“Social media usage and competitive advantage of nascent agro-allied firms”

The clear decreasing survival rate of nascent firms and their inability to compete fa- vorably owing to increasing competition in their internal and external environment was the motivation for this study. Hence, the paper addressed fundamental issues on nascent firms’ competitiveness through examining the direct and indirect influence of social media usage and technological infrastructure capability, respectively. Sample data of 265 nascent firm managers in the agro-allied sector were collected and analyzed with the aid of Hayes Regression Process Macro. The results showed that social media positively affects the competitive advantage of nascent firms. Further, the study found that technological infrastructure capability significantly affects the competitive advantage of nascent firms. The study found that technological infrastructure capability positively mediates the relationship between social media usage and nascent agro- allied firms’ competitive advantage. The study advances the need for a change in the way nascent firms adopt social media and advocate that the use of social media can be supported through developing a gradual knowledge of technological innovation that is within the confines of the firms’ resources.


INTRODUCTION
The need to increase the competitiveness of nascent firms in the agro-allied sector in developing economies has attracted the attention of scholars in recent times. This is because of the poor survival rate of most nascent firms (Meso & Smith, 2000), most especially in the agro-allied sector. The constraint of access to new information and developing competencies that allow for converting new information to knowledge has remained a major drawback for nascent firms, most especially in developing economies (Filho et al., 2017). Hence, nascent farms must gain new knowledge and this can be gained through information gathering, and social media usage (SMU) has been found to provide businesses with relevant information (Balkrishna & Deshmukh, 2017).
The relationship between SMU and a firm's competitive advantage has attracted quite reasonable attention from Kwayu et al. (2018), Aswani et al. (2018), and Aimiuwu (2012). Despite the widespread agreement on the relevance of SMU in gaining competitive advantage, researchers have consistently failed to agree on the connection between the two variables, as Bulankulama  Two reasons could be advanced for this inconsistency, which are the limited perspectives on the different purposes of social media (SM) (Dodokh & Al-Maaitah, 2019;Schultz et al., 2012) and the existence of other factors that account for the relationship. This could explain the scholarly call for more research and the need to shift away from continually discussing principles of SM and redirect attention to identify the drivers and moderators that could account for SMU influence on the organizational outcome (Al Tawara & Gide, 2017; Tajvidi & Karami, 2017; Kim et al., 2015). SMU provides information for firms (Tajvidi & Karami, 2017); but the information is valuable when the firm can convert the information into knowledge. However, converting the information to knowledge so that it can be stored, codified, and leveraged on to gain a competitive advantage demands the development of technological infrastructure capability (TIC) (Garcia-Morales et al., 2018). However, how this can be done given the resource constraints of nascent firms that have not been accounted for in literature, hence, justifying the current study.
In addition, another shortfall in previous studies is the lack of a consensus on how SMU and competitive advantage ought to be measured for nascent firms, as what makes a competitive advantage for nascent firms remains a critical point of debate among scholars (Gruber, 2007;Brush & Vanderwerf, 1992). In addition, there have been calls on unraveling the knowledge management systems adopted by start-ups and the relevance of knowledge management to nascent firms, which has remained unclear (Centobelli et al., 2017). In response to this call, this study explored the technological component of knowledge management, as it remains the most critical for start-ups (Centobelli et al., 2017).
The inconsistency on what stage a business could be categorized as a nascent firm could explain the limited studies on nascent firms and their SMU, most especially from an emerging economy perspective. Agribusiness literature seems to focus relatively on established firms with few studies covering nascent firms in developing economies. However, it is worthy to note that agribusiness is not homogenous, and what applies to large and small agribusinesses may not apply to nascent ones.
To address these shortcomings, the study examined the interplay between SMU and agro-allied firms' competitive advantage and the mediating effect of TIC, which is a novelty. Then, a novel way to measure social media, technological infrastructure, and competitive advantage for nascent firms in the agroallied sector was introduced. Further, this paper argues that nascent firms in the agro-allied sector can gain competitive advantage using social media, and all other things being equal, the potential existence of TIC would positively account for SMU influence on nascent agro-allied firm's competitive advantage.

