Communication patterns of Malaysian SME interactions using whatsapp

Abstract

Social media applications play important roles in present business environment especially for communication purposes. One of the main applications in today’s communication is WhatsApp. Hence, this paper intends to describe and report the findings of a pilot study. The study aimed to find out the communication patterns of Malaysian Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs in their interactions with their customers (B2C) as well as with their business counterparts (B2B). The use of English as a linguafranca (ELF) was also studied. The study, which was qualitative in nature, gathered its data through semi-structured interview and WhatsApp postings. Data gathered were then analysed using Content Analysis. The findings revealed that SMEs used English as part of their communication via social media. Several emerging themes were found including code-switching and selection of appropriate vocabulary, to name a few. The paper concludes with recommendations for further studies and implications for the SMEs in business