The Examination of Factors Influencing Saudi Small Businesses¡¯ Social Media Adoption, by Using UTAUT Model

Abeer Bin Humaid and Yasser M. Ibrahim

International Journal of Business Administration, 2019, vol. 10, issue 2, 96-114

Abstract: Social media is becoming a major development in electronic commerce among a wide range of sectors, for example, education, government, health care, and business. In Saudi Arabia, a major movement toward social media has taken place, especially among small business entrepreneurs, due to its low cost and the powerful role it can play in globalization. The goal of this paper is to add to the theoretical knowledge base regarding the adoption of social media among Saudi small businesses, by applying the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to examine the influences of Saudi small businesses¡¯ social media adoption. An empirical study was carried out using online survey research among 73 Saudi business entrepreneurs. The major findings of the paper are that Saudi small business entrepreneurs tend to use social media for the major constructs of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions. However, although the moderator of gender proved to be effective on the construct of effort expectancy, the effects of the moderators of age, gender, and experience on the other major constructs were not salient. It is believed that the findings will be useful for understanding adoption phenomena better, to help business entrepreneurs to make superior decisions based on them.

Keywords: social media; small business; UTAUT model; Saudi Arabia; performance expectancy; effort expectancy; social influence; facilitating conditions; behavioral intention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jfr:ijba11:v:10:y:2019:i:2:p:96-114

DOI: 10.5430/ijba.v10n2p96

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