PONE-D-20-22933

Effects of entrepreneurial orientation on social media adoption and SME performance: the moderating role of innovation capabilities

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Muhammad Aamir Shafique Khan,

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Wonjoon Kim, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments:

Manuscript ID PONE-D-20-22933 entitled "Effects of entrepreneurial orientation on social media adoption and SME performance: the moderating role of innovation capabilities" which you submitted to Tourism Review, has been reviewed. The comments of the reviewer(s) are included at the bottom of this letter.

The reviewer(s) suggest a number of major revisions to your manuscript. Therefore, I invite you to respond to the reviewer(s)' comments and revise your manuscript. Please be aware that the decision with regard to the publication of your paper is depending on the quality of your revisions.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Thank you for the opportunity to review your manuscript titled « Effects of entrepreneurial orientation on social media adoption and SME performance: the moderating role of innovation capabilities ». The manuscript uses a questionnaire administered to more than 400 Owners/managers/executives in Pakistani SMEs to investigate the effects of entrepreneurial orientation on social media adoption and SME performance in developing countries.

All in all, I believe your work has really good potential to contribute interesting insights that are relevant for the field of organizational studies. However, I feel that this potential remains somehow undeveloped due to the articulation of the contribution and some methodological considerations. I hope to offer some suggestions to revise the manuscript in order to realize its full potential.

So I believe the realizing the potential of your study will call for expanding your analysis. My primary reservation with your manuscript lies with the ultimate message you leave us with, and with the feeling that the paper could go deeper in contributing to the field than it currently does. I would therefore make the following practical recommendations.

First, I would encourage to offer a contribution that is more analytical rather than descriptive of the phenomenon you study, and to make it explicit for the reader from the start : why is SM adoption and IC mediating roles important to understand ? Why should we care ? You build on existing research on the topic, but is it enough to justify more work on the subject ? I feel that this issue needs to be tackle from the introduction.

Second, I have issues with the “Theoretical contributions” (p25). You state that the role of SM adoption and IC are key, especially as “forthcoming technologies may become increasingly similar, with organizations wishing to adopt distinctive platforms for similar purposes ». I don’t see any justification for that statement, which therefore make the contribution kind of flat.

Third, I feel like the “Contribution” section is a mere summary of the findings, and clarifies how it extends (or not) existing litterature. I feel this is not enough. Unpacking a discussion calls for developing the implications of what you found for future research, theorizing, and practice. What would be the ‘big idea’ you’d want me to retain? Would it be only about the fact that SM adoption mediates the effect of EO on performance ? Or might there be something else that is somewhat more general, more conceptual, more abstract yet more generalizable? Would you be able to articulate what these notions add or change to prior knowledge on the use of SM in organizations ? What’s fundamentally new and insightful here? And why is this important? What research ‘problem’ might this help resolve – or what area does this open up? Wouldn’t you want us to discuss these things ? And if so, why not put this in the paper? :-) I’m sure you already have a few ideas. I would strongly recommend that you find ways to better relate your observations to central issues of either EO or SM adoption.

Last, I would expect a discussion regarding the specificities of your study and your results in emerging countries : how/why are things different ? how general are therefore the findings ? For instance, you state that « SMEs’ owners/managers in developing countries are seeking to improve marketing practices via SM adoption, which provides multiple tools to improve firm performance » : how is this specific to developing countries ?

Although I have some concerns with some aspects of your work, I sincerely hope you will have found the few comments and suggestions above helpful and constructive, and I wish you all the very best in your efforts to work with your manuscript.

Reviewer #2: Reviewer report for Plos One jounal

Manuscript ID: PONE-D-20-22933

Manuscript Title: Effects of entrepreneurial orientation on social media adoption and SME performance:

the moderating role of innovation capabilities

All what i need to see is the paper needs more effort

please see my comments

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Effects of entrepreneurial orientation on social media adoption and SME performance: the moderating role of innovation capabilities

PONE-D-20-22933R1

Dear Dr. Muhammad Aamir Shafique Kahn,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Wonjoon Kim, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: Yes: Marine Agogué