Antecedents of Intention to Use Social Media for Virtual Events

Imposing the movement control order and social distancing measures during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic increased the adoption of information and communication technology. The practices of remote work, virtual classes, and even entertainment were forced to be conducted remotely from home. Despite the current relaxation of restricted measurements on the COVID-19 pandemic in different nations, people still prefer online meetings via social media because of the potential threats of new recurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the significant saving of time, money, and effort. Therefore, the objectives of this research intend to investigate the direct and indirect relationships between attitude, perceived direct benefit, trust, and intention to use social media for virtual events. Moreover, this research will also assess the role of top management support in moderating the relationship between attitude and intention to use social media for virtual events. To accomplish the research objectives, 400 samples were collected through an online self-administered questionnaire survey. The data were analysed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Partial Least Square–Structural Equation Modelling (PLS–SEM). Based on the generated statistical outcomes, all the direct relationships between attitude, perceived direct benefit, trust, and intention to use social media for virtual events are significantly supported. For the indirect relationships, all the mediation relationships are significantly supported. However, the findings indicated that the moderation variable of top management support does not have any moderating effect on the relationship between the attitude and intention to use in this research study.