Theoretical basis
The lens through which this study was explored were the technology acceptance theory supported by the resource-based view theory (RBV). The technology acceptance theory has been credited to Davis (1989). The theory proposes that two key factors account for the use of technology: perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. These factors affect the extent to which a user may desire to develop new skills, and developing new skills depends on what motivates the user, which can be extrinsic and intrinsic (Zhu et al., 2012).
Following this line of argument, this study proposes a theoretical model on the indirect effect of TIC on SMU and competitive advantage. The application of the theory is hinged on the assumption that the use of SM technology is useful towards achieving unique outcomes such as gaining a competitive advantage, which is quite distinct from the activity itself. In addition, the study is based on the fact that when nascent businesses perceived ease of use is anchored on their knowledge capability, it will motivate the use of SM that will allow them to gain increased competitive advantage. The the-ory has been criticized for failing to account for an organization's dynamics, social and human resources (Khan & Woosley, 2011). However, it is still useful in explaining the underlying factors that account for SMU and its probable outcome for the organization.
Given this drawback, the study adopted the RBV theory as a supporting theory, since it captures the resources and actions that organizations take to gain a competitive advantage. The theory has been linked to Barney (1991). The central argument of the RBV is that competitive advantage can be gained when the internal resources of an organization, which are non-substitutable, valuable, inimitable, and rare, are harnessed in this organization (Isichei et al., 2020). Internal knowledge of firms have been described as critical resources that can ensure increased competitiveness (Zack, 1999). When nascent firms can build their technological knowledge, it would lead to gaining competitive advantage, most especially when SM is adopted as a resource towards gaining market share, shaping opinions, news, updates and connecting with people, for getting regular feedbacks and constantly figuring out ways and means to appeal to consumers and create a niche in the segment.

