Exploring the role of social media in importing logics across social contexts: The case of IT SMEs in Iran Ali Mohajerani ⁎, João Baptista, Joe Nandhakumar Information Systems and Management Group, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK article info abstract Article history: Received 8 March 2013 Received in revised form 15 May 2014 Accepted 16 June 2014 Available online 25 July 2014 This paper explores the role of social media in importing logics across social contexts. It is based on an in-depth study of new high-tech small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and more established IT companies in Iran. We explore the process by which social media affordances interplay with forces of institutional entrepreneurship to create conditions for social change. More specifically we study the adoption in Iran of new business practices and models more commonly seen in other contexts, and relate this to the features of the platforms and the characteristics of a new generation of Iranian entrepreneurs. Drawing on institutional logics theory we conceptualize this process as one of transposition of logics in which dominant religious logics are challenged by market logics enabled by the mutual constitutional effects of human and material agencies. We suggest that three main mechanisms underpin this process: the discovery of practices from different institutional contexts, the appropriation of foreign practices, and the objectification of these practices. The study further contributes to the debate on the paradox of embedded agency and adds to the literature by providing a more integrated view of the role of social media in social change. © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Social media Social change Importation and transposition of logics Institutional logics Affordances 1. Introduction There is a growing body of research on the role of social media in processes of political change in both developed (Anstead and Chadwick, 2012) and developing countries, in particular the Middle East (including Iran) (Shirky, 2011), Pakistan (Shaheen, 2008), China (Jones, 2011; Yang, 2009) and Malaysia (Smeltzer and Keddy, 2010). Most of this work has explored the role of social media as a platform for social, economic and political change (Patten and Keane, 2011), and the properties of social media that support the formation of social movements, including analysis of how social media supports the creation of extensive networks capable of organizing action at speed and scale (Howard and Hussain, 2011). The role of social media in business and in the IT industry has also been the focus of much research, for example into new commercial trends and marketing strategies (Cachia et al., 2007), the changing relation- ship between businesses and marketplaces (Aral et al., 2013) and the reshaping of industries such as healthcare (Hawn, 2009), news and publishing (Hong, 2012), and education (Moran et al., 2011). Despite this considerable interest in the effects of social media as a catalyst for change, we have limited understanding of the role of individuals as co-agents of change and the process by which localized practices and values travel across contexts through the use of social media, ultimately leading to social change at an aggregate level. In this study, we address this gap by examining the emergence of new practices in Iranian IT SMEs. We consider Iran an appropriate setting for the study due to its unique position of being both 1) a developing country with the fastest growth of internet and social media use in the Middle East, including by organized social movements, and 2) a country which has seen remarkable growth in the number of Technological Forecasting & Social Change 95 (2015) 16–31 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 7794777828. E-mail addresses: Ali.Mohajerani.11@mail.wbs.ac.uk (A. Mohajerani), J.Baptista@wbs.ac.uk (J. Baptista), Joe.Nandhakumar@wbs.ac.uk (J. Nandhakumar). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2014.06.008 0040-1625/© 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Technological Forecasting & Social Change