A Model For The Adoption of Social Media by B2B Organizations
The advent of Web 2.0 has created new ways to communicate, collaborate and share content (Enders et al. 2008). Social media build on the technological and ideological foundations of Web 2.0 (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010) and encompass the “activities, practic
- PDF / 199,915 Bytes
- 4 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 111 Downloads / 193 Views
ease of use, which according to TAM is a key antecedent to the adoption of new technologies, was found to be insignificant in predicting both social media adoption and perceived usefulness (p>.05). This may be due to a perception across our sample that social media are indeed relatively easy to use. Interestingly, perceived usefulness of social media by B2B organizations is determined by company image enhancement and perceived barriers rather than a belief that social media have demonstrable results. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY AND PRACTICE The study contributes to the limited knowledge about B2B organizations’ usage of social media as marketing tools. Our findings extend existing theories on the adoption of new technologies (e.g. TAM), highlighting the role of perceived barriers and organizational innovativeness in social media adoption by B2B organizations. Specifically, the study shows that perceived barriers shape perceptions about the usefulness of social media in marketing practices of B2B organizations. Perceived barriers such as cost, importance of social media for specific industries and uncertainty about the benefits of social media, deter companies from using social media as marketing tools. Additionally, findings indicate that image shapes perceived usefulness of social media, suggesting that image enhancement efforts are associated with a greater appreciation of social media as effective marketing tools. The findings also show that more innovative organizations such as those adopting new technologies and new methods of production and service delivery (relative to their competitors) are likely to adopt social media in their marketing practices. In addition to the theoretical implications, this study is relevant for B2B organizations that do not currently use social media, but plan to invest in them in the near future. Our results illustrate that overall B2B companies appreciate the use of social media in enhancing their image, which might suggest that there will be an increase in B2B companies investing in social media. B2B organizations that intend to adopt social media should seek to enhance their managers’ perceptions about the usefulness of social media, and address the perceived barriers through training programs that will enhance employees’ skills in social media and identify the importance and relevance of social media within B2B organizations and their industries. TABLES Table 1: Model Path Coefficients and t-Values Effects on Perceived Usefulness (R2=.54) H1: Results Demonstrability H2: Image H3: Perceived Barriers H4: Perceived Ease of Use Effects on Adoption (R2=.30) H5: Perceived Usefulness H6: Perceived Ease of Use H7: Organisational Innovativeness
Unstandardized Coefficients
t-value
p-value
.01 .32 -.38 .15
1.13 4.01 -3.18 1.52
.257 .000 .001 .128
.13 .064 .16
2.93 1.82 3.02
.003 .068 .003
579
FIGURES Figure 1: A model for the adoption of social media by B2B organizations Results Demonstrability
H1: +
Image
H2: +
Perceived Usefulness
H5: +
H3: Perceived Barriers
Data Loading...
