The Impact of social media and Self-perceived Creativity on Entrepreneurial Orientation and Performance of Small and Medium Tourism Businesses

Small and medium-sized tourism businesses play an important and valuable role in the tourism industry due to their flexibility and capabilities in the way they provide services, which are not only useful for the sustainability of tourism destinations but also provide opportunities for local sub-sectors in this industry. Therefore, it is important to know the aspects and factors that can affect the performance of small and medium tourism businesses. The current research aims to explain the performance of small and medium tourism businesses by examining the impact of social media and the perception of creativity on entrepreneurial tendency.

Design/methodology/approach: 

The current research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive in nature. The statistical population of this research is entrepreneurs and owners of small and medium tourism businesses in Mazandaran province. According to Cochran's formula, the minimum sample size was calculated to be 217 people. The research tool was a questionnaire that was provided to the sample members electronically, using the snowball sampling method to answer the questions. In this way, the same number of complete questionnaires were collected and used for analysis.

The findings show that Instagram is the most popular social media tool used by small and medium-sized tourism businesses to increase awareness of how to provide services in their business, receive information, and reach customers. The impact of all variables on the performance of small and medium tourism businesses was confirmed to an acceptable level.

Considering the importance and potential of social media in various aspects of business, it is suggested that businesses use these tools more. Moreover, considering the different tastes of users in choosing and using different social media tools, small and medium businesses should limit themselves to not using tools and being active in all apps. These businesses should learn new social media activity algorithms that put valuable content in front of users and use it in their business creatively.

Originality/value:

 Despite the importance of small and medium-sized tourism businesses’ performance and the impact of social media on their operations, little research has been done in this field from the perspective of the activists and owners of this type of business. Therefore, the current research results can be useful for small and medium-sized tourism businesses from a practical point of view.