Social media usage and nascent firms' competitive advantage
The SMU has changed the way businesses are managed globally (Jurado et al., 2019). The adoption of the traditional marketing approach of getting messages across to a consumer has seen a gradual decline in recent times, as the focus is rather on the adoption of modern technological means of communication. SM adoption for some businesses has been fast and for others, it has been gradual ( For this paper, SM comprises online sites and mobile applications that facilitate social networking, multimedia sharing, microblogging, social sharing of reviews, opinions, and questions, and answer forums, etc. In this paper, agro-allied firms are defined as firms that depend on agriculture for their raw materials to operate efficiently in the production of finished goods that are useful to humans and other animals alike (Oraka et al., 2017). Social media usage ensures that there is information exchange between the firms and a broad range of actors in the sector, most especially, front-line extension agents that make up the direct link between the firms and other actors in the agricultural knowledge and information system (Suleiman et al., 2018).
Further, social media not only help them transform and foster relationships with diverse customer groups and other specialists in the agro-allied industry. It is also instantaneously available which makes it ideal for ongoing dialogue with the customers besides managing and educating them about the availability of a product, use of products, and storage, for example, chemicals and machinery among others.
The competitive nature of today's markets has placed greater demand on nascent businesses to re-evaluate their approach towards creating demands for their product and improving their overall performance. In this study, nascent firms are businesses that have operated for a maximum of one year in the industry. However, this excludes businesses that are for experimental purposes or undertaken by students as part of their learning process. This agrees with the definition of Reynolds (2007) who holds that nascent firms are businesses that are operating or have operated for a maximum of one year in a given business segment.
The most critical challenge faced by most nascent businesses is gaining a competitive advantage (Carsrud & Brännback, 2007). A business gains a competitive advantage when it surpasses competitors through delivering the same product to its market at a relatively lower cost or same product line but with varying desirable attributes (Wang et al., 2011). Competitive advantage for nascent businesses is reflective not basically in market share increase but also in their productive efficiency, expansion, and technological progressiveness. Customer satisfaction can also be a good basis for competitive advantage, as it ensures that customers would repeat purchases and market the firm through the word of mouth.
Reynolds and Curtin (2008) held that nascent businesses achieving a competitive advantage are often difficult given the challenge of limited capital to engage the best of human and technological resources and to be able to build a good reach for their business. Thus, there is a need for a flexible and relatively cheap medium to promote their business, increase customer base and awareness of their product. SM remains a unique and fast method through which firms can build their image and gain a reasonable customer base (Paniagua & Sapena, 2014).
SM is an avenue for the firm to inform their consumer about their products and services and in the process gain new ones. Pucci et al. (2019) found that SM leads to increased purchase intention and influences consumer buying behavior. Using SM for firms should not only be targeted towards improving an organization's sales volume but also to ensure market expansion, as expanding the business would gain them more sales, new information, and increased competitive advantage. Similarly, nascent businesses owners can use SM to gain a competitive advantage through the way their business communicates. There is a greater propensity for meeting market demands and gathering information on changing consumers' tastes through the two-way communication that SMU offers nascent businesses (Bhagat et al., 2009). Information extraction challenges encountered by nascent businesses can be further managed and resolved through the use of SM. Pucci et al. (2019) showed that SM provides an organization with greater reach and network. Zhang (2015) indicated that the lack of capital affects new businesses, thus denying them the ability to gain quality and valuable information that will help the firm identify market demands, ways to satisfy its consumers, and pattern its operation towards accomplishing the same, leading to gaining competitive advantage. However, Liang and Yuan (2016) provided evidence that nascent businesses can raise capital through SM, thereby allowing them to gain a competitive advantage. In addition, Alexy et al.  (2017) found a direct effect between knowledge management capability and the firm's competitive advantage.
Capability building enhances an organization to gain a competitive advantage in any market it operates. Thus, the development of a strong enterprise-wide TIC would lead to increased competitive advantage. However, Seleim and Khalil (2007) and Mill and Smith (2011) found the link between TIC and organizational performance to be insignificant. However, Mill and Smith (2011) opined that TIC influence on performance is also likely to differ and to be unique among firms, thus leading to a greater avenue for competitive advantage.
1.4. The mediating role of TIC on the relationship between SMU and nascent firms' competitive advantage SMU produces information for organizations (Zhang & Piramuthu, 2018). However, TIC as a dimension of knowledge management supports the creation of networks of relationships, which accounts for the process through which the information generated is codified, transferred, and made accessible to members of the organization, resulting in new knowledge that leads to increased performance (Gold et al., 2001;Ruggles, 1998 TIC strengthens continuous interaction among stakeholders, both internal and external (Khalifa & Liu, 2003), and the social responsibility demands of external stakeholders can be identified through SMU, which provides an organization with the avenue to satisfy them and improve the firm's competitive advantage. Garcia-Morales et al. (2018) found the indirect effect of technological infrastructural capability on SMU and organizational performance to be positive and significant.
Based on the above underlying theoretical arguments, it is evident that social media usage is useful for advancing the competitive advantage of nascent firms, and the development of technological infrastructure capability mediates the use of social media and the competitive advantage of the firms. Hence, the present study aims to examine the direct effect of social media usage on the competitive advantage of nascent firms and the indirect effect of technological infrastructural capa-bility on the relationship between social media usage on the competitive advantage of nascent firms. Thus, the following hypotheses are formulated: H1: SMU has a positive influence on nascent firms' competitive advantage.
H3: TIC positively mediates the relationship between SMU and nascent firms' competitive advantage.

METHODOLOGY
A survey design was adopted, and it was based on the large nature of the study population. The study sample was two hundred and seventy-nine (279) registered members from the six branches of the National Association of Nascent Agriculture business owners across the six zones in Nigeria.
To select firms that actively qualified for the study, the emphasis was on firms operating maximally for the last six months of pre-registration with the association. Stratified random and purposive sampling was used in the identification of the samples that took part in the survey. The choice of the techniques was predicated on the need to select a representative sample covering a reasonable number of nascent firms in the country. Data were gathered through a questionnaire and the distribution and the retrieval of the instrument were carried out between November 2020 and January 2021. The technique used for analysis was Hayes Regression-based Process Macro.
Garcia-Morales et al. (2018) instrument was adapted to develop the measures of SMU. While their instrument was focused on determining the frequency of SMU, this study's research instrument was more on the frequency and knowledge of SM. The respondents were asked questions on selected SM platforms, such as Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Instagram. The choice of these platforms was because these are the most commonly used or known in Nigeria. The instrument was designed with a five-point Likert scale. Samples from the instrument "Our business uses and knows Facebook supports marketing ac-tivities" are used. The instrument has five items. Before administering the instrument, it was subjected to content validity by two (2) experts in agricultural management and one (1) in measurement and evaluation. The comments and criticism formed a basis for the final instrument.

