, C. (2001). Radicals of presentation in persistent conversation. Proceedings of the 34th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society Press. doi:10.1109/ HICSS.2001.926499 Bruhn, M., Schoenmueller, V., & Schäfer, D. B. (2012). Are Social Media replacing traditional media in terms of brand equity creation? Management Research Review, 35(9), 770-790. Brown, I., & Russell, J. (2007). Radio frequency identification technology: An exploratory study on adoption in the South African retail sector. International journal of information management, 27(4), 250-265. Bughin, J., Byers, A. H., & Chui, M. (2011). How social technologies are extending the organisation. McKinsey Quarterly, 20(11), 1-10. Burton, S., & Soboleva, A. (2011). Interactive or reactive? Marketing with Twitter. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 28(7), 491-499. 95 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Carr, N., (2010). The shallows: How the internet is changing the way we think, read and remember. Atlantic Books Ltd. Calloway, J., & Reach, C. S. (2011). Social Media Management Tools. GP Solo, 28, 54. Casalo, L., Flavian, C., & Guinahu, M. (2007). The impact of participation in virtual brand communities on consumer trust and loyalty. The case of free software. Online Information Review 31(6). 775-792 Cassell, C., & Symon, G. (2006). Taking qualitative methods in organisation and management research seriously. Qualitative Research in Organisations and Management: An International Journal, 1(1), 4-12. Casswell, S., & Maxwell, A. (2005). Regulation of alcohol marketing: a global view. Journal of Public Health Policy, 343-358. Chester, J., Montgomery, K., & Dorfman, L. (2010). Alcohol marketing in the digital age. eSocialSciences.565. Chong, A.Y.-L., & Chan, F.T. (2012). Structural equation modelling for multi-stage analysis on radio frequency identification (RFID) diffusion in the health care industry, Expert Systems with Applications, 39(10), 8645-8654. Christodoulides, G. (2009). “Branding in the post-internet era”. Marketing Theory, 9(1), 141-4. Christodoulides, G., & Jevons, C., Blackshaw, P. (2011). The voice of the consumer speaks forcefully in brand identity. Journal of Adverting Research, 51(1), 101-11. Chua, A.Y.K., Goh, D.H., & Ang, R.P. (2012). Web 2.0 applications in government websites: prevalence, use and correlations with perceived website quality, Online Information Review, 36(2), 175-195. Churchill, G. A., & Iacobucci, D. (2009). Marketing Research: Methodological Foundations. Cengage Learning. Chung, C., & Austria, K. (2010). Social Media Gratification and Attitude toward Social Media Marketing Messages: A Study of the Effect of Social Media Marketing Messages on Online Shopping Value. Proceedings of the Northeast Business & Economics Association. Clark, H. H., & Brennan, S. E. (1991). Grounding in communication. In L. B. Resnick, J. M. Levine, & S. D. Teasley (Eds.), Perspectives on socially shared cognition ( 127–149). Washington, D C.: American Psychological Association. Clark, M., & Melancon, J. (2013). The influence of social media investment on relational outcomes: A relationship marketing perspective. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 5(4), 132. Coffey, A., & Atkinson, P. (1996). Making Sense of Qualitative Data, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage. Coleman, L. J., Chandler, K., & Gu, J. (2013). Social media - a moving target. Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness, 7(1), 73. 96 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Collis, J., & Hussey, R. (2013). Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Palgrave Macmillan. Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications. Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications, Incorporates. Deans, P. C. (2011). The impact of social media on C-level roles. MIS Quarterly Executive, 10(4), 187-200. Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2000). Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, US: Sage. Derham, R., Cragg, P., & Morrish, S. (2011, July). Creating Value: An SME and Social Media. In PACIS, 53. Dey, I. (1993). Qualitative Data Analysis, London, Routledge. DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for social networking at work. Proceedings of the 2008 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 711–720. New York: ACM. