Internal organizational barriers to the adoption of social media marketing in the retailing industry of electronics and home appliances : the case of Egypt
A thorough look towards the use of social media reveals a strong potential to its role as a marketing tool. This study examines the barriers to the adoption of SMM by retailers of electronics and home appliances in Egypt. Despite the long stream of research in this field, research investigating the generalizability of measures, antecedents and models of organizational barriers within developing markets has been under-researched which suggests a need for further investigation. An array of univariate and multivariate statistical techniques has been employed to conduct the required analysis and modeling. The research mainly contributes to the sociological and psychological aspects concerned with adoption of SMM from the retailers’ point of view. Thus, this project will contribute to future research on similar topics. Particular emphasis is paid at developing and testing a model that explores the relationship between the research constructs, where the essence of conceptualization for this research were Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) for Technology adoption. Findings expanded the current knowledge with the SMM literature and highlighted the important role played by the human factor through employees’ perceived usefulness about the potential benefits of using these social media sites. In addition, the availability of an IT infrastructure that supports the adoption of SMM in terms of securing the access to the required hardware and software needed, providing a secured, fast and strong Internet connection, and having richer communication interfaces, all of which helps the retailers enhance their presence over the online social media.
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