Open AccessThe Characteristics of Adopters and Non-Adopters of Digital Marketing Application among Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMES)
Author(s) -
Abdul Hamid,
Nor Khasimah Aliman
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
asian journal of business and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2321-2802
DOI - 10.24203/ajbm.v8i5.6441
Subject(s) - business , marketing , promotion (chess) , early adopter , digital marketing , descriptive statistics , small and medium sized enterprises , social media , digital media , computer science , statistics , mathematics , finance , politics , world wide web , political science , law
This article aims to reveals the profiles of adopters and non-adopters of digital marketing application among Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Malaysia. This research focuses primarily on MSMEs in Perak State. The researchers employed a quantitative approach to meet the research objectives. A survey involving 400 MSMEs in Perak State was conducted to investigate the adopters and non-adopters of digital marketing application. The 361 completed survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools. The results found that out of 361 respondents, 175 are adopters and 186 are non-adopters. The Chi-square tests indicated that the gender and age of business did influenced the adoption levels amongst MSMEs. Majority of the adopters used social media, followed by e-marketing and digital contents. Information sharing, communication with customers as well as advertising and promotion respectively were found to be the key motives for using digital marketing applications. Over sixty (60) per cent of the non-adopters stated their intention to adopt digital marketing but only 21.4 per cent of them intended to do so within a year. Enterprise “does not know how to best utilize digital marketing in business”, “not enough resources (time, monetary, employee and external support)” as well as “not enough skills and knowledge to implement digital marketing”, reported by 46.2 per cent of the non-adopters. This indicates that most Malaysian MSMEs were lack of awareness especially knowledge and internal resources to apply this type of technology. These findings have important implications and value for the research community, MSMEs and policy makers in terms of formulating improved strategies for digital marketing adoption and applications. The results also lend answers on why some MSMEs have chosen to adopt digital marketing technologies, while other MSMEs which face similar market conditions have not. Keywords: MSME, digital marketing, entrepreneurs, adopters, non-adopters