Social media in creating enterprise innovation : a systematic literature review

Abstract

Purpose: This review attempts to provide a synthesis of the available results of the scientific activity of researchers to cover the use of social media to create innovations in enterprises. This article aims to identify the research gaps and determine further research directions on the use of social media in creating innovations in enterprises. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research has been based on a systematic literature review using EBSCO Discovery Service and EdWordle tools. The analysis covered the 2010-2020 publications describing the use of social media in creating innovations in enterprises. Findings: With the systematic literature review, four significant research gaps and directions of future studies were identified. The first gap refers to most research publications focus only on four types of social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube). The second gap refers to the fact that most of the publications investigated the impact of social media only on the product innovations, rarely other types of innovation were addressed. The third research gap identifies a lack of systematic theoretical explanations about which capabilities of using social media must be created and how they should be managed at respective stages of innovative processes. It is thus justifiable to perform studies to account for those doubts. The fourth one refers to how the tangible and intangible resources of the organization affect the use of social media in innovation processes, which is an exciting direction for future studies. Practical Implications: The analysis performed in this article has important implications for business practitioners who, due to an ongoing technological advancement, access to information, and growing market requirements, face a challenge of the possibly most effective use of social media to create innovations. The results of this article provide the representatives of enterprises with tips on how to get the innovation potential from social media, how to use the wisdom of the crowd in making essential business decisions. Originality/Value: The article contributes to the existing state of knowledge, identifying research gaps and directions of future studies to cover the use of social media in creating enterprise innovations and systematizing the existing applicable scientific activity.