Journal of Intelligent Marketing Management

Journal of Intelligent Marketing Management

Designing a Social Media Marketing Model for Health Startups

Document Type : The scientific research paper

Authors
Pantea Pourgharaei 1
Seyyed Mehdi Jalali 2
Bita Tabrizian 3
1 Ph.D student, Department of Business Management, Ro.C., Islamic Azad University, Roudehen, Iran
2 Department of Business Management, CT.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
3 Department of Management and Economics, Ro.C., Islamic Azad University, Roudehen, Iran
JABM.3.2.15564.3514545.2594789
Abstract
Social media marketing in health startups extends beyond content dissemination and promotional activities due to the combined influence of the characteristics of new ventures and the specific requirements of the health sector, while its formation and implementation occur in relation to a range of organizational and environmental conditions. Accordingly, a coherent understanding of its shaping conditions, organizational contexts, environmental factors, strategies, and outcomes is important. The present study aimed to design a social media marketing model for health startups using an organizational and process-oriented approach. The study was applied in purpose, exploratory in nature, and qualitative in method, employing grounded theory based on the systematic approach of Strauss and Corbin. The participants comprised 15 academic and executive experts with relevant expertise in marketing, social media, and health startups, who were selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, and data collection continued until theoretical saturation was reached. The data were analyzed using MAXQDA through three stages of open, axial, and selective coding. The analysis resulted in 146 codes, 18 categories, and six main components of the paradigmatic model. The causal conditions included social media characteristics, the nature of startups, and changes in marketing practices. Social media marketing was identified as the core phenomenon and was explained through two categories: interactivity and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). The contextual conditions comprised managerial factors, technological infrastructure, and human capital, while the intervening conditions included macro-environmental factors and COVID-19. The strategies were organized into three categories: marketing actions, competitive advantage, and organizational actions, and the outcomes into five categories: productivity improvement, economic outcomes, user-related outcomes, marketing outcomes, and brand equity. The resulting model indicates that social media marketing in health startups is a multidimensional and context-dependent process whose formation is linked to social media characteristics, the nature of startups, and changes in marketing practices, while the related strategies are adopted and implemented within managerial, technological, and human-capital capacities and under the influence of environmental conditions.
Keywords
Social media marketing, health startups, grounded theory, electronic word-of-mouth marketing (eWOM)
Interactivity
Subjects
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Journal of Intelligent Marketing Management
Volume 7, Issue 3 - Serial Number 33
Summer 2026
Pages 302-331