Social Media Usage and SME Firms’ Sustainability: An Introspective Analysis from Ghana
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Background: Uses and Gratification Theory (U&G)
3. Literature Review
3.1. Social Media
3.2. Information Channel
3.3. Value Creation
3.4. Business Connection and Opportunities
3.5. Sustainability
4. Methodology
4.1. Sample, Data Collection and Analytic Techniques
4.2. Measurement of the Constructs
4.3. Test of Common Method Variance (CMV)
5. Empirical Findings and Results
5.1. Model Measurement
5.2. Structural Modeling-Path Analysis
6. Discussions and Implications
6.1. Theoretical Implications
6.2. Managerial Implications
6.3. Limitations of the Study
7. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
Appendix B. Article Questionnaire and Measurements
Variable Measures | |
Social media | SM1: Social Media are user-friendly. SM2: Social media helps SMEs to engage in business with distance customers SM3: Create meaningful relationship with customers SM4: Helps in creating and increasing brand awareness |
Information Channel | IC1: Social media can be used as a means to engage or interact with customers IC2: Social media gives customers adequate information on a particular product or service before it is purchased or consumed. IC3: Social media can be used to attract customers and reach the masses IC4: Social media serve as a strategic informational channel for SMEs IC5: SMEs use social media as a channel to obtain feedback from customers |
Value Creation | VC1: Firms can use social media to improve customer relationships and increase market share. VC2: Social media help firms to know more about customers’ perceptions of the company VC3: Social media lower marketing campaign costs, and helps in awareness creation, creating a meaningful customer-driven product innovation. VC4: Social media usage helps in customer brand loyalty and trust |
Business Connection and Opportunities | BCP1: Social media facilitate business connections with their customers and other stakeholders via disseminating information at a reduced cost. BCP2: SMEs get access to a larger market, thereby expanding the customer base both locally and globally. BCP3: Social media platforms directly target customers with marketing campaigns thus promoting new products or services and building brand awareness. BCP4: Social media is a strategic online platform for job searching, recruitment, and career growth for SMEs BCP5: Social media helps SMEs to compete with large companies in the area of marketing for competitive advantage. |
Sustainability | SS1: Social media is a valuable tool for SMEs’ marketing SS2: In my view, social media enhances the productivity of the firm SS3: Customers are adequately compatible in using social media to patronize the firms’ products and services. SS4: In my view, social media makes it possible to identify customer demands and satisfy them accordingly SS5: Our firm is compatible with using social media for marketing purposes. |
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Details | Frequency | Percentage (%) | |
---|---|---|---|
Gender | |||
Male | 301 | 70.90 | |
Female | 123 | 29.10 | |
Age | |||
18–25 years | 130 | 30.70 | |
26–35 years | 176 | 41.40 | |
36–45 years | 75 | 17.70 | |
45–55 years | 26 | 6.20 | |
Above 55 years | 17 | 4.00 | |
Educational Level | |||
SSSCE | 126 | 29.80 | |
Diploma/HND/Bachelors | 184 | 43.30 | |
Masters/Post Graduate Diploma | 83 | 19.60 | |
Others | |||
Organizational Size | 31 | 7.30 | |
Medium 1–10 employees | 170 | 40.00 | |
Small (11–50 employees) | 126 | 29.80 | |
Medium (51–100 employees) | 65 | 15.40 | |
Large (above 100) | |||
Years Served | 63 | 14.80 | |
1–5 years | 235 | 55.30 | |
