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The Role of Effectiveness of Digital Marketing on Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia

Background

Marketing is a key and vital ingredient of success in the entrepreneurial world, especially with increasingly spreading adoption of digital and social media platforms (Bizhanova, Mamyrbekov, Umarov, Orazymbetova, & Khairullaeva, 2019). The entrepreneurial process connects the nodes of digital business models, digital determinants and digital marketing for bringing digital transformation at all levels of the firm. In these modern times, the digital transformation is inevitable process that can be considered as a reactive step as well as a vital recipe for successful entrepreneurial process (Satalkina & Steiner, 2020).

Entrepreneurship was developed as a product of capitalism by the economists considering it as fourth factor of production (Fiore, Niehm, Hurst, Son, & Sadachar., 2013). Embedding the digital marketing in the entrepreneurial system has been influenced by the need for establishing stronger brand-consumer relationship and effectively identifying the consumer relationships. Digital marketing can allow the entrepreneurs in attracting the attention of consumers through utilizing the reviews, promotion, explanation and analysis of consumer behavior (Geho & Dangelo, 2012). It has been affecting the sales and improving the number of customers through utilization of commercial tendencies (Fiore et al., 2013).

Digitalization in Saudi Arabia has also enabled the opportunities for transforming the business models, behavioral patterns and resource utilization patterns much recently (Mahmud, 2020). It has been identified as an important factor for bringing the disruptive evolution in the entrepreneurial business structures in Saudi Arabia. The digitizing processes in marketing have also brought in new properties including communicability, addressability, sensibility, traceability and programmability in the business segment (Saud, Abdullah, & Khan, 2013).

Digital marketing tools, as a part of digitalization trend, have progressed with development of IT, e-marketing platforms and social media emergence. E-marketing has shifted the focus of entrepreneurs towards thinking from customers’ end as compared to thinking from suppliers’ end (Giones & Brem, 2017). Emergence of new technologies and communicative platforms like social media has allowed entrepreneurs to build new business models that utilize digital technologies for promoting their products, capturing new customers and facilitating the existing ones. For entrepreneurs, the digital marketing trend has become a channel of achieving mass marketing at a relatively low cost (Standing & Mattsson., 2019). In order to increase customer engagement, the entrepreneurs are choosing digital strategy so that their customers can stay satisfied for long term (Sussan & Acso, 2017).

In the given research, the digital disruption theory (DDT) will also be utilized for understanding the impact of digitalization on entrepreneurs in KSA (Mahmud, 2020). DDT is defined as the creation of marketing offerings that are based on digital technology (Nambisan, Lyytinen, Majchrzak, & Song, 2017). Furthermore, it is also defined as the network of digital technologies that can provide a foundation for establishing digital business models and capturing high value. Thus, this research will be testing the theory of the digital disruption (and the tools of digital marketing) caused through digital transformation by entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia.

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Preliminary Literature Review

Research Justification & Gap

Prior studies have utilized various terms in describing digital marketing strategy within the business environment (Bizhanova et al., 2019; Standing & Mattson, 2019; Giones & Brem, 2017; Nambisan et al., 2017). However, the use of digital marketing tools like social media by entrepreneurs in KSA has been vaguely discussed. This research has been developed for addressing the gap between the theoretical adoption of digital marketing tools and the actual use of digital technology for enhancing the entrepreneurs’ success, customer engagement, and customer satisfaction. The motivation of this research was also to examine digital marketing for providing a comprehensive picture of its usage by the entrepreneurs. Although, the empirical studies have provided the useful insights on using social media and other digital media marketing tools on specific context for enhancing the organizational capabilities (Mahmud, 2020; Standing & Mattsson., 2019; Giones & Brem, 2017). Still, the available research has not focused particularly on entrepreneurs especially operating in KSA. Based on the available research, a gap of knowledge worth addressing was identified on the use of digital marketing tools and social media platforms for enhancing customer engagement by entrepreneurs in KSA. 

Research Objective

The main objective of this research is

  • To identify the role of digital marketing in enhancing competitiveness among entrepreneurship in KSA.
  • To understand digital marketing and its implementation in the marketing area so that customer engagement and customer experience can be enhanced.
  • To analyze the overall change in satisfaction levels of customers as reported by the chosen studies
  • To check the impact of digital marketing tools, as embraced by entrepreneurs into their marketing campaigns, on entrepreneurial performance

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Framework for Understanding DM and its Role in Entrepreneurship

In order to fulfill the research objective, a systematic literature review will be carried out. It is an essential tool that aids in summarizing the available information reliably and accurately using set eligibility criteria so that the specific research questions can be answered (Satalkina & Steiner, 2020). The systematic review uses the systematic methods for enhancing the reliability of the findings of previous studies while minimizing the biasness. In order to carry on the systematic literature review, four steps will be carried out.

  1. Development of research objectives in clear manner
  2. Reviewing all the identified studies fitting the criteria systematically
  3. Assessing the validity of the findings of selected studies
  4. Presentation and synthesis of the findings of the included studies systematically

The overall research design of the current study will be based on mainly two steps;

  1. Conducting the systematic literature review through the PRISMA model for extracting the nodes that connect digital marketing with entrepreneurship
  2. Analyzing the nodes and defining the determinants of successful entrepreneurship digital marketing strategies in Saudi Arabia

In the present research, PRISMA will be used which was first established in 1999 by Moher et al. (1999) for improving the meta-analysis in carrying out healthcare evaluation. It provides the transparent and well-structured framework of the report. For the current research, the databases like Google Scholar, Science Direct, JStor, Social Science Research Network (SSRN), and Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) will be utilized. According to the PRISMA method, the selection process of articles will be carried out in four steps;

  1. Relevant research using keyword combinations will be carried out by brief search on databases.
  2. The abstracts of the articles will be screened for selection
  3. A full-text assessment will be conducted for the screened articles
  4. The selected articles will be included after reviewing eligibility

For the research, the keywords and their combinations will be used including “digital marketing”, “digital marketing tools”, “entrepreneurship and digital marketing”, “entrepreneurship and digital trends in Saudi Arabia”, “entrepreneurship and digital marketing tools”, “digital marketing influence on consumer decision-making’ and “successful digital marketing tools for customer engagement”. See PRISMA flowchart below to be used as the conceptual framework of systematic review;

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