Social capacitance: Leveraging absorptive capacity in the age of social media

A vital issue for marketers stemming from social media’s increased popularity is how they can leverage external knowledge within their organizations through internal social media networks and outside and across organizations with partners, collaborating firms, and consumers through external social networks. Although extensive research on absorptive capacity in organizations is available, research on leveraging external knowledge on social media is lacking. To address this research gap, we introduce a new construct termed “social capacitance,” which refers to how social media can help organizations’ absorptive capacity development, leading to organizational innovation, long-term success, and competitive advantage. Using an integrative capacitive-coupling framework, we theorize the antecedents and consequences of social capacitance in consumer–firm interactions, firm–consumer interactions, consumer–consumer interactions, and firm–firm interactions using social media platforms.