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 Dixon, T., Thompson, B., McAllister, P., & Britain, G. (2002). The Value of ICT for SMEs in the UK: A Critical Literature Review: Research. Small Business Service. Donath, J., Karahalios, K., & Viegas, F. (1999). Visualizing conversation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 4(4). doi:10.1111/j.1083- 6101.1999.tb00107.x Dooley, D. (2007). Social Research Methods, Fourth Edition, Prentice Hall of India Private Limited, New Delhi Duan, W., Gu, B., & Whinston, A. B. (2008). Do online reviews matter? — An empirical investigation of panel data. Decision support systems, 45(4), 1007-1016. Duggan, M., Ellison, N. B., Lampe, C., Lenhart, A., & Madden, M. (2015). Social media update 2014. Pew Research Center, 9. Dumpe, M. (2015). Online Marketing Issues of Real Estate Companies: A Case of Latvia. Baltic Journal of Real Estate Economics and Construction Management, 3(1), 130-139. Dwyer, P. (2007). Measuring the value of electronic word of mouth and its impact in consumer communities. Journal of Interactive marketing, 21(2), 63-79. Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R., & Lowe, A. (2002). Management Research: An Introduction (2nd ed.), London, Sage. Edosomwan, S., Prakasan, S.K., Kouame, D., Watson, J., & Seymour, T. (2011). The history of social media and its impact on business. The Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship. 16(3) 97 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Efimova, L., & Grudin, J. (2008). Crossing boundaries: Digital literacy in enterprises. In C. Lankshear & M. Knobel (Eds.), Digital literacies, 203–226. New York, NY: Peter Lang Eldabi, T., Irani, Z., Paul, R. J., & Love, P. E. (2002). Quantitative and qualitative decision- making methods in simulation modelling. Management Decision, 40(1), 64-73. Engström, A., & Salehi-.Sangari, E. (2007). Assessment of Business-to-business (B2B) E- marketplaces' Performance (Doctoral dissertation, Luleå University of Technology). Erdoğmuş, İ. E., & Cicek, M. (2012). The impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 58, 1353-1360. Ernst and Young (2001). “Advancing with e-commerce”, (Commissioned by the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) of Australia) available at: www.noie.gov.au. Farrell, R. G., Kellogg, W. A., & Thomas, J. C. (2008). The participatory web and this socially resilient enterprise. Proceedings of CSCW, IBM TJ Waston Research Center, 64-74. Frey, B. (2002). “How does pay influence motivation?”, in Frey, B. and Osterloh, M. (Eds), Successful Management by Motivation, Springer, New York, NY, 55-8. Ghauri, P. N., & Grønhaug, K. (2005). Research methods in business studies: A practical guide. Pearson Education. GoG (2011b). ‘Industrial Sector Support Programme’. Accra: Ministry of Trade and Industry. Grudin, J. (2006). Enterprise knowledge management and emerging technologies. Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society Press. doi:10.1109/HICSS.2006.156 Gunelius, S. (2011). 10 Laws of Social Media Marketing. Retrieved June, 10, 2012. Hartson, R.H. (2003), ‘‘Cognitive, physical, sensory, and functional affordances in interaction design’’, Behaviour and Information Technology, 22(5), 315-38. Heller Baird, C., & Parasnis, G. (2011). From social media to social customer relationship management. Strategy & Leadership, 39(5), 30-37. Hoffman, D. L., & Fodor, M., (2010). “Can You Measure the ROI of Your Social Media Marketing?” MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(1), 41–49. Hsu, C., Lu, H., & Hsu, H. (2007). “Adoption of the mobile internet: an empirical study of multimedia message services (MMS)”, The International Journal of Management Science, 35(6), 715-726. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html. http://www.yourdictionary.com 98 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh ISSER 2010 The state of the Ghanaian economy Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), Accra Web of Science® Times Cited: 2 Jackson, M., Hastings, G., Wheeler, C., Eadie, D., & MacKintosh, A. (2000). Marketing alcohol to young people: implications for industry regulation and research policy. Addiction; 9(5S 4):S597-S6o8. Jackson, A., Yates, J., & Orlikowski, W. (2007). Corporate blogging: Building community through persistent digital talk. Proceedings of the 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society Press. doi:10.1109/HICSS.2007.155 Järvinen, J., Tollinen, A., Karjaluoto, H., & Jayawardhena, C. (2012). Digital and Social Media Marketing Usage in B2b Industrial Section. Marketing Management Journal, 22(2). Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robinson, A. J., & Weigel, M. (2012). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century, an occasional paper written for the MacArthur Foundation. Jeon, S. H., Kim, Y. G., & Koh, J. (2011). Individual, social, and organisational contexts for active knowledge sharing in communities of practice. Expert Systems with applications, 38(10), 12423-12431. Jick, T. D. (1979). Mixing qualitative and quantitative methods: Triangulation in action. Administrative science quarterly, 602-611. Johnson, R. L. (2011). Corporate strategy and the social networking phenomena. Journal of Service Science (Online), 4(2), 1. Jussila, J. J., Kärkkäinen, H., & Aramo-Immonen, H. (2014). Social media utilization in business-to-business relationships of technology industry firms. Computers in Human Behavior, 30, 606-613. Kapferer, J. N. (2012). The new strategic brand management: Advanced insights and strategic thinking. Kogan page publishers. Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business horizons, 53(1), 59-68. 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. Keller, K. L. (2001). Building customer-based brand equity: A blueprint for creating strong brands. Keller, K.L. (2009). “Building strong brands in a modern marketing communication environment”, Journal of Marketing Communication, 15(2/3). Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business horizons, 54(3), 241-251. 99 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 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. Killick, T. (2010). Development Economics in Action: A Study of Economic Policies in Ghana, 2nd edition. New York, NY: Rutledge. King, N., Cassell, C., & Symon, G. (2004). Using templates in the thematic analysis of texts. Essential guide to qualitative methods in organisational research, 256-270. Kinsey, J. (2010). Five Social Media Tools for the Extension Toolbox. Journal of Extension. Atlantic & Ocean Counties Rutgers Cooperative Extension New Brunswick, New Jersey Article Number 5TOT7, 48(5) Knoll, J. (2015). Advertising in social media: a review of empirical evidence. International Journal of Advertising, 1-35. Kosonen, M., & Kianto, A. (2009). Applying wikis to managing knowledge—A socio- technical approach. Knowledge and Process Management, 16, 23–29. Kotler, P., and Keller K. L. (2009). Marketing Management (12th ed.) Prentice Person Education Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA Kotler, P., & Keller K. L. (2012). Marketing Management (14th edition). Prentice Person Education Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L., (2006). Marketing management, 12th ed., New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. 17. Lavidge, RJ and Steiner, GA 1961. Kozinets, R. V. (2002). The field behind the screen: using netnography for marketing research in online communities. Journal of Marketing Research, 13(1). 56-71 Kozinets, R. V., de Valck, K., Wojnicki, A. C., & Wilner, S. J. S. (2010). “Networked narratives: understanding word-of-mouth marketing in online communities”, Journal of Marketing, 74(3), 71-89. Kucuk, S. U., & Krishnamurthy, S. (2007). An analysis of consumer power on the Internet. Technovation, 27(1), 47-56. Kumar, R. (2005): Research Methodology: A Step-By-Step Guide For Beginners. 2nd ed. London: Sage Publications. Lange-Faria, W., & Elliot, S. (2012). Understanding the role of social media in destination marketing. Tourismos. An International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism, 7(1). Laroche, M., Habibi, M. R., & Richard, M. O. (2013). “To be or not to be in social media: How brand loyalty is affected by social media?”, International Journal of Information Management, 33, 76 – 82. 