Prioritisation of critical factors affecting the adoption of social media using best-worst method: Evidence from SMEs in Egypt

Abstract

This study aims to identify, analyse, and rank the critical factors affecting social media usage in Egyptian SMEs. This study proposed Technology-Organisation-Environment-Individual (TOEI) framework that integrates the individual dimension into the TOE framework to identify the key factors that drive SMEs in Egypt to use social media in their businesses. The identified factors were collected through a comprehensive review of literature, as well as participants’ opinions. The Best-Worst Method (BWM) was employed to evaluate and prioritise the factors according to their relative importance using data collected from twenty participants. The research findings indicate that relative advantage, cost-effectiveness, customer pressure, competitive pressure, complexity, owner attitude, owner support, owner innovativeness, interactivity, and observability are the highest ranked factors driving the usage of social media among SMEs in Egypt. This research has important implications for practitioners and researchers interested in investigating SMEs’ adoption of social media and how to promote the usage of social media among SMEs in developing countries. The findings of this study also help Egyptian SMEs’ owners recognise the major aspects that influence their decisions to use social media.