Social Media and SMEs: A Study of Drivers of Adoption of Innovation in Organizational Setting

This article addresses a research lacuna in the literature with regard to determinants of attitudes and adoption of an innovation (Facebook) in the SMEs sector in emerging economies with particular reference to Indonesia. To this end, five support dimensions: government support, management support, motivational support, technological support and training support were developed basing on existing literature and the established theories in the relevant field. The impact of these support dimensions on managerial attitudes and adoption of innovation were then examined in an organizational setting. Data was collected from a sample of senior managers representing Indonesian SMEs through a structured questionnaire and analyzed using multivariate statistical tools, such as multiple regression analysis. The research revealed significant effects of government support, management support, technological support and training support dimensions on the managerial perception of innovation and direct effects of management and training support on the adoption of innovation. Interestingly, government support dimensions have significant impacted the commitment of SMEs to innovation but not on the adoption behavior of innovation, suggesting that governments' main role would be to ensure commitment of SMEs. This is because commitment is a crucial precondition of adoption behavior. Furthermore, managers' physical maturity (age) was found to moderate the relationship between government support and the perception of innovation. The implications of these interesting findings for SMEs and for the governments in emerging economies to designing an appropriate strategy for effective implementation of social media as an innovation are highlighted in this article.