100 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Lee, Y., & Kozar, K. (2012). “Developing a theory of website usability: an exploratory study to identify constructs and nomological networks”, Decision Support Systems, 52(2), 450-463. Leonardi, P. M. (2009). Crossing the implementation line: The mutual constitution of technology and organizing across development and use activities. Communication Theory, 19(3), 278-310. Leyson, M. S. (2011). International Policy Transfer and National Climate Change Policies. Lim, J. S., Al-Aali, A., Heinrichs, L., & John, H. K. (2013). “Testing alternative models of individuals’ social media involvement and satisfaction”, Computers in Human Behaviour, 29, 2816 – 2828. Lin, H. F. (2007). ‘‘Effects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on employee knowledge sharing intentions’’, Journal of Information Science, 33(2), 135-49. Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry, 75. Sage. Low, C., Chen, Y., & Wu, M. (2011). “Understanding the determinants of cloud computing adoption”, Industrial Management & Data Systems, 111(7), 1006-1023. Malhotra, N. K., & Birks, D. F. (2007): Marketing Research: An Applied Approach. (3rd European Ed). Spain: Pearson Educational Limited Mangold, W. G., & Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business horizons, 52(4), 357-365. Marzouk, W. G. (2015). Usage and Effectiveness of Social Media Marketing in Egypt: An Organisation Perspective. Jordan Journal of Business Administration, 12(1). Mayfield, A. (2008). What is social media? McKnight, D. H., Cummings, L. L., & Chervany, N. L. (1998). “Initial trust formation in new organisational relationships”, Academy of Management Review, 23(3), 473- 490 McMillan, J. H., & Schumacher, A. (2001). Research in Education, Addison-Wesley Longman, New York, NY. Meijer, A., & Thaens, M. (2010). “Alignment 2.0: strategic use of new internet technologies in government”, Government Information Quarterly, 27(2), 113-121. Mejova, Y., Schepper, K. D., Bergman, L., & Lu, J. (2011). Reuse in the wild: An empirical and ethnographic study of organizational content reuse. Proceedings of the 2011 Annual Conference on Human factors in Computing Systems, 2877– 2886. New York: ACM. doi:10.1145/1978942.1979370 Meske, C., & Stieglitz, S. (2013). Adoption and use of social media in small and medium- sized enterprises. In Practice-Driven Research on Enterprise Transformation, 61- 75. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. 101 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Meurer, W. J., Frederiksen, S. M., Majersik, J. J., Zhang, L., Sandretto, A., & Scott, P. A. (2007). Qualitative data collection and analysis methods: the INSTINCT trial. Academic Emergency Medicine, 14(11), 1064-1071. Michaelidou, N., Siamagka, N. T., & Christodoulides, G. (2011). Usage, barriers and measurement of social media marketing: An exploratory investigation of small and medium B2B brands. Industrial Marketing Management, 40(7), 1153-1159. Miller, C.C. (2009), “Who’s driving Twitter’s popularity? Not teens”, New York Times, 25 August Milewicz, C., & Saxby, C. (2013). Leaders' social media usage intentions for in-bound customer communications. Management Research Review, 36(9), 849-867. Miles, M.B., & Huberman, A.M. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis (2nd ed.), Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage. Mislove, A., Marcon, M., Gummadi, K. P., Druschel, P., & Bhattacharjee, B. (2007, October). Measurement and analysis of online social networks. In Proceedings of the 7th ACM SIGCOMM conference on Internet measurement, 29-42. ACM. Mora, J. D., & Barnes, N. G. (2011). “Online media in fast growing companies: Adoption, usage and relation to revenue”, Marketing Management Journal, 128 -144 Muntinga, D. G., Moorman, M., & Smit, E. G. (2011). Introducing COBRAs: Exploring motivations for brand-related social media use. International Journal of Advertising, 30(1), 13-46. Myers, M. D. (2013). Qualitative research in business and management. Sage. Neti, S. (2011). Social media and its role in marketing. International Journal of Enterprise Computing and Business Systems, 1(2), 1-15. Nicholls, J. (2012). Every day, everywhere: alcohol marketing and social media—current trends. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 47(4), 486-493. Nielsen, (2009). Nielsen Global Online Consumer survey: Trust, Value and Engagement in Advertising. Retrieved Febrary, 2016, from http:/hk.acnielsen.com O’ Mahony, S., & Barley, S. R. (1999). Do telecommunications technologies affect work and organisations? The state of our knowledge. In B. Staw & R. Sutton (Eds.), Research in organisational behavior, 21, 125–161. