Effect of Social Media on Performance of SMEs: Empirical Evidence from United Arab Emirates

This chapter discusses the mediating effects of national culture on the relationship between social media marketing tools and SMEs’ performance in Abu Dhabi UAE. The characteristics of social media marketing such as interactive, fast and cheap make it more attractive to most companies to use social media as their marketing channel. The study specifically looks at how social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and email affect the operations of SMEs in the United Arab Emirates. The research employed a quantitative approach and used survey questionnaires to collect the data from the respondents among Abu Dhabi SMEs managers and owners. SPSS and AMOS were used to analyze the data. The data revealed that the direct relationships between Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Email and SME Performance. Also, the results confirmed that national mediate the relationship between Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Email and SME Performance. Thus, it is hoped that the proposed research model improves the UAE SMEs performance.