Factors influencing beliefs formation towards the adoption of social commerce in SME travel agencies

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence beliefs formation towards the adoption of social commerce in SME travel agencies. Accordingly, a distal-proximal model is developed to study CEOs’ beliefs towards the usefulness of social commerce. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of travel agencies’ CEOs in Isfahan, Iran. With 180 collected data from respondents, the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling approach was taken to assess both measurement and structural models of the study. The results revealed that CEOs’ innovativeness and attitude towards IT as individual factors, and organizational resources as institutional factor were significantly explained beliefs formation of respondents towards the usefulness of social commerce. However, it was found that the influences of CEOs’ IT knowledge, subjective norms (professional peers, employees) and firm size on perceived usefulness were found insignificant. Implications of the study are further discussed.