Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to explain how micro-entrepreneurs deploy, develop, and manage social media as a resource to create social commerce capabilities to achieve benefits. The paper uses a critical case sampling methodology to select a micro-entrepreneur who uses social media for advertising and retailing fashion items. Three findings emerge. First, in developing of social commerce capabilities, there is need to combine both technical and non-technical resources. Second, personal social capital is not immediately available for use in the development of social commerce capabilities especially when it is being translated for commercial purposes. Third, the level of social commerce capabilities developed is contingent on the affordances of the social media platform in use. This study uncovers the possibility of developing resources and capabilities concurrently i.e. resources do not necessarily have be inputs as identified in the theory. This paper is arguably one of the pioneering attempts at conceptualizing social commerce capabilities.
Recommended Citation
Entee, Edward; Budu, Joseph; and Boateng, Richard, "Preliminary Insights into Social Commerce Capability Development" (2018). MWAIS 2018 Proceedings. 30.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/mwais2018/30