This thesis contributes new and unique evidence to the debates surrounding business,
management and communication changes and paradigmatic shifts in Western Europe by means
of social media (SM) by seeking the answer to how the Facebook platform is actually being used
by stakeholders and Western European local governments, and how this usage can be measured
and explained. Through the use of existing literature and prior studies this doctoral dissertation
first identifies a gap in the knowledge of SM usage (caused by a recent paradigmatic shift from
analogue to the digital world). As the next step, it identifies inter-relations of relevant factors
towards a continuance use intention or perpetuation of Facebook, and establishes new metrics of
corporate Facebook measurement (which may be applicable to most SM). Based on these metrics
and avenues it later investigates methods of stakeholders‘ engagement, transparency, voluntary
reporting and Facebook activity in 2012 and 2013. In so doing, it broadens the toolkit of this new
research area and provides new evidence of voluntary reporting, transparency and stakeholders‘
engagement in 15 Western European countries. Importantly, it is the first work to examine this
multidisciplinary research field from the aforementioned different perspectives. The establish of
new metrics for measuring popularity, commitment, virality and engagement on corporate
Facebook and the analyzes of 75 Western European municipalities for scholars contribute
valuable interpretations of how social media (most particularly Facebook) may have functioned
over the course of the study period and how the identified features and practices responded to the
changing business and social environments. Our understanding benefited significantly from these
4 basically independent, but still coherent researches examining: continued use intention of
Facebook; establishing metrics for measurement; and combining the content and media types of
the posts and the different levels of engagement metrics with stakeholders and local governments
behaviors, expectations and changed needs. Patterns were likely to be observed across the
examined population detecting differences among different public administration styles. The
conclusions from this original project may be placed within the context of the wider social
sciences debates. The need for new, relevant and more diverse studies is emphasized to advance
the interpretations of current economic and social changes of Western Europe by expanding
research to multiple countries and integrating research findings.