Market orientation and SNS adoption for marketing purposes in hospitality microenterprises

In a nowadays context where the social network sites (SNS) have a widespread use among users and enterprises, this paper aims to analyze the factors determining the adoption of SNS for marketing purposes by hospitality microenterprises. With this objective, our study develops a model that includes: 1) the two pillars of market orientation for companies (i.e. consumer orientation and competitor orientation); and 2) the factors of the widely used Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT): performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions. The results from a sample of 200 hospitality microenterprises in a region of Spain show that the intention to use SNS for marketing purposes (in particular, business communication) is mainly determined by the expectancies of managers or owners about the performance and effort in the use of the technology, and by the social influence generated by users and professionals in the sector. Additionally, in contrast to competitor orientation, customer orientation has a positive influence on performance expectancy and social influence.