The Influences of the Usage of Marketing Communication Tools on Innovations of the Functional Areas of Businesses: Perspectives for the Mining Industry.

The usage of marketing communication tools has always been a potent strategy for businesses to increase their performances and profitability in all sectors, including the mining industry. However, there is a lack of studies concerning the usage of those channels and their impacts on the innovativeness of functional areas of businesses. Since innovativeness is a crucial ability for enterprises to survive, focusing on this competency in functional areas businesses might fulfill this research gap. In this regard, this paper purposes of examining the influences of the usage of marketing communication tools on innovations of those areas of businesses. In line with this purpose, the researchers have created an online interned mediated questionnaire and directed it to the randomly selected 812 SMEs from Slovakia. To explore the effects of those tools on functional areas of businesses, the researchers employ the Ordinal Logistic Regression Test. The results from the analyses vindicate the fact that when SMEs apply traditional and technologyenabled marketing communication tools, they become more innovative in some activities, namely, marketing, logistics, finance, human resources, processes, and management, except suppliercustomer relationships. While traditional marketing communication tools positively impact businesses' innovations regarding a suppliercustomer relationship, the usage of technology-enabled marketing communication tools does not create significant effects on innovations in this relationship. The reason for that might be related to the location of SMEs, the regional income gap in countries, workload and competencies of workers and the Covid-19 pandemic. The research also presents some policy implications to cope with the negative outcomes of the above-mentioned reasons. This issue is of great importance also for companies operating in the mining industry. Thus, the findings represent a valuable platform of knowledge for various business areas, such as mining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]