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Social Media in Business Decisions of MSMEs: Practices and Challenges

IGI Global
International Journal of Decision Support System Technology
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Social media has progressively grown in the last century and is now seen as a potential opportunity for various purposes, including the decision-making. The present work explores how social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can be used to support the decision making process of MSMEs. The work is exploratory in nature, and relevant literature has been reviewed to identify the decision making approaches at different managerial levels and how they have been integrated with the social media applications. Specific examples of social media platforms have been discussed, considering the MSMEs’ business environment. Along with the practices, the most important challenges to social media integration have also been presented.
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DOI: 10.4018/IJDSST.286686
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This article published as an Open Access Article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://cre-
ativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and production in any medium, provided the author of the
original work and original publication source are properly credited.
*Corresponding Author
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Vikas Kumar, Chaudhary Bansi Lal University, India*
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6753-1557
Pooja Nanda, Sharda University, India
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4392-1788
Samira Tawangar, Sharda University, India

Social media has progressively grown in the last century and is now seen as a potential opportunity
for various purposes, including the decision-making. The present work explores how social media
platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can be used to support the decision making
process of MSMEs. The work is exploratory in nature, and relevant literature has been reviewed
to identify the decision making approaches at different managerial levels and how they have been
integrated with the social media applications. Specific examples of social media platforms have
been discussed, considering the MSMEs’ business environment. Along with the practices, the most
important challenges to social media integration have also been presented.

