Department of Business Studies, Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Nigeria.
Department of Agric Business, Michael Okpara, University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria.
PLoS One. 2021 Dec 2;16(12):e0260145. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260145. eCollection 2021.
Most micro-business managers in Nigeria do not see the adoption of digital marketing technology (DMT) as vital for business. Many consider it as a precondition to support managerial or operational activities, not as a tactical and/or strategic tool. Although most studies focused on large organisations, the outcome of such research may not be appropriate to micro-businesses. This is informed by the negligence of micro-businesses' idiosyncrasies and their thought of digitalization as a precondition for managerial activities without considering the value small businesses attached to these devices in terms of aiding the use as strategic tools. This renders micro-businesses' digitalization an under-reflected phenomenon. Yet, studies spend less on examining the factors that specifically stimulate the value micro-businesses attach to these applications, leading to constant adoption and usage. Hence, there is a need for a thorough exploration of the factors that shape the value of digital marketing applications in micro-businesses in Nigeria. The study is qualitative in nature and interviews (unstructured and semi-structured) were carried out with 26 micro-businesses which was drawn purposefully from the online database and underpinned by Technology, Organisation and Environment (TOE) framework. The study revealed eleven (11) critical success factors stimulating value micro-businesses attribute to digital marketing technology (DMT) adoption. These factors include long-term functional capacity, integration capacity, expansion capacity which are related to technology context. Collective capability, collaborative experience are linked to the organisation context while adaptive training, service delivery, customer fulfilment are linked to environmental context. The study also unveiled expectancy context which is linked to budget, growth and profitability and aid in the extension of the TOE framework. This study will be of importance to academics and practitioners because it provides further awareness into DMT adoption framework, factors critical to the DMT adoption and may assist in reducing the number of resources spent in search of information aimed at helping DMT adoption by micro-businesses.
大多数尼日利亚的微型企业管理者并不认为采用数字营销技术（DMT）对企业至关重要。许多人认为它是支持管理或运营活动的前提条件，而不是战术和/或战略工具。尽管大多数研究都集中在大型组织上，但这种研究的结果可能并不适用于微型企业。这是因为微型企业的特质被忽视了，它们认为数字化是管理活动的前提条件，而没有考虑到小型企业将这些设备视为战略工具的价值。这使得微型企业的数字化成为一个未被充分反映的现象。然而，研究在考察具体刺激微型企业重视这些应用程序的价值的因素方面投入较少，导致不断采用和使用这些应用程序。因此，需要深入探讨影响尼日利亚微型企业数字营销应用价值的因素。本研究属于定性性质，通过技术、组织和环境（TOE）框架，对 26 家微型企业进行了访谈（非结构化和半结构化）。研究揭示了 11 个关键成功因素，这些因素激发了微型企业对数字营销技术（DMT）采用的价值。这些因素包括长期功能能力、集成能力、扩展能力，这些都与技术环境有关。集体能力、协作经验与组织环境有关，而适应性培训、服务交付、客户满意度与环境背景有关。研究还揭示了期望环境，它与预算、增长和盈利能力有关，并有助于扩展 TOE 框架。本研究对学术界和从业者都很重要，因为它进一步提高了对 DMT 采用框架、对 DMT 采用至关重要的因素的认识，并可能有助于减少在搜索旨在帮助微型企业采用 DMT 的信息时所花费的资源数量。
