Social media and internationalisation: a systematic literature review

This study provides a systematic literature review regarding the interplay between social media and business internationalisation. Combining quantitative and qualitative analysis underpinned on a stepwise detailed methodological protocol, we systematically content analysed 36 peer-reviewed business and management papers to explore the structure of knowledge production and identify international business (IB) emerging trends. Despite the exponential growth of social media use, the findings indicate whether and how social media use may affect firms’ internationalisation remains scarcely examined in IB literature, representing a recent and increasing thematic. This study aims at serving as a starting point for scholars and practitioners interested in social media from an IB perspective. Furthermore, the study represents a preliminary step in fostering research considering the novelty and under-researched thematic and indicates themes to guide future research in the IB field.