Business Strategy, Decision Support Systems, MSMEs, Social Media

Social media has become a part of everyday life for a large section of people worldwide (Ayodeji,
& Kumar, 2019). It is also used by companies to create and share information with customers easily
and instantly, and to benefit from this continuous communication. Kumar & Bhardwaj (2018) have
argued that the social media interventions have increased in the society with the growth of internet
and associated applications. Whole world has shriveled to an extent that finding lost friends from
school, colleagues from previous jobs as well as the less connected relatives has become as easy
as a few taps and clicks (Naik, 2015). As a result of increase in social media platforms and users,
the need for tracking, collecting, analyzing and reporting the data generated on these platforms has
also increased (Kumar & Nanda, 2019). Businesses understand and derive useful insights from the
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social media platform and turn it into useful information or intelligence for strategic decision-making
through their business data. Adoption of social media is increasing in the organizational settings as
this is believed to improve the organizational processes (Treem and Leonardi, 2013). Organizations
are rapidly using knowledge from social networks to provide resources, connect with their customers,
and make strategic decisions for their companies (Mittal & Kumar, 2019). Marketers and consumers
can leverage more from the social media as young people become more involved in social media
networks (Smedescu, 2013). It involves greater participation of people and hence can contribute to
the decision making.
Due to rapid technological upgradation, there are many new competitors, new markets, products
and new business policies in the entire network. This has created huge uncertainty, global competition
and increased competitive power for the firms. Therefore, businesses are now dependent on information
which needs to be adequate and accurate (Kumar & Ayodeji, 2020). Organizations should use social
media’s power to communicate via a shared forum where users and stakeholders can work together and
make strategic choices (Naik, 2015). Social media content such as customer perceptions, views and
thoughts about various products and services tend to improve the credibility of business organisations
(Kumar& Pradhan, 2016). In order to make informed business decisions, business enterprises are
required to know their clients, rivals or partners holistically with insight patterns from both social
media platforms and business data platforms (ERPs). Although, the Social media is important to all
different levels of organizations, it has a specific relevance to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises
(MSMEs) as the social media is directly used by their owners (Subagyo et al., 2020). With a direct
influence on the owners, Social media can largely influence the organizational decisions.
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There are many ways in which decisions can be made in the professional world. Earlier, organizations
used to make business decisions on the basis of surveys, interviews, group discussions and finally
the wisdom of managers. However, this was a time consuming process and the decisions were not
very optimal. Organizations began to computerize many of the operational aspects of their business
in the early 1960s. Information systems were developed to incorporate applications such as: order
processing, accounting, inventory control, payroll and payable accounts. Management Information
Systems (MIS) originally had the goal of making the information accessible for decision-making
purposes in transaction processing systems. However, these systems were very large and inflexible
and the reports produced were usually big, thus limiting the effectiveness of these systems (Ackoff,
1967). Eventually, this led to the development of Decision Support Systems in 1980s. Decision Support
Systems (DSS) can help managers perform tasks such as resource allocation, budget comparison
with actual results, data base testing to assess operating results, revenue forecasting and scenario
assessment (Power and Heavin, 2017).
The expansion of World Wide Web and introduction of mobile computing began in 1995 and led
to evolution of modern Decision Support Systems. Decision Support System (DSS) is an information
systems (IS) division dedicated to supporting and improving strategic decision. Developers created
the earlier Decision Support Systems so that the decision makers and the IT based systems could
have better interaction in solving a problem.
Most enterprises follow the hierarchical structures, where decisions are taken at the executive
level and then passed on to other workers. Decisions are made as part of procedures, and results are
measured. Decisions may require the evaluation and assessment of alternatives using specific data.
The quality of a decision is often affected by the type of process or the specific manner in which a
decision is made and implemented. To enhance their decision-making process, organizations must
use a standardized view of the facts. This can be achieved through the collection and storage of data,
analysis and transformation of the results into useful and valuable knowledge. Organizations have
incorporated computerized decision support systems into their daily activities. Through social media
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analytics, managers can now regularly download and analyze sales data, generate reports, analyze
and evaluate forecast results. Organizational decisions usually incorporate a rational approach to
decision-making. Power and Heavin (2017) claimed that rationality is the quality of being compatible
with logic, suggesting that rational thinkers often base their decisions on logic and have good sense
and good judgment. However, the structure and complexity of the decisions vary widely. Barnard
and Simon (1947) categorized decisions into the programmed and non- programmed decisions: a)
Programmed decisions are routine and repeated decisions that are typically established in particular
ways to address problems, b) In comparison, non-programmed decisions are one-time decisions that are
usually less organized than programmed decisions. In addition, Gorry & Michael (1971) categorized
the decisions into three levels by structure: structured, unstructured and semi-structured. Structured
decisions are straight forward decisions which are made on a regular basis. These decisions have a
well-defined method and variables for finding a solution. Unstructured decisions on the other hand
are decisions which are not made on a regular basis. Unstructured decisions are based on knowledge
and/or skills, and often data and models also need to be used. On the other hand, semi structured
decisions fall in-between the structured and unstructured decisions. This type of decision has some
formal phases in which systematic processes can be combined with individual judgements (Sekhar
& Babu, 2012). Normally, most business decisions are semi structured. There are various levels of
decisions which can be taken in an organization. Brien and Marakas (2013) categorized following
three different levels of management decisions in an organization.
The Top most level of decision making is dedicated to the planning and coordination of functions.
The decision makers at this level consists of the management board, chief executive or managing
directors. The Middle Level of the hierarchy report to the top management for the functioning of
their department and spend more time on corporate and executive functions. This level is branch
managers and department managers form middle-level. The third level is the operational level, which
is concerned with managerial direction and control role. This level includes the administrators,
captain, unit officers and superintendents etc. However, the functioning of these three levels in the big
organizations and MSMEs are typically different. The decision levels in large business organizations
and MSMEs have been presented in Table 1.
It is clear from the table that at different levels, the decisions are being taken by different people.
