IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ris/tecemp/2115.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adoption and use of digital marketing applications among Costa Rican exporting SMEs: a qualitative analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Martínez-Villavicencio, José

    (Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Costa Rica)

  • Pérez-Orozco, Allan

    (Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Costa Rica)

  • Montoya, Ileana

    (Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Costa Rica)

Abstract

Business dynamics have changed in the last decade mostly driven by the technological revolution, and this is especially evident in the strategic approach adopted by organizations to interact with their customers. Seeking to better grasp how SMEs assimilate new digital technologies, this study aims to identify the perceptions on digital marketing among Costa Rican exporting SMEs. The study employs a qualitative approach based on in-depth interviews with directors of SMEs operating in different geographies, business lines, and with different export performance levels (low, medium, and high). By using ATLAS ti8 software to codify and analyze the data, the main findings reveal that exporting SMEs have limited knowledge about the dynamics of digital marketing, and that they lack specialized human capital capable of designing and implementing specific digital marketing strategies. Additionally, the results indicate that exporting SMEs mostly use basic elements of digital tools, even if they consider these digital tools instrumental for creating and sustaining economically meaningful relationships with their customers.

Suggested Citation

  • Martínez-Villavicencio, José & Pérez-Orozco, Allan & Montoya, Ileana, 2021. "Adoption and use of digital marketing applications among Costa Rican exporting SMEs: a qualitative analysis," TEC Empresarial, School of Business, Costa Rica Institute of Technology (ITCR), vol. 15(3), pages 83-95.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:tecemp:2115
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://revistas.tec.ac.cr/index.php/tec_empresarial/article/view/5847
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Criscuolo, Chiara & Gal, Peter N. & Menon, Carlo, 2014. "The dynamics of employment growth: new evidence from 18 countries," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60286, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    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. Oznur Ozdamar & Eleftherios Giovanis & Sahizer Samuk, 2020. "State business relations and the dynamics of job flows in Egypt and Turkey," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(4), pages 519-558, December.
    2. Naudé, Wim & Nagler, Paula, 2022. "The Ossified Economy: The Case of Germany, 1870-2020," IZA Discussion Papers 15607, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Cristina Fernández & Roberta García & Paloma Lopez-Garcia & Benedicta Marzinotto & Roberta Serafini & Juuso Vanhala & Ladislav Wintr, 2017. "Firm growth in Europe: An overview based on the COMPNET labour module," BCL working papers 107, Central Bank of Luxembourg.
    4. Daniel Fackler & Lisa Hölscher & Claus Schnabel & Antje Weyh, 2022. "Does working at a start-up pay off?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 2211-2233, April.
    5. Peter Gal & Alexander Hijzen, 2016. "The short-term impact of product market reforms: A cross-country firm-level analysis," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1311, OECD Publishing.
    6. Cantarella, Michele & Fraccaroli, Nicolò & Volpe, Roberto, 2024. "Does language prevent policy take-up? Evidence from the Italian Start-up Act," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(6).
    7. Michael Sheppard, 2020. "The relationship between discretionary slack and growth in small firms," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 195-219, March.
    8. Nicolas Berman & Vincent Rebeyrol & Vincent Vicard, 2019. "Demand Learning and Firm Dynamics: Evidence from Exporters," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(1), pages 91-106, March.
    9. Silviano Esteve-Pérez & Fabio Pieri & Diego Rodriguez, 2022. "One swallow does not make a summer: episodes and persistence in high growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1517-1544, March.
    10. Michael Anyadike-Danes & Carl-Magnus Bjuggren & Sandra Gottschalk & Werner Hölzl & Dan Johansson & Mika Maliranta & Anja Myrann, 2015. "An international cohort comparison of size effects on job growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 821-844, April.
    11. Leendertse, Jip & Schrijvers, Mirella & Stam, Erik, 2022. "Measure Twice, Cut Once: Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Metrics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(9).
    12. Dan Andrews & Filippos Petroulakis, 2017. "Breaking the Shackles: Zombie Firms, Weak Banks and Depressed Restructuring in Europe," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1433, OECD Publishing.
    13. John Forth & Alex Bryson, 2019. "Management practices and SME performance," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 66(4), pages 527-558, September.
    14. Marco Bee & Julien Hambuckers, 2020. "Modeling multivariate operational losses via copula-based distributions with g-and-h marginals," DEM Working Papers 2020/3, Department of Economics and Management.
    15. Turner, Karynne L. & Monti, Alberto & Annosi, Maria Carmela, 2021. "Disentangling the effects of organizational controls on innovation," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 57-69.
    16. Bart Cockx & Sam Desiere, 2023. "Labour Costs and the Decision to Hire the First Employee," CESifo Working Paper Series 10425, CESifo.
    17. Christian Osterhold, 2018. "Fear the walking dead: zombie firms, spillovers and exit barriers," Working Papers w201811, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    18. Patrick Mabuza, 2018. "The Potential Role of PPPs in Developing a Sustainable SME Sector in Developing Countries: A South African Experience," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 9(6), pages 67-89.
    19. Masuch, Klaus & Anderton, Robert & Setzer, Ralph & Benalal, Nicholai, 2018. "Structural policies in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 210, European Central Bank.
    20. Péter Bauer & Marianna Endrész, 2018. "Firm Dynamics and Aggregate Growth: The Case of Hungary," Financial and Economic Review, Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Central Bank of Hungary), vol. 17(2), pages 68-98.

    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:ris:tecemp:2115. 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: Esteban Lafuente (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eaitccr.html .

    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.