This study examines what drives organizational adoption and use of social media through a model built around four key factors – strategy, capacity, governance and environment. Using Twitter, Facebook, and other data on 100 large US nonprofit organizations, the model is employed to examine the determinants of three key facets of social media utilization: (1) adoption, (2) frequency of use and (3) dialogue. We find that organizational strategies, capacities, governance features and external pressures all play a part in these social media adoption and utilization outcomes. Through its integrated, multi-disciplinary theoretical perspective, this study thus helps foster understanding of which types of organizations are able and willing to adopt and juggle multiple social media accounts, to use those accounts to communicate more frequently with their external publics, and to build relationships with those publics through the sending of dialogic messages.
BortreeDSeltzerT (2009) Dialogic strategies and outcomes: An analysis of environmental advocacy groups’ Facebook profiles. Public Relations Review35: 317–319.
2.
CancelAECameronGTSallotLM. (1997) It depends: A contingency theory of accommodation in public relations. Journal of Public Relations Research9: 31–63.
3.
CorderK (2001) Acquiring new technology: Comparing nonprofit and public sector agencies. Administration & Society33: 194–219.
4.
CurtisLEdwardsCFraserKL. (2010) Adoption of social media for public relations by nonprofit organizations. Public Relations Review36: 90–92.
5.
DavisFD (1989) Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly13: 319–339.
6.
GillMFlynnRReissingE (2005) The governance self-assessment checklist: An instrument for assessing board effectiveness. Nonprofit Management & Leadership15: 271–294.
7.
GraddyEAMorganDL (2006) Community foundations, organizational strategy, and public policy. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly35: 605–630.
8.
GuoCMussoJA (2007) Representation in nonprofit and voluntary organizations: A conceptual framework. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly36: 308–326.
9.
HacklerDSaxtonGD (2007) The strategic use of information technology by nonprofit organizations: Increasing capacity and untapped potential. Public Administration Review67: 474–487.
10.
HambrickDCMasonPA (1984) Upper echelons: The organization as a reflection of its top managers. Academy of Management Review9: 193–206.
11.
HansmannH (1980) The role of nonprofit enterprise. Yale Law Journal89: 835–901.
12.
HowellJMHigginsCA (1990) Champions of technological innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly35: 317–341.
13.
KentMLTaylorM (1998) Building dialogic relationships through the World Wide Web. Public Relations Review24: 321–334.
14.
KropczynskiJNahS (2011) Virtually networked housing movement: Hyperlink network structure of housing social movement organizations. New Media & Society13: 689–703.
15.
LewisL (2005) The civil society sector: A review of critical issues and research agenda for organizational communication scholars. Management Communication Quarterly19: 238–267.
16.
LongJS (1997) Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
17.
LovejoyKSaxtonGD (2012) Information, community, and action: How nonprofit organizations use social media. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication17: 337–353.
18.
LuomaPGoodsteinJ (1999) Stakeholders and corporate boards: Institutional influences on board composition and structure. Academy of Management Journal42: 553–563.
19.
McCarthyJDZaldMN (1977) Resource mobilization and social movements: A partial theory. American Journal of Sociology82: 1212–1241.
20.
MitchellRAgleBWoodD (1997) Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of who and what really counts. Academy of Management Review22: 853–886.
21.
MurphyJHashimNHO’ConnorP (2008) Take me back: Validating the Wayback Machine. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication13: 60–75.
22.
NahS (2010) Media publicity and civil society: Nonprofit organizations, local newspapers, and the Internet in a Midwestern community. Mass Communication and Society13: 1–27.
OlsonDE (2000) Agency theory in the not-for-profit sector: Its role at independent colleges. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly29: 280–296.
25.
ParsonsLM (2003) Is accounting information from nonprofit organizations useful to donors? A review of charitable giving and value relevance. Journal of Accounting Literature22: 104–129.
26.
PfefferJSalancikGR (1978) The External Control of Organizations. New York: Harper.
27.
PorterME (1985) Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. New York: Free Press.
28.
RogersE (1995) Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free Press.
29.
SaxtonGDGuoC (2011) Accountability online: Understanding the Web-based accountability practices of nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly40: 270–295.
30.
SaxtonGDKuoJ-SHoY-C (in press) The determinants of voluntary financial disclosure by nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.
31.
SmithDH (1993) Public benefit and member benefit nonprofit, voluntary groups. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly22: 53–68.
32.
SuárezDFHwangH (2008) Civic engagement and nonprofit lobbying in California, 1998–2003. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly37: 93–112.
33.
TangPSAngPH (2002) The diffusion of information technology in Singapore schools: A process framework. New Media & Society4: 457–478.
34.
VenkateshVMorrisMGDavisGB. (2003) User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view. MIS Quarterly27: 425–478.
35.
VishwanathAGoldhaberGM (2003) An examination of the factors contributing to adoption decisions among late-diffused technology products. New Media & Society5: 547–572.
36.
WatersRDBurnettELammA. (2009) Engaging stakeholders through social networking: How nonprofit organizations are using Facebook. Public Relations Review35: 102–106.
37.
WilliamsR (2006) Generalized ordered logit/partial proportional odds models for ordinal dependent variables. Stata Journal6(1): 58–82.
38.
YeonHMChoiYKiousisS (2007) Interactive communication features on nonprofit organizations’ webpages for the practice of excellence in public relations. Journal of Website Promotion1: 61–83.
39.
ZhouY (2008) Voluntary adopters versus forced adopters: Integrating the diffusion of innovation theory and the technology acceptance model to study intra-organizational adoption. New Media & Society10: 475–496.
40.
ZornTEFlanaginAJShohamMD (2011) Institutional and noninstitutional influences on information and communication technology adoption and use among nonprofit organizations. Human Communication Research37: 1–33.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
