E-COMMERCE EVOLUTION: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN CHINESE SMES
Abstract
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) constitute the bedrock of China's robust economy, contributing significantly to its social and economic development. Accounting for over 90% of all enterprises, these entities play a pivotal role by contributing 60% to the GDP, generating more than 70% of patents, and employing around 90% of the workforce (Statista, 2021). Leveraging the expansive landscape of China's e-commerce sector, SMEs have strategically embraced and fortified their e-commerce systems, aiming to bolster their income-generating capacities (Statista, 2018). Nevertheless, the unanticipated and unprecedented challenges posed by the double intertwined and once-in-a-century epidemic have compelled SMEs to confront a new paradigm. The market dynamics are shifting rapidly, marked by evolving and uncertain demands and an accelerated pace of globalization. Information and communication technology are recognized as pivotal factors influencing the sales revenue of SMEs (Bocconcelli et al., 2017). Amid this landscape, social media emerges as a powerful tool, enabling direct interaction between businesses and customers (Alansari et al., 2018). It functions as a dynamic virtual world, facilitating access to reliable and up-todate information critical for business survival and growth (Tajvidi & Karami, 2021). The Global Digital Survey (2022) underscores the pervasive influence of social media, with over 4.62 billion global users, constituting 58.4% of the world's population. Facebook, maintaining its dominance, boasts a staggering 2.912 billion monthly users (We Are Social and Hootsuite, 2022). Social media platforms have evolved beyond mere communication channels, transforming into hubs for news consumption. According to the Pew Research Center (2021), 69% of Twitter users in the U.S. rely on the platform as a source of news (Mitchell et al., 2021). The platform's projected milestone of surpassing 1 billion monthly active users by the end of 2021 underscores its significance in the digital landscape (Iqbal, 2020). In the realm of international e-commerce and internet-based services, the United States and China stand at the forefront, driving innovation and wealth creation. Reports from The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2021) indicate that China's online retail sales have surged, claiming more than half of the global online retail sales over the past three years and rapidly closing the gap with the United States (UNCTAD, 2021).
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Supplier information, sharing, Supplier collaboration, Supplier ICT Integration, Supplier value creationDownloads
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