Technology Acceptance in a Mature Social Media Platform: Evidence from Facebook Marketing among Entrepreneurs

Social media marketing research has largely examined the adoption of new digital platforms or the marketing outcomes generated by social media. Less attention has been paid to why entrepreneurs continue to use a mature platform after the novelty of adoption has passed. This study examines continued use of Facebook marketing among entrepreneurs in Melaka, Malaysia, by extending the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with a safety-and-trust interpretation of perceived risk. A quantitative cross-sectional survey was administered online to members of a business community who used Facebook for business-related marketing. Using a non-probability convenience approach, 130 usable responses were obtained. Perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), perceived risk/safety-trust (PR), and Facebook marketing use (UF) were measured using five-item Likert scales. Internal consistency was satisfactory (Cronbach's alpha = .852-.896). Multiple regression explained 76.1% of the variance in Facebook marketing use (R² = .761, adjusted R² = .756, F (3,126) = 134.078, p < .001). PR, whose positively phrased items represent greater safety and trust and therefore lower conventional risk, had the largest standardized coefficient (β = .433, p < .001), followed by PEOU (β = .317, p = .001) and PU (β = .184, p = .005). Because PEOU and PR were highly correlated (r = .889), the relative magnitudes of the individual coefficients should be interpreted with caution. The findings extend TAM from initial adoption to the continued entrepreneurial utilization of a mature social media platform and show that sustained use is associated not only with functional value and ease of use but also with confidence in the platform's safety and trustworthiness.

Facebook marketing, social media marketing, technology acceptance model, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived risk, entrepreneurs

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