Adaptation of knowledge transfer model in social commerce

Abstract

The rapid advancement of internet provides various digital opportunities especially through social media. However, without proper training and knowledge, online business newbies could not fully utilize internet technology to expand their business. Most of these business newbies tend to market their product using flyers and word-of-mouth only. Such a strategy may not attract customers of young age as these customers are found to be online at most of their time. Hence, the limited number of customers affects income generation of the business newbies. Even though these business newbies do have social media accounts such as Facebook, they have yet to fully utilize social media to create digital business opportunities. Hence, this study adapts the knowledge management model which is SECI (Socialization, Externalization, Combination, Internalization factors) in transferring knowledge on social commerce from the expert to the business newbies. Methodology of the study includes 4 phases: Instrument design, 2 phase of training and data analysis. A group of 61 trainees were involved in this study and they are of two business groups. The effectiveness of the knowledge transfer is measured via three (3) performance indicators; amount of sales, number of followers and number of friends. The result has shown that, upon the completion of the knowledge transfer, majority of the trainees has secured larger sales in their business. Furthermore, their number of followers and friends has also increased. Such findings indicate the success of SECI adaptation in transferring knowledge on utilizing social media in creating business opportunities.