Abstract
This study investigated the facilitation of online organisation-stakeholder relationships (OSR) of the beauty industry’s Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Facilitating good relationships is vital for the survival and success of any organisation, particularly for SMMEs in the beauty industry. However, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, beauty industry SMMEs' primary methods of relationship building, mainly involving in-person interactions with clients through face-to-face engagements and creating a welcoming physical environment for clients offline, were prohibited.
The COVID-19 pandemic not only threatened the lives and livelihoods of those affected, but it also enhanced existing economic challenges. Thus, the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic on beauty industry SMMEs resulted in operational challenges, with some having to permanently cease operations. Consequently, the adoption of digital communication platforms emerged as a recommended strategy for promoting and enhancing relationship-building efforts within the beauty industry. However, studies revealed the apprehensiveness of SMME owners in embracing the online environment, citing challenges such as a lack of knowledge, experience, resources, and skills to use digital communication platforms. Additionally, the involvement of intermediaries in OSRs made it necessary to consider strategic methods in engaging digital communication platforms.
This study employed qualitative research methods, including face-to-face, semi-structured interviews and summative content analysis, to address its research aim and objectives. The subsequent conclusions, rooted in dialogic communication as a theoretical framework for fostering relationships through digital communication platforms, are as follows: 1) pre-COVID-19, there was already a degree of consideration for the online environment in the relationship-building methods of beauty industry SMMEs and stakeholders, however, offline methods were more prevalent; 2) characteristics of dialogic communication influence relationship building online that can be translated offline; 3) intermediaries, especially in the online environment, are a crucial consideration for relationship building.
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Considering the theoretical framework on intermediaries, such as the area of society in which the intermediary is active, organisational form, status, representation, intervention and the strategic communication of the intermediaries, this study looked at online intermediaries and how they can influence OSRs for beauty industry SMMEs and possibly other organisations. Thus, an expansion in the existing theoretical framework of intermediaries was developed by considering digital intermediaries as actors that mediate the relationship between the organisation and its stakeholders in an online environment. The implications of the study’s results indicate a possible "new" perspective for relationship building between organisations and stakeholders, specifically for beauty industry SMMEs, referred to as a metamodern perspective which negotiates between the modern and postmodern approaches for relationship building. The metamodern perspective can see the theory of dialogic communication moving from just considering the online environment to negotiating in the offline environment as well, which means characteristics of dialogue such as mutuality, propinquity, commitment, risk, and empathy will not only determine participants’ online behaviour but can define their offline behaviour as well.