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 attempts to 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.

中文翻译：

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制度同构和社交媒体采用——微型企业背景下的研究

目的

到目前为止，很少有实证研究关注相对较小的公司内的社交媒体采用行为，而在微型企业家的特定背景下（包括微型零售商）的采用驱动因素则更少。本手稿的目的是通过关注制度压力的具体作用，为公司层面的社交媒体采用研究做出贡献，如强制性、模仿和规范压力所捕捉的，在社会媒体的初始采用中微型零售商。

设计/方法/方法

本研究基于自我管理的问卷调查，收集了来自新兴市场的 200 多家微型零售商的数据，并使用了偏最小二乘建模方法。

发现

调查结果表明，规范性和模仿性（非强制性）压力对于最初的采用至关重要。额外的分析虽然不是研究中直接关注的焦点，但表明强制和规范压力对于继续采用至关重要，特别是对于目前使用社交媒体来推广其业务的零售商而言。

原创性/价值

这项研究代表了少数尝试将制度理论扩展到研究公司中的社交媒体采用行为的尝试之一。此外，这是文献中第一个将该理论扩展到微型企业（主要是微型零售商）背景下的社交媒体采用，这些企业在世界上占绝大多数。