| dc.description.abstract | By sharing content on LinkedIn using emotional branding, SMEs can provide performance outcomes to their companies. Both previous investigations on LinkedIn and other platforms, and our accepted hypotheses indicate that LinkedIn usage will enhance company performance. This thesis aims to investigate "How can B2B SMEs benefit through emotional branding using LinkedIn?". Employees' perceptions of Goals, Personal and Company Identification, Sharing Behavior, and performance are investigated to understand SMEs' emotional branding perspective. Additionally, control variables are added to provide more value to our thesis and make the answers more reliable.
The study is investigated in terms of a mixed-method approach, as this topic has barely been researched earlier. The approach combines qualitative interviews of LinkedIn experts with data retrieved from a quantitative survey posted on LinkedIn. The interviews are a part of the preliminary stage of the study, and contribute to the thesis’ theory assembling, research model and hypotheses development, and survey. The research model and its credibility is tested in terms of Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Further, a regression analysis investigates the relationships of the variables included in the research model. The data collected is from 122 respondents answering the survey posted on LinkedIn. The hypotheses are accepted, and the analysis indicates that a company can enhance its performance on LinkedIn. | |