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Okazaki, S., & Taylor, Y. (2013). Social media and international advertising: Theoretical challenges and future directions. International Marketing Review 30(1), 56-71 Olsen, W. (2004). Triangulation in social research: qualitative and quantitative methods can really be mixed. Developments in sociology, 20, 103-118. O'Reilly, T. (2005). What is Web 2.0. Design Patterns and Businness Models for the Next Generation of Software. Osterloh, M., & Frey, B. S. (2000). Motivation, knowledge transfer, and organisational forms. Organisation science, 11(5), 538-550. 102 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Panneerslvan, R. (2007). Research Methodology. Prentice Hall, New Delhi. Parveen, F. (2012). Impact of Social Media Usage on Organisations. In PACIS, 192. Patino, A., Pitta, D. A., & Quinones, R. (2012). Social media’s emerging importance in market research. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 29(3), 233-237. Pendleton, A. (2004). The real face of corporate social responsibility Consumer Policy Review, 14(3), 77-82. Peters, K., Chen, Y., Kaplan, A. M., Ognibeni, B., & Pauwels, K. (2013). Social media metrics—A framework and guidelines for managing social media. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), 281-298. Pirkkalainen, H., & Pawlowski, J. (2014). Collaborating on ideas: Tackling barriers to open education. In World conference on educational multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications (1), 1844-1852. Pookulangara, S., & Koesler, K. (2011). Cultural influence on consumers' usage of social networks and its' impact on online purchase intentions. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 18(4), 348-354. Pookulangara, S. (2011). Consumers’ use of Consumer-Generated-Media While Shopping: A Conceptual Outlook Using Technology Acceptance Model3 and Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions. International Journal of Electronic Commerce Studies, 2(1), 57-66. Potter, W. J. (1996). An analysis of thinking and research about qualitative methods. Psychology Press. Pradiptarini, C. (2011). Social Media marketing: measuring its effectiveness and identifying the target market. UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research XIV. Pratap, S., Gupta, A., Mateen, A., & Mahto, K. (2016). Playing games, receiving gifts, creating experiences and building brands. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 34(4). Premkumar, G., & Roberts, M. (1999). Adoption of new information technologies in rural small businesses. Omega, 27(4), 467-484. Ramdani, B., Kawalek, P., & Lorenzo, O. (2009). Predicting SMEs' adoption of enterprise systems. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 22(1/2), 10-24. Rober, M. B., & Cooper, L. P. (2011). Capturing knowledge via an “Intrapedia”: A case study. Proceedings of the 44th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society Press. doi:10.1109/ hicss.2011.94 Robson, C. (2002) Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner- Researchers, Second Edition, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. 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. 103 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Rogers, E.M. (1983). Diffusion of innovations, (3rd ed.) The Free Press, New York, NY. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary educational psychology, 25(1), 54-67. Safko, L., & Brake, D. K. (2009). The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools & Strategies for Business Success, Hoboken, New Jersey. Sajid, S. I. (2016). Social Media and Its Role in Marketing. Business and Economics Journal. Sarantakos, S. (1998). Methods of data collection: experiments and focus groups. In Social Research, 165-187. Macmillan Education UK. Sashi, C.M. (2012). Customer engagement, buyer-seller relationship, and social media. Management decision, 50(2), 253-272. Saunders, M., Lewis, P., and Thornhill, A. (2007). Research Methods for Business Students, 4th edition Pearson Education Limited Edinburgh Gate Harlow Essex CM20 2JE England Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2009). Research Methods for Business Students, 5th edition Pearson Education Limited Edinburgh Gate Harlow Essex CM20 2JE England Sawchuk, P. H. (2011). Researching workplace learning: An overview and critique. The Sage handbook of workplace learning, 141-153. Schultz, R. J., Schwepker, C. H., & Good, D. J. (2012). An exploratory study of social media in business-to-business selling: salesperson characteristics, activities and performance. The Marketing Management Journal, 22(2), 76-89. Shadkam, M., & O'Hara, J. (2013). Social commerce dimensions: The potential leverage for marketers. