Abstract
This paper examines critical success factors shaping the adoption of digital marketing devices (DMD) by micro-businesses. The study adopted a qualitative approach. Both unstructured and semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 26 micro-businesses drawn purposefully from the online database and underpinned by technology, organisation and environment (TOE) framework. This helped to unravel 14 critical success factors influencing the adoption of DMD by micro-businesses in Nigeria. These factors include functional capability, adaptive capacity and expandability which are related to technology context. Collective understanding, degree of partnership and diversity of information are linked to the organisation context while the level of training, quality of service delivery, customer fulfilment and intense competition are associated with environmental context. The study expanded the TOE framework by unravelling the impact expectancy context which is associated with factors, such as budget, business expansion, diversity and return on investment. This study will be of importance to academics and practitioners because it provides further awareness into DMD adoption framework, factors critical to the DMD adoption and may assist in reducing the number of resources spent in search of information aimed at helping DMD adoption by micro-businesses.
Highlights
Advances in digital marketing devices (DMD) such as emerging mobile digital applications for marketing provide a significant opportunity for small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) to promote and advance their businesses
Both the exploratory and the explanatory features of the framework and the critical success factors depicted in the framework are dependent on the respondents’ narratives, theoretical and empirical codes as well as the literature which aid in the explanation of the factors shaping the DMD adoption by micro-businesses
While the developed framework can serve as a frame of references (Agarwal, 2000; Macredie and Mijinyawa, 2011) in understanding the factors shaping DMD adoption, operational meanings of the codes and the identified factors may be used as an analytical instrument for researchers to understand and explain factors influencing DMD adoption in the future
Summary
Advances in digital marketing devices (DMD) such as emerging mobile digital applications for marketing provide a significant opportunity for small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) to promote and advance their businesses. According to Scharl et al (2005), digital marketing is a technology application that offers a business the opportunity to interconnect with clients regularly. This has transformed the ways both prospective and actual customers communicate through the use of phones and other devices (Hosseini et al, 2016; Arghya et al, 2020). Digital marketers experts have failed to establish such relationships because of the uncertainty of the usage and outcome (Eze et al, 2019)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
