Abstract

This study investigates how microenterprises in Ethical Fashion (EF) retail adopt and make use of social media. Drawing on an explorative case study, supplemented by an action research approach, we first examine the antecedents of a successful adoption based on the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework. Subsequently, we shed light on the benefits and drawbacks of social media adoption for the three microenterprises of our case study on the operational and the strategical level. More particularly, we present how they improve value creation through the employment of social media in their value networks and how they overcome the lack of a sophisticated IT infrastructure. Finally, we investigate the reluctance of the three microenterprises to adopt inter-organizational information systems. The findings of our study also reveal a halo effect in the adoption process that may mislead the adopting organization.

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