RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

Digital social media marketing for entrepreneurs: boosting brand image… 49
keting strategy, as they believe that it encourages innovation and enables the co creation with
customers, which in turns boosts their brand image. However, some entrepreneurs are still
not sure about the ease of usage or do not know how to apply it. Considering the number of
tools available for the application of DSMM (various SM platforms, digital analytics etc) the
participants are not sure on the direction that their DSMM campaigns should take in order
to target the desired market, which gives opportunity for the development of various courses
related to this matter.
Still, in true alignment with the literature findings, the results of this study also show a
great percentage of neutral/indecisive responds in relation to this topic which is primarily driven
by the relatively infant stage of DSMM practices compared to traditional mediums (eg. TV,
newspaper ads) meaning thus lack of awareness and access to information for the involved
parties. Nevertheless, a core implication of this gap resides also in the perceptions of the respondents
related to their skills in the area of DSMM practices – in the sense that by not having
a proper/clear view over this topic, the perceived skills that they possess might not be the
actual skills required to properly implement DSMM. Furthermore, some of the participants
might have fallen into response bias meaning that they might have responded in a way that
pleases the researcher (unconscious trend adoption/bias). Finally, given this bias, another limitation
that may hinder the validity of the findings resides in the low number of respondents
across a wide geographic span. Future research should focus on local/regional areas in an indepth
approach towards unveiling the perceived benefits of DSMM practices with regards
to innovation and boosting brand image.
Conclusion
Due to the quick technological developments of the 21 st century and the introduction of
Internet, the ability to reach huge number of audiences is bigger than ever. This gives companies
a great framework for applying DSMM practices, which encourages close communication
with customers, which in turn boosts brand image. At the same time DSMM practices
enable innovative and up to date approach on advertising and in order for firms to remain
competitive, they need to be up to date with these practices. This paper adopts the UTAUT
approach in order to assess entrepreneurs’ perceptions towards DSMM. The results show that
as indicated in the primary as well as the secondary research, since DSMM is in its developing
stages many companies use it inefficiently, which turns their own strategy against them.
It is thus crucial to have all the essential information and knowledge in order to benefit from
DSMM practices, which will enable companies to target a wide number of potential customers,
establish close relationship with them as well as stay up to date and innovative in order to
always have competitive advantage.
Acknowledgements
This research has been made available through the EU/LLP funded project (JEMSS) in
terms of ensuring the project’s impact by providing means of best practice replication from
JEMSS to other domains/sectors across the EU. This publication/communication represents
only the views of the authors and the EU Commission cannot be held responsible for any use