External and Internal Drivers of Small Retail Businesses' Social Media Use: An Innovation Diffusion Theory Perspective

The power of social media has tempted many firms to integrate it into their business strategies. Nevertheless, some small businesses do not use social media, citing lack of time or resources as barriers. According to the diffusion of innovation theory, perceptions about an innovation predict whether an individual or organization adopts or rejects the innovation; and these perceptions are driven by internal and external factors driving the decision unit's knowledge of the innovation. Norms of the social system surrounding the decision unit can exert external pressures, while the decision unit's internal characteristics, such as organizational culture of openness/learning, can also play a pivotal role in its innovation adoption/rejection decision. Based on this, the purpose of this study is to examine how the levels of external pressures and organizational culture of openness/learning influence small business owners'/managers' decision to use social media.