Social Media based innovation: Which capabilities to prevail?
A step-by-step plan to fully utilize social media as innovation tool
University of Groningen
MSc. Strategic Innovation Management
Master Thesis Jesse Douma | S3833739 dr. W.G. Biemans dr. K.R.E. Huizingh Date: 18-01-2021 12.246 words Abstract:
An increasing percentage of firms are utilizing social media (SM) as resource for innovation purposes. Innovative firms like Nokia are using Facebook and Twitter to interact with stakeholders and source for ideas to improve their current services/products or create new ones. These firms do prevail with using SM as innovation tool, but many firms struggle with succeeding as SM faces the firm with many challenges. Extant literature fails to address how firms can cope with these challenges. Based on a systematic literature review and interviews this study identifies a total of 7 capabilities that a firm should possess to fully utilize SM as innovation tool and to tackle these challenges. More importantly, this study stimulates firms to embrace SM for innovation purposes by providing a step-by-step plan for incorporating SM in the business operations.
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Introduction
The current society is using Social Media (SM) on a daily basis. This does not only occur on a
personal level. An increasing percentage of firms are utilizing SM as resource for innovation purposes (Testa et al., 2020). According to Roberts et al. (2016), approximately 82 percent of all firms have embraced SM in their business operations. The high percentage of firms using SM is not surprising, considering that SM serves for different purposes and has altered the way firms interact with their stakeholders (Garrido-Moreno et al., 2020). Innovative firms like Nokia are using Facebook and Twitter to interact with stakeholders and source for ideas to improve their current services/products or create new ones (Nambisan & Nambisan, 2008). These firms do prevail with using SM as innovation tool, but many firms struggle with succeeding as SM faces the firm with many challenges (Candi et al., 2018). It is important to learn to understand why certain firms prevail when using SM as
innovation tool, because SM is seen as an invaluable resource for developing innovations (Testa et al., 2020). The number of SM users is growing on a daily basis. This is allowing firms to connect,
communicate, and cooperate more easily with a broader audience. SM has already been classified as an enabler of open innovation (Muninger et al., 2019). There has been conducted a lot of research on open innovation and the involvement of stakeholders (Bogers et al., 2010; Greer & Lei, 2012). On the other hand, the body of literature on SM is relatively scarce. However, the many opportunities that SM provides to firms have drawn the attention of researchers more and more lately.
The current body of literature agrees upon the definition of Barlatier & Josserand (2018, p21) for SM: “Social media uses Web-based and mobile applications to create interactive platforms upon
which individuals and communities can share, co-create, discuss and modify user-generated content.’’
These internet-based applications provide the firm with a whole new set of tools for innovation (Garrido-Moreno et al., 2020). The literature does not clearly address how firms can use this whole new set of tools and how a firm can uphold itself with all the challenges the tools bring along. Chuang (2020) explains that a firm needs to possess certain capabilities to cope with the challenges and prevail in social media based innovation (SMBI). To clarify, SMBI are innovations that arise from
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Mention et al. (2019) have divided a variety of capabilities into a framework consisting of three activities: sensing, seizing, and reconfiguration. Arising from the dynamic capability theory, they have identified a total of 9 capabilities. However, they do not make a distinction between a business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B) context. Whereas capabilities for B2C can be distinctive from B2B as customers have different motivations to participate in SM than firms (Iankova et al., 2019). This is resulting in an indecipherable overview. Furthermore, other authors have
identified new capabilities for SMBI whereby no interrelatedness with previous capabilities is discussed (Chuang, 2020; Torres de Oliveira et al., 2020). The effect of lacking a capability is
unknown. These contradicting, incoherent, and incomplete findings ensure that it is unclear how firms operating in a B2C environment can prevail in using SM as innovation tool. This paper draws further on B2C as recent findings show that more B2C firms are considering investing money and time in SM than B2B firms (Herhold, 2017). Addressing the above-mentioned gap, this paper will be of
qualitative nature and answer the following research question: ‘How can a firm fully utilize social
media as innovation tool within a B2C environment?’
To aid the process of answering the research question a systematic literature review and interviews have been conducted. As mentioned before, the current literature on SMBI is relatively small and to synthesize the findings additional information is needed. Therefore, ten interviews with managers within a B2C firm have been conducted. These managers were operating in a variety of industries to ensure that the findings represent an audience as broad as possible.
This paper draws further on the framework of Mention et al. (2019) and interlinks the capabilities needed for SMBI at a firm-level. It has identified seven different capabilities that are needed to prevail in SMBI. The interrelatedness between these capabilities has been identified and it showcases which capabilities can improve or deteriorate each other. Furthermore, the findings clearly show that there is step-by-step plan for which capabilities to acquire first.
Hereby, it contributes to the existing body of knowledge on SMBI literature and provides an adjusted framework of all capabilities for SMBI within a B2C environment. This framework helped to identify future research directions in the field of SMBI. Secondly, this paper contributes to the
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Theoretical background
(Open) Innovation
Open innovation has been widely studied and it clearly shows the developments of innovation over the years. As one of the prominent researchers, Chesbrough (2003) coined the term “open innovation”. In his first paper about open innovation, Chesbrough (2003) explains that in most industries, firms are moving towards an open innovation model. It is a shift from inside-out to outside-in innovations. Firms have clearly come to understand that information from outside can be a valuable resource for their innovations. According to Chesbrough (2003, p36) firms: “commercialize external (as well as
internal) ideas by deploying outside (as well as in-house) pathways to the market.” In a more recent
publication of Chesbrough (2012, p21), he is stating that: “Open innovation has become a new
paradigm for organizing innovation.” This statement shows that open innovation has gained
popularity within industries. It is still dependent on the kind of firm and industry what type of open innovation is used: outside-in, or inside-out innovation (Chesbrough, 2012). Outside-in means using many external inputs and contributions to a firm’s innovation (Chesbrough, 2012). These external inputs can be present in an offline or online setting. SM has been classified as an online tool for outside-in innovations (Muninger et al., 2019). Through SM it enables firms to involve users in the innovation process as firms can more easily communicate and connect with their audience. Previous research has already concluded that users can be a valuable source of innovation as users innovate as well (Hippel, 1976). Users, rather than producers, can be a major source of innovation. As a result, user-innovators have been classified in two groups: intermediate users and consumer users (Bogers et al., 2010). According to Bogers et al. (2010, p859), consumer users are: “typically individual end
customers or a community of end-users.” The classification of consumer users is used in previous
research on SM and will be used in this paper as well.
