Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family to Grow Successful Family-Owned Businesses?: The Usefulness of Social Media in Growing a Family-Owned Business

Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family to Grow Successful Family-Owned Businesses?: The Usefulness of Social Media in Growing a Family-Owned Business

Mambo Governor Mupepi, Patience Taruwinga, Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah
Copyright: © 2017 |Pages: 22
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1686-6.ch012
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Abstract

The objective of the study was to collect data from family owned enterprises to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of social media as a strategy to grow the useful business and to determine the subscription of family owned entities to social networking. The methodology included data collected from a total of 68 family owned firms 30 in the USA and 38 in Africa SADC countries. Monkey survey tools were deployed to collect data. Results show that those companies that subscribed to social media were more successful than those that did not. Certain social networks were much more useful than others and that it was not always important to have a website but useful to have a social network. The debut of the popular Facebook was received with mixed views by many organizations but its subscription by many organizations demonstrate its usefulness as a tool to grow a business. The recommendations are that it is important for a family owned business to subscribe to a social network as a strategy to advance productivity.
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Introduction

Monkey survey tools were deployed to collect data which was then interpreted to inform the discussion in this chapter. The results show that those companies that subscribed to social media were more successful than those that did not. Certain social networks were much more useful than others and that it was not always important to have a website but useful to have a social network. The discussion is organized in four parts to answer the question: Can the social media usage increase the gregariousness of the family to grow successful family owned businesses? The first part introduces the topic and offers a description of some of the terms used in the debate. The second part reviews a charily selected literature to understand the sociability of families and their business interests. The third part discusses empirical evidence from Southern African and American family owned businesses on the impact of their Facebook, Twitter, Google+, You Tube, Flickr, and Skype to have clear and well-planned strategy to increase success opportunities. The fourth part draws a conclusion mentioning the limitations of the arguments presented and suggests others areas of research in other on-line and traditional social media.

Rise in Mixed Media Communication Strategy

In Bethlahmy, Popat and Schottmiller (2011), the demand for global e-commerce is expected to exceed $1.4 trillion by year end 2015. Further estimates indicate that by the end of 2016 US online shoppers will spend $327 billion, and e-retail will account for 9 percent of total retail sales (Mulpuru, 2012). Many corporations including family owned businesses have seized this opportunity to adopt the electronic way of business. One important factor critical to electronic commerce success is the website. Nacheva-Skopalik and Green (2016) assert that usability of websites impact customers’ intention to return for more. The customers’ experience on websites should be positive.

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