Abstract

The need for evaluating the implications of the coronavirus outbreak for the global businesses and civil society, as well as to understand how organizations are collaborating to meet the challenges presented by the pandemic is becoming crucial. Rapidly changing marketing environment and constantly changing consumer behavior is quickly outdating the traditional marketing strategies of businesses. To overcome these challenges, businesses are expanding their marketing communication horizons through intervening in social media platforms. However, studies about the usage and adoption of social media through the firm’s perspective of the local companies have been less studied in the academic literature. Therefore, the current paper investigates the factors influencing the adoption of social media by businesses in Uzbekistan in the wake of coronavirus outbreak, through conducting qualitative study and justifies the empirical findings with the existing technology acceptance theories.

Key words: coronavirus outbreak, COVID-19, usage and adoption of social media marketing, technology acceptance theories, firm’s perspective