The Impact of AI on Business Development Managers in the USA

 This paper deals with barriers to SME growth at the relation to growth and business development. The relevance of, and need for extended knowledge regarding small and medium sized companies (SME:s) evolves from the assumption that these are of increasing importance for economic development (Wiklund, 1998, p. 1; Tillväxtverket, 2011, p. 21). These companies, according to Tillväxtverket (2011), act as main part of the total share of companies in Sweden and has furthermore increased by number during latter years, which 

underlines their value within the business community. The relevance of the small and mid-sized companies has furthermore become a central discussion within the EU and Sweden by the SME role in the total economy (Magnusson & Nilsson, 2005, p 228). The SMEs here fill a vital function when it comes to the common strive for renewal within and between economies (SOU 1993:70, p 14). An example of this is that new business possibilities are created 

(Delmar cited in Greene, B et al., 2000, p. 197), and another would be that small- and medium sized enterprises receive more and more attention due to the role as job creators (Morrison et al., 2002, p. 417). The SME is hereby ascribed value regarding innovative and knowledge spread (Tomlinson & Fai, 2013, pp 316-326). The assumption that SMEs politically appear as important for the community is confirmed by that resources constantly are directed towards 

the business compound (Lundberg, 1989, cited in NUTEK, 1992, p. 4). Tillväxtverket stresses a number of areas where the government contributes in order to support SME growth. Vital focuses here appears as renewal and innovation, increased competence, stimulated cooperation, financing channels and simplifying efforts regarding rules and legislations  

Elaborates on this process is called

the Chase/Jones Issues Management Process Model. The first step to this is to identify the origin of the issue, which is often times very difficult as it rarely comes from one single place. They claim that the main element of success in this strategy is to place the organisation in the middle and as the main source of information for reporting on the issue. Regester and Larkin (2008) claim that if the situation is handled openly and in an honest way, the media will act 

responsibly and cover it as such. If the company covers up parts of the story there is the running risk that this will bediscovered and will further harm the image of the company and discredit any of their claims (Watson & Noble, 2014). Similarly to the aforementioned stages through which PR crises develop, there are also common trends in how scholars define the stages in which organisations deal with a crisis or issue. Dougall (2008) describes the 

Chase/Jones Model and the stages they delineate to explain the dealing with an issue, which they categorised into 7 stages. A similar outline was given by Fearn-Banks (2010), however hers was outlined in only 5 stages, as demonstrated in Figure  Both scholars describe the first stage to be the detection phase in which one monitors the media and what is being said by the public on the issue (Theaker, 2016). The second stage outlined by Dougall (2008) is 

That of identification in which one 

assesses important elements and tries to identify a new pattern (Ndlela, 2019). The third stage, as described by Fearn-Banks (2010) is that of prevention and preparation in which one monitors and plans to avoid a crisis for when it does emerge (Theaker, 2016; Ndlela, 2019). One could argue that the following two stages outlined by Dougall (2008) form part of the prevention and preparation stage described by Fearn-Banks (2010). These two stages are: 

prioritisation, in which one assesses what is at stake and how far reaching the issue’s impact is; and analysis, in which one analyzes the most important issues in detail, develops a team if needed, and determines the impact the issue or crisis may have (Ndlela, 2019). The third step for Fearn-Banks (2010), and fifth for Dougall (2008), is that of containment, in which one identifies the target groups and takes steps to limit the effects of the crisis (Ndlela, 2019). 

Following this, Dougall (2008) states that this is the phase in which all the strategies are implemented. For Fearn-Banks (2010) this step is followed by the recovery from the crisis; in which an organisation takes steps to recover from the damages made to its public image. Finally, the last stage of dealing with a crisis, as agreed by both scholars is that of evaluation and learning, in which the company evaluates the losses and assesses the success of the 

Strategies There are thus many different 

strategie which have been developed throughout the years and for this reason it is essential to look into the ones which are being put to use nowadays, with the rise of social media practices. This very much helped form the basis of the research and so the interviewees were also questioned on their strategies for assessing harm and potential actions that will be taken when a potential crisis occurs. These stages are indeed mentioned throughout the interviews 

and for this reason it is helpful to understand the underlying theory.The rapid rise of social media has had a wide range of effects on public relations. The usage of social media has been progressively increasing over the past few years. As of March 2019, Facebook confirmed that it had 2.83 billion monthly active users globally, many of which used the platform on a daily basis (Newsroom.fb.com, 2019). This usage of social media has even 

shifted to educational and professional spheres. These platforms have been put to use to create brand communities as well as advertising campaigns (Khang, Ki & Ye, 2012). Social media first reached the public between 2000-2003 with the emergence of social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Myspace; it extended further in 2004-2006 with the rise of YouTube and Facebook and finally in 2007 when Twitter first became popular (Khang, Ki & 

Conclusion

Social media has proven to provide both benefits and threats for different practices. This can be seen in public relations, in which traditional forms of media have almost become obsolete as social media has taken its place as the primary tool for communication. Now, a company needs to be very active on these sites, monitoring comments made about them and make use of it when a potential crisis comes forth (Khang, Ki & Ye, 2012; Moreno et al., 2015). 

Nowadays, when studying publications related to public relations one can note that a large amount of them mention or discuss the new power of social media and its contributions to this professional field. This can especially be seen when studying publications from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), wherein 8 seminars took place in 2009 which had the sole purpose of discussing social media as a new trend. The apparent consensus 

emphasises the inherent importance of social media in public relations as a tool for communication in today’s world (Kent & Taylor, 2010; Valentini, 2015). It is no longer a matter of ‘if’ social media should be incorporated but rather ‘how’. This subject has even extended its reach to scholarly and educational circles with many more classes being organised around