Exploring how business improvement area (BIA) organizations engage customers
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Date
2021-08-19
Authors
Gabrielle, Courtney
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Abstract
Business Improvement Area (BIA) organizations have evolved over the past 40 years and are now prevalent in Canada and worldwide. These organizations bring community stakeholders, partners, and members together to enhance a designated area in a specific region (TABIA, 2020). BIA organizations can range in size, budget, and focus depending on the community's needs (BIABC, 2020). BIA organizations pursue various initiatives, including capital improvements, enhancing the appearance, safety, and facilitating events that highlight the unique attributes of an area and bring people to the community (Giraldi, 2009). This study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. An exploratory sequential mixed-method approach was used to explore how BIA organizations use events to enhance engage customers through hosting events and use social media to interact with customers. The events studied were produced prior to the pandemic. The thematic analysis provided insight into the BIA organization's perspective on how events are used to interact with customers and how social media is used during event production. The study used descriptive statistics, social network analysis, and content analysis to conduct social media analysis to validate the responses found in the interviews (Creswell, 2012). The findings confirmed that BIA organizations believe events and social media engagement can help foster relationships with customers. The research displays the importance of creating a partnership with community stakeholders and governments during event production. The findings suggest BIA organizations may not be using social media to it’s fullest potential and may have a simplistic view of customer engagement.
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Keywords
Business Improvement Area (BIA), community events, customer engagement, social network analysis