From acceptance to adaptive acceptance of social media policy change: a set-theoretic analysis of B2B SMEs

Drawing on theories of mindfulness, this paper aims to introduce the concept of adaptive acceptance of social media policy change in the context of Business-to-Business (B2B) Small-and-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) based in the South East of England. The paper adopts a quasi-experimental design based on the analysis of multiple cases with each case replicating prior findings either literally or theoretically. The study uses a mix of survey, interview, and electronic data informed by an innovative, set-theoretic approach to distill commonalities within positive cases and differences between positive and negative cases. It shows that attracting new customers and raising the company’s profile are necessary pre-requisites for adaptive acceptance of social media policy changes. In addition, these two conditions combined with learning to use social media effortlessly are jointly sufficient for adaptive acceptance. Theoretical, practical, and methodological implications are discussed.