ICT-Based Country-Level Determinants of Social Media Diffusion

There is a broad consensus that social media platforms have become critical tools for policymakers in achieving various policy objectives in a country. Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the ICT-based country-level determinants of social media diffusion has become necessary. To this end, we propose a government-people-technology (GTP) framework for categorizing the ICT-based country-level determinants of social media diffusion into three dimensions. Using this framework and utilizing archival data from 107 countries, we examine the roles of ICT in the government's vision, ICT law maturity, Internet bandwidth, ICT cost, ICT skill, and capacity to own ICT in influencing social media diffusion. A quantile panel data regression results reveal that ICT in the government's vision, ICT law maturity, Internet bandwidth, and capacity to own ICT were positively associated with social media diffusion. In contrast, ICT cost was negatively associated with it. Thus, by offering a new framework, we contribute to the technology diffusion literature by emphasizing the role of government, people, and supportive technologies in driving social media diffusion at the country level.