6–10 years | 110 | 26.00 | |
11–15 years | 43 | 10.20 | |
Above 15 years | |||
SM Devices Used | 36 | 8.50 | |
Mobile Device Only | 31 | 7.30 | |
PC/Computer | 93 | 22.00 | |
Both | |||
Number of times SM used by the Company | 300 | 70.70 | |
Daily | 206 | 48.50 | |
Once a week | 115 | 27.20 | |
More than once a week | 55 | 13.00 | |
Once a month | |||
SM Platforms Used | 48 | 11.30 | |
126 | 29.60 | ||
33 | 7.70 | ||
41 | 9.70 | ||
32 | 7.60 | ||
All the above | 192 | 45.40 | |
Sample Size Used | 424 | 100 |
Construct | Indicator | Loading | VIF |
---|---|---|---|
INFORMATION CHANNEL | IC1 | 0.8561 | 2.7978 |
IC2 | 0.8936 | 3.6393 | |
IC3 | 0.9086 | 3.9216 | |
IC4 | 0.9274 | 6.0051 | |
IC5 | 0.9105 | 5.0577 | |
VALUE CREATION | VC1 | 0.9127 | 3.9188 |
VC2 | 0.9062 | 3.9983 | |
VC3 | 0.9245 | 4.7885 | |
VC4 | 0.9331 | 5.1645 | |
BUS. CON & OPP | BCP1 | 0.9245 | 4.7497 |
BCP2 | 0.9203 | 4.7734 | |
BCP3 | 0.9387 | 5.6589 | |
BCP4 | 0.9456 | 6.9488 | |
BCP5 | 0.9381 | 6.1640 | |
SOCIAL MEDIA | SM1 | 0.8175 | 2.0103 |
SM2 | 0.9129 | 3.4578 | |
SM3 | 0.9101 | 3.4562 | |
SM4 | 0.9231 | 3.8704 | |
SUSTAINABILITY | SS1 | 0.9225 | 4.5068 |
SS2 | 0.9396 | 5.5885 | |
SS3 | 0.9348 | 5.3692 | |
SS4 | 0.9342 | 5.2511 | |
SS5 | 0.9331 | 5.1000 |
Constructs/Indicators | Dijkstra– Henseler’s Rho (ρA) | Jöreskog’s Rho (ρc) | Cronbach’s Alpha (α) | The Average Variance Extracted (Ave) |
---|---|---|---|---|
INFORMATION CHANNEL | 0.9431 | 0.9549 | 0.9409 | 0.8092 |
VALUE CREATION | 0.9516 | 0.9625 | 0.9513 | 0.8371 |
BUS. CON & OPP | 0.9635 | 0.9713 | 0.9631 | 0.8714 |
SOCIAL MEDIA | 0.9215 | 0.9395 | 0.9137 | 0.7955 |
SUSTAINABILITY | 0.9627 | 0.9710 | 0.9627 | 0.8702 |
1 = Information Channel | 0.8092 | ||||
2 = Value Creation | 0.5649 | 0.8371 | |||
3 = Business Connections and Opp. | 0.4600 | 0.4985 | 0.8714 | ||
4 = Social media | 0.5220 | 0.3945 | 0.3137 | 0.7955 | |
5 = Sustainability | 0.3835 | 0.5104 | 0.5284 | 0.2966 | 0.8702 |
Relationship | Beta (β) | Standard Bootstrap Results | Empirical Remarks | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mean Value | SD Error | t-Value | Effect Size (Cohen’s f2) | p-Value | |||
H1: SS -> SS | 0.0075 | 0.0072 | 0.0758 | 4.5172 | 0.2217 | 0.0001 | Agreed |
H2: IC -> SS | 0.0011 | 0.0067 | 0.0805 | 0.0137 | 0.0000 | 0.4945 | Not Agreed |
H3: VC -> SS | 0.3654 | 0.3678 | 0.0787 | 4.6443 | 0.1227 | 0.000 | Agreed |
H4: BCO -> SS | 0.4257 | 0.4280 | 0.0634 | 6.7126 | 0.2100 | 0.1282 | Agreed |
H5: SM -> SS | 0.5446 | 0.0643 | 0.0668 | 1.1358 | 0.0068 | 0.000 | Agreed |
Independent variable: | Coefficient of determination (R2) | Adjusted R2 | |||||
Information channel | 0.5220 | 0.0.5209 | |||||
Value creation | 0.3945 | 0.3930 | |||||
Business connections and opportunities | 0.3137 | 0.3120 | |||||
Dependent variable | |||||||
Sustainability | 0.6125 | 0.6088 |
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Bruce, E.; Shurong, Z.; Egala, S.B.; Amoah, J.; Ying, D.; Rui, H.; Lyu, T. Social Media Usage and SME Firms’ Sustainability: An Introspective Analysis from Ghana. Sustainability 2022, 14, 9433. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159433
Bruce E, Shurong Z, Egala SB, Amoah J, Ying D, Rui H, Lyu T. Social Media Usage and SME Firms’ Sustainability: An Introspective Analysis from Ghana. Sustainability. 2022; 14(15):9433. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159433
Chicago/Turabian StyleBruce, Emmanuel, Zhao Shurong, Sulemana Bankuoru Egala, John Amoah, Du Ying, Huang Rui, and Tai Lyu. 2022. "Social Media Usage and SME Firms’ Sustainability: An Introspective Analysis from Ghana" Sustainability 14, no. 15: 9433. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159433