Factors Influencing the Adoption of Social Media in Small and Medium Enterprises (Smes)

Abstract

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) industry has developed rapidly and it has become one of the major contributors to the Malaysian economy. This research is focused on the food and beverage industry at Halal SMEs which were developed to become export-ready so that they will gradually become a global player. Social media can be described as a newly emerging phenomenon in which it has evolved the business operating environment in Malaysia. Additionally, social media allows businesses to communicate speedily and cheaply with customers. It is also a medium to build a strong customer and public relationship, market development and to gain information that can be used to generate business leads that may increase sales and thus grows the Halal SMEs. This research will also focus on the factors influencing the adoption of social media in Halal SMEs. The social media adoption models were developed from the theory of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by including the perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived trust. The survey method was chosen in order to prove the factors influencing the adoption of social media among Halal SMEs. The result showed that all the three variables (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived trust) in this study have their relationship with the dependent variables (adoption of social media). From the regression analysis result, perceived usefulness is the highest factor that influences the adoption of social media in food and beverage industry at Halal SMEs.

Factors Influencing the Adoption of Social Media in Service Sector Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

“…Therefore, hypothesis H1 is accepted. The statement was in line with previous research findings [9,.…”

“…This result shows that hypothesis H3 is accepted, this means trust can be positively influenced adoption of social media in SMEs. The statement was in line with past research findings [2,9,19,20].…”

“…Hypothesis 1: Ease of use is significantly related to the adoption of social media in service sector SMEs. Previous research shown that ease of use is significantly related to the adoption of social media in service sector SMEs [9,. Hence, the first hypothesis, H1 is formulated.…”

“…Additionally, lack of studies on factor influencing in the adoption of social media in SMEs context especially in Malaysia initiate the motivation and enthusiasm in conducting this study. In this view, it is important for new entrepreneurs and new SMEs to have superior comprehension in social media adoption [9].…”

An Empirical Investigation and Conceptual Model of Perceptions, Support, and Barriers to Marketing in Social Enterprises in Bangladesh

“…In addition, since much of the published research has emphasised the charitable nature of SEs, their commercial role has never fully come into focus [7,9]. Indeed, most academic literature examines commercial enterprises rather than SEs when it comes to the topic of marketing (i.e., [10][11][12]). The result of this is that scholars have omitted the important context of SEs, which is a combination of the pursuit of profit and social development.…”