| Abstrakt: |
Social media marketing has become the new mantra for several businesses that seek to create value and contribute economically to the nation's GDP. However, research literature shows that its adoption in SMEs is still slow-paced despite its perceived and recognized benefits. The UAE government recognizes the importance of SMEs as instrumental to the economic growth and development of the UAE. Despite this, the limited research scope in this area reveals that questions regarding how SMEs should select and deploy social media channels and how these impacts their business performance still lingers. This paper examined the relationship technological, organizational, and environmental factors, social media adoption and SMEs performance. A quantitative research design and positivist research paradigm, the researcher sought to attain the study's research objectives. A sample of 452 respondents consisting of SME business owners, CEO and top management were selected from each of the seven districts in the UAE. The study recorded a 92.9% response rate as only 423 questionnaires were useable for data analysis. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Partial Least Squares structural equation modelling. The results showed that technological, organizational and environmental factors had significant and positive impact on the social media adoption. However, only technological factor had significant and positive influence on SMEs performance. While organizational and environmental factors had negative impact on SMEs performance. The results also showed that social media adoption mediates the relationship between technological, organizational and environmental factor and SMEs performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
