SME PERFORMANCE: THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ADOPTION AND COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

Organizational performance is a crucial variable in studies on management the success of all businesses whether small or medium enterprises or large organizations can be seen through their performance, by their capability to lead which include creating employment and wealth by business start-ups, survival and sustainability. Previous studies on the adoption of internet among Malaysian SMEs have discovered the limitations and acceptance barriers, as manifested through only 32.3 percent of local business owners who have extensively adopted social media as their marketing tool. This study aimed to explore the relationship between the adoption of social media marketing towards SME performance in Malaysia, focusing on those SMEs within the east coast region of Malaysian peninsula. It also explored the potential relationship between competitive intelligence towards SME performance. A quantitative approach was used to test the hypothesis in order to get reliable results where 400 respondents who were mainly SMEs business owners were selected from Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang. The study found that there was positive relationship between social media marketing adoption with SME performance where a moderate strength of association with SME performance existed. It was also found that competitive intelligence has positive relationship and a moderate strength of association between competitive intelligence and the performance of SME thus supported these hypotheses. As a sum, SMEs business owners should seriously consider social media as their important weapon tool in their marketing strategies. (C) 2020 Published by European Publisher.