Factors influencing the adoption of social media tools by travel agencies: The case of Afghanistan

This study focused on the social media usage (primarily Facebook) as it is amongst the most extensively practiced tool in the world. The present research was established based on the Diffusion Of Innovation (DOI) theory which acts a key element in growing acceptance, intent and real technology adoption. By definition, innovation comprises of transformation, either in the mass media or the means of engaging traditional technique. The attributes of innovation, as derived from DOI such as interactivity, ease of use, perceived benefits, trust and external pressure from the customers on social media adoption were included. The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the factors that influence social media (Facebook) usage among travel agencies operating in Afghanistan. In addition, It examined the impact of social media usage on organizational performance of the travel agencies operating in Afghanistan. Moreover, this study sheds light over the factors that influence Afghani travel agencies in the adoption of social media for business purposes, by contrasting the results obtained from this research with the factors that affect social media adoption and have been previously mentioned in the existing literature, as well as studied how this adoption affects organizational performance, by attempted to identify the problems and challenges that travel agencies face and the benefits that they experiment once they have adopted social media. This study used quantitative research technique and data was collected from 250 respondents of at least 40 travel agencies operating in Afghanistan. Data was analyzed with the help of SPSS version 20 and AMOS version 23. The results revealed that ease of use and trust are not significantly co-related with the adoption of social media (Facebook), whereas interactivity, perceived benefits and external pressure from customer influences the adoption of social media tools by travel agencies operating in Afghanistan.