Drivers of social media adoption in B2B markets

Abstract

The Internet and social media have been gaining increasing visibility in the business world. In the last decade, this digital transformation has led to a change in the behaviour of marketing professionals and managers around the world. Although there are still some fears about the use of social media in the B2B context, it is unquestionable that these social media have proven to be essential in outlining a competitive strategy. The purpose of our study is to identify the main drivers of social media adoption in B2B markets. Based on a sample of 223 workers from B2B companies, a structural equations model was used to test the relationships among the variables learning, memorability, absence of errors, usability, functionality, social influence, satisfaction, trust, and social media adoption. The results showed that the variables learning, memorability and absence of errors are key determinants of social media usability. In turn, social influence and usability are crucial for trust in social media. In turn, usability and trust are fundamental to social media usefulness. Satisfaction with social media is achieved through greater ease of use, usefulness, and trust. Finally, when social media users are satisfied, are subject to social influence, and judge social media to be usefulness, they tend to adopt social media.