Psychosocial Background to the Use of Social Media Marketing and Its Impact on Business

Abstract

International studies have focused on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the micro and small business sector. Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) sustain a fundamental role in the Brazilian and international economic scenario, contributing substantially to the social development of their countries. Based on the theoretical motivation founded on the need to understand the psychosocial factors that precede the use of social media marketing and its impact on business in the context of Brazilian micro and small businesses, as well as to make comparisons with correlated international studies, this study aimed to analyze the relationships among antecedent variables to the use of social media marketing and its impact on business in Brazilian micro and small businesses. To reach this objective, data were collected by means of a survey applied on a sample of 82 Brazilian MSEs. These data, after tabulated, were analyzed by the method of Structural Equation Analysis by Partial Least Squares (PLS-SEM), resulting in the non-rejection of the five hypotheses tested in this study. Thus, it was verified that the psychosocial variables Facilitating Conditions (CF), Compatibility (COM), Perceived Usefulness (UP), Cost (C), Perceived Ease of Use (FUP) are antecedent variables to the Use of Social Media Marketing (USE) and, the latter, antecedent to Business Impact (IN). From these results it was possible to make comparisons with international studies.