The main objective of this study was to explore the relationship of social media marketing and purchase intention among consumers in Kosovo as a transition economy. The study used a structured questionnaire to collect the primary data and collected a sample of 334 responses from participants in Kosovo, using google forms as an online survey tool. In order to test the proposed research model, structural equation modelling was used. The hypotheses and the mediating effects of brand awareness and brand engagement were tested using the bootstrapping method. The findings revealed a positive indirect impact of social media marketing on purchase intention. They also showed that brand engagement fully mediates the relationship between social media marketing and purchase intention, whereas brand awareness does not mediate the relationship between social media marketing and purchase intention. This study contributes to the literature by providing insights of the impact of social media marketing on brand awareness, brand engagement, and purchase intention in transition economy such as Kosovo. On a practical level, research results provide companies with customer insights relevant to designing effective social media marketing strategies for their potential prospects in transition economies.

The study aimed to investigate the impact of social media marketing on purchase intention among consumers in Kosovo as a transition economy. The survey research has been conducted with a sample of 334 respondents in Kosovo, using an online survey tool for response collection. Structural equation modeling was used for assessing the proposed theoretical model. The bootstrapping technique was used to test the hypotheses and the mediating effects of brand awareness and brand engagement. The findings revealed a positive indirect impact of social media marketing on purchase intention and a full mediating effect of brand awareness and brand engagement in the relationship between social media marketing and purchase intention. The contribution of this study is that it provides insights into the impact of social media marketing on brand awareness, brand engagement, and purchase intention in transition economies. Moreover, it highlights the impact of social media marketing on enhancing brand awareness, brand engagement, and purchase intention in emerging economies in general and in particular in Kosovo. On a practical level, research results provide customers’ insights relevant for designing effective social media marketing strategies for their potential prospects in transition economies. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Background: Digital marketing is a new form of business management and promotion, namely promoting services and products of (SMEs)small and medium enterprises. Despite the importance of digital marketing, SMEs in developing and post-transition countries still do not fully utilize the benefits of digital marketing. Objectives: This study aims to analyse the DIY (do-it-yourself) model and the impact that this model has on digital marketing adoption. Methods/Approach: The online survey research was conducted among 194 SME managers in Kosovo. The proposed research model was analysed by partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Results: Findings show that the degree of perception of ease of use impacts the process of digital marketing adoption. Moreover, the degree of control seems to be the most important factor impacting process of the digital marketing in SMEs. Conclusions: SMEs use DIY marketing and adopt digital marketing because this form of practicing marketing activities offers more control for companies in their marketing activities. In addition, perceived ease of use of technology facilitates the process of digital marketing adoption among SMEs. Finally, the study provides insights for managers and businesses using DIY marketing and adopting the process of the digital marketing in SMEs.