Business Value of Enterprise Micro-blogging: Empirical Study from Weibo.com in Sina

The increasing use of micro-blogging as a marketing tool has increased research attention on usage and business value of enterprise micro-blogging. Based on research on information system (IS) usage and resource-based view (RBV) theory, this study develops a model to reveal the mechanism of business value creation of enterprise micro-blogging. The model consists of metrics on micro-blogging usage, micro-blogging operational performance, marketing capability, and firm performance. Questionnaires were distributed to firms that use micro-blogging. This study collects 241 valid responses for empirical analysis. The results suggest that the use of enterprise micro-blogging improves operational performance of enterprise micro-blogging directly and indirectly by increasing marketing capability, while operational performance of enterprise micro-blogging significantly affects firm performance. This study extends the stream of research that combines IS usage and RBV theory.