Organizational Adoption of Social Media in the Hospitality Industry: An Integrated Approach Based on DIT and TOE Frameworks

The importance of the organizational adoption of social media is increasingly raised in hospitality literature because of the recognition of Web 2.0 technologies as a significant tool for improving customer information searching and experience, as well as for enriching firm digital strategy. The present study seeks to empirically explore the determinant factors that affect a hospitality firm’s decision to adopt social media by following a theoretical approach that integrates the Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DIT) with the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework. Using survey data from 106 hospitality firms operating in Greece, and by applying structural equation modelling (SEM), we identify seven factors that influence the adoption of organizational social media adoption. These factors are grouped into three categories: Technological, organizational, and environmental. Out of the three groups of factors, technological features are considered as the most important ones in terms of their predicting power. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.