Institutional isomorphism and social media adoption – a study within the microenterprise context
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-06-2021-0178 |
| Published date | 05 April 2022 |
| Date | 05 April 2022 |
| Pages | 989-1006 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management |
| Author | Christian Nedu Osakwe,Juliet E. Ikhide |
Institutional isomorphism and
social media adoption –a study
within the microenterprise context
Christian Nedu Osakwe
Rabat Business School, International University of Rabat,
Rabat-Sale, Rabat, Morocco and
Department of Customs Affairs, South Ural State University,
National Research University, Celabinsk, Russia, and
Juliet E. Ikhide
Department of Business Administration, Eastern Mediterranean University,
Famagusta, Turkey
Abstract
Purpose –Until now, very little empirical research has focused on social media adoption behavior within
relatively small firms, and fewer still on adoption drivers within the specific context of microentrepreneurs,
including that of micro-retailers. The purpose of this manuscript is to contribute to the study on social media
adoption at the firm level by focusing on the specific role of institutional pressures, as captured by coercive,
mimetic and normative pressures, in the initial adoption of social media in the context of micro-retailers.
Design/methodology/approach –This study, based on self-administered questionnaires, collected data
from more than 200 micro-retailers in an emerging market and utilized the partial least squares modeling
approach.
Findings –Findings reveal that normative and mimetic (not coercive) pressures are critical to initial adoption.
Additional analysis, though not directly the center of attention in the study, indicates that both coercive and
normative pressures are critical to continued adoption, especially for retailers who currently use social media to
promote their businesses.
Originality/value –This study represents one of the few attemptsto extend the institutional theory to study
social media adoption behavior in the firm. In addition, it is the first in the literature to extend the theory to
social media adoption within the context of microenterprises, primarily micro-retailers, who form the
significant majority in the world.
Keywords Institutional theory, External pressures, Micro-retailers, Social media adoption
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
While there is a growing recognition of the positive role that social media can play in the firm
(Abbasi et al., 2022;Eid et al., 2019), social media adoption by the small-sized firm, as
compared to large firms, remains relatively low till date (Namankani et al., 2016;Deloitte
Touche Tohmastum, 2017;Statista, 2021a). For instance, a business survey conducted in the
European Union (EU) revealed that only 48% of small firms use social media in the EU
(Statista, 2021a), while in Australia and New Zealand it was found that only one in five small
firms regularly use social media to engage with consumers (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, 2017).
The pattern of low social media adoption rate among small enterprises (specifically among
microenterprises) is even more prevalent in developing nations, such as Kuwait, South Africa
and the UAE (Abubakar et al., 2019;Alzougool, 2019;Dzomonda et al., 2017). At the same
time, an understanding of social media adoption among decision-makers in microenterprises
Institutional
isomorphism
and social
media adoption
989
The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers as well as the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editor
of this journal for their valued feedback and suggestions. The authors are also grateful to Prof. Jonathan
Fisher (Professor of English, UIR) for assisting in the copyediting of the manuscript.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2050-3806.htm
Received 26 June 2021
Revised 20 January 2022
14 March 2022
Accepted 19 March 2022
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 74 No. 6, 2022
pp. 989-1006
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-06-2021-0178
has remained relatively limited to-date and provides a gap that warrants research
intervention (Cheing et al., 2020;Tang and Konde, 2020).
The social media adoption rate by microenterprises has remained basic. The generic
explanation regarding the level of microenterprise adoption rate has been attributed to low
expertiseor qualificationof microenterpriseownersto use the technology,the informal natureof
their operation (Cheing etal., 2020), cost sensitivity, lackof awareness about accruing benefits,
associatedrisks or uncertaintiesand resource constraintswhen compared to larger enterprises
(Tang and Konde, 2020). Notably, several scholars (Ahmad et al., 2018;Alzougool, 2019;Eid
et al., 2019;Herrero et al., 2018;Vatanasakdakulet al., 2020) have called for additionalstudies to
explore and identify additionaldrivers of social media adoption at the micro-, small- and mid-
sizedfirm-level. Althoughsocial media adoptionin microenterprisesis most likelyto be affected
by context-specific factors (Jones et al., 2014) ranging from socioeconomic to institutional
factors,there has been howeverlimited research investigation on the roleof institutional factors
in social media acceptance at the firm level (Bharati et al., 2014;Lin et al., 2021).
This study accordingly provides a unique and valuable insight into social media adoption
of microenterprises in developing nations, from the standpoint of the organization and with
emphasis on context (social/institutional)-specific factors. This underlying relationship can
further be expressed by Institutional theory (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983;Scott, 2001).
Importantly, while theories are important to understand, to explain, to predict, as well as
extend or challenge existing knowledge (Bacharach, 1989), only a few selected theories/
models, such as Technology Adoption Model (TAM), Universal Theory of Acceptance and
Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Technology-Organization-Environment model (TOE) and
not Institutional theory, have been widely used in the literature (e.g., Abubakar et al., 2019;
Osakwe et al., 2016;Salimon et al., 2021).
Focusing on those frequently usedtheories, such as TAM or UTAUT has only restricted
what could be known about social media adoption among microenterprises in developing
contexts.According to Qalati et al. (2021), this has causedissues regarding context-specific and
organizational-level factors that affect their adoption to be side-lined. Moreover, it has been
acknowledgedin the information system discipline andespecially in social media research that
more theory-driven research is required to develop a better understanding of the different
factors influencingsocial media at the firm level (Dwivedi et al.,2021). Accordingly, one of the
key reasons the current studyutilizes an alternative theory and in particular the institutional
theory to examine socialmedia adoption at the microenterprise level. The use ofinstitutional
theory in this study is further supported by recent research conducted among
microenterprises in the sub-Saharan Africa context, where it was found that external forces
are more likely to impel these firmsto adopt innovative practices (Osakwe, 2020).
In sum, this paper contributes to research on microenterprises and social media adoption
through the application of institutional theory and thereby illuminating our understanding of
the extent to which institutional pressures matter for social media adoption (intention) within
the context of microenterprise. Relatedly, this is also one of the few empirical studies to
explore this important phenomenon in the research context of micro-retail businesses (or
locally referred to as Spaza shops in South Africa) and further complements the studies of
Herrero et al. (2018) in the hospitality context in Spain as well as those of Vatanasakdakul et al.
(2020) in the Indonesian retail context.
Theoretical background
Institutional theory
More specifically, institutional theory “is concerned with external institutional pressures that
lead firms that reside in an organization field to increasingly resemble each other, resulting in
institutional isomorphism”(Yoon and George, 2013, p. 774). The implication, therefore, is that
AJIM
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