The role of social media in e-recruitment process: empirical evidence from developing countries in social network theory Mushfiqur Rahman University of Wales Trinity Saint David, London, UK Erhan Aydin Department of Management and Organization, Usak Universitesi, Usak, Turkey and IPAG Business School Paris Campus, Paris, France Mohamed Haffar Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK, and Uzoechi Nwagbara University of Sunderland, Sunderland, UK Abstract Purpose – This study aims at demonstrating how social media shape the recruitment and selection processes of individuals in developing countries. It further explores the impacts of social media on business productivity, cost efficiency, widening of search, less employee turnover and competitive advantage mediated by adopting e-recruitment processes. This research adopts social network theory to discuss the findings and highlight the new mechanisms that legitimise business manipulation in e-recruitment process by exploring the usage of social media. Design/methodology/approach – Secondary data based on literature review is triangulated with 37 semi- structured qualitative interviews with managerial and non-managerial members of staff. Findings – The findings show that e-recruitment has immense advantages to businesses. However, the authors also consider the dark side of social media and e-recruitment process by considering social network theory as a manipulation tool in organisations of developing countries. Originality/value – Having adopted the social network theory, this research highlights the new mechanisms that legitimise business manipulation in e-recruitment process. Thus, it demonstrates technological advancements that reshape the dynamics of social networks and recruitment processes. Keywords Developing countries, Social/new media, E-recruitment, Recruitment and selection, Social network theory Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction Many research studies (e.g. Jones et al., 2015; Melanthiou et al., 2015; Archer-Brown et al., 2018) consider social media as a tool to create a significant impact on the operation, effectiveness, strategy and success of a business (Hamouda, 2018). Also, it can serve as a veritable tool in productive, competitive and strategic recruitment and selection (Jones et al., 2015). To this end, Barnes et al. (2012) contend that online communication offers virtual interactions amongst individuals and businesses. However, online tools can have a dark side to some companies in developing countries since the recruiters can have discriminative behaviour against some candidates that have a digital footprint. The footprint that refers to all data of individuals on the Internet (McPeak, 2013) is critical because it provides prior knowledge on a potential candidate, and the recruiters may have a tendency not to employ the Role of social media in e-recruitment process The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1741-0398.htm Received 8 December 2019 Revised 15 April 2020 23 June 2020 Accepted 26 June 2020 Journal of Enterprise Information Management © Emerald Publishing Limited 1741-0398 DOI 10.1108/JEIM-12-2019-0382