Abstract:
Background: While the proliferation of social media is hailed for increasing corporate business
networking and competitiveness, this claim has not been sufficiently tested in tourism small,
medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in African emerging economies where traditional
communication modes tend to dominate.
Setting: This study investigates the use of social media in tourism SMMEs to widen their
business networks to increase competitiveness.
Aim: This study contributes to the debate on business networking among stakeholders within
the tourism sector.
Methods: To close the research gap, the current study employed stakeholder theory and
survey data of 123 hospitality SMMEs to explore the influence of social media utilisation for
business networking with stakeholders and its effect on business competitiveness.
Results: Findings showed that the majority of tourism SMMEs used social media technologies
to retain their customer base, solicit feedback from customers, assert their dominance in the
market, maintain contact between their co-workers and share information. Moreover, the
findings indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between social media business
networking and competitiveness of these firms. The study recommended that tourism SMMEs
should create a policy framework for comprehensive stakeholder engagement that serves the
interests of all individuals.
Conclusion: To increase the competitiveness of such firms, SMMEs should incorporate
social media into their formal internal and external information strategy.
