Small retail businesses' social media adoption amid a crisis
Industrial Management & Data Systems
ISSN: 0263-5577
Article publication date: 6 February 2024
Issue publication date: 16 February 2024
Abstract
Purpose
When retail businesses, especially small businesses with greater vulnerability, could not meet consumers in person during the recent pandemic crisis, how did they adapt to the situation? This study examined how small business practitioners (SBPs’) perceptions, trust and adoption intention levels for social media, as well as the relationships among these variables, changed before and during the crisis based on the integration of the contingency theory and the diffusion of innovation theory (DIT).
Design/methodology/approach
Online surveys were conducted with USA SBPs before (n = 175) and during (n = 225) the recent pandemic. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM), multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and multiple-group SEM analysis.
Findings
The results confirmed significant sequential positive relationships between SBPs’ perceived external pressure and perceived benefits of adopting social media, which in turn led to their trust in and then adoption intentions for social media. Further, the comparisons between the pre- and in-pandemic samples revealed that SBPs’ perceptions and adoption intentions all became significantly higher during (vs before) the pandemic, but the structural relationships among these variables weakened during the pandemic.
Originality/value
This study uses a novel approach to integrate the contingency theory with the DIT to propose small businesses' perceptions, trust and adoption intentions for social media during the innovation decision process under rapid contingency changes. Our findings also offer practical implications including recommendations for small businesses’ innovation management as well as training programs.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Yonsei University Research Fund of 2019–2022 (No: 2019-22-0018/2020-22-0100/2021-22-0082), the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station and the Hatch program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. This study is stemmed from the larger project’s dataset, which is also utilized by the article, “Kwon, W–S., Xiao, H., Sadachar, A., and Woo, H. (2021). External pressure or internal culture? An innovation diffusion theory account of small retail businesses’ social media use. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 62, 1–9.”
Citation
Woo, H., Kwon, W.-S., Sadachar, A., Tong, Z. and Yang, J. (2024), "Small retail businesses' social media adoption amid a crisis", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 124 No. 3, pp. 1299-1325. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-06-2023-0377
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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