What drives B-to-B marketers in emerging countries to use social media sites?

Abstract

Purpose B-to-B marketers in emerging countries still lag behind compared to peers in developed countries in terms of the use of social media sites. Recent literature calls for a further understand the factors influencing social media sites’ use by B-to-B firms in emerging countries. This paper builds on this literature to map and investigate the factors influencing B-to-B marketers’ intention to use social media sites in an emerging country Methodology/Approach The designed model was tested by implementing a survey. Snow ball sampling method was used to select B-to-B marketers from 158 firms in Jordan. Structural equation modelling (SEM) using PLS was implemented to investiagte the various influences and relationships. A discussion of the results compared with those of existing research conducted mainly in Western countries, with very few conducted in emerging countries, is provided. Findings The results highlight similarities in the factors affecting the intention to use social media sites in emerging countries: perceived usefulness and perceived utility were found to significantly influence the intention to use social media sites in Jordan and also in China and South Korea. However, perceived usability of social media sites did not have any influence on Jordanian B-to-B marketers’ intention to use those sites. In addition, result demonstrability, of less importance in developed countries, was found to significantly influence Jordanian B-to-B marketers’ intention to use social media sites. Image and subjective norms were found to influence perceived usefulness. Efficiency has no significant influence on perceived usability whereas error, satisfaction, learnability and memorability were found to significantly influence Jordanian B-to-B marketers’ perceived usability of social media sites. Research Implications This research contributes to the technology acceptance research field and particularly the area of B-to-B firms’ use of social media sites. It combined (i) the extended technology acceptance model and (ii) the attributes of system acceptability model, to further the understanding of the factors that influence on the use of social media sites by B-to-B firms in emerging countries. For practitioners, this research provides guidance on how to increase social media use by B-to-B marketers in emergent countries through enhancing the factors that stimulate the use of social media sites in this particular context. Originality/Value/Contribution of the paper Very few studies conducted in emerging countries highlights differences in the factors influencing the use of social media sites compared to those identified in studies conducted in developed countries. This research adds value to the growing research area on B2B firms’ use of social media sites as well as to the technology acceptance research field, by identifying and discussing the most important factors influencing B-to-B marketers’ intention to use social media in emergent countries contexts.