THE IMPACT OF PERCEIVED USEFULNESS AND PERCEIVED EASE OF USE OF SEARCH ENGINE TOWARDS SEARCH ENGINE INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOR REGARDING INDONESIAN MSMES

• Main Author: Cahyarani, Ailsa
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/83262
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Indonesian MSMEs are the backbone of the economy, yet a significant 82.5% remain offline, facing considerable marketing challenges. This study aims to investigate how search engines’ perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use influence search engine information seeking behavior towards these enterprises. Understanding this behavior strategies can improve the digital presence of Indonesian MSMEs by understanding Indonesian target market on search engines, supporting government initiatives to digitize 30 million MSMEs and establish 500 digital-based cooperatives by 2024. This research used a quantitative approach with 251 valid respondents with non-probability sampling and PLS-SEM to interpret the statistics data. Findings reveal that perceived usefulness significantly influences search engine information seeking behavior. Conversely, perceived ease of use did not show a significant impact, suggesting other factors like task-technology fit and user characteristics may mediate this relationship. Recommendations include enhance perceived usefulness, utilizing SEO, addressing cultural context, and prioritizing content relevance & quality over ease of access. The study addresses a theoretical gap by exploring PU, PEOU, and SEISB specifically within the context of Indonesian MSMEs, contributing to marketing insights and proposing future research to explore additional factors, achieve better demographic representation, and do comparative & longitudinal studies to deepen the understanding and application of information-seeking behavior for MSMEs or even regarding other fields.