Journal of Business & Economic Policy

Horizontal Revolution and Business Strategy: The Impact of Social Media Platforms on Departments’ Business Strategy: The UAE context
Dr. Samia Kargwell

Abstract
Increasingly, business nowadays are being aware of the fact that social media is a critical factor in the world of business. This is through achieving successful communication within its internal and external stakeholders to maximize their knowledge and improving the relationships. Most companies in the developing world are exploring Social Media as a new venture and an emergent field in business. Comparatively, the current situation of the UAE as the fastest growing country in the region with a huge edge technology and a tremendous government focus in this area, there is a direct need to explore the true potential of Social Media and its effect on business. It has been observed that many companies in the UAE are still uncertain about its feasibility and in the stage of being reluctant and ‘testing the waters’; the effectiveness and how to be approached in a pragmatic and sensible way. The question that poses itself is that do social media have a significant impact on functional departments’ strategy and objectives in organizations. Therefore, the primary objective of this research is to examine the impact of social media as a tool on business strategy of each functional department that would lead to achieving the objectives of the departments. (200) self-completion questions were distributed to managers of (40) hotels randomly. In addition, the sophisticated SPSS was used to analyze the collected data. The implication of the study is to support decision and policy- makers to utilize social media to realize the maximum potential out of this emergent field; to improve the quality of the service provided by this industry, in turn, improve hospitality services the country to meet the demand of expo 2020 that will be held in the UAE.

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