Keywords

1 Introduction

The aim of this paper is to examine the role of social media technologies in revolutionizing consumer activism by applying the theory of Task Technology Fit (TTF) model. The case that this paper uses is the SURGE movement. In 1997, Coca Cola introduced SURGE, a citrus flavored soft drink. However, in 2002 the SURGE brand was discontinued due to falling sales and a change in the company’s strategy. Some SURGE consumers were infuriated with Coca Cola’s decision. So, on December 23, 2011 these enthusiastic, brand loyalists started a social media movement on Facebook called the Surge Movement (see Fig. 1) and later added a less popular Twitter account for the movement (see Fig. 2). The “SURGE Movement” is a centralized community of SURGE fans, whose mission was and continues to remain “the return of SURGE Soda and… making SURGE a sustainable brand (The SURGE Movement). The movement received support from more than 352,000 Facebook followers. The movement leaders were communicating with Coca Cola for two years before Coca Cola capitulated and re-introduced SURGE back into the market in 2014.

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Surge movement Facebook page

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Fig. 2.
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Surge movement Twitter account

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2 Literature Review

The internet enables people to easily communicate with each other (Thomsen et al. 1998). Specifically, people are able to connect over the internet using chat rooms, bulletin boards, forms and blogs (De Valck et al. 2009). The rapid development of Information Technology (IT) and communication produced the Web 2.0, which is defined as a collection of technological artifacts that allow instant communication between people around the world at a low cost (Habibi et al. 2013). Due to the affordability of getting an internet connection, there was a surge in the use of social media platforms which simplify the communication and interaction between people around the world.

Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) define social media as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content”. Social Media platforms are viewed as a new trend which can impact businesses and people’s social life (Lin and Lu 2011). Facebook, one of the most popular social media platforms has 2.19 billion active users at the end of the third quarter of 2018 (Facebook 2018). Another Social Media platform that is attracting people is Twitter, which has 336 million active users by the end of the third quarter of 2018. People now are more enthusiastic to join and use social media platforms to exchange information with people who share same interests (Powell 2009). Social media did not just change how people communicate with each other, but it also changed how businesses and corporations communicate with their customers.

Today, Facebook is the most used Social Media platform to create online brand communities. Companies such as Coca Cola, Nike, Apple, Microsoft and Samsung all have fans pages on Facebook with more than 400 million followers together (Socialbakers.com). Through these fan pages, companies can interact with their followers (customers) by posting photos or videos (Vries et al. 2012, p. 84). In addition to that, social media pages are rich in information that is critical in understanding customers’ needs and thoughts (Luo et al. 2013). However, social media fan pages can work the other way as well. Instead of being sponsored by the business, these fan pages could be created and controlled entirely by customers to communicate with other customers to share product experience and services.

Another common application of social media is activism. With the help of social media platforms, activists can start a social change movement (see Fig. 3) immediately and reach global audience. Social media provides activists with information and news that were not available through mainstream media (Valenzuela 2013). From the Arab Springs to Occupy Wall Street to Me too movements, all these social and political movements would not reach a global audience if it was not for the use of social media.

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Social change model

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This model is borrowed from the book “A Social Change Model of Leadership”. Change here is the goal of activists who are not satisfied with the status que. Activists at the individual level must be consciousness of self which means aware of what makes one enthusiastic to act. Congruence means thinking consistency about others with honesty. Commitment here means a person who has the commitment to act and serve his/her own believes about the change. At the group level, there are characteristics that are shred among activists. Collaboration is to work in harmony within the group toward a common goal which is the common purpose. Controversy with civility means the ability to accommodate the different viewpoints within the group and talk about them to bring them close to the common goal. At the society level, citizenship means the ability to be member of the community and work toward bringing positive change to the community (Higher Education Research Institute 1996).

3 Task Technology Fit Theory

Task Technology Fit (TTF) theory is a model developed by Goodhue and Thompson (see Fig. 4). The goal of the TTF model is to assess the impact of using IT on individual performance. To assure the success of the technology utilization, the technology must fit the task for which it is intended to be used.

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Task technology fit model

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The TTF model shows that to have high performance impact and high utilization, technology characteristics must meet task characteristics in the technology fit. If the gap between task characteristics and technology characteristics increases, the model will produce low score in task technology fit, which will result in low performance impact and utilization (Goodhue and Thompson 1995). In the TTF model, technologies are defined as “tools used by individuals in carrying out their tasks” (p. 216, Goodhue and Thompson 1995). In the context of information technology, social media platforms are referred to as technology in the model. Task is defined as “the actions carried out by individuals in turning inputs into out puts” (p. 216, Goodhue and Thompson 1995). In the context of activism, an individual expressing his or her opinion to start a movement is considered a task. This task has characteristics such as mission and goals.