Social media (SM) and co-creation
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As users are able to share experiences, show their needs, and problems with current services or products it becomes clear that SM is a valuable tool for co-creation (Roberts & Piller, 2016). Motives and expectations for utilizing SM have been widely researched in the current body of literature
(Chatman & Cha, 2003). It is obvious that the amount of available information from users is one of the motives. Furthermore, the ease of initializing interactions with customers has made it more attractive to utilize SM as innovation tool (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). SM already provides firms with
technological features whereby firms do not have to heavily invest in such technologies. In addition, most of the SM applications gather and bring together all information about its users. This information is easily accessible by firms. Furthermore, prominent managers have argued that firms should embrace Social Media for innovation and provide the customers with an environment that enables them to participate, connect and interact with firm activities (Bhimani et al., 2019). Already a lot of firms have tried to embrace SM in their open innovation activities. However, the majority of them have failed (Roberts & Piller, 2016). Even though SM provides a firm with opportunities for innovation, it still has lots of challenges to be able to fully utilize it. SM creates intricacy due to the innumerable platforms (Muninger et al., 2019). To be able to utilize the potential of these platforms firms need to be able to coop with different challenges as innumerable platforms, a dynamic environment and an overload on information (Muninger et al., 2019). Firms need to brace themselves for these challenges before SM finally becomes a valuable addition to its operations. Firms should be in the possession of capabilities and agility to tackle these challenges (Chuang, 2020). The degree to which external knowledge from SM is successfully utilized depends on these capabilities of the firm (Trainor et al., 2014). Currently, there is not much information available on which capabilities are crucial for a firm to possess for SMBI and why. The body of literature that could guide a firm in this process of tackling the challenges is scattered and incoherent.
Conducting a literature review on this topic has made clear that the current body of literature describes a variety of 11 capabilities that seem to have a connection with SMBI. The different
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Dynamic capability theory
The capabilities within table 1 are identified as dynamic capabilities. To better the understanding of these capabilities, it has to be clear where this perspective comes from. The dynamic capability theory arises from the resource based view (RBV). This view argues that, in order to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage, firms need to leverage internal resources that are valuable, rare, non-imitable and non-substitutable (Barney, 1991). The RBV view does not elaborate on the dynamics of the processes underlying in the resource development (Doving & Gooderham, 2008).
Dynamic capability theory builds upon this RBV by explicating that, in order to pursue the RBV, strategic and tactical competences are needed (Harrigan et al., 2015). According to Teece (1997, p515), the term ‘dynamic’ refers to: “the capacity to renew competences so as to achieve congruence
with the changing business environment; certain innovative responses are required when time-to-market and timing are critical, the rate of technological change is rapid, and nature of future competition and markets difficult”. Teece (1997, p515) continues and states that: “the term
‘capabilities’ emphasizes the key role of strategic management in appropriately adapting, integrating, and reconfiguring internal and external organizational skills, resources, and functional competences to match the requirements of a changing environment.” In short, this perspective argues for the
development of capabilities that enable firms to acquire, configure and use its resources in a rapidly changing environment (Doving & Gooderham, 2008).
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Method(s)
The thin body of literature on SMBI is confusing and incoherent. To aid the process of answering the research question, a qualitative approach is taken as this enables the development of concepts (Yin, 2011). The literature on SMBI entails different assumptions on what is needed to fully utilize SM for innovation. Not every aspect is taken into account and therefore it lacks important information, especially for firms operating in a B2C environment. To merge and structure the current literature on SMBI, a systematic literature review was used as this provides managers/academics with collective insights through theoretical synthesis in fields and subfields (Tranfield et al., 2003).
Data collection
Systematic literature review
A systematic literature review can be conducted in several ways. This paper will follow the structure of (Meier, 2011), as he goes through 6 stages to provide a systematic and replicable literature review. However, the 6 stages that Meier follows are not all relevant to this paper, in the 6th stage Meier assesses the search strategy and counters the one-dimensionality of the search. Furthermore, it will only follow 5 out of 6 stages described by Meier as the one-dimensionality in this study is tackled by the use of interviews: (1) Key words, (2) Search strings (3) Journals, (4) Database and (5) Reviews of the articles (Meier, 2011). The stages will briefly be explained:
(1) Keywords: in this stage key words are used to find relevant information which may help to answer the research question. 9 main keywords have been identified to be useful: ‘capabilities’ ‘social media’, ‘innovation’, ‘open innovation’, ‘co-creation’, ‘dynamic’, ‘user innovation’, ‘HRM’,
‘absorptive’, ‘engagement’, ‘branding’, ‘marketing’, and ‘network’.
(2) Search strings: the keywords described in the previous stage have been combined to get more specific and relevant information in order to answer the research question. Examples of search strings are: ‘social media AND innovation’, ‘social media AND capabilities’, ‘open innovation AND capabilities’.
(3) Journals: the search was limited to peer-reviewed journals, as these are considered to be most reliable (Yin, 2011). The articles that are reviewed are from a time period of 30 years, 1990-2020. The time period is based on the article of Cohen & Levinthal (1990): absorptive capacity: a new perspective on learning and innovation: which originates from 1990 and is found to be the oldest and most useful article.
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(5) Reviews of the articles: using the above-mentioned keywords resulted in a large number of papers. Due to the number of articles (118), only the abstract was quickly scanned. The, according to the abstract, useful articles (23) were scanned more in-depth by reading the introduction, theoretical section, findings, discussion and conclusion. In the process of reading these seemingly useful articles, important findings, which could help with answering the research question, were coded with different names.
