The rise of social media has led to SMEs adopting some of these platforms into their day to day activities i.e. Facebook, Instagram, twitter, YouTube. Studies on social media adoption and SMEs firm performance are relatively new and fragmented in their focus, however there is an increasing interest from academia and practitioners for further research and investigation within this area. This study’s aim is to understand the factors that influence social media adoption in SMEs; taking into consideration how they apply entrepreneurial orientation, and absorptive capacity plays a role.
Using an experimental design, we investigated whether the relationship between apparel product novelty and consumers’ curiosity depends on perceived fashion influencers’ socioeconomic status. In addition, we investigated mediating role of curiosity in the product novelty effect on purchase intentions and intention to use a social shopping service.
The concept of „Sustainability‟ has become as major concern and it used by consumers and corporations to convey the concept of taking care of the environment. Environmental concern has led to sustainable consumption in a variety of product categories, such as electricity, textiles, apparel, food, and grocery products (Chan, 2001; Harrison, Newholm, & Shaw, 2005; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006a, 2006b). Interest of the negative environmental impacts are rapidly increasing in present fashion business and consumer behavior has become a rising concern of the consumption and fashion supply chain to apply sustainable consumption (Birtwistle & Moore, 2007; Fineman, 2001). The environmental and social concern recognized in fashion industry from 1990‟s. However, the complexity of conceptual definition of sustainability and ecologically responsible consumer generates different and mistaken perception to consumer. In addition, in fashion industry, the terms of „eco-fashion‟, „environmentally friendly fashion‟,„green fashion‟, „ethical fashion‟, and „sustainable fashion‟ are frequently used interchangeably to describe the same concept. These interchangeable terminology is leading to confusion of the readers by the non-unified terminology (Choi et al., 2012). Also, consumers seem to have narrow scope and little understanding of sustainable fashion. In general, consumers focuses on environmental aspect not the wide-range of complexity of environment, social, and economical concern (Cervellon, Hjerth, Ricard, & Carey, 2010). The growing number of fashion brands are leveraging on green branding initiatives. Green marketing is increasing rapidly in corporate aspects and for a consumer perspective, global consumers are recognizing a personal accountability to take responsibility for social and environmental issues. Despite the fact many of individuals‟ willingness to purchase green products has increased in the last few years, however, there is limited studies suggest that purchase of green or sustainable products. Consumer research on sustainable fashion has mainly focused on consumer behaviors towards sustainable fashion products (SFPs); however, relevant studies that examined the whole process of the predicting proenvironmental behavior cross nationally value and the eWOM are still scarce. The purposes of research model are 1) to identify the determinants of eWOM intention on consumers' purchase intentions, 2) to examine the information adoption process as precursors of purchase intention of sustainable fashion, and 3) to testify different message types effects to information adoption process.
The rise of technology has brought innovations in the field of marketing. The most modern trend of marketing is termed as social media marketing. Social media is not only reducing the communication distance in the world but the discovery of social media provided opportunities for business to increase their exposure. However, it has been observed that regardless of the advantages of new technology some time users’ are reluctant to accept and use that technology. Considering these facts, the investigation of the factors affecting consumers’ intention for the acceptance and use of social media marketing (SMM) has been the greatest concern of the researcher. Other facet of this study is to understand the nature of consumers’ behavior across culture.
This research is an empirical study for testing the underlying factors that influence the users’ intention for the acceptance and use of SMM. Current research proposes SMM acceptance model by integrating unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and technology acceptance model along with personal constructs. As the focus of this study was on UTAUT, hence majority of factors were selected from this theory.
The survey was conducted with sample of 612 participants from South Korea and Pakistan. Findings by using structural equation modeling revealed that attitude towards online advertisement and electronic word of mouth significantly affect users’ intention for acceptance of SMM. Moreover, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, social influence, perceived usefulness, and perceived risk significantly influence users’ attitude towards advertisement. It has been found that the effect of social influence, perceived usefulness, and involvement is significant on attitude towards electronic word of mouth (eWOM).
Moderating effects of nationality, gender, and use frequency are also tested on integrated model. The findings are helpful to understand consumer behavior and advantageous for marketing strategies. This research will contribute to the literature within the domain of social media marketing. The findings along with implications and recommendations for future research were also discussed at the end.
The purpose of the research is to analyze the behavioral intention to adopt social media in SMEs affected by the COVID-19 crisis, based on the TOE Model. This study uses the TOE framework as a theoretical basis. This research is important because COVID-19 has destroyed most of the SMEs, and SMEs are exposed to social media technology to market their products. The success of social media adoption has helped SMEs to be able to rise from adversity. Respondents in this study were 250 SMEs in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The data analysis technique used is structural equation modeling with AMOS. The results of this study indicate that SMEs affected by the COVID-19 crisis have a high awareness of social media and have a high intention to adopt social media as a way to market their products and connect with customers. The intention to adopt social media is significantly influenced by the technological context, organizational context, environmental context, and social media awareness. The findings of this study suggest that in times of crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government support is needed. The Government needs to open services for SMEs whose businesses are affected by the pandemic.
Electronic commerce is becoming a significant hub for sourcing products/services which helps organizations to connect with potential customers and gain competitive advantages, though little empirical work focuses on small businesses operating in developing countries to date. Increasingly, companies are looking to utilize social media to connect with stakeholders and pursue several benefits. This study aims to investigate the technological, organizational, and environmental (TOE) factors that influence small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) social media (SM) adoption in developing countries. This study used a closed-ended questionnaire to collect data from randomlyselected respondents (owners, executives, and managers) from SMEs in Pakistan. SMART PLS version 3.2.8 was used for path analysis of 316 responses and for structural equation modeling. The research findings include the direct influence of TOE factors (relative advantage, interactivity, visibility, top management support, and institutional pressure) on SMEs’ SM adoption, and in turn SM adoption also has a positive influence on SMEs performance. Moreover, the coefficient of determination of the study showed that 77.7% of the variation in SM adoption occurs because of TOE factors and 29.8% variation in SMEs occurred because of SM adoption. This paper has implications for practitioners and scholars interested in exploring the SM adoption and usage by SMEs.
The paper explores determinants of corporate adoption of social media and the role of technology acceptance model in the path. This paper assimilates some components of the technology acceptance dimension and social expectation theories to determine corporate intentions to use social media. Six hundred and forty-eight samples collected from hotel staff in Korea are analyzed using factor analysis, structural equation model techniques and one-way analysis of variance. The results show that corporate needs, social expectations, ease of use and usefulness should be viewed as important antecedents explaining the firm’s behavioral intention to use social media. The study also finds that the ease of use and usefulness of the technology acceptance model have positive directional mediation effects in the path diagram.