However, the managerial hierarchies are not present in small organizations and decisions are taken by
the owner itself (Gibcus et al., 2008). This in turn requires more efficient and effective decisions as the
risk taking capacity of smaller organizations is less as compared to bigger organizations. Businesses
Table 1. Decision Levels in Large Organizations and MSMEs
Decision Making in Corporates and Large Business Organizations
Decision
Structure
Operational
Management Tactical Management Strategic
Management Decision Taken By
Unstructured Cash Management
Business Process
Reengineering
New Business
Innovations/ Initiatives, CEO, Board of Directors,
Top Level Management
Workgroup
Performance Analysis
Restructuring and
Reorganisation
Semi structured
Credit
Management,
Performance Appraisal
of Employees, Product Planning
Business Unit ManagersProduction
Scheduling, Capital Budgeting, Mergers & Acquisitions
Daily operations Program Budgeting Site Location
Structured Inventory Control Program Control Operational Managers
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often experience environmental risks so minimizing the risk of uncertainty in the decision-making
process is very much critical (Kumar & Vidhyalakshmi). Furthermore, unlike large companies, where
decisions are made on the basis of the company’s mission to achieve long-term business objectives,
the manager takes on the spot decisions in case of small and medium-sized businesses, which may
be helpful in the short term. Another fundamental difference is about the decision-making process in
the two types of companies. For large companies with a high hierarchical stratification, the decisions
are evaluated and made by various hierarchical levels, based on their importance and effect on the
operation. In small and medium-sized companies, on the other hand, the decision-making capacity
belongs to one individual, who undertakes the company’s results as a result of his decisions (Oltean,
2012). The businessman is much closer to the associates (suppliers and customers) than the manager
of a large corporation. In small and medium-sized businesses the decisions are usually informal and
they exist only in the mind of the entrepreneur who allows them to make any adjustments that are
deemed necessary for the well-being of the company.
In today’s society, the Internet offers both businesses and consumers a range of possibilities, but
it can also become a threat. Awareness and the bargaining power of customers, along with the rising
level of competition have become one of the greatest challenges raised by online commerce (Chaffey
et al., 2009; Kumar et al., 2020). All organizations need to make decisions; however, the strategies
used to arrive at a decision can vary. As Sadovykh et al. (2015) rightly said, that people met and
interacted with each other via face-to-face interactions before computer-mediated communication
(CMC) took over. Decision making requires patterns to be recognized and these patterns direct the
persons in leading to decisions (Calabrese and Zepeda, 1999). Because of technological alterations,
the way companies and nations coordinate production, trade goods, invest in infrastructure, develop
new technologies and processes, and have produced enormous changes. Due to the complexities of
challenges that they are dealing with, policymakers and decision-makers are demanding new analytical
and decision supporting tools that can keep pace with technological developments. Some of important
considerations, which demand the computer-based decision-making, include the following.
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In this competitive environment, markets are changing so fast that organizations and managers need
to respond quickly and efficiently. Hence, the managers need to make fast decisions. More formalized
strategic planning and control systems are needed to deliver a competitive advantage for organizations
(Woods & Joyce, 2003). Many times, a manager needs to solve an unexpected query or problem from
the customer. The manager may need information from other decision makers and other stakeholders
to make a decision. However, due to urgency, manager cannot wait to arrange individual meetings.
This manager can easily use social media platform, which connects him/her to the colleagues on a
single platform in a faster way.
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With the expansion of the economy, organizations need to continuously improve their competitiveness
to establish themselves in the global market (Blackwell et al., 2006). Internet has revolutionized
many disciplines by making data collection simpler with large samples, and thus generating more
representative data. Organisations have found new methods of data collection and analysis as social
media. As a data collection tool, it offers a larger sample size, wider sample range, easier access and
comfort, lower cost and time commitment and many other attractive features.
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Today, systems are unpredictable, uncertain, complex and ambiguous and the prevailing dynamics
are beyond our control. Making the right decisions or optimally responding is far more difficult than
before (weforum, 2014). Today people are witnessing an era of technology standardization. The
customer are being bombarded with the brands and product categories to make it difficult to decide.
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The rapidly changing pace of technology and the exponential increase in the speed and volume by
which data is generated on a daily basis, have though increased challenges for decision makers but
have emphasized on fact based decision making. Companies which are flexible and can cope with
complex decision making are more likely to succeed in today’s fast-paced, volatile environment.
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Risk is an inherent to businesses and it requires a careful consideration to define, reflect and assess
these risks (Rosemann & Muehlen, 2005). As the risks gets emerged from being phenomenological in
the natural world, the twenty-first century is the age of man-made risk. Transparency and knowledge
interconnection, globalization of products, services, people and the relentless nature of change
have increased the economic crisis exponentially and the risks associated with business processes.
Decision-makers must see the risks as a dynamic process, hence they cannot be effectively addressed
with static instruments.
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A number of companies have recognized that social media can increase their brand awareness and
have an impact on their online community’s decision-making process, if used properly. Cognizant
apparently embedded multiple social media into a system project development tool (Rajagopal, 2010).
They used a framework that integrated workflow with social media to enable the incorporation of
new knowledge on social media in order to improve the knowledge of the system (Leary, 2011).
Usage of social media data in decision-making is growing, as people are increasingly using these
tools to educate themselves, express opinions or make valuations of products and services (Kumar
& Ayodeji, 2021a). Rapid and real-time information gathering systems have been developed because
of the social media, which take hold of the opinions, thoughts, perceptions, moods or other feelings
of the people. Hence, the companies need to consider various social media factors, which can aid in
decision making. Most important of them are the following.
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Content from customer interactions is a way that can help in making strategic decisions successfully
(Kumar & Ayodeji, 2021b). The problem for an organization is to interpret the information, because
information gathered in an open environment does not necessarily mean that patterns and trends are
easily separable. One such alternative could be to apply the content created by the user to a multi-stage
decision-making process (Andrews & Manrai, 1998) that could enhance decision-making by fostering
a collaborative and participatory atmosphere (Saiti & Eliophotou-Menon, 2009). The decision-making
