Assimilation of social media marketing in Saudi large companies : antecedents and consequences

This study aims to examine social media marketing through the lens of organisational innovation, therefore the research adopts an innovation-assimilation perspective regarding social media marketing in large Saudi companies. It aims to study the post-adoption stage of social media marketing, which is rarely examined in IT and marketing literature, with the goal of understanding how large Saudi companies use and assimilate social media marketing, including the most relevant factors that motivate them to assimilate social media marketing and the overall impact of social media marketing on their marketing capabilities. In order to obtain the best viewpoint of this phenomenon, mixed methods with both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to study the assimilation of social media marketing in a Saudi context. The first phase of the study involved conducting nine qualitative interviews with social media marketing participants in the Saudi market. As a result, based on the literature review and the analysis of the qualitative data, the conceptual framework of the research was established. This framework addressed both the antecedents and the consequences of the assimilation of social media marketing. Two dimensions of the assimilation of social media marketing were identified (strategic and tactical levels), thus reflecting the variety and intensity with which an organisation is engaged in social media marketing. Subsequently, a cross-sectional survey design was presented as the second quantitative phase of this study to test the research framework and its hypotheses. The online questionnaire was distributed to 315 large Saudi companies by using social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) and email; 82 responses were returned. After the data were screened, 75 responses were prepared for analysis. Partial least squares path modelling (PLS-SME) analysis was used to assess measurement and structural models. The results show that relative advantage, top management support and organisational readiness have positive impacts on aggregate assimilation. However, competition intensity was found to have no impact on aggregate assimilation. Finally, the R2 value for the aggregate assimilation of social media marketing explains 61% of the variation in marketing capabilities, which indicates that, as long as assimilation of social media marketing increases, large Saudi companies are more likely to leverage their marketing capabilities. Overall, this research offers a multi-perspective framework for the assimilation of social media marketing amongst large Saudi companies, and identifies the factors and effects of social media marketing assimilation. It presents insights into various issues that influence the assimilation of social media marketing in this little-explored area, which will be of interest to researchers, practitioners of social media marketing.