Gender and perception towards marketing innovation acceptance : empirical Findings from South African SMEs in the Tourism Sector

Abstract: Gender roles are an integral part of people's lives, and exert observable influences in many ways on their evaluation of issues and objects. By using the innovation diffusion theory, this study examines the impact of the gender of SME managers on their perception of mobile marketing acceptance in the South African tourism sector. A simple random sampling was used to obtain responses from the managers of 178 tourism-sector SMEs. The results of an analysis using Partial Least Squares identified relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity as salient factors that explain mobile marketing adoption intention among the SMEs. The results further revealed that the managers’ gender plays a significant role in their assessment of the characteristics of the mobile marketing innovation. Thus, while complexity is important for male SME managers, relative advantage and compatibility underscore mobile marketing adoption intention by female SME managers. These findings emphasize the need for mobile marketing vendors and marketers to devise effective marketing strategies that address the different needs of male and female SME managers if they are successfully to promote a more rapid acceptance of this innovation among SMEs