Interviews
To aid with answering the research question this study has used interviews as second data collection method. This study has used interviews as this helps to gather information and explanations about behaviors or actions of an employee within the firm (Yin, 2011). These interviews have helped to redefine the current concepts about capabilities for SMBI and fill in the gaps that could not be found through the systematic literature review. As previous research on capabilities has been conducted in a variety of industries, this paper has done the same. The respondents of this paper were all responsible for the Social Media of the firm. The firms that took part in the interviews were using the most popular Social Media platforms: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. In the table below the overview of the participating firms:
FIRM IDENTIFIER
INDUSTRY SECTOR
JOB TITLE NUMBER OF
EMPLOYEES
ORG 1 Education Marketing Officer > 50
ORG 2 Gaming Sales &
Communication
< 50
ORG 3 Transport Marketing employee < 50
ORG 4 Food and drink Engagement
Manager
< 50
ORG 5 Health Content Marketeer < 50
ORG 6 Gaming Commercial Director < 50
ORG 7 Fitness SM Supervisor > 50
ORG 8 Food and drink Marketing manager < 50
ORG 9 Food and drink Marketing manager > 50
ORG 10 Travel Marketing employee < 50
Table 1: Overview of interviewees
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Qualitative interviews help to understand a participant’s environment (Yin, 2011). Furthermore, the interview data have been collected between September and December 2020. The current pandemic ensured that the interviews had to be done through video calling. To increase the credibility, the respondents were asked for permission to record the interview. All respondents agreed upon the recording and the recordings have been transcribed afterward. During the interviews, notes were taken as using multiple approaches to collect and structure the interview data allows for better data
management (Tessier, 2012). An example of the interview questions can be found in Appendix I.
Data analysis of the interviews
The transcriptions of the interviews resulted in 31 pages with a total of 13.032 words. To
systematically structure the analysis process, the cycle of phases for analyzing qualitative data from Yin (2011) has been used. The first phase consists of organizing the database to successfully analyze the data. The transcriptions were printed out and put in a chronological way: the first interview on top and the last one on the bottom of the pile. Thereafter, the second phase started: disassembling.
Disassembling consists of looking for patterns in the data (Yin, 2011). During this phase coding has been used as method to derive first-order codes. To be able to determine which capabilities were found in the data, the capabilities had to be found first. Therefore, the initial code was ‘capability’. After this coding process, second-order codes have been derived. These were categorized as the current
capabilities in the literature: network, absorptive etc. If it didn’t fit in the context of the current capabilities, it was given the code ‘new capability’. Furthermore, the third phase consists of looking for broader patterns within the data (Yin, 2011). This was done through level 3 codes. Level 3 codes were used to determine the relatedness between capabilities. An example of a level 3 code:
‘engagement & relationship’. These codes consisted of two capabilities. After coding all the data the fourth and fifth phase began. According to Yin (2011), these are the most intriguing phases of all social science research. In this phases the right words and concepts had to be created. The
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Validity and reliability
Validity within research is important, as Yin (2011, p78) emphasizes: “studies in any field are
worthless if they arrive at false findings”. Researchers should be thinking of ways to strengthen the
validity within research. In this research two strategies of Maxwell (2009) have been used to combat the threats to validity. The first strategy is to use ‘rich’ data within the research to fully cover the interviews with detailed and varied data. Through conducting the ten interviews with different firms within different industries and firm sizes it has been ensured that the data is diverse and detailed. Secondly, the strategy of respondent validation to obtain feedback from the people studied to avoid misinterpretations. During the interviews the phrases and sentences of the interviewees were repeated by the interviewer and presented to the interviewee to ask for confirmation if the interpretation was correct. An example of this method: “You were saying that users do not value content with graphs and
other detailed information right?”. This resulted in an answer from the interviewee: “Yes, as I mentioned content needs to be clear and not too difficult”.
Furthermore, reliability is just as important as validity within research (Maruster &
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Phase 1 –
capabilities within the literaturePhase 2 –
identified categories with capabilitiesPhase 3 –
sequence with acquiring the capabilities (step-by-step plan)Absorptive capability
Bengtsson & Ryzhkova (2013):Managerial control is needed for utilizing online innovation tools.
Link to SM:
Managerial processes and practices influence the performance of a firm in online innovation tools.
Network capability
Network capability
Richey & Ravishankar (2019)
Network capability Muninger et al. (2019)
Stage: Sensing
1. Digital capability 2. Network capabilityMarketing capability
Tajvidi & Karami (2017):Innovation and branding capabilities to improve the firm performance on SM. Link to SM:
Solving customer problems and improving branding ensures for better performance on SM.
Digital- or IT-based
capabilities
Digital capability
Torres de Oliveira et al. (2020)
External IT-based capabilities
Garrido-Moreno et al. (2020)
Stage: Seizing
3. Branding capability 4. Engagement capability 5. Absorptive capabilityNetwork capability
Richey & Ravishankar (2019):
The ability to form new connections on SM. Link to SM:
SM involves the initiation of new connections and ensures for challenges due to the lack of social context.
Engagement capability
Engagement capability
Ogink & Donk (2019)
Stage: Reconfiguration
6. HRM-capability 7. Relational capability
Network capability
Muninger et al. (2019):The ability to frame inbound and outbound activities – seen as an overarching capability Link to SM:
A network on SM should connect all capabilities, resources, and knowledge of a firm.
HRM-capability
HRM-capability
Corral De Zubielqui Et Al. (2019)
Absorptive capability
Bengtsson & Ryzhkova (2013)
Marketing capability
Muninger et al. (2019):Capturing the latent needs of customers and improve their market learning to benefit the firm.
Link to SM:
Information gathering is difficult with innumerable platforms. Market learning and being customer centric aids in this process.
Absorptive Capability
Absorptive capacity
Rashid et al. (2019)
HRM capability
Muninger et al. (2019):Managers should orchestrate SM activities and encourage entrepreneurial spirit. Link to SM:
Managers are responsible for all SM activities.
SM agility capability
SM Agility
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Engagement capability
Ogink & Donk (2019):
User contribution in an OUIC is enhanced by two type of benefits.
Link to SM:
Users have to derive two types of benefits to enhance the contribution in a digital
environment.
Marketing capabilities
Marketing capability
Muninger et al. (2019)
Marketing capability
Tajvidi & Karami (2017):
HRM-capability
Corral De Zubielqui Et Al. (2019):
Modern HRM-practices, knowledge acquisition and sharing must be customer-centric.
Link to SM:
To exploit all knowledge inflows from SM the firm should be less formal and hierarchical.
Absorptive capacity
Rashid et al. (2019):
A firm’s internal information system and organizational culture should be customer-centric to ensure innovativeness within the firm.
Link to SM:
Knowledge sharing through systems and employees is important to be able to assimilate all information from SM.
External IT-based capabilities
Garrido-Moreno et al. (2020):Consists of social CRM capabilities and customer engagement capabilities. Link to SM:
SM sustains firms in generating valuable customer knowledge
and helps to reinvent market relationships - increasing firm responsiveness and
engagement.
SM Agility
Chuang (2020):Consists of social-information processing and co-creation capability.
