IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bcp/journl/v5y2021i2p109-118.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Social Media in Disseminating Information to Small-Scale Businesses in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe

Author

Listed:
  • Enesiti Chirume

    (PhD Student, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Catholic University of Zimbabwe)

Abstract

Many scholars and researchers have since established that social media usage by businesses is gaining prominence in the global markets. This current paper explores the impact of social media in disseminating information to small-scale businessesin the town of Chinhoyiin Zimbabwe. The central objective of the study is to identify the role of social media in the dissemination of information to small-scale businesses in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe. Thestudy adopts qualitative research methodand uses purposive sampling to administer a questionnaire to educe responses from fifty-(50) small-scale business owners in Chinhoyi. The study provides insight into the advances in social media that are enabling social and cultural changes in business. The major findings of the study are that, social media may help in novel ways to congregate geographical markets for higher sales, transform traditional business approaches, and initiate the much needed and viable consumer-focused communication. The study contributes to the understanding of the impact of social media in disseminating information to small-scale businesses in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe. Owing to the increase in social media usage more than the traditional platforms, for information consumption, the study argues that. (i) Where clients frequent should naturally become important for business, since business is about clients. (ii) In addition, now that social media is so available to anyone with an internet connection and even more now for everyone with a smartphone, small-scalebusinesses should embrace it for information dissemination.Overall, the study recommends that social media should be a platform to increase business brand awareness and facilitate direct feedback from customers.

Suggested Citation

  • Enesiti Chirume, 2021. "The Impact of Social Media in Disseminating Information to Small-Scale Businesses in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 5(2), pages 109-118, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:5:y:2021:i:2:p:109-118
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/Digital-Library/volume-5-issue-2/109-118.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.rsisinternational.org/virtual-library/papers/the-impact-of-social-media-in-disseminating-information-to-small-scale-businesses-in-chinhoyi-zimbabwe/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fischer, Eileen & Reuber, A. Rebecca, 2011. "Social interaction via new social media: (How) can interactions on Twitter affect effectual thinking and behavior?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 1-18, January.
    2. Kaplan, Andreas M. & Haenlein, Michael, 2010. "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 59-68, January.
    3. Manfred Bruhn & Verena Schoenmueller & Daniela B. Schäfer, 2012. "Are social media replacing traditional media in terms of brand equity creation?," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(9), pages 770-790, August.
    4. Brodie, Roderick J. & Ilic, Ana & Juric, Biljana & Hollebeek, Linda, 2013. "Consumer engagement in a virtual brand community: An exploratory analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 105-114.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khoirina Kencana Ningrum & Ratna Roostika, 2021. "The influence of social media marketing activities on consumer engagement and brand knowledge in the culinary business in Indonesia," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(5), pages 34-45, July.
    2. Abdulla H. Fetais & Raed S. Algharabat & Abdullah Aljafari & Nripendra P. Rana, 2023. "Do Social Media Marketing Activities Improve Brand Loyalty? An Empirical Study on Luxury Fashion Brands," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 795-817, April.
    3. Faseeh Amin Beig & Mohammad Furqan Khan, 2018. "Impact of Social Media Marketing on Brand Experience: A Study of Select Apparel Brands on Facebook," Vision, , vol. 22(3), pages 264-275, September.
    4. Nour El Houda Ben Amor & Mohamed Nabil Mzoughi, 2023. "Do Millennials’ Motives for Using Snapchat Influence the Effectiveness of Snap Ads?," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, July.
    5. Elia, Gianluca & Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio & Urbinati, Andrea, 2020. "Implementing open innovation through virtual brand communities: A case study analysis in the semiconductor industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    6. Vasile-Daniel Păvăloaia & Elena-Mădălina Teodor & Doina Fotache & Magdalena Danileţ, 2019. "Opinion Mining on Social Media Data: Sentiment Analysis of User Preferences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-21, August.
    7. Simona VINEREAN, 2017. "Importance of Strategic Social Media Marketing," Expert Journal of Marketing, Sprint Investify, vol. 5(2), pages 28-35.
    8. Benjamin Appiah Osei & Ama Nyenkua Abenyin, 2016. "Applying the Engell–Kollat–Blackwell model in understanding international tourists’ use of social media for travel decision to Ghana," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 265-284, September.
    9. Park, Jungkun & Hyun, Hyowon & Thavisay, Toulany, 2021. "A study of antecedents and outcomes of social media WOM towards luxury brand purchase intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    10. Folajimi Ashiru & Franklin Nakpodia & Jacqueline J You, 2023. "Adapting emerging digital communication technologies for resilience: evidence from Nigerian SMEs," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 327(2), pages 795-823, August.
    11. Saxton, Gregory D. & Guo, Chao, 2020. "Social media capital: Conceptualizing the nature, acquisition, and expenditure of social media-based organizational resources," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    12. Smith, Claudia & Smith, J. Brock & Shaw, Eleanor, 2017. "Embracing digital networks: Entrepreneurs' social capital online," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 18-34.
    13. Raed S. Algharabat & Nripendra P. Rana, 0. "Social Commerce in Emerging Markets and its Impact on Online Community Engagement," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-22.
    14. Stachowiak-Krzyżan Magda, 2021. "Involvement of Generation Z in the Communication Activities of Clothing Brands in Social Media — The Case of Poland," Marketing of Scientific and Research Organizations, Sciendo, vol. 41(3), pages 115-136, September.
    15. Caiwei Ma & Norman Au & Lianping Ren, 0. "Biased minds experience improved decision-making speed and confidence on social media: a heuristic approach," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-32.
    16. Saso Josimovski & Dimitar Jovevski, 2014. "Critical Success Factors On Company’S Business Performances Through Web-Based Social Networks," Journal Articles, Center For Economic Analyses, pages 5-12, June.
    17. Harrigan, Paul & Evers, Uwana & Miles, Morgan & Daly, Timothy, 2017. "Customer engagement with tourism social media brands," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 597-609.
    18. Aqib Habib & Muhammad Irfan & Mohsin Shahzad, 2022. "Modeling the enablers of online consumer engagement and platform preference in online food delivery platforms during COVID-19," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-18, December.
    19. Habibi, Mohammad Reza & Laroche, Michel & Richard, Marie-Odile, 2014. "Brand communities based in social media: How unique are they? Evidence from two exemplary brand communities," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 123-132.
    20. Schaarschmidt, Mario & Walsh, Gianfranco, 2020. "Social media-driven antecedents and consequences of employees' awareness of their impact on corporate reputation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 718-726.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:5:y:2021:i:2:p:109-118. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dr. Pawan Verma (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.