FACTORS INFLUENCING ON ADOPTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AMONG MICRO AND SMALL SCALE ENTERPRISE IN POLONNARUWA DISTRICT _ A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

Social media marketing has become a Crucial component of marketing strategies for businesses of all sizes, especially for Micro and Small Scale Enterprises (MSSEs) looking to reach a wider audience and improve customer engagement. This study aims to investigate the factors that influence the adoption of social media marketing among MSSEs in the Polonnaruwa district. The research focuses on nine independent variables, such as perceived relative advantage, perceived complexity, perceived cost, top management support, perceived availability of financial support, perceived employee capability, perceived competitive pressure, perceived customer pressure, and perceived vendor support, which are aril believed to have an impact on the adoption of social media marketing. With a sample size of 150 for each, the study uses a comparative research approach to gather data from the micro and small scale enterprise sectors. Structured questionnaire was used as the method of data collection. Stratified random sampling method was used to make the sampling frame and quantitative research approach used for this study. The findings indicate that there is good reliability for all variables. Apart from Perceived cost and Perceived complexity, there is a high level of other variables in Polonnaruwa district. The results also showed that there is positive relationship perceived relative advantage, top management support, perceived availability of financial support, perceived employee capability, perceived competitive pressure, perceived customer pressures and perceived vendor support and adopting social media marketing in micro and small scale enterprises. There is negative relationship with perceived complexity, perceived cost and adopting social media marketing in micro and small scale enterprises. Also, the findings show that perceived relative advantage and top management support have a positive impact on social media marketing adoption in both micro and small scale enterprises. Perceived competitive pressure have positive impact on social media marketing adoption in micro scale enterprises and perceived customer pressure have positive impact on social media marketing adoption in small scale enterprises.