PhD Sara Fraccastoro, University Lecturer at the UEF Business School, has received an award by the American Marketing Association (AMA) Sales special interest group for her doctoral dissertation.
Fraccastoro defended her thesis, titled Social Media Use in International Entrepreneurial Ventures: An International Network and Sales Perspective, in International Business and Sales Management in October 2020. The thesis was supervised by Professor Mika Gabrielsson and Professor Tommi Laukkanen.
Awarded thesis explains how and why internationalizing firms use digital tools like social media in their international marketing and sales management processes.
The thesis is positioned at the intersection of the international business and sales management fields of research. The study shows that entrepreneurial ventures leverage social media platforms as part of their internationalisation due to those platforms’ characteristics of being cost-efficient and providing global visibility and use them in connection with traditional internationalisation methods.
Using social media helps firms overcome liabilities connected to their smallness, newness, and foreigness. The research also shows that international entrepreneurial firms seek diverse combinations of social media tools integrated with digital and traditional sales communication methods to reach a wider scope of business in terms of geographical reach and adaptation to customers’ needs.
From a practical and managerial standpoint, the dissertation supports firms that are confronted with internationalisation needs and aspirations. Given the rapid changes in the infrastructures and habits of information and communication technology adoption, firms are constantly challenged with the implementation of social media tools. However, they are also often uncertain about their implementation when approaching and growing into international markets, as well as during international sales activities. Thus, the study shows that the use of social media integrated with traditional networking methods and sales communication methods can facilitate the internationalisation and the sales management processes of international entrepreneurial ventures.
Articles related to the dissertation have been published in prestigious outlets like the Journal of World Business and International Business Review.
Dissertation book online:
Fraccastoro, S. (2020). Social media use in international entrepreneurial ventures : an international network and sales perspective. Publications of the University of Eastern Finland. Dissertations in Social Sciences and Business Studies, 232. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-61-3575-5
Articles:
Fraccastoro, S., Gabrielsson, M., & Chetty, S. (2021). Social media firm specific advantages as enablers of network embeddedness of international entrepreneurial ventures. Journal of World Business, 56(3), 101164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2020.101164
Fraccastoro, S., Gabrielsson, M., & Pullins, E. B. (2020). The integrated use of social media, digital, and traditional communication tools in the B2B sales process of international SMEs. International Business Review, 101776. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2020.101776