Link to SM:
Agility is important to be able to assimilate information and involve users in SM
Digital capability
Torres de Oliveira et al. (2020):
Consists of technological infrastructure and digital customer experience.
Link to SM:
Firms possess multiple platforms and this ensures for challenges. Furthermore, the perception customers hold of these platforms influences the engagement
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Systematic literature review (phase 2)
The categories and capabilities that have been identified within the literature.
Network capability
Networking is seen as an important activity for SM (Richey & Ravishankar, 2019). To fully utilize SM for innovation, a firm has to try to connect to as many users as possible as this increases the amount of available information (Kane et al., 2013). This is important as open innovation relies on connections and conversations between users and firms (Mount & Martinez, 2014). Richey & Ravishankar (2019) highlight the importance of having a ‘network’ capability to be able to form new connections. They emphasize that frames and cultural toolkits are playing a key role as countermeasure in the lack of a social context in digital exchanges. SM lacks face-to-face contact in which people are able to form a judgment about the other person. To initialize the connection users have to form their judgment based on mental frames and cultural toolkits. Firms can provide these by the way they visualize themselves on SM, using different styles of writing, fonts, images etc. (Richey & Ravishankar, 2019). Lacking social context in digital exchanges may cause difficulty when trying to persuade people to take action or provide information.
Using a different point of view, Muninger et al. (2019) argue that a network capability should interlink resources, knowledge and other organizational capabilities. A network capability should be seen as an overarching capability that frames inbound and outbound activities of the firm. It should enable firms to collaborate closely with their stakeholders as this is essential for building internal expertise (Muninger et al., 2019). As a result, the network provides useful information that can be used for internal development.
Digital- or IT-based capabilities
Another stream in the literature points out the importance of having digital- or IT-based capabilities. Within this stream, two different views can be identified and these will be explained throughout this section. Both views agree that digital- or IT-based capabilities enable the development of two
activities: (1) capture and respond to external knowledge and (2) recompose supply chain relationships with customers (Neirotti & Raguseo, 2017; Torres de Oliveira et al., 2020).
The first view is highlighted in the elaborative study of Torres de Oliveira et al. (2020, p4) and conceptualizes the term ‘digital’ capability as: “the main building blocks that firms possess to
support the activities of the firm in a digital world”. Firms are using multiple SM channels and the
use of multiple channels is associated with more challenges. A key determinant that ensures to coop with these challenges is the digital capability of the firm (Torres de Oliveira et al., 2020). SM is a tool used for the capturing of knowledge and digital capabilities help firms to develop co-creation
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Digital capabilities consist of: (1) technological infrastructure and operations and, (2) digital customer experience capabilities (Torres de Oliveira et al., 2020). The technological infrastructure and operations refer to the information technology platforms a firm possess, that enable them to quickly respond to customers (Galarneau, 2002). Nowadays firms possess multiple technology platforms, increasing the difficulty of maintaining them. Furthermore, digital customer experience is defined as the perception that customers hold of the SM platform on which the firm is active. Better perception results in more engagement of customers with the platform (Torres de Oliveira et al., 2020). The digital customer experience is important as it ensures for exchange of information between customer and firm, resulting in the capturing of knowledge (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2000).
The second view on what digital- or IT-based capabilities consist of is highlighted in the elaborative study of Garrido-Moreno et al. (2020). According to this view, both Social CRM capabilities and customer engagement capabilities are part of the digital- or IT-based capabilities of the firm. These capabilities enhance value creation through the usage of SM. Garrido-Moreno et al. (2020, p318) define Social CRM capabilities as: “the abilities to gather, process, and analyze relevant
market information to detect emergent opportunities and offer new products and services that meet customer needs.” This includes identifying customer needs and preferences as well as the ability to
establishing a relationship with customers. Furthermore, engagement capability refers to the ability to establish a special type of relationship with the customer. Having this type of special relationship with the customers ensures that the firm receives more valuable information. As a result, the information can be used to create knowledge, products, and services (Fehrer et al., 2018).
Engagement capability
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HRM-capability
It has been argued that softer capabilities are as important as technological capabilities for SMBI (Corral de Zubielqui et al., 2019; Muninger et al., 2019). Lacking softer capabilities may cause ineffectiveness of other capabilities. The body of literature focusing on softer capabilities for SMBI, has identified that an HRM-capability is important within a firm. What this capability consists of is not fully clear yet. The elaborative study of Bengtsson & Ryzhkova (2013) addresses the important role of managers within SM knowledge exchange. Hence, this study does not directly relate their findings to SMBI. Managers are responsible for controlling the SM within a firm and should direct and integrate information originating from SM. (Bengtsson & Ryzhkova, 2013). These managers are responsible for directing it to the relevant parts of the firm. Having this type of control will ensure for better
distribution of the information within the firm and therefore enables that all parts within the firm are up-to-date. On the other hand, the study of Muninger et al. (2019) emphasizes that SM managers should possess the skills to orchestrate all SM activities. Managers should not only distribute all the knowledge, but should be responsible for all activities originating from SM. Furthermore, every part of the firm should at least have the knowledge to know what to do with useful information from SM (Muninger et al., 2019). Moreover, the way firms acquire and process the knowledge determines the outcome of the innovation efforts. If a firm is being able to process all of the information, it will result in greater flexibility and the ability to produce new products and service and commercialize external information (Bharati et al., 2014). Therefore, the whole firm should be able to acquire and process information.
The study of Corral de Zubielqui et al. (2019), elaborates on the beforementioned statement and mentions that the presence of modern HRM-practices enables knowledge inflows via SM and in turn influences innovativeness. The role of managers is important to a certain extent as they should be aware of how employees are affected by the implementation of SM within the firm (Murphy & Salomone, 2013). Whereas, Bengtsson & Ryzhkova, (2013) argue that managers should have more control to ensure for better distribution of information. The contradicting findings Corral de Zubielqui et al. (2019) showcase that to foster the adoption of these technologies, managerial control has to be reduced. Enabling employees with more freedom in organizational-wide decisions, will increase the number of interfaces a customer has with the firm (Corral de Zubielqui et al., 2019).
