The role of social media in influencing career success

• Pages: 273-294
• Published date: 30 September 2014
• Date: 30 September 2014
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJAIM-02-2014-0009
• Author: Alexei Nikitkov,Barbara Sainty
• Subject Matter: Accounting & Finance,Accounting/accountancy,Accounting methods/systems

The role of social media in

inuencing career success

Alexei Nikitkov and Barbara Sainty

Department of Accounting, Goodman School of Business,

Brock University, St Catharines, Canada

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to help us better understand if it is benecial for individuals to

use social networking sites (SNSs) to expand their networking opportunities, translating into greater

career success. A signicant key to career success is networking. SNSs are changing the way employees

develop their networks with businesses and with other individuals.

Design/methodology/approach – This study uses archival data including academic records for

1,182 accounting alumni from a large Canadian public institution. This dataset was expanded by

obtaining social network information (presence and use) for each individual’s record.

Findings – After controlling for a number of indicators of career success, the study found that

presence on SNSs such as LinkedIn and the amount of activity therein has a strong and consistent

association with metrics of professional success not found with non-professional sites such as

Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

Originality/value – This study provides empirical support for the value of social networking as a

proxy for the development of social capital. Support is in establishing the link between a group of social

network prole characteristics and metrics of one’s career success. Distinguishing LinkedIn as chiey

connecting to alumni successes may be reected in the weights attached to the prole characteristics as

opposed to information coming from other sources.

Keywords Social capital, Social media, Career success

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Popular advice for getting ahead in one’s career rarely fails to mention the importance of

networks and networking for the achievement of career goals (Bolles, 1992;Kanter,

1977). A network can be dened as the pattern of relationships, or ties, linking a set of

persons or social actors, enabling them to exchange information, build relationships and

lend practical help. Many previous studies have examined the role of face-to-face

networking in the physical world (Gersick et al., 2000;Lin, 1999;Seibert et al., 2001;Tsai

and Ghoshal, 1998;Lee and Van Vorst, 2010;Tymon and Stumpf, 2003).

In this paper, we study how social networking sites (SNSs) can inuence accounting

graduates’ career success and also facilitate better hiring decisions on behalf of

businesses. We build on previous studies that delineate the theory of social networking

through the concept of social capital. Social capital is the goodwill that is engendered by

the fabric of social relationships and that can be mobilized to facilitate action (Adler and

Kwon, 2002;Coleman, 1990). Resources that can be mobilized through an employee’s

network, such as information, referral and mentoring, may be used to inuence one’s

career success (Leana et al., 2012).

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/1834-7649.htm

Social media in

inuencing

career success

273

Received 27 February 2014

Revised 16 June 2014

Accepted 30 July 2014

International Journal of Accounting

& Information Management

Vol. 22 No. 4, 2014

pp. 273-294

© Emerald Group Publishing Limited

1834-7649

DOI 10.1108/IJAIM-02-2014-0009

Accounting and management literature has not yet addressed how SNSs as a proxy

for social capital inuence business graduates’ career success and rms’ decisions to

hire or promote, while observation suggests that recent business alumni are actively

engaged in social networking for personal and work-related reasons. The use of SNSs

among business alumni in the recent past has been both broad (all-inclusive) and

unprecedented. Given that there are over 225 million LinkedIn users, 340 million Twitter

tweets daily and more than 1 billion Facebook users, developing insight into the role of

social networking on career success is a timely, relevant and important research

objective (Wikipedia, 2014).

The study’s subjects are students who have graduated from an undergraduate

accounting program between 2000 and 2010. We selected a pool of accounting graduates

because we as accounting professors are most familiar with metrics of success in this

eld and, thus, are in the best position to correctly interpret the results. In our

observation, BAcc and BBA students have similar patterns of SNS use, thus we argue

that while measurement was based on the sample of accounting undergraduate

students, external validity may be preserved when the results of this study applied to

the general business stream students (BBA) also, but not necessarily to the graduates

from other programs, e.g. engineering, biology and agriculture.

For these subjects, data on social presence in leading SNSs (LinkedIn, Facebook,

Twitter and MySpace) and the amount of online activities, including number of

connections, information exchange, posting and tweeting were collected. These data

were matched with several metrics of career success using extrinsic career outcomes

such as professional certications, employer quality, job position, pay rate and cost of

living.

Analysis from several different perspectives indicates that investing in social capital,

by creating an account and prole at an SNS, has strong association with professional

success. We also nd that the number of interactions has inuence in some areas

(information technology [IT]-related job) but not others (accounting jobs). We observe

that the type of SNS matters. Presence on professional SNSs such as LinkedIn, and the

amount of activity therein has a strong and consistent association with metrics of

professional success not found with non-professional sites such as Facebook, Twitter

and MySpace.

The results of this study extend the denition of social capital to include SNSs and

“electronic relationships” that we nd create value and facilitate advancement of one’s

career. The study highlights the role of SNSs as a tool for advancing career opportunities

and makes important distinctions among various SNSs based on empirical results. The

results also suggest important indicators for hiring rms to look for as they make

employment decisions. The next section of the paper reviews the literature on social

capital and SNSs and develops testable hypotheses. The following section discusses our

research methodology; we then evaluate our results, provide a summary and

recommend how this research can be extended.

2. Literature review and hypothesis development

Social capital theory (Bourdieu, 1986;Coleman, 1988) refers primarily to resources

accessed in social networks. Together, social resources and social capital theories

complement and strengthen the development of a social theory focusing on resources

used in social networks (Lin, 1999).

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