Social media adoption and its impact on smes performance a case study of Palestine

Abstract

Many small-medium size enterprises (SMEs) are adopting social media platforms to contact their potential customers and provide their services. The impact of this adoption on the SME's performance has been roughly examined by researchers in the Middle East region particularly Palestine. Constructs and variables of three models (TOE, TAM, TPB) were used as potential predictors of social media adoption including technological, organizational, environmental context, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude toward technology, and capability to control technology. Furthermore, the influence of this adoption on SMEs performance was also tested. A closed question questionnaire was used to gather the data, and simple regression analysis was used to examine the hypotheses. Findings revealed that all of the seven independent construct/variables except the technological context positively influence SME's adoption of social media, and social media adoption in turn positively influence SME's performance. The findings may be beneficial to SMEs's managers and the authorities as well to facilitate the use of social media by SMEs.