Factors Influencing the Adoption and Continuance Usage of Social MediaPlatforms among Small new ventures in Sweden

Abstract: The rise of social media platforms in the modern world of business has shaped how organizations undertaketheir day-to-day business activities. This has in return increasingly attracted several studies on howbusinesses can optimally harness the benefits of social media platforms through adoption and continuedusage of these platforms. This paper therefore endeavored to conduct a quantitative study on factors ofunified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) by extending the original model by Venkateshet al.,. (2003) in integrating continuance to test their impact on adoption and continuance. These factorsinclude (performance expectancy, perceived trust, perceived risk, facilitating condition, effort expectancyand perceived enjoyment) which were tested against adoption and continuance usage of social mediaplatforms among small new ventures in Sweden, an area we consider new and fragmented in focus basedon existing literatures. Through a systematic investigation, empirical data testing from small new ventures in Sweden, findingspositively identified perceived trust and facilitating conditions to have a positive influence on adoption ofsocial media platforms while effort expectancy and perceived enjoyment were found to have a positiveimpact on continuance usage of social media platforms. However, we did not find significant moderatingeffect of perceived risk and performance expectancy on adoption and continuance usage. The findings of this research present a practical and pragmatic approach that small new ventures, founders,leaders and managers of these businesses in Sweden can apply to maximize on the benefits associated withadoption and continuance usage of social media platforms.