Task Technology Fit is defined as “the degree to which a technology assists an individual in performing his or her portfolio tasks” (p. 216, Goodhue and Thompson, 1995). In the case of activism, the Task Technology Fit is evaluating whether the technology’s functionality meets the task requirements or not. The technology in this context is social media platforms.

Although Goodhue and Thompson stated that the utilization construct is not well explained and understood, they defined it as “the behavior of employing the technology in completing tasks. Measures such as the frequency of use or the diversity of applications employed” (p. 218, Goodhue and Thompson 1995). In activism, utilization would be considered as the reuse frequency of the same social media to start an activism. In the TTF model, utilization includes both mandatory and voluntary utilization. However, in activism, the use and utilization of social media platforms is completely voluntary. The last construct in the model is performance impact, and it is used to assess the accomplishment of the task performed by the individual. In the context of activism, it will assess whether the activism movement accomplished its goal or not.

The SURGE movement has a mission which is “the return of SURGE Soda and… making SURGE a sustainable brand (The SURGE Movement). This mission is the task and social media represented by Facebook is the technology, the TTF construct is used to determine the degree of fitness. The purpose of the task must be considered carefully in the construct of task technology fit. When combining tasks with the selected technology in the task technology fit construct, the technology (Facebook) must meet the task characteristics (SURGE Movement mission and goal). For example, the SURGE movement’s mission was to bring the product back and keep the community connected regarding the product, so the use of Facebook as the technology was appropriate. This fit is due to the popularity of Facebook and the many features it provides for its users such as creating pages and connecting with others who share same interests. Performance impact and utilization are in the model to examine how successful was the technology characteristic meeting the task characteristic. The output of the selected social movement measures the performance impact and utilization.

TTF theory has been studied in many IT research; Dishaw and Strong (1998) applied TTF theory to asses software maintenance which titled as “Assessing software maintenance tool utilization using task-technology fit and fitness-for-use models” (Dishaw and Strong 1998). D’Ambra and Wilson applied the TTF theory to explain World Wide Web performance with uncertainty (D’Ambra and Wilson 2004). Ferratt and Vlahos evaluated how computer-based information systems (CBIS) help managers in decision making; their research titled as “An investigation of task-technology fit for managers in Greece and the US.” (Ferratt and Vlahos 1998). However, to our knowledge, there is no study that applied TTF theory to social media platforms to validate the model. TTF has not been applied to examine how IT represented by social media platforms transformed activism.

4 Research Method and Data Collection

We have collected data from the SURGE Movement fan page to analyze what people are posting, commenting and sharing. We extracted all posts and comments that have been posted by the organizers or followers. These posts and comments will be analyzed using Nvivo 12 Plus.

In addition, we will collect data using online surveys and interviews. For the online survey, we will invite people who are part of the SURGE Movement fan page to participate in the survey; the survey will solicit data about their opinions on participating in this consumer activism by using the social media platform. In addition, we will contact organizers of this movement to ask them to participate in this survey and conduct an interview with them to understand their decision about using social media platforms for consumer activism. We are planning to perform factor analysis on data collected from the survey and qualitative analysis from the interview. Quantitative data from the survey will measure people’s view of social media platforms as a tool for consumer activism. Qualitative data from interviews with the organizers will examine their tool selection and how they evaluated their selection against alternative options.

5 Discussion

Since the task is consumer activism in this context, through this research we will better understand how consumer activism works. There is a need to integrate a theory that explains social movement and consumer activism with TTF theory. Applying the theory will help evaluate the task characteristic and ease the selection for the fit technology that will meet task characteristic. Since there are many social media platforms, each one having a different set of features and limitations that will influence the decisions of people selecting one over the others in the context of consumer activism. For example, Facebook is a popular platform for fans pages whereas Twitter is popular in the use of customer experience and boycott movements. Depending on the task and the movement mission, selecting the right platform for the task is critical for achieving activists goals’.

6 Implication and Conclusion

The results of this study will help both academics and practitioners. For academics, it will bridge the gap regarding the role that social media plays in transforming social media movements. It will enlighten designers of future social media platforms that there might be other uses of their tool in the future than initially projected. Facebook was intended as an entertainment and relationship platform for college students. Designers must consider how social media now is used by social movements to deliver their messages to a large global audience.