process needs to involve a participatory and inclusive culture within an organization at all levels.
Aggarwal and Singh (2013) suggested that strategic decision-making gather user-generated content
information and collect additional information to improve decision-making and minimize the risk
of incorrect or wrong decisions. However, the strategists cannot rely exclusively on user-generated
content information, and they need to use a process of manipulation to gather additional information
for validation and expansion of it.
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Social media provides broad strategic advantages for organizations. Businesses can choose different
strategies to communicate with a wide range of clients using social media platforms. Social media
is described as an online forum where online users can share ideas and build a virtual community.
An important aspect of marketer planning is that a virtual community created through a social
media network has similar attributes to a real world community (Chung & Austria, 2010). The only
difference in this interactive environment is that online users’ do not face any real limitations on
the world (Ayodeji & Kumar, 2020). Individuals can essentially utilize any form of social media to
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communicate differently. However, businesses must objectively evaluate the power of each social
media platform and develop a comprehensive strategy that focuses on a specific business target. If
the business is involving multiple social media platforms, a standardized social media strategy need
to be established (Bruhn et al., 2012). It is important to take into account the penetration of each
social media network into the consumer market, and how companies can make successful use of this
resource (Kumar & Saurabh, 2020).
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Social media is now an integral part of the way business organizations deliver information. People use
social media platforms to share a large variety of information categories. The online community can
use these platforms to socialize in the virtual world, share photos, conduct podcasts, create blogs for
video-sharing, etc. Enterprises are now using various social media websites to disseminate valuable
information to the public (Icha and Agwu, 2015). By using Twitter, information is disseminated by
most other fortune 500 companies and the majority of big brands. Also, when the brands reply to
tweets, peoples trust in the brand increases (Kang and Park, 2018). Constant monitoring of social
media offers a rich knowledge, which can be used in the strategic decision-making process. Businesses
have developed innovative business models, where direct customer charges do not contribute to
revenue. Such organizations ensure that the organization’s strength is built up through the user base
that visits the social media platforms. These businesses have adopted the volume-based approach to
engage customers with the company.
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The revenue is generated from the volume of clients who visit the website. Therefore, the company
aims to give consumers the highest level of social interaction online. Although major websites such
as Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, Twitter, Myspace and Flickr offer different social experiences to
online users, they do provide a similar set of functions. Such websites ensure that people from around
the world can access a wealth of information without filters. Rather than providing the information to
the consumer market, the role has now changed where the businesses have to monitor the consumer’s
activities. Customers therefore have the right to address a company’s performance (Fogel, 2010;
Mittal & Kumar, 2020). Hence, the consumer audience of the company has the ability to exchange
a highly diverse amount of data which influences the demands.
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Social media has created a competitive platform for small businesses to compete in the global corporate
environment. Through tweeting, blogging, linking, etc., customers may discover new companies, and
help or support a company. Likewise, loyal customers help Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
produce a very powerful word of mouth. The resources needed by these companies to successfully
advertise on the social media platform are extremely cost-effective and require very little investment in
related technologies, so that these small businesses can compete effectively with large multinationals.
Social media enabled the individual users to make a significant impact on the company. Through the
interactive process, customers are able to provide the essential information to help companies decide
on a product or service. If consumers are responsive in nature, and can make their views known to
the company and other customers, they can strongly influence the company’s operational and quality
issues. Consumers now have the flexibility and opportunity to be an important part of the company’s
product development process through a continuous feedback system. Social media allows companies
meet consumers at the right time and in the right way, at relatively low cost and at higher efficiency
levels than the traditional communication tools. Social media content like blogging, video and photo
sharing (YouTube), social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn), and microblogging (Twitter), have a
tremendous impact on personal and managerial decision making.
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Facebook, an online networking site that once started making friends and bringing people together,
proved to be a successful marketing tool for 21st century marketers. This platform’s popularity among
Indian social networking users has made it a primary way for organizations to communicate with their
clients. There are many reasons why this is a successful business strategy altogether. Facebook is a
user-friendly social networking platform that not only helps businesses communicate with users, but
also provides instant feedback and responses. The company pages or fan pages of Facebook provide
brands with different ways of communicating and engaging with their customers (Jahn & Kunz, 2012),
in addition to providing consumers with a forum to compare other customers with respect to any
brand. Facebook effect can be potentially used to enhance productivity. Companies can establish or
increase the likelihood of consumers visiting Facebook before deciding on the purchase of products or
services. Facebook is used during the stages of recognition and conversion to reach a wider audience
and inform them about a brand. It helps consumers make informed decisions about purchases. The
Facebook page of small firms not only increases its direct value by increasing sales and profitability
through engagement with new customers and organizational growth, but also increases its indirect
value through word-of-mouth, encouraging feedback and the relative effect that followers have on
each other (Hopkins, 2012). Thus, Facebook can prove to be a vital tool in all marketing, product
development and customer service related decisions.
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Instagram is a platform for uploading and posting images and videos, which may or may not be textually
tagged with a caption that followers may comment on. Instagram is used in the consideration stage
to present captivating images of a brand, to share lots of stories behind the scenes and pictures of
a company. Since Instagram uses same Advertising Manager as Facebook, it has the same tracking
capabilities as Facebook. Through connection clicks the managers can see everything leading to
sales, and cost per outcome of any campaign running. One can always see how many results were
achieved and at what cost. Tracking metrics is one of Instagram’s most significant benefits (https://
www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/benefits-instagram/). Business owners can see clearly what ad and ad
package can bring the most money, and decide upon the best marketing campaign.

