Twitter Adoption and Use by SMEs: An Empirical Study

Social media tools are used by firms to create and capture business value. In this study, we synthesize emerging literature on social commerce, social media, and the diffusion of innovation to identify the role that organizational, managerial and environmental characteristics of SMEs play in the adoption of Twitter. To test the model, we administered a survey to 453 SME mangers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and India. The results of logistic hierarchical regression indicate that firm innovativeness, age and geographic location have a significant impact on Twitter adoption by SMEs. Implications for research and practice are discussed.