Title: Entrepreneurs' adoption of social media winning platform(s) in emerging markets

Authors: Rami Farhat; Qing Yang

Addresses: School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China ' School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

Abstract: Little is known regarding using digital platforms (DPs) by individual entrepreneurs in emerging markets (EMs) and the strategies used for integrating these business platforms into their marketing campaigns. Introducing AI Technologies in e-marketing, many marketers misuse the new digital technologies, and there are still very few studies on how entrepreneurs use or decide on social media platforms. Applying the UTAUT theory, our study includes a new method to measure the effectiveness of online marketing in emerging countries by launching the same ad on different platforms. This study aims to discuss this issue using a qualitative approach focusing on semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs in Lebanon. The participants on Facebook were users between 18 and 64 interested in e-commerce. This study describes an investigation to gain an understanding of the best practices of digital platforms based on benchmarks and optimising online marketing campaigns to make SMEs, entrepreneurs and digital marketers more aware of the powers of media and through utilising ads manager benchmarks based on campaigns launched on different platforms to rank the most effective social media platform.

Keywords: digital platforms; social media; entrepreneurs; marketing campaigns; emerging markets.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMS.2025.146820

International Journal of Internet Manufacturing and Services, 2025 Vol.11 No.2, pp.153 - 170

Received: 11 Feb 2024
Accepted: 07 Apr 2024
Published online: 20 Jun 2025 *

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