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 18(1), 1. Sherman, D. K., Hartson, K. A., Binning, K. R., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Garcia, J., Taborsky- Barba, S., & Cohen, G. L. (2013). Deflecting the trajectory and changing the narrative: How self-affirmation affects academic performance and motivation under identity threat. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(4), 591. Shirky, C. (2008). Here comes everybody: The power of organizing without organisations. Penguin. Shojaee, S., & Azman, A. (2013). “An evaluation of factors affecting brand awareness in the context of social media in Malaysia”, Asian Social Science, 9(17: 72 – 78). Sinclaire, J. K., & Vogus, C. E. (2011). Adoption of social networking sites: an exploratory adaptive structuration perspective for global organisations. Information Technology and Management, 12(4), 293-314. Singleton Jr, R. A., Straits, B. C., & Straits, M. M. (1993). Approaches to social research. Oxford University Press. 104 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Smithee, B. (2011). How social media is expanding the definitions of MR, and as leaders why it is largely your responsibility. Standage, T. (2013). Writing on the Wall: Social Media - The First 2,000 Years. Bloomsbury Publishing. Stephen, A. T., & Galak, J. (2010). The complementary roles of traditional and social media publicity in driving marketing performance. Fontainebleau: INSEAD working paper collection. Stelzner, M. A. (2011). Social media marketing industry report. Social Media Examiner, 41. Storey, M. A., Singer, L., Cleary, B., Figueira Filho, F., & Zagalsky, A. (2014 May). The (r) evolution of social media in software engineering. In Proceedings of the on Future of Software Engineering, 100-116. ACM. Swedowsky, M. (2009). Improving Customer Experience by Listening and Responding to Social Media. Retrieved January, 8, 2010. Sin Tan, K., Choy Chong, S., Lin, B., & Cyril Eze, U. (2009). Internet-based ICT adoption: evidence from Malaysian SMEs. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 109(2), 224-244. Tornatzky, L. G., Fleischer, M., & Chakrabarti, A. K. (1990). Processes of technological innovation. Lexington Books. Treem J. W., & Leonardi, P. M. (2012). Social Media Use in Organisations: Exploring the Affordances of Visibility, Editability, Persistence, and Association. Communication Yearbook, 36, 143-189. Trusov, M., Bucklin, R.E., & Pauwels, K. (2009). “Effects of word-of-mouth versus traditional marketing, findings from an internet social networking site”, Journal of Marketing, 73(9), 90-102. Tsimonis, G., & Dimitriadis, S. (2014). Brand strategies in social media. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 32(3), 328-344. Twumasi, P.A. (2001). Social Research in Rural Communities, Ghana Universities Press: Accra. Vuori, V., & Okkonen, J. (2012). Knowledge sharing motivational factors of using an intra- organisational social media platform. Journal of knowledge management, 16(4), 592-603. Walters, G. D. (2000). Beyond behavior: Construction of an overarching psychological theory of lifestyles. Greenwood Publishing Group. Wamba, S. F., & Carter, L. (2014). Social media tools adoption and use by SMES: An empirical study. Journal of Organisational and End User Computing (JOEUC), 26(2), 1-17. 105 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Wang, Y. M., Wang, Y. S., & Yang, Y. F. (2010). Understanding the determinants of RFID adoption in the manufacturing industry. Technological forecasting and social change, 77(5), 803-815. Weber, T. (2010). Why companies watch your every Facebook, YouTube, Twitter move. Retrieved November 2010, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11450923 Wellman, B., Salaff, J., Dimitrova, D., Garton, L., Gulia, M., & Haythornthwaite, C. (1996). Computer networks as social networks: Collaborative work, telework, and virtual community. Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 213–238. doi:10.1146/annurev. soc.22.1.213 Whiting, A., & Williams, D. (2013). Why people use social media: a uses and gratifications approach. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 16(4), 362-369. www.CommerceGhana.com, (2012). Accessed 13/05/2016 www.dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english www.estockanalysisblog.com/.../top-10-companies-of-ghana-club-100 Yadav, M. S., De Valck, K., Hennig-Thurau, T., Hoffman, D. L., & Spann, M. (2013). Social commerce: a contingency framework for assessing marketing potential. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), 311-323. Yin, R. (2009). Case Study Research: Design and Methods. (4th ed.). London: Sage Publications Limited Yu, Y., Duan, W., & Cao, Q. (2013). The impact of social and conventional media on firm equity value: A sentiment analysis approach. Decision Support Systems, 55(4), 919-926. Zeiller, M., & Schauer, B. (2011). Adoption, motivation and success factors of social media for team collaboration in SMEs. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Technologies, 4. ACM. Zhuang, W., Hsu, M. K., Brewer, K. L., & Xiao, Q. (2012). Paradoxes of social networking sites: an empirical analysis. Management Research Review, 36(1), 33-49. Zickuhr, K. (2010). Generations 2010. Pew Internet and American Life Project. Retrieved from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Generations-2010.aspx 106 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh APPENDIX ADOPTION AND USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MANUFACTURING FIRMS – SOME EVIDENCE FROM KASAPREKO COMPANY LIMITED AND GUINNESS GHANA BREWERIES LIMITED I am Yaa Amponsah-Twumasi, a Masters of Philosophy in Marketing student at the University of Ghana Business School, Legon. This research is in partial fulfilment of requirements leading to the award of a Master of Philosophy degree in Marketing. Responses provided for the purposes of this research will be treated confidentially and used for academic purposes only. INTERVIEW GUIDE a. Place of interview: ………………………………………………………………… b. Name of interviewee (optional): ……………………………………………………. c. Sex: ………………………………………………………………………………… d. Age: ………………………………………………………………………………... e. Number of years that interviewee has worked with the Organisation: ……………………………………………………………………………………… f. Position of interviewee: …………………………………………………………… Questions 1. Identify the various digital platforms the producers (Organisations) are using. i. Can you tell me the various social media platforms that your organisation is using? ii. Why are you using these social media platforms? E.g. ( Facebook and YouTube) iii. In your view which of the above mentioned platforms do you use quite often and why? iv. Are there other platforms your company is preparing to get hook onto? v. Why? 107 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 2. Analyse promotional messages on platform i. What kinds of messages do you upload on your social media platforms? ii. Explain to me the rationale for uploading such messages? iii. What informed the messages you put on the social media platforms? iv. How long does it takes before modifications are made on messages that are uploaded on your social media platforms? v. What are some of the reasons that inform modifications of uploaded messages? 3. Investigate strategies put in place to attract people i. How are customers attracted to your social media platforms? ii. How do you maintain constant traffic to your platforms? iii. Which of your platforms do you think you has a high patronage? iv. What do you think has contributed to the high patronage? (Ask this question if the organisations uses more than one social media platform) v. Have you provided an avenue for customer feedback? vi. What kinds of feedbacks do you get from customers/target audience who interact with the company via your social media platforms? vii. What do you do with the feedback? viii. Is social media having any impact on your sales? ix. What, in your view, are the key benefits your firm is reaping by being on social media? x. How is social media linked to your firm’s sales, profits, and market share, as well as customer base? 108