Twitter is a microblogging service that sends messages with 140 or less characters as a way of alerting
others about events. People can interact easily about important things. Twitter provides a platform for
short messages. Twitter can be used to interact with projects, usually connected to project events. In
the recognition and conversion phases, Twitter is also used to exchange relevant news and customer
support from small companies or business. Microblogs allow for rapid communication with little time
commitment for a single post (Evans et al., 2011). Because of Twitter’s transparency, it is incredibly
easy to identify and target customers. One can have all about people’s ready interests and their
profiles. This helps an enterprise build a context before approaching or even targeting the customers.
To encourage communication and collaboration, Twitter could also be used to ask other people about
the project or the business about certain issues. Twitter has a variety of customer data that can be
easily accessed and used by the company. It can be a great asset in making targeted advertisements,
increasing downloads, increasing visits to websites etc.

LinkedIn provides advanced analytics to help companies understand what kind of content followers
are most likely to engage. It can also help to understand the profiles of followers and track traffic
and events on the company’s website. Tracking who visits the Company Page and how they connect
with the content once they arrive, enables LinkedIn to be optimized for specific data-based business
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strategies. Users of LinkedIn provide detailed information to the network about their professional
preferences, relationships and qualifications. This ensures that LinkedIn has excellent targeting
capabilities, allowing strategic decisions to incorporate LinkedIn ads into their social media marketing
campaign. It can build on existing connections and with word of mouth expand a brand. It is also the
most highly rated social network for lead generation, particularly for the B2B activities. LinkedIn
Business Pages shall predominantly be used as Business HR ad networks. While this is just one way
of using LinkedIn, the network is also becoming the perfect location for driving business performance,
brand awareness, promoting career opportunities and educating potential clients about products and
services (https://blog.hootsuite.com/linkedin-for-business/). Good content and convincing statuses
can help to build a brand as the leader in the industry.

YouTube has become an important tool for the human social interaction in the contemporary society.
It is one of the leading platform for Video-on-Demand (VoD) content generated by users. User
generated content (UGC) on YouTube creates new ideas and business opportunities for users to create
and share network content creatively (Cha et al., 2007), including a marketing strategy and branding
(Mills, 2012). YouTube content creation allows users to meet their information, entertainment and
mood management needs, while video sharing allows for self-expression and self-actualization (Shao
2009). YouTube platform has multiple features to improve social networking (Benevenuto et al.,
2008), the ability of users to comment on a video, such as like or dislike a video, or share a video
with other social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter. YouTube is an online network with
a concept of social networking that increases the success of video ranking and commenting (Kaplan
and Haenlein, 2010).

Blogs have been known for capturing feelings and opinions and therefore widespread work has
been done to gain access to those feelings and opinions (O’Leary, 2011). Blogs could be monitored
for project details, to decide which specific types of comments are made about projects, track the
identification of those remarks in other forms of social media or comments and try to understand what
the comments mean for the system project. Bloggers may express dissatisfaction or enthusiasm over a
project. In theory, Blogs may be used to collect formal and informal knowledge about project or process
development efforts. Hence, blogs may provide emotional insights into how well a project is going.

