IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/masjnl/v12y2018i3p41.html

Social Network Site Usage by Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses: Understanding the Motivations and Barriers

Author

Listed:
  • Yazn Alshamaila

Abstract

This paper contributes to a growing body of research on the process by which small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) adopt social network sites (SNSs) as part of their business strategies. If SMBs make use of SNSs, they could potentially compete with big corporations, flattening the marketplace. Open-ended online survey questions were used to collect data from 24 different social media experts in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Jordan was selected for this study because 90% of its adult Internet users are active on SNSs, a percentage that surpasses many emerging and developed countries. This research project identifies (a) relative advantage, (b) community demand, and (c) interactivity as motivating factors for SNS adoption. The survey results also reveal that (a) top management belief, (b) firm readiness, (c) negative comments and reviews, and (d) a low level of awareness are barriers to SNS adoption by SMBs in Jordan. The present study should prove to be particularly valuable to academics and business managers to formulate their business strategies regarding SNS adoption, and to pave the way for more research to assess likely changes.

Suggested Citation

  • Yazn Alshamaila, 2018. "Social Network Site Usage by Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses: Understanding the Motivations and Barriers," Modern Applied Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(3), pages 1-41, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:masjnl:v:12:y:2018:i:3:p:41
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/mas/article/download/73844/40613
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/mas/article/view/73844
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kevin Zhu & Kenneth L. Kraemer, 2005. "Post-Adoption Variations in Usage and Value of E-Business by Organizations: Cross-Country Evidence from the Retail Industry," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 16(1), pages 61-84, March.
    2. Ashton, Robert H., 1986. "Combining the judgments of experts: How many and which ones?," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 405-414, December.
    3. Curtis P. Armstrong & V. Sambamurthy, 1999. "Information Technology Assimilation in Firms: The Influence of Senior Leadership and IT Infrastructures," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 10(4), pages 304-327, December.
    4. Kaplan, Andreas M. & Haenlein, Michael, 2010. "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 59-68, January.
    5. Paul Shrivastava, 1983. "A Typology Of Organizational Learning Systems," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 7-28, January.
    6. Jeffrey Rohlfs, 1974. "A Theory of Interdependent Demand for a Communications Service," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 5(1), pages 16-37, Spring.
    7. Mark Xu & Ravni Rohatgi & Yanqing Duan, 2007. "E-Business Adoption in SMEs: Some Preliminary Findings from Electronic Components Industry," International Journal of E-Business Research (IJEBR), IGI Global Scientific Publishing, vol. 3(1), pages 74-90, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abhay Nath Mishra & Ritu Agarwal, 2010. "Technological Frames, Organizational Capabilities, and IT Use: An Empirical Investigation of Electronic Procurement," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(2), pages 249-270, June.
    2. Martínez-Caro, Eva & Cegarra-Navarro, Juan Gabriel & Alfonso-Ruiz, Francisco Javier, 2020. "Digital technologies and firm performance: The role of digital organisational culture," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    3. Naruemon Choochinprakarn, 2015. "Strategic Uses of Electronic Commerce for Thai Travel Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)," Proceedings of Business and Management Conferences 2303915, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    4. Rui Bi & Robert M. Davison & Kosmas X. Smyrnios, 2017. "E-business and fast growth SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 559-576, March.
    5. van Wessel, R.M., 2008. "Realizing business benefits from company IT standardization : Case study research into the organizational value of IT standards, towards a company IT standardization management framework," Other publications TiSEM 4bdde091-4f3f-4be1-84aa-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Aboelmaged, Mohamed Gamal, 2014. "Predicting e-readiness at firm-level: An analysis of technological, organizational and environmental (TOE) effects on e-maintenance readiness in manufacturing firms," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 639-651.
    7. Probir Kumar Banerjee & Louis C. Ma, 2012. "Routinisation of B2B E-commerce by small firms: A process perspective," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 14(5), pages 1033-1046, December.
    8. Abhay Nath Mishra & Prabhudev Konana & Anitesh Barua, 2007. "Antecedents and Consequences of Internet Use in Procurement: An Empirical Investigation of U.S. Manufacturing Firms," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 18(1), pages 103-120, March.
    9. Naruemon Choochinprakarn, 2016. "Adoption Of Electronic Commerce In Thai Travel Small And Medium Enterprises," International Journal of Business and Management, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences, vol. 4(1), pages 1-23, February.
    10. Zhang, Cheng & Dhaliwal, Jasbir, 2009. "An investigation of resource-based and institutional theoretic factors in technology adoption for operations and supply chain management," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 252-269, July.
    11. Shutao Dong & Sean Xin Xu & Kevin Xiaoguo Zhu, 2009. "Research Note ---Information Technology in Supply Chains: The Value of IT-Enabled Resources Under Competition," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 18-32, March.
    12. Kevin Zhu & Kenneth L. Kraemer & Sean Xu, 2006. "The Process of Innovation Assimilation by Firms in Different Countries: A Technology Diffusion Perspective on E-Business," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(10), pages 1557-1576, October.
    13. Lakka, Spyridoula & Michalakelis, Christos & Varoutas, Dimitris & Martakos, Draculis, 2012. "Exploring the determinants of the OSS market potential: The case of the Apache web server," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 51-68.
    14. Christian Arnold & Kai-Ingo Voigt, 2019. "Determinants of Industrial Internet of Things Adoption in German Manufacturing Companies," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(06), pages 1-21, October.
    15. Caroline Ardelet & Bérangère Brial, 2011. "Influence des recommandations d'internautes: le role de la presence sociale et de l'expertise," Post-Print hal-01258971, HAL.
    16. Fan, Rui & Xu, Ke & Zhao, Jichang, 2018. "An agent-based model for emotion contagion and competition in online social media," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 495(C), pages 245-259.
    17. repec:bcp:journl:v:4:y:2020:i:6:p:540-548 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Nour El Houda Ben Amor & Mohamed Nabil Mzoughi, 2023. "Do Millennials’ Motives for Using Snapchat Influence the Effectiveness of Snap Ads?," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, July.
    19. Majumdar, Adrija & Bose, Indranil, 2019. "Do tweets create value? A multi-period analysis of Twitter use and content of tweets for manufacturing firms," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 1-11.
    20. Schmidt, Christoph G. & Wuttke, David A. & Heese, H. Sebastian & Wagner, Stephan M., 2023. "Antecedents of public reactions to supply chain glitches," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    21. Marta Götz & Małgorzata Bartosik-Purgat & Barbara Jankowska, 2018. "International Aspects and Challenges of Digital Transformation," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 1, pages 87-102.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:masjnl:v:12:y:2018:i:3:p:41. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.