Research Question
While a Facebook page or Twitter channel are easily set up, firms need distinctive capabilities to manage digital interactions. Extant research reinforces the call for new capabilities but to date has provided little advice how firms can develop and sustain relevant capabilities. A key determinant of a firm's capabilities is its organizational model. Yet, business practice reveals surprisingly different organizational approaches - from junior Social Media Managers to senior-level Chief Digital Officers. To address the identified research gap and support organizational decision-making, the present study aims to investigate how different organizational models influence a firm's capabilities to manage digital interactions.
Method and Data
To investigate how different organizational models influence a firm's capabilities to manage digital interactions, we have followed the discovery-oriented research approach: First, we have combined exploratory findings from a series of expert interviews and top management workshops with extant research to specify key constructs in managing digital interactions. Then, we have conducted six case studies to investigate the impact of organizational dimensions on interaction-related capabilities in depth. As part of the case analyses, we have interviewed 30 informants from different hierarchical levels and functions (3-7 per firm), observed the firms' actual activities in interactive digital media, and collected additional internal and external documents.
Summary of Findings
The present study helps to promote the understanding of distinctive capabilities to manage digital interactions and of their organizational determinants:
Foremost, our exploratory findings suggest that the management of digital interactions builds on seven specific activities ? content development, community management, consumer integration, customer service, monitoring, analytics, and strategic development. These activities help to define relevant capabilities and to distinguish between different organizational models.
Based on dominant patterns in the functional allocation, our case study findings propose a typology of three organizational models: In the centralized model, the majority of digital responsibilities are pooled in marketing, communications, or sales. The collaborative model has distributed select tasks while maintaining a central hub for coordination. The integrated model has merged all digital responsibilities into existing functions and processes.
Regarding the influence of organizational models on selected firm capabilities, direct comparison suggests that the collaborative model best support a firm's content development, community management, and monitoring capabilities. The other two models face different organizational constraints.
Key Contributions
For future research on digital interactions, the present study suggests consideration of both market and interaction orientation literature to capture individual and aggregate user perspectives. Besides, the integrated functional and activity-based organizational analysis helps to refine prior frameworks. Finally, the emergent organizational typology has provided a basis to discuss and conceptualize the influence of the organizational model on selected capabilities for future empirical validation.
From a business perspective, the identified distinctive activities define starting points to develop capabilities in managing digital interactions. The characteristics of the three dominant organizational models highlight specific strengths, weaknesses, and general need for action. In addition, the exemplary discussion of organizational effects on content development, community management, and monitoring capabilities has also pointed to a number of specific managerial levers.