Technological infrastructure capability
The study adopted the measures of Gold et al. (2001) to measure the concept. The instrument was modified and adapted for this study. The scale was designed using a Likert format ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Samples of the instrument "My business adopts technology that supports collaboration with other individuals outside the organization" and "My business adopts technology that supports us to retrieve and use knowledge about its markets and competitors" are used. The instrument has four items and was subjected to content validity before it was administered to the respondents.

Competitive advantage
The scale for competitive advantage was adapted from Chuang (2004) that relied on the scale that Byrd and Turner (2001) designed. The instrument was a five-point Likert scale that ranges from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The scale had five items and samples of the instrument "My business has offered an attractive price that would give us a strong market position", "My business offers innovative products based on my knowledge of the market", and "My business offers varying qualities that are not available in the market and our competitors are not offering". The instrument was subjected to content validity and the result from the reviews formed the basis of the final instrument administered to the respondents.

Control variables
Two key non-hypothesized control variables were tested, which are age and location of the business. This is premised on previous studies showing that these variables could influence SMU and the need to control for newness or inertia that are common with firm age and location likely to affect competitive advantage. Porter (1994) identified the influ-ence of location on competitive advantage. With this, the location was measured and was formulated as a dummy variable by coding 1 as rural location and 0 as urban. The manager's years of experience with the industry were adopted as the age (Dodokh & Al-Maaitah, 2019;Cooper et al., 1994). The manager's previous knowledge of agri-business before establishing the firm was coded as 1 and no previous knowledge of the agri-business before starting was coded as 0 and considering the variables were time-invariant, an effort was made to collect them at the first contact.

RESULTS
The study retrieved two hundred and sixty-nine (269) answers. However, preliminary cleaning of the data led to the removal of four (4) answers due to issues related to incomplete filling. Hence, only two hundred and sixty-five answers were found suitable for the study analysis. The questionnaire was divided into sections and each section was separately served to the respondents. This was done to avoid prejudicial biases associated with the subjective instrument and to reduce the effect of common method variance since the same person was to answer questions related to both the independent and dependent variables. Further, Harman's single-factor test was conducted with the aid of SPSS and the output showed three un-rotated factors, and none of the factors explained more than 50% as Podsakoff et al. (2003) suggested. The covariance explained by a single factor was 36%, thus supporting the conclusion of the absence of CMB that could affect the study outcome.
Descriptive analysis was carried out to determine the demographic spread of the respondents. The result in Table 1 indicates that male participants were two hundred and forty-three (243) accounting for 92% of the respondents, while females were twenty-two (22) that is 8% of the respondents. The age distribution shows that a greater percentage of managers of nascent firms in the agro-allied sector are young adults 20-30 years old with one hundred and ninety-eight (198) accounting for (75%) of the total respondents. 31-40 age group had twenty-one (31) respondents, which is 12%. 41-50 -twenty-three (23) respondents, which is 9%. 50 years and above -thirteen (13) respondents, which is 4% of the total respondents that took part in the survey. The descriptive analysis of the instruments shows that SMU was used mainly for advertising -141 (53%), and sales -69 (26%), followed by communication with suppliers -45 (17%), and communication with employees -10 (4%). The responses show a higher frequency of usage and knowledge of Facebook -104 (39%), followed by Instagram -66 (25%), WhatsApp Business -52 (20%), Twitter -38 (14%), and only 5 (2%) indicated Snapchat. Next, the data gathered were subjected to a normality test as the study adopted skewness-kurtosis approach to determine univariate normality for each variable. The result indicates that the data are normal, as the skewness and kurtosis coefficients for each variable were not above 3 and 8, respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to determine the validity of models. The measurement model was carried out first for individual construct (latent variable) before the overall measurement models that incorporate the latent constructs.
The study relied on the recommendation of Bagozzi and Yi (1998)  Cronbach's alpha was used to assess the internal consistency of the scales. The result revealed that the scale was reliable, as the coefficient value was above 0.70, as Creswell (2014) recommended. The study also used the average variance explained (AVE) towards determining the reliability of the result. Hair et al. (2016) recommended that, for scale reliability, AVE should be greater than 0.05. The result in Table 2 shows that the requirement has been fulfilled and satisfied. Further, convergent validity was assessed using Fornell and Larcker (1981) criterion that required that the squared AVE is greater than correlation. Table 2 depicts the result, and the squared AVE is placed diagonally. The results show that there is convergent validity established in the model. The result shows that AVE > ASV and AVE > MSV further support discriminant validity.
The finding from the process macro result is presented in Table 3. The control variables were included in the model, though the result confirmed that they are not significant, as such showed no effect on the endogenous variable. At 95% confidence interval, the number of bootstrapping used was 5,000 to determine the significance of the paths.
The causal research hypothesis underlying the direct effect of SMU on a firm's competitive advan-Source: Own results based on AMOSv23.  Table 3 indicates that the path representing this hypothesis produced a standardized beta coefficient (β = .302) and the bootstrapping result shows that the effect in this path is significant (p < 0.05). This implies that SMU has a significant positive effect on the nascent firm's competitive advantage; thus, H1 was accepted. The study predicted TIC affects nascent firms' competitive advantage. Standardized beta (β = .199; p < 0.05) was obtained, thus, H2 was accepted. Further, the mediating effect of TIC on SMU and nascent firms' competitive advantage was also confirmed using the indirect effect bootstrap standardized beta coefficient (β = .064; p < 0.05). Thus, given the Bootstrap CI 95 does not fall less than zero (0.022 and 0.122). It confirms that the path is significant, hence, H3 was accepted, though, it is not a full mediation. The result also shows that the mediator TIC accounted for approximately 17.9% of the total effect on competitive advantage of nascent firms. The control variables of firm age and location were found not to be significant as the p-value was greater than 0.01, as such, indicating that they had no significant influence on SMU and nascent firms' competitive advantage.

