The impact of social media on organizational performance: The case of beverage manufacturers in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The widespread adoption of social media in business over the past decade has brought in fundamental changes to the way business and customer interact. Social media has disrupted business value chains bringing with in many positives and negative resulting in some calling it a double-edged sword. This study sought to investigate the impact of social media on the performance of beverages manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe, a sector which has had its fair challenges with social media in the past but is least researched. Specifically the study sought to investigate how the use of social media in corporate strategy, advertising, customer relationship management and environmental scanning by the beverages manufacturing companies impact their performance. The study employed a quantitative methodology. Data was collected through structured self-administered questionnaires which were distributed to 108 respondents. From the total of 108 questionnaire distributed, 79 valid responses were obtained giving a response rate of 73%. The study finds positive and significant relationships between three of four social media constructs and organizational performance. Specifically the study shows that social media advertising, social media customer relationship management and social media environmental scanning positively impacts organizational performance. The study could however not find support for the use social media in corporate strategy. These finding enhance our understanding of the impact of social media (growing phenomenon) on organizational performance of a very critical sector in Zimbabwe. It was recommended that policy makers support the adoption of social media by the private sector through guaranteeing its availability and also putting in place robust laws that protect businesses from cyber risks associated with social media. Business organizations were urged to embrace rather fear the digital technology through resourcing their marketing functions with digital skills and also investing in social media intelligence and monitoring software.