Absorptive Capability
As mentioned before, using SM allows firms to gather a lot of useful information. Customers can express their needs and provide information in numerous ways (e.g. text, video and pictures). Usefulness of this information is only achieved if firms are able to process or assimilate it. Cohen & Levinthal (1990, p128) conceptualize this capability as: “the ability of a firm to recognize the value of
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using SM for innovation (Roberts, Piller, & Lu, 2016). According to Rashid et al. (2019) absorptiveness consists of a combination of two activities: internal information system and
organizational culture. Both activities have to be customer-centric to ensure innovativeness within the firm (Rashid et al., 2019). A firm should stimulate knowledge sharing in each phase of the
development phase within the firm (Rashid et al., 2019). Employees are the heart of the firm and need to be able to implement its strategy.
SM agility capability
In line with the absorptive capability is the concept of SM agility. The elaborative study of Chuang (2020) introduces this new concept within the B2B literature on SMBI. SM agility consists of the complementarity between two capabilities: social-information processing (internal capability) and co-creation capability (external capability). Social-information processing refers to the ability of firms to rapidly convert information and data into experiences that can give significant assets to network partners (Zahra & George, 2002). SM agility consists of another activity as well: co-creation
capability. This capability refers to the ability to involve customers in the innovation process and build an appropriate relationship to better meet the needs and preferences of customers (Khanagha et al., 2017). The combination of both these capabilities renders SM agility and in turn enhances the innovation performance (Chuang, 2020).
Marketing capabilities
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Further analysis
It turns out that the current literature describes 12 different capabilities that can be divided into 7 categories. The capabilities consist of multiple concepts and have not all yet been identified within SMBI or within a B2C context. Furthermore, it is unclear what the effect of each capability is on the other capabilities. For example, a capability could be more important than the other. To resolve this lack of knowledge, ten interviews with managers from a B2C firm have been conducted.
A framework of capabilities (phase 3)
The findings of the interview merged into the framework of Mention et al. (2019).
Building on Teece (1997) the current literature provides one framework to systematically sort most of the capabilities into three different activities: sensing, seizing, and reconfiguration. The framework has been kept sufficiently broad to take into account multiple concepts and facets of SM. Due to the fact that the framework is kept sufficiently broad, it provided a good structure for the subdivision of the capabilities and findings. The information from the literature review and interviews have been assigned and put in the activity they are most related to.
Activity 1 - Sensing
The current framework relates to sensing as the activities that help the firm to learn, sense, filter and shape opportunities (Mention et al., 2019). This includes technological forecasting, road mapping and gathering information useful information about users and consumers.
Digital capability
The technological infrastructure of a firm will determine the performance of a firm in SMBI and is seen as the first step to think about (Torres de Oliveira et al., 2020). Moreover, to enhance the
innovation process firms should be aware of all the digital technologies that are within their reach and enabling them to make choices between the available options (Patroni et al., 2020). The interviewees explained how they determine which SM channels to use.
At first we had difficulties choosing the right platform(s) for our firm. Nowadays the possibilities are enormous. We have used best practices from competitors and based our choices on the channels that were getting the most engagement. However, new platforms are emerging every now and then and we need to be aware of new possibilities, for example the SM application TikTok.. We are constantly on the lookout for the popularity of these new platforms. It is time-consuming.”
(Marketing employee, Travel, Org 10)
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losing popularity whereas the total number of users on Instagram is significantly growing. Other platforms as Snapchat and YouTube were less popular among the firms. Being active on multiple platforms ensures for a lot of information. Most of the firms were using an overarching system that connects all of these platforms into one overview. The interviewees argued that it is important to establish a technological system beforehand to avoid that the firm misses out on valuable information. This system brings together all the information regarding the follower and comments. It monitors all the activity on SM. Furthermore, it provides age, geographical location, and the popular times when followers are active. Such a technology enables the firm to switch faster between the channels and more easily measure the current popularity of the platforms they are using.
Network capability
Gaining followers on the SM platforms is seen as a second step by the interviewees. Without these followers, no valuable information is provided and the technological infrastructure would have no purpose. Muninger et al. (2019) argue that a firm should be able to create a network that enables the firm to build internal expertise. Network capabilities ensure for the configuration of firm capabilities that together build competitiveness (Vesalainen & Hakala, 2014). Firms with a large network experience more benefits as it enables them to access more information. Furthermore, when establishing a large network a firm has to ensure that users feel comfortable within a platform, to ensure that action is taken, or that the connection is made between firm and individual (Richey & Ravishankar, 2019). The interviewees have pointed out several ways of how connections can be initialized:
“We focus on gaining as many followers as possible through the use of different tools such as: approaching potential customers online on SM, online and offline fairs, and handing out flyers with our social media information on it. Without these followers, we can create content whatever we want, but we won’t be able to receive the engagement and information we want. Once you have followers, the next step is to create the engagement.” (Marketing Officer, Education, Org 1)
It is entirely dependent on the SM platform how the firms tried to establish a network.
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“We have established a large ‘private’ community on Facebook. This is mainly the result of people inviting other people to join the community. That is exactly what you hope for. We first have to accept this person into our community. It gives us a lot more control.”
(Content Marketeer, Health, Org 5)
The interviewees argued that the larger the network becomes, the more easily other SM users are persuaded to join it as they get the perception that the network is useful. In the beginning, it is harder to get the connection as people need to see for themselves if it is worth it to join the network. The network needs to have a value for them as well. Having more followers into the network can make a difference as it gives the individual a mental approximation that the network is interesting enough to join.
Activity 2 - Seizing
The next activity within the framework is seizing. Seizing refers to the activities that support the development of new products or services from the ‘sensed’ activity (Mention et al., 2019). At this stage, firms should have a network/community where information can be gathered from.
Branding capability
To ensure that the network knows what the firm represents, a branding capability is needed. Communicating a consistent brand towards customers ensures that consumers know what the firm represents and where it stands for (Tajvidi & Karami, 2017). Furthermore, branding helps increase the engagement levels of consumers (Mohapatra & Mohanty, 2017). The interviewees argued that they are trying to be as consistent as possible with visualizing their brand:
Our content is carefully organized and we ensure that we use the same layout, colors, and font in each of our posts. The colors represent our vision and visualize nature. Consumers will easily recognize it and, hopefully, be persuaded to join our cause to become the most eco-friendly shop in Europe, and eventually the world of course.” (Marketing Manager, Food & Drink, Org 9)
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“The consumers are very willing to help and think along with us. They are highly motivated as they all want to be part of the process of creating a new game. Especially when we highlight that we state their name on the retail box if they have provided us with valuable input.”
