Large numbers of firms use social media for various business activities. Japanese firms, however, still lag behind. This paper aims to clarify how social media becomes effective for business activities among Japanese firms. For this purpose, the followings are addressed: (i) whether social media use is useful for company activities; (ii) what kinds of business activities are affected by using social media; and (iii) how social media improves the final outcomes of firms. This study uses the data of business activities and social media conducted in 2014. Probit and Structural Equation Model (SEM) analysis are employed. The former enables to clarify the relationships between the effects of social media and its various use. The latter can clarify the relationships among the effects of social media use to business activities. In SEM, a model is examined by taking final outcomes effected by social media as an explained variable, while explanatory variables are first and intermediate effects of social media. The results indicate social media has effective for business activities and the first effects such as "awareness of consumer needs" affect the intermediate effects such as "joint development with opinion leaders" and finally sales as one of final outcomes are improved for example. This study may help to promote social media use in Japanese firms.
['Hiroki Idota', 'Teruyuki Bunno', 'Masatsugu Tsuji']
The Effectiveness of Social Media Use in Japanese Firms