Social media has become an integral part of contemporary marketing and management practices, transforming the way organizations interact with their customers and stakeholders. Social media has the potential to help businesses increase their visibility, engage with customers, and build brand loyalty. This special issue aims to explore frontier research issues in social media practices in management and marketing. The issue features five papers that address various aspects of social media practices in different contexts.

The first paper examines the effects of telework on satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. The authors use a panel data analysis to explore the positive relationship between job/life satisfaction and telework, the optimum frequency of telework, and how telework affects regular and non-regular employees, as well as male and female employees.

The second paper investigates the effects of quality control activities and customers' ICT investment on digitalization in manufacturing firms in Southeast Asia. The study shows that customer–supplier relationships and quality control activities significantly affect a firm's own ICT investment decisions and planning, and firms that have adopted ICTs are more likely to share data within and between firms, leading to improved supply chain performance.

The third paper focuses on the relationship between innovation and corporate performance in Japanese SMEs, using a two-stage panel data analysis to explore the joint effect of ICT and R&D. The study reveals that innovation enhances sales, R&D is significant for innovation, and ICT is an enabler of innovation.

The fourth paper explores the lost property of telework during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, from the perspective of sociomateriality and organizational citizenship behavior. The paper highlights the importance of considering the aspect of making one's own work visible and collaborating with others to realize the full potential of telework.

The fifth paper examines the impact of telecommuting on the perceived autonomy of employees in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study uses unstructured interview surveys to investigate the relationship between perceived autonomy and telecommuting. The paper reviews prior research on telecommuting and assesses changes in the environment and attitudes of employed telecommuters.

Overall, this special issue provides valuable insights into frontier research issues in social media practices in management and marketing. We hope that these papers will inspire further research in this area and contribute to our understanding of how social media can be used to enhance business performance and stakeholder engagement.