Nonetheless, several small businesses often could not use the social media effectively and they do
not have a strategy in place. Countless opportunities are lost without a basic understanding of the
benefits of social media, including its use for clients. Lots of small business owners struggle to reach
their consumers efficiently (smallbiztrends, 2011). Many businesses find it difficult to make a choice
on the social media and its specific usage. Another important issue for the companies continues to
be the quantity, quality and speed of real time social media data to make an effective use of this. The
most important challenges faced by the MSMEs can be categorized as the following.

For many small organizations, social media concept is a comparatively new concept. Executives are
reluctant to adopt this as part of the business strategy. Instead of implementing social media tools
completely in their organizations, they are waiting for the social media technology to get more matured.
Nonetheless, according to experts in the field, taking a step back and waiting until the technology
matures is not the right move (Kiron et al., 2012). In addition, many top level management people

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are not aware about its usage and advantages. By not adopting this strategy, many organizations may
be left behind their competitors in innovation and this may be disadvantageous for them as far as
customer relations management is concerned.

The continuous monitoring of several social media sites can be a very time-consuming activity. In
general, employees may need a lot of time to share their content on social media sites and follow
the posts of others. Management may not always be in favor of spending that much time on social
media sites. There may always be demands that workers spend enough time in answering more urgent
questions from their superiors. Also, the time and expertise required to use social media would reduce
the encouragement of employees to share (Naik, 2015).

Language barriers is also one of the greatest challenges for any organization to adopt social media.
Since most of the online information is in English, non-English speaking workers worldwide have
difficulty accessing this information and sharing their opinions via social media sites. Hence, it may
be difficult to get these people to share and document their information via social media in a seamless
manner (Naik, 2015).

The management is always concerned about the privacy, security and the content, which can be
uploaded on social media. Organizations always have a fear that an employee might irresponsibly
leak some confidential information via social media. Considering a public domain, managers find
it risky to upload all information about their organization on social media. Misuse of the data may
lead to unfavorable situations for the company. This loss of control over the information shared on
social media is seen as a major obstacle to the use of social media (Macnamara & Zerfass, 2012).

The presence of social media has become mandatory for the MSMEs and there are numerous ways
to integrate social media in the business decision making process. Social media can be integrated at
different levels of decision making with a carefully planned strategy by the MSMEs. Since, there are
many social media platforms, the specific application of each one of them needs be understood to
harness its effectiveness in decision making process. Businesses can monitor social media and identify
its usage patterns to make decisions. This integration of the social media has long term implications
for the MSMEs in terms of strategic changes at different decision making levels. Users’ feedback and
recommendations on social media sites can be used to shape the policies and this can be an evolving
implications. It is evident that the impact of social media on organizational decision making can be
widespread and may depend upon the specific type of social media platform being used. Although,
the social media offer a number of opportunities for the MSMEs, there may be many challenges
pertaining to the same. The challenges need to be addressed in a timely and strategic manner for the
successful integration of Social Media.
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Vikas Kumar received M Sc. in Electronics from Kurukshetra University, Haryana, India. This was followed by M Sc
in Computer Science and further Ph. D. from the same university. He is a life member of Indian Science Congress
Association, Computer Society of India, IETE, ICEIE, IPA, VEDA, IVS and Magnetic Society of India. Along with
13 books, He has more than 100 research papers to his credit in various national and international conferences
and journals.Dr. Kumar is serving as a Professor at the Chaudhary Bansi Lal University, Bhiwani, India and is a
visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Indore and University of Northern Iowa, USA.
Pooja Nanda is currently working as Assistant Professor in School of Business Studies, Sharda University, Greater
Noida, India. She has been in the education sector for more than 17years. She has done her Ph.D. in management. She
received her Master’s in Business Administration in Information technology from Punjab Technical University, Punjab,
India. She has published research papers in Scopus indexed international journals and presented many research
papers in various national and international conferences. She is a life time member of Centre for Education Growth and
Research (CEGR), Society for Education and Research Development (SERD) and Computer Society of India (CSI).
Her areas of interest include: Information systems, Data Sciences, Technologies of MSMEs and Business Analytics.
Samira Tawangar completed her Masters in Media and HR Management from ISBM, India. She is presently working
for her Doctorate in the School of Business Studies, Sharda University, India. Her main areas of research include
corporate communication and entrepreneurship.
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... When employing social media for market research and business decision analysis, it is crucial to bear in mind that there exist various challenges and factors that require careful consideration (Kumar et al., 2021). Initially, it is crucial to bear in mind that information acquired from social media platforms typically lacks organization or structure. ...
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