پذیرش شبکه‏ های اجتماعی در بنگاه‏ های کوچک و متوسط مالزیایی: مطالعه‏ ی موردی

We observed how an Indonesian SME using social media networks (Facebook and Twitter) for their business. The adoption of social media network to promote and conduct business in SMEs is quite new. We used Actor Network Theory (Callon, 1999, Latour, 2005 and Law, 1999) to explain the adoption social media networks due to its ability to explain the adoption phenomenon as an interactive process between organisations and its environment rather than focusing on individual factors that may affecting the adoption (Kautz, 2004 and Slappendel, 1996). The qualitative approach was deemed appropriate for this study since the use of a process-based perspective required a thorough analysis and understanding of the social media networks adoption process. The qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews allowed us to explore in depth all the factors and the interaction of all stakeholders within a social media networks adoption process by Indonesian SME(Creswell, 2003 and Leedy and Ormrod, 2005). As a result we found a number of factors that enable the success of using social media networks for supporting business.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) arguably form a significant proportion of economic development in many countries including Indonesia (Aragon-Sanchez & Sanchez-Marin 2005; O'Regan & Ghobadiah 2004).We observed how an Indonesian SME adopted social media networks to support their business. The company we studied has been using Twitter and Facebook for quite sometimes. They also have been building a website as a main entry point to their company and center of activities.Typical adoption of innovation study used diffusion of innovation theory (Rogers 1995) to explain the phenomenon. Such approach have been heavily criticize due to pro innovation bias view and the tendency to focus more on factors (drivers and barriers) instead of the adoption process itself (McMaster 2001; Mc Master & Kautz 2002). We used Actor Network Theory or ANT (Callon 1999; Latour 2005; Law 1999) to explain the adoption social media networks due to its ability to explain the adoption phen omenon as an interactive process between organizations and its environment rather than focusing on individual factors that may affecting the adoption (Kautz 2004; Slappendel 1996).The qualitative approach with semi structured interview and observations is deemed appropriate for this study since the use of a process-based perspective required a thorough analysis and understanding of the IT- based accounting systems adoption process (Kautz 2004; Slappendel 1996). The qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews allowed us to explore in depth all the factors and the interaction of all stakeholders within social media networks adoption process (Cresw ell 2003; Lam, Boymal & Martin 2004). Observations allow us to see first-hand the actual use of social media networks in daily operations. Constant comparison based on grounded theory was conducted (Corbin &Strauss 2008; Glaser & Strauss 1967). We found pattern emerged that deemed important to be analyzed and explored further. On the next sections we will discuss the theoretical based of our study along with the methodology justification. We also reveal our respondents profile continued by our findings. At the end we present our conclusions.

We have demonstrated in this article how Actor Network Theory could provide a better picture on adoption of social media networks within an Indonesian SME. Conventional adoption of innovation research would focus more on drivers and barriers and the characteristics of innovations. Actor Network Theory provides a view where the adoption is a social process. A process where key actor tries to impose his view on the problems and his version of the solutions to other actors by building a network of human and non-human actors. The network is in form of the use of social media networks by PN and its members.The network formation will be success if the key actors could entice other actors either human or non-human to join their new network. By forming new networks (using social media networks), the alliance dissolves the old network (the conventional communication media). Non-human actors need to perform their intended duties, otherwise the new network will crumble and failed to form. Some might say that the human actors responsible for making non-human actors to perform yet we could see from time to time that for some reason a computer and its applications simply does not work. The fact was the system failed to perform and the network failed to gain wider acceptance.The study was conducted using organization as unit of study. Therefore the dynamic shown are on organizational level. We could gather more fact if we also looking at individual level. We also only interviewed-key actors especially the moderators and non-human actors. We might get a better understanding on what went wrong (or what went right for that matter) if we could study the failure of non-human actors performance which could have significant impact towards PN performance.