Towards conceptual model of social media use for flash flood preparedness in Klang Valley

Abstract

Flash flood seems to be one of the natural disasters prompting considerable worry throughout the globe. Malaysia, which is situated in Southeast Asia, is not immune to flash floods; in fact, it has lately suffered a rise in the frequency of flood incidents, each of which has been more severe than the previous. This flash flooding event can cause disruptions towards the economic, environmental, property and the livelihood of the people in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Nowadays, the importance of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as a platform for connecting individuals from all over the world is gaining prominence. Therefore, this research aims to develop a conceptual model on the factors influencing social media use towards flood disaster preparedness in the case of Klang Valley. This research has applied quantitative deductive approach and employed PLS-SEM analysis involving a total of 98 respondents, statistically seems to be sufficient for analyzing the model. The initial factors have been reviewed and identified according to the empirical results of related studies and these are Knowledge Self-Efficacy, Subjective Norms, Attitude, Trust, Community Participation and Openness. Overall, the model can explain 44.9% of the variance in the intention to prepare using social media for flood preparedness. The evaluation of the proposed model yielded that three of the six factors which are Knowledge Self-Efficacy, Attitude, and Trust, have significant positive influence on social media use for flash flood disaster preparation in the context of Klang Valley, Malaysia.