Title: Exploring the success factor of social media marketing strategies among micro-enterprises in Malaysia

Authors: Noor Fadhiha Mokhtar; Zuha Rosufila Abu Hasan

Addresses: Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia

Abstract: As a part of a marketing platform, social media has currently shown a tremendous increase in businesses. Social media allows businesses to integrate communications between sellers and customers and minimise business operating costs. In spite of the benefits of social media marketing for businesses, micro-enterprises are faced with obstacles in implementing their marketing strategies. Hence, this article explores the success factors of social media marketing strategies among micro-enterprises in Malaysia by extending the technology-organisation-environment (TOE) model. In-depth interviews were carried out with 36 micro-enterprises in Peninsular Malaysia. Furthermore, a thematic analysis was applied to analyse the research data. As a result, technology, organisation, environment, and demographic factors were recorded as the success factors of social media marketing among micro-enterprises in Malaysia. The identified success factors would help business owners, government agencies, and policymakers' plan and design comprehensive business support activities to assist micro-enterprises to survive in the highly competitive marketplace. The findings would guide business owners in considering the key success factors in the implementation of social media marketing. However, provided that this research solely concentrated on general micro-enterprises perspectives, future research could be extended to a specific sector of micro-enterprises, which is to gather niche perspectives.

Keywords: social media; marketing strategies; micro-enterprises; success factor; TOE model; Malaysia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2023.132184

International Journal of Electronic Business, 2023 Vol.18 No.3, pp.249 - 268

Received: 17 May 2022
Accepted: 26 Jan 2023
Published online: 12 Jul 2023 *

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