Ireland's Food and Drinks Sector: The Effect of Brexit on SME Adoption and Use of Social Media Marketing

This pilot paper examines whether SMEs within Ireland’s food and drinks sector are adopting and using social media marketing (SMM), as well as whether Brexit is a significant business factor in future SMM efforts. The... [ view full abstract ]

This pilot paper examines whether SMEs within Ireland’s food and drinks sector are adopting and using social media marketing (SMM), as well as whether Brexit is a significant business factor in future SMM efforts. The research avails of qualitative and quantitative methods and applies the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to a random sample of SMEs within this sector. Online surveys are analysed using partial least squares structural equations modelling (PLS-SEM) software SMART-PLS. Data from 30 online questionnaires was collected from SMEs within Ireland’s food and drinks sector. The research findings regarding SME adoption and use of SMM confirm the constructs used for this research lead to the adoption and usage of SMM for businesses in the food and drinks industry. The findings regarding the impact Brexit confirm SMEs will neither increase their time nor their marketing budget on SMM due to Brexit.