This chapter shares the practical application of the explanatory sequential mixed methods research design in a study to investigate a model for adoption of social media enabled knowledge management for the small and medium enterprises in South Africa. Research that solely applies either the quantitative or qualitative approach presents some weaknesses in understanding a phenomenon holistically. The quantitative approach does not adequately provide depth in contextualising issues to bring more understanding of the phenomenon, and qualitative research is poor in providing repeatability and generalizability of findings. The explanatory sequential mixed methods research has capitalized on the weaknesses of the two approaches by combining them to produce more holistic understanding of the phenomenon. This chapter presents the practical application of the explanatory sequential mixed methods research design to investigate a model of social media-enabled knowledge management adoption for the small and medium enterprises in South Africa.
Since the covid-19 pandemic in 2020, many businesses have relied on social media to stay abreast with the latest news, developments and to predict the future world of business. Many countries around the world instigated lockdown restrictions to curb the spread of the covid-19 virus, and social media platforms were very popular tools used for spreading the news. The proliferation of social media has also increasingly drawn the attention of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa to improve their efforts of sustaining their businesses. Social media platforms have become popular in the business environments for their ability to increase market reach, transfer knowledge, and sustain the business. While many benefits of social media to enhance business performance have been studied, there are also skeptics on data privacy issues that social medial brings to the business. In the SME sectors in South Africa, social media are adopted due to their cost effectiveness and ease of use. However, little is known about the effect of data privacy issues on SME business performance. The literature of social media adoption indicates that the older generation of SME owners are skeptical about sharing their confidential business insight on social media platforms. This is despite the availability of many other literature studies that report on the increase of social media studies to enhance business sustainability. This study aims to produce knowledge for understanding the key motivations of SMEs to adopting social media despite the existence of data privacy issues on social media. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 13 SME entrepreneurs who were purposively selected based on their knowledge of social media, experience of its application in the business, industries and premises of the SME business in South Africa. The results of the interviews indicated that SMEs are generally aware of the data privacy issues surrounding the use of social media, and the adoption rate differs from younger and older generation of SME entrepreneurs.
Background: Cybersecurity breaches have become a growing challenge in today’s digital economy. Organisations are faced with the responsibility of protecting their information resources from cybersecurity threats, and insider threats are one of them. Organisations have sophisticated technologies to protect themselves against these attacks, and their employees are often less guarded when it comes to protecting valuable company information systems.Objectives: This research was aimed to develop and conceptualise a model to reduce cybersecurity insider threats in a South African telecommunication organisation.Method: This study was conducted using a survey research approach, where close-ended questionnaires were utilised to collect data from respondents. The collected data was then analysed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS).Results: The findings of the study indicated that personal norms in the domain of cybersecurity have a positive influence on individuals’ attitude towards engaging in cybersecurity misbehaviour, and this has a significant relationship with their reduction of insider threats (RIT).Conclusion: This study suggests that management should give close and thoughtful attention to factors that encourage their employees to engage in cybersecurity misbehaviour. As an efficient and effective approach to mitigate the risk of cybersecurity insider threats, identification and classification of these factors should be followed by proper planning with a goal of reducing their negative effect on employees’ behaviour.
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