A role for startups in unleashing the disruptive power of social media

Antonio Ghezzi, Luca Gastaldi, Emanuele Lettieri, Antonella Martini and Mariano Corso

International Journal of Information Management, 2016, vol. 36, issue 6, 1152-1159

Abstract: As social media attract increasing attention from executives and find varied applications in different industries, research on the subject has been investigating the antecedents, moderators, mediators and outcomes of social media adoption, as well as impacts on the organizational and individual level. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the discussion of the new sources of social media innovation—i.e., the upstream originators of social media solutions. Such innovations of a possibly disruptive nature often originate from startups, which can constitute a significant driver for social media development and can influence the adopting incumbents’ behaviors. This study aims at shedding first light on social media-based solutions developed and delivered by startups. By surveying the Crunchbase database, we identified 724 funded social media startups, which were further classified into six categories, namely: (i) social network; (ii) social commerce; (iii) social recruitment; (iv) social management; (v) social loyalty and advocacy; (vi) contact management. Our findings show how the large majority of startups deliver social network solutions to incumbents, followed by social media management applications. The findings also shed light on emerging approaches to value generation and open innovation from social media related to and driven by startups.

Keywords: Social media; Startups; Disruptive innovation; Startup-driven innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026840121630202X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ininma:v:36:y:2016:i:6:p:1152-1159

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2016.04.007

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Information Management is currently edited by Yogesh K. Dwivedi

More articles in International Journal of Information Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().