Adoption of Social Media for SME Growth in the Covid-19 Era: A Case of SMEs in the Clothing industry in Lusaka, Zambia

Abstract

Social media has become an emerging integral component to any business in the COVID-19 era. This study on social media adoption by SMEs in the COVID-19 era using the VT4 framework is thus essential. This study sought to investigate how the VT4 influences social media adoption and growth of SMEs. A quantitative research design was used to carry out this study. The target population of the study was SMEs staff in the clothing industry in Lusaka. A structured questionnaire was used as the data collection tool on 240 randomly selected sample size. The Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data analysis. The study first sought to establish the social media platform adopted by SMEs in their business and the factors that influence adoption. The findings of the study revealed that Facebook was the most used social media platform among SMEs followed by WhatsApp. The least used was YouTube. The results of the study further revealed that among the factors that influenced social media adoption by SMEs was perceived usefulness and society’s attitude. The study further sought to establish the impact of VT4 on social media adoption and SME growth. Descriptive analysis and the Pearson’s correlation were used to analyze the results. The results of H1 to H5 showed a statistically significant Pearson’s correlation with P Value of less than 0.005 (sig. 2-tailed) government that will make electronic gadgets such as smart phones affordable.