(Commercial Director, Gaming, Org 6)
The interviewees in the Transport, Fitness, and Travel industry did indicate that they could not conclude if there was a difference of user contribution between using a consistent layout or randomly picking fonts, colors, and structures. These firms have used the same branding for as long as they are active on SM.
Engagement capability
The interviewees indicated that engagement is necessary in order to ensure the availability of
information. Users have to derive benefits from the SM channel in order to create engagement (Ogink & Dong, 2019). If users experience more benefits they will be more eager to contribute to the network (Torres de Oliveira et al., 2020). Cognitive and affective benefits have been identified as having a joint effect on engagement (Ogink & Dong, 2019). The interviewees argued that cognitive benefits on SM are less influenceable. The firms cannot increase the understanding of the platforms as this is beyond their control. On the other hand, the firms argued that SM platforms provide standard options and the only factors that can be adjusted are the kind of content the firm posts. Furthermore, it ensures that this content should ensure that users derive affective benefits from their network. Therefore, it is very important what the firm posts and what kind of information it provides within the post. The
interviewees argued that to get valuable information the firm has to ask the right questions and use the right context:
“We have noticed that our community responds well if we mix up serious content with ‘crazy’ content. People feel more comfortable with responding when they notice that we are not just a firm, but that there are ‘real’ persons behind the scenes.” (Engagement Manager, Food & Drink, Org 4)
The interviewees agreed upon the fact that the content needs to be informative, but it does not have to be too formal. Showing graphs and diagrams resulted in less engagement. Users want to have everything in a playful manner. Three firms were explicitly pointing out that they did not find it difficult to decide what to post on the SM platforms. They heavily involved their network by carrying out their mission.
“We strive for a plastic-free bathroom, thus no plastic components. We have noticed that our community is committed to this as well. Having the same vision as our community ensures that
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This firm confirmed that a community/network does not need an extrinsic reward as
motivation for engaging in the channel. Intrinsic motivation is an important enabler for engagement as well.
Absorptive capability
The interviewees pointed out that assimilating information is an important step within their innovation process. The way firms absorb information from SM plays a great role in determining business value (Zhang et al., 2020). According to the literature, assimilation is done through the internal information system (Rashid et al., 2019), and social-information processing (Chuang, 2020). Rashid et al. (2019) include organization culture as assimilation factor, but following the framework it becomes clear that culture fits in the third activity of the framework (Mention et al., 2019). When it comes to internal information system, the interviewees indicated that they do have different ways of capturing and assimilating the information from SM.
“Our customer service works with Coosto, a tool for web care and publication. Only when the customer service employees assessed the information as useful, he/she forwards it to me and I will analyze the information its value. The tool allows us to process information quicker as customer service employees can easily copy and forward it to me.”
(SM Supervisor, Fitness, Org 7)
The firm puts the responsibility on the customer service employees for determining whether the information is useful or not. It addresses that it is too time-consuming if the SM Supervisor would have to be the first person to screen all the available information. The interviewees from the smaller firms (<50 employees) indicated that all the relevant information from SM is screened by the person in charge of the SM. The customer service employees do help with answering service-related questions via SM, but interesting ideas and suggestions are filtered by the person in charge him-/herself. This ensures that more valuable information is getting detected.
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Annually, we get roughly 3000-4000 ideas from consumers. At first, we have tried to detect ‘golden’ ideas ourselves as management team. However, we have noticed that our daily tasks in combination with the screening of ideas were just too much. That made us realize that we could not analyze all information ourselves. We came up with several criteria and shared this among the customer service. If an idea would match the criteria, the employee could forward it to us via the system.”
(Sales & Communication, Gaming, Org 2)
The interviewees argued that it is difficult to recognize all valuable ideas by themselves. Customer service employees act as identifiers of valuable ideas within the larger firms. The internal information system has to enable employees to easily share important information.
Activity 3 - Reconfiguration
The third activity in the framework is reconfiguration. It refers to all activities necessary to match the seized opportunity with the firm. Such activities include internal processes, values, and culture (Mention et al., 2019).
HRM-capability
HRM is seen as a soft capability that impacts the innovativeness of firms (Corral de Zubielqui et al., 2019). According to Mention et al. (2019), an HRM-capability is overarching for the whole firm and encompasses all the employees and managers within the firm. Managers should responsible for
redirecting information originating from SM (Bengtsson & Ryzhkova, 2013). On the other hand, every employee should be able to recognize and process valuable information from SM (Muninger et al., 2019). The control of managers within all SM processes should be reduced to a certain extent. A firm should increase its total number of interfaces through the use of modern HRM-practices and
delegation of tasks to its employees (Corral de Zubielqui et al., 2019). The interviewees argued that they pay much attention to having a customer-centric culture within the firm.
“In the end, we are all doing it for the customer. The customer has to be satisfied and buy the product. Ensuring that we are all focused on the customers and treat them with respect results in better
relationships and collaboration.” (Commercial Director, Gaming, Org 6) Furthermore, the interviewees of the firms who had established a ‘private’ network on Facebook addressed the importance of giving enough attention to its network in the sense of
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“If people respond to your post, you should reply with a lot of enthusiasm. Other members of the community will respond as well, the enthusiasm causes kind of a chain reaction within the community. That is what you hope for. Unfortunately, it does not always happen, but it certainly makes a
difference.” (Content Marketeer, Health, Org 5)
The larger firms pointed out that is very difficult and time-consuming to quickly reply to every comment an user posts. The employees did have other customer service-related tasks whereby they did not always respond adequately to the network. Four firms had appointed a manager to oversee the community and delegate the responsibility of ensuring that their network/community is receiving a lot of engagement from the firm. As one of the interviewees pointed out:
“Our market is very competitive. If we do not pay attention to our network, it may happen that one of our competitors will and seizes the opportunity.” (Marketing employee, Travel, Org 10)
Furthermore, the interviewees argued that having a flat organizational structure benefits the speed of processing valuable information. One firm within the education industry indicated that they have a hierarchical structure and ideas have to be accessed by multiple layers in the organization.
“We do get input from customers about functionalities on our website that need improvement. However, changes first need to be approved by our managers and sometimes even their managers. This ensures that we cannot adjust our processes in a short time. It takes a while before a change has been approved and worked out.” (Marketing Officer, Education, Org 1)
On the other hand, the firms with flatter organization structures indicated that every new and promising idea originating from their network/community is immediately taken into consideration by the firm. As the manager from the travel firm pointed out it is necessary to act quickly upon such opportunities. It turned out that it is still important that these knowledge flows get directed through the firm in the right way.