DISCUSSION
The study investigated the mediating role of TIC on SMU and nascent firms' competitive advantage. The study used a data sample frame of 265 respondents that was analyzed using a structural equation model. The result confirms that SMU has a direct effect on nascent firms' competitive advantage. The result is consistent with the findings of Bulankulama et al. (2014) who also found that SMU drives increased firms' competitive advantage. This result has closed the gap in limited empirical studies that have assessed SMU and the competitive advantage of nascent firms, most especially from an emerging economy context.
In addition, the result is consistent with Nord et al. (2014) who also found that SM is relevant towards gaining market advantage. The result differs from the outcome of Al Bakri (2017) who found that the path between SMU and competitive advantage is not significant. The difference in findings could be because Al Bakri (2017) concerned SMEs, while the current study researched nascent firms.  Further, the result indicates that TIC has a direct effect on a firm's competitive advantage. This finding is consistent with Garcia-Morales et al. (2018) who also found that TIC affects innovation performance. Meihami and Meihami (2013) also found a direct effect between TIC and competitive advantage. Torabi and El-Den (2017) also support the study findings. The outcome of the analysis provides a new perspective on the relevance of TIC as a nascent firms' source of competitive advantage. As such, they are expected to strengthen it towards building a consistent and enduring framework for the success of their SMU.
In addition, the result confirms that TIC mediates the relationships between SMU and nascent firms' competitive advantage. The mediation relationship is partial; however, it shows that to some extent it accounts for supporting SMU influence on nascent firms gaining competitive advantage. This finding is consistent with Garcia-Morales et al. (2018) who also found that TIC mediates the relationship between SMU and innovation performance. Thus, this implies that nascent firms channeling their SMU through a developed TIC would account for increased competitiveness.

CONCLUSION
The study researched the mediating effect of TIC on SMU and the competitive advantage of nascent firms. It was found that SMU affects the competitive advantage of nascent firms and TIC has a direct effect on nascent firms' competitive advantage.
Based on the findings, the study concludes that SMU affects agro-allied firms' ability to gain a competitive advantage. Managers of nascent firms in the agro-allied sector need to make an effort to ensure that they adopt SM as a medium of both sales and marketing, as it has shown to have a significant influence on gaining competitive advantage. The study concludes that TIC affects agro-allied firms' ability to gain a competitive advantage. It is evident that despite the apparent limited human and financial resource challenges of nascent firms, adopting a deliberate set of organizational strategic activities through a developed formal system would confer their sustainable competitive advantage. In addition, the study concludes that TIC partially mediates the relationship between SMU and the competitive advantage of nascent firms. Hence, nascent firms can take advantage of innovative knowledge management tools offered through technological opportunities in gaining competitive advantage.