Social media adoption by exporters: The export-dependence moderating role

What is it about?

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between managerial beliefs regarding social media and the subsequent adoption of these tools by exporting companies, and the moderating effect of export dependence measured by export intensity in those relationships. To accomplish this objective we use data from a Web-based survey distributed (by e-mail) to export managers or CEOs of Spanish exporting firms from the ICEX (Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade) database. Our results show that Managers’ beliefs about social media capabilities for dealing with foreign customers directly influence managerial attitudes toward and intention to use social media, and also indirectly on the intention to use them through the attitude. Then, the intention to use these applications increases their final usage by exporting firms. Export dependence of the company moderates all these relationships, being stronger with a higher export intensity.

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