The effect of social media use on inter-organisational relationships in Kuwaiti SMEs

The world is becoming more connected through social media. Social media is a growing area of interest for many scholars because of the value of co-creation that it enables. Most social media applications are of low cost and need little technical expertise, making them an attractive tool for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), due to the latter’s limited resources. Despite the growth in research and use of social media, it is unclear how it is used in and impacts upon supply chain relationships.
This research brings social media, SMEs and inter-organizational relationship (IORs) research together in the context of Kuwait. Specifically, it explores how the use of social media by Kuwaiti SMEs affects inter-organisational relationships. It achieves this by exploring the uses of social media, and investigating the impact of such use on new and existing relationships and on other technologies used.
Four inductive case studies from different sectors were conducted. Each case study represents a supply chain of SMEs that contains more than one buyer-supplier relationship. Social exchange theory, effectuation theory and media richness theory were used to build a theoretical framework that was used as a lens for the data collection and analysis.

The findings of this research reveal a range of social media uses in Kuwaiti supply relationships. The richness and openness of the media impacts the initial supplier selection process prior to opening new relationships. Social media use also brings different positive social and transactional impacts to supply relationships. The impact of social media on the other traditional technologies used by Kuwaiti SMEs is evident. Based on the findings several propositions are generated for future research.

This research is among the few empirical studies which explores the use and impact of social media in supply relationships, specifically in the context of SMEs in developing countries.