Linking Technological Frames to Social Media Implementation—An International Study of Hotels

Abstract

Social media have transformed the hospitality and tourism industry and affected how customers interact and take decisions, but have also affected organisations’ business strategies and processes. Prior research has shown that a key understanding of IT implementation in organisations is how individuals adopt, use and make sense of technologies. Despite the increased use of social media in hotel organisations there is a research gap and little is known about how individuals’ sense-making affects organisational use over time. The aim of the present study is to contribute to the research field by using Orlikowski and Gash’s (ACM Trans Inf Syst 12(2):174–207, 1994) framework of Technological Frames. The interpretative case study follows social media use in 14 hotel organisations within an international hotel chain in seven European countries over four years. The study finds incongruence and lack of dominant frames and discusses the related organisational implications.