SOCIAL MEDIA ADOPTION AND EXPORT PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM TURKEY

Year 2021, , 137 - 138, 31.12.2021

Mine Aksoy Zelha Altınkaya Zekeriya Oguz Secme

https://doi.org/10.17261/Pressacademia.2021.1510

Abstract

Purpose- The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between social media adoption (SMA) and export performance (EP) in
Turkey as an emerging market economy. This paper also examines the role that the adoption of social media plays in firm export performance
and whether this role is moderated by firm size.
Methodology- The study employs the panel tobit model to investigate the relation between SMA and EP. The Borsa Istanbul Manufacturing
Index, comprised of 150 firms, constitutes our sample frame. The timeframe for our dataset covers the period of 2010-2020. While analyzing
the determinants of EP, R&D intensity, marketing intensity, firm size, firm age, internationalization age and sector are control variables, and
SMA is independent variable. The SMA was proxied by Social Media Index (SMI), Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube dummies.
Following Slover-Linett and Stoner (2011), we choose a simple criterion to define an official social media presence. A social media presence
was considered official if linked from the institutional website, directly from the homepage or from the secondary level of the website. SMI
is defined as the sum of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube dummies. Facebook dummy assumes the value of '1' when the firm has
a Facebook account in a particular year, or '0' otherwise. Instagram, Twitter and YouTube dummies were defined in the same way.
Findings- The analysis reveals that the coefficient for SMI is positive and statistically significant. The results also showed that the coefficient
for the interaction between SMI and firm size is positive and significant. Moderation examines under what conditions, the SMI-EP relation
varies. The firm size has a positive and significant moderating role on the relation between SMI and EP. Although, the coefficients for
Facebook and Instagram are positive and significant, the coefficients for Twitter and Youtube are insignificant. The findings also indicate that
while R&D intensity is negatively and statistically significant, marketing intensity and firm size are positively, and statistically significant and
internationalization age is negatively and statistically significant for firms with a high level of EP. We were unable to find support for an
association between EP and firm age.
Conclusion- The results suggest a positive effect of social media adoption on export performance and this relationship is moderated by firm
size. Turkish companies that adopt social media benefit from higher levels of export performance. The result of this study contributes to the
existing literature pointing to the importance of social media adoption for exporting firms in emerging markets.

Keywords

Export performance, social media, facebook, twitter, Turkey, emerging economies

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