Adoption of e-Marketing and the Competitive Advantage of Telecommunication Companies in the Saudi Market

Abstract

This paper aims to examine to what extent the telecommunication companies in Saudi Arabia are using e-marketing in service provision, and the association of e-marketing with the companies’ competitiveness. The study population is the functional managers of the administrative units in the three telecommunication companies in the Saudi market, namely STC, Mobily, and Zain. The data was collected through a questionnaire distributed to 87 managers with a 100% response rate. The findings of this study demonstrate that the studied telecommunication companies are widely using e-marketing technology. The interactivity of e-marketing is used to develop customer service, to know the customers’ views on the company services, and to attain competitiveness. Using e-marketing enabled each company to achieve a competitive advantage and a satisfactory market share, thereby allowing each company to provide competitive prices and quality services. The major recommendation of the study for the telecommunication companies in Saudi Arabia is to use competitive strategies that sustain the company’s competitiveness and customer retention, one of which is to apply e-marketing’s new technologies and techniques to provide unique value offerings to customers.