Facebook Adoption by Australian Small Tourism Enterprises (STEs): Business Requirements and User Perceptions By Isaac (Itzhak) Mizrachi BA Communication (College of Management, Tel Aviv) Master of Communication (RMIT University, Melbourne) A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The College of Business Victoria University, Melbourne 2014 DECLARATION I, Isaac (Itzhak) Mizrachi, declare that the PhD thesis entitled Social Media Implementation by Australian STEs: Business Requirements and User Perceptions is no more than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, figures, appendices, references and footnotes. This thesis contains no material that has been submitted previously, in whole or in part, for the award of any other academic degree or diploma. Except where otherwise indicated, this thesis is my own work. _______________________ Isaac (Itzhak) Mizrachi II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to all those who have contributed in various ways and assisted me to undertake this research. First, I would like to thank Victoria University for the generous financial support it provided me during my PhD studies through the 3-year Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship. I would like to sincerely thank my principal supervisor, Dr Carmine Sellitto, and my secondary supervisor, Associate Professor Arthur Tatnall, for their valuable time commitment and for providing me with the guidance, feedback, and encouragement to complete this research. I would like to express my gratitude to all the industry associations and businesses involved in this research, including the accommodation associations, as well as the participating STEs from all around Australia. Finally, I would like to thank my partner, who believed in me and in my research ideas, for the never-ending support. III ABSTRACT Social media has been developed as a Web 2.0 innovation since the early 2000s and has become a significant platform allowing people and businesses to interact, engage and build relationships. Small tourism enterprises (STEs) have started to use social media by building an online presence, with Facebook being a primary platform for adoption. The literature on social media adoption by STEs is limited – with this recent innovation being at an early stage of uptake. Therefore, the early adopters of this relatively new phenomenon can provide important insights regarding how social media can be used. This research investigated a set of Australian accommodation STEs that were deemed to be early adopters of Facebook as a marketing platform so as to document their perceptions of using social media. As the participating STEs were considered early adopters of social media, the study sought to reveal the ways in which they adopted this recent innovation. This provided an understanding of how and why Facebook was being used by those STEs, allowing important practices to be identified, as well as what were perceived as challenges. The early adopters are an important group that can provide pertinent examples for other industry-based entities when it comes to a recent innovation – where they might emulate adoption practices, learn from, or even reject the innovation. The research also captured the perceptions of the Facebook fans or users that were followers of the STEs. Users have different reasons for participating in the social media sphere, either actively by posting new material online or passively via following other conversations. Therefore, the perceptions of users with regard to STEs’ Facebook presence is an important contribution to the study in that it brings to light issues related to user experience and satisfaction. The study used a qualitative approach to collect and analyse the data in two phases. In the first phase, the perceptions of the STEs were captured in a set of eight in-depth case studies that used operator/manager interviews, their Facebook presence, and ancillary sources to document their perceptions of adopting the Facebook social media platform. In the second phase, user or fan perceptions of the STEs’ Facebook pages were captured through open- ended questionnaires that were enabled through the cooperation of the STEs. Furthermore, twelve months of comments and responses posted by fans on the STEs’ Facebook pages were also used to support this component of the study. IV The findings of the research identified similarities in the way that both STEs and the users perceive Facebook as a marketing platform for the STE accommodation businesses. On the other hand, the research found significant limitations in the social media knowledge and skills STEs possessed, including the manner in which they interpreted the main function and goals of having a Facebook presence. In general, STEs were found to be overly experimental with their Facebook maintenance, which assisted them in exploring the business benefits of Facebook and, in particular, promoting their business in an affordable way. However, the same spontaneity led to the above-mentioned limitations. The study proposed an implementation model for Facebook adoption by accommodation STEs. Two anchors form the model: one being the strategy of Facebook adoption and the other addressing the availability of resources and skills related to Facebook adoption. Measuring STE performance on Facebook is another interactive component of the model. The research portrays a representational picture of early adopting accommodation STEs and their use of the Facebook social media platform and sets the foundations for future research. The proposed implementation model can be used to further explore Facebook adoption amongst the cohort of Australian accommodation STEs. Notably, the model proposed and the findings can be used in researching other types of STEs, both in Australia and in other destinations. Although premised on the Facebook social media platform, the proposed implementation model can be potentially extended to other forms of social media platforms. V TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...............................................................................................iii ABSTRACT......................................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................... xii LIST OF FIGURES............................................................................................................. xiv CHAPTER 1: AN INTRODUCTION.............................................................................. 16 1.1 Background......................................................................................................................16 1.2 Research Objectives.........................................................................................................18 1.3 An Overview of the Research Method and Approaches Used.......................................19 1.4 Thesis Outline..................................................................................................................20 1.5 Summary..........................................................................................................................22 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................23 2.1 Introduction.....................................................................................................................23 2.2 Web 2.0: Background and Definitions............................................................................24 2.3 Social Media: Background and Definitions....................................................................28 2.4 Important Terms of Web 2.0 and Social Media..............................................................30 2.5 User Perceptions of Using Social Media.........................................................................30 2.6 Social Media as a Marketing Tool...................................................................................35 2.7 Some Challenges Associated With Social Media Presence.............................................37 2.8 Social Media Good Practices...........................................................................................39 2.8.1 Strategy Good Practices.........................................................................................39 2.8.2 Content Good Practices..........................................................................................42 2.8.3 Feedback Good Practices.......................................................................................43 VI 2.9 Facebook: Background and Business Benefits...............................................................44 2.9.1 Business Benefits by Using Facebook....................................................................47 2.10 The Importance of Early Adopters in Considering Recent Innovations.......................51 2.11 Tourism and ICTs..........................................................................................................54 2.11.1 Tourism and Social Media....................................................................................57 2.11.2 STEs and Issues of ICT’s Adoption.....................................................................60 2.11.3 ICT and Social Media