Social Media Marketing Strategies Used by Small Retail Businesses

Innovation
Company business models changed with the increase in customer acceptance of 
new technologies (Moreno-Munoz, Bellido-Outeirino, Siano, & Gomez-Nieto, 2016). A 
major component of innovation is identifying opportunities to develop new products or 
services (Andries & Czarnitzki, 2014). Small businesses can be more flexible than larger 
firms and flexibility leads to generating innovative products and services (Mastur & 
Soriano, 2014). Innovation stimulated economic growth, sustains business growth, and 
offers new potential, such as increased profits (Galindo & Mendez, 2014).
Companies invested in technology with the intent to increase revenue, decrease 
costs, or improve efficiencies (Turner & Shah, 2014). For instance, smartphone 
technologies are innovations that allow customers to leisurely interact with brands by 
using mobile applications or apps, which are another way brands are engaging consumers 
(Kim, Wang, & Malthouse, 2015). The internet has become one of the most powerful 
engines to foster retail sales (Leeflang, Verhoef, Dahlstrom, & Freundt, 2014). Mobile 
internet technology usage grew 18.9% since 2010 and use mobile internet more than 
stationary internet service (Moreno-Munoz et al., 2016). People spent an average of 17% 
on Facebook’s mobile app (Moreno-Munoz et al., 2016). Kim et al. (2015) posited that 
using a brand’s mobile application increased consumer-buying behavior because mobile 
technologies are readily available, portable, and convenient.
Limited resources, including the lack of funds dedicated to marketing, contributed 
to the high failure rates of small businesses (Anderson & Ullah, 2014; Karadag, 2015).
Innovations such as SMM might be a way to help small firms survive beyond the first 

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five years. Characteristics such as the size and age of a business contributed to 
innovativeness. Autio, Kenney, Mustar, Siegel, and Wright (2014) found that small 
businesses were less likely to be innovative.
Globalization of goods and services are forcing small businesses to be more 
innovative to remain competitive and improve advantageous market positioning (Leung, 
Cheung, & Chu, 2014; Story, Boso, & Cadogan, 2015). Hassan et al. (2015) posited that 
social media and the Internet are critical for small business for competitiveness and 
innovation. Innovation drove the demand for a product or service or influenced the 
anticipation for next-generation products (Taalbi, 2017). Love and Roper (2015) 
discovered the existence of positive relationships between innovation, exportation, cash 
flow, and liquidity. Applying the DOI theory might assist small business leaders 
understand how innovations are adopted and the benefits of new technologies to create 
successful SMM strategies to improve competitiveness.