“We did receive a lot of suggestions for new flavors. In the beginning our employees did not really know where to go with these suggestions. We did appoint an employee as ‘manager’ of these ideas. This brought a little bit of structure as everybody knew where to go with the input from customers.”
(Marketing Manager, Food & Drink, Org 9)
Relational capability
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2020). CRM allows firms to develop dynamic capabilities as it is able to respond quickly and that in turn enhances innovation capabilities (Pedron et al., 2018). The interviewees argued that the
relationship with users is established by giving them the feeling that they are special.
“Having engagement and committed customers is our driving force behind the firm. We approach customers who comment often and ask if they want to become ‘serious’ friends with us. Giving them a status makes them feel special and supports the establishment of better relationships.”
(Engagement Manager, Food & Drink, Org 4)
Having better relationships with users ensures that they want to contribute more often. It does not necessarily mean that it leads to more innovations, but it increases the chance of receiving valuable input. As the firms within the gaming industry indicated, involving users within the innovation process already gives them a special feeling. It should be taken into account that these users want to be
informed about their input. The interviewees indicated that most of the respondents on SM want to be part of the whole process. They want to see their idea getting implemented as the users all value their own idea. Giving them a sense that the contribution is not used will be detrimental to establishing relationships.
“We have created a game with our customers via SM. We involved them in every step of the process. We received a lot of engagement and customers did really like to be involved. On the other hand, it resulted in a game that was not successful.” (Commercial Director, Gaming, Org 6)
Involving multiple users at once ensures that the firm receives a lot of information. It is difficult to satisfy all of the users and to implement and use every idea. The firm within the gaming industry has chosen the golden mean during every step of product development. It did satisfy most users and was successful relationship wise. On the other hand, it diminished the revenue and it did not turn out the way the firm wanted it to be. Satisfying customers while involving them in the innovation process is seen as difficult by the firms. The decision between revenue and satisfaction should be based on the current project and situation of a firm.
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Stages
Capability
Action
Seizing 1. Digital capability:
the ability to prioritize which channels a firm can use and which it should use depending on the digital environment of the firm and ability to bring together all the platforms through an overarching technological infrastructure storing all information originating from SM into one coherent overview.
What to do?
Choose the right platforms for the right audience and ensure for a technological system that merges all information from these platforms.
2. Network capability:
the ability to gain followers and acquiring a network/community within the SM channels.
What to do?
Create awareness of the SM accounts and invite customers to join/follow. 3. Branding Capability:
the ability to communicate a consistent brand towards customers.
What to do?
Create a corporate identity on SM and visualize it in the layout on SM. Sensing 4. Engagement Capability
is the ability to create engagement with users on SM.
What to do?
Ensure for playful content on which customers can react.
5. Absorptive capability:
the ability to quickly convert the data originating from SM.
What to do?
Ensure for a structure inside the firm that valuable information is directed in the most effective way.
Reconfiguration 6. HRM-capability:
the ability of a firm to ensure that all employees are customer-centric and that information is easily distributed within the firm.
What to do?
Ensure that employees recognize valuable information and motivate customers to engage.
7. Relational capability:
the ability to establish a special type of relationship with customers on SM.
What to do?
Ensure that customers feel valued and connected to the firm.
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Discussion
This study aims to answer the following research questions: ‘How can a firm fully utilize social media
as innovation tool within a B2C environment?’ In answering this research question, this study makes
three important contributions to the current body of literature on SMBI. First, the findings confirm that three of the SMBI capabilities from previous research withstand in a B2C environment. The concepts have been identified within the B2C field and it shows that these do not have to be adjusted. Second, the findings show that the other capabilities need to be renewed and adjusted in order to be compatible with firms operating in a B2C environment. The contradicting concepts of previous research have been merged into a coherent concept to ensure that it is usable for firms in a B2C environment. Resulting in four new capabilities for SMBI. Third, this study shows the important interrelatedness between the capabilities. The findings clearly show a sequence of acquiring the capabilities for SMBI. As a result, a step-by-step plan has been identified for firms that want to prevail in SMBI. Lacking a capability influences the effectiveness of the other capabilities.
Rediscovered capabilities
In the literature review a total of 12 capabilities have been identified which eventually led to 7 categories of capabilities. Thereafter, 7 capabilities have been identified that are needed for SMBI. Although most of the previous concepts of capabilities were extensive and confusing, not all needed to be adjusted to make them purposeful for SMBI in a B2C environment.
Network capability
In line with the findings of Richey & Ravishankar (2019), this study shows that a network capability consists of the ability to gain followers and acquiring a network/community within the SM channels. A bigger network provides more potential leads to innovative ideas. On the other hand, this study did not find evidence that frames and cultural toolkits are important within this capability. Whereas, Richey & Ravishankar (2019) argue that these should be used as countermeasure in the lack of a social context in digital exchanges. Moreover, they do mention that if individuals get familiar with SM overtime these tools and frames could be less necessary. No evidence for that claim has been found yet. However, the findings of this study showcase that none of the firms addressed this issue. Thus, it could be argued that individuals have become more familiar with SM whereby frames and cultural toolkits are less important than Richey & Ravishankar (2019) indicate.
Absorptive capability
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information and should be customer-centric. This study adds that it is debatable on which of the two a firm should pay more attention to. Smaller firms should pay more attention to the employees, whereas larger firms should ensure that proper technology is present in the firm. If both are aligned to the size of the firm, the data can be converted quicker. Thereby it enhances the SM agility of the firm (Chuang, 2020).
HRM-capability
The findings show that an HRM-capability consists of the ability of a firm to ensure that all employees are customer-centric and that information is easily distributed within the firm. This is necessary to be able to quickly act upon opportunities that arise from the SM platforms. The firm should have a flat structure as a hierarchical structure hinders the speed of this process. This is in line with Corral de Zubielqui et al. (2019) who argue that managerial control should be reduced. Having a flat structure ensures that the employees have to be better able to recognize and distribute useful information from SM. This study contributes that it still necessary that a manager oversees this process to avoid that useful information gets lost. Hence, managerial control should be reduced and managers should only be used to oversee the process as ‘safety’ measure. It contradicts the findings of Bengtsson & Ryzhkova (2013) who argue for full managerial control. However, that would hinder the ability of employees to recognize and assimilate useful information.
Renewed capabilities
The findings show that the undermentioned capabilities need to be renewed and adjusted in order to be compatible with firms operating in a B2C environment. Furthermore, both branding and relational capability have not yet been considered before as capabilities for SMBI. This study shows that these have an indispensable effect on the performance of SMBI.
Digital capability
The findings show that the digital capability consists of the ability to prioritize which channels a firm can use and which it should use depending on the digital environment of the firm. Moreover, it should be able to bring together all the platforms through an overarching technological infrastructure storing all information originating from SM into one coherent overview. This is in line with the
conceptualization of Torres de Oliveira et al. (2020), who argue that a digital capability is the main building block that firms possesses to thrive in a digital world. However, both Garrido-Moreno et al. (2020) and Torres de Oliveira et al. (2020) include other factors within this capability as: social CRM, engagement and digital customer experience. This study adds that these should be considered as separate capabilities as the acquirement of these come in a later stage. Furthermore, the
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other concepts ensures for confusion in the step plan. This will be elaborated in the ‘a step-by-step plan to prevail in SMBI’ section.
Branding capability
This study contributes to SMBI as it identifies branding as a capability for SMBI. Branding refers to communicating a consistent brand towards customers. It is very much interlinked with engagement as branding ensures that the users are willing to contribute on a SM platform. The findings show that the importance of this capability differs across industries. It is not entirely clear what the differences are within the industries. However, possessing this capability enhances the overall performance of firms on SM (Tajvidi & Karami, 2017). Therefore, firms who want to thrive in SMBI should be aware of the presence of this capability. Firms should have a clear strategy on how they want to be seen by
customers. Outside of this view, Brodie et al. (2017) point out that branding is increasingly important as it helps in building relationship commitment and trust. Therefore, it can be argued that branding enhances the relational capability.
Engagement capability
This study shows that an engagement capability is the ability to create engagement with users on SM. More engagement is achieved by ensuring that users experience affective benefits on the SM channel. Firms should have a clear vision and mission and communicate this to its customers. Users who feel part of their story will more often engage and share ideas and perspectives. Hereby the users
experience the affective benefits which have been addressed by (Ogink & Dong, 2019). Furthermore, cognitive benefits were not found to be important as firms do not have control over it. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Snapchat provide the users with the digital environment and a firm is dependent on the options these platforms provide. Firms should be aware of these options as the perception that users hold of the platform ensures for more or less engagement. A better perception leads to more engagement (Torres de Oliveira et al., 2020). Which platform to use and which
perception a user holds is dependent on the target group of a firm. As the findings show it is important to be aware of the platform the target group uses. Being active on the wrong platform may result in less engagement.
Relational capability
At last, a relational capability has been identified within this study. This study shows that establishing a special type of relationship with the users on SM does positively influence the amount of
engagement within the network/community. The findings show that users who feel special and have the feeling that they add value to the firm, are more eager to contribute on SM. It is up to the firm to give them that feeling. Giving the users a special status could help to achieve that feeling.
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innovation process on SM. Chuang (2020) argues that users should be involved throughout the whole process, while the findings clearly indicate that involving customers throughout the whole process might hinder the revenue as the firm faces a trade-off between revenue and user satisfaction. Firms should have a clear strategic vision about what kind of information they need and when from the customers to avoid this trade-off. Nevertheless, this study shows that involving users in the innovation process strengthens the relationship. This consistent with Chesbrough et al. (2018), who argue that value should be generated for all parties involved either during the beginning or in a later phase of the innovation process. Moreover, Lettl (2007) indicates that when and what kind of information to acquire depends on the kind of innovation a firm pursues: radical or incremental. Unfortunately, it is unclear what the exact differences are for both types of innovations when using SM as innovation tool.
A step-by-step plan to prevail in SMBI
This study clearly shows a sequence in acquiring each capability. Ignoring the sequence as a firm would ensure that it diminishes the effectiveness of all other capabilities as every capability is interrelated with each other.
The step-by-step plan from the findings can be related to the elaborative study of Abbate et al. (2019). By researching how digital platforms can facilitate open innovation practices they have identified three process stages: defining, finding participants, and collaboration. Whereas defining refers to resource allocation and commitment (Abbate et al., 2019), this study shows that resource allocation and commitment consist of choosing the right platforms and technology through possessing a digital capability. Furthermore, finding participants relates to identifying and motivating participants (Abbate et al., 2019), whereas this study shows that this is done through a network and engagement capability, enhanced by a branding capability. Third, collaborating refers to the governance of the
abovementioned process stages (Abbate et al., 2019), which is relatable to an HRM-capability as the employees have to be educated to govern these process steps. Although the findings of the study of Abbate et al. (2019) rely on a single platform case study, a lot of similarities can be found with this study. Furthermore, the findings of this study show the capabilities for open innovation on SM, but it is clear that these capabilities make a good starting point for prevailing on all digital platforms.
Conclusion
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Limitations and directions for future research
The findings of this study must be seen in the light of several limitations. First, this study has
conducted 10 interviews with firms within a variety of industries. The findings already show a sign of difference between some industries. In the gaming industry consumers value extrinsic rewards for engaging in innovation on SM more than in other industries. Furthermore, the firms were all operating within the Netherlands, limiting the study’s generalizability. Future research should find out if the findings of this study differ among countries and specific industries. Second, the findings of this study have been organized into the existing framework of Mention et al. (2019) which is very broad. The importance of each capability could vary in each stage of the innovation process. Eventually, it could lead to the discovery of third-order capabilities which are now unidentified through the broad
framework. Future research should take into account the different stages and conclude which capability belongs to which stage to strengthen the findings of this study. Third, this study did not make a distinction between the type of firm. Whereas, small firms rely much on the knowledge of the CEO of the firm on how it operates (Andries & Czarnitzki, 2014). It could differ with a large firm on which capabilities are seen as most important. Future research could consider the different sizes of firms and find out if small firms possess different capabilities for SMBI than large firms. Fourth, this study does not make a distinction between the type of innovations. For example, the literature addresses a special capability for radical innovations (Lettl, 2007). Future research should take into consideration the different types of innovations and the capabilities needed for it.
Managerial implications
By addressing and identifying the capabilities needed for SMBI, this study contributes to the SMBI literature. Thereafter, the finding shows an important step-by-step plan and interrelatedness between the capabilities and hereby contributing the capability theory. In addition to the theoretical
