sustainability Article Examining the Factors Affecting SME Performance: The Mediating Role of Social Media Adoption Sikandar Ali Qalati 1 , Wenyuan Li 1, *, Naveed Ahmed 2, * , Manzoor Ali Mirani 3 and Asadullah Khan 4   Citation: Ali Qalati, S.; Li, W.; Ahmed, N.; Ali Mirani, M.; Khan, A. Examin- ing the Factors Affecting SME Perfor- mance: The Mediating Role of Social Media Adoption. Sustainability 2021, 13, 75. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ su13010075 Received: 9 October 2020 Accepted: 11 November 2020 Published: 23 December 2020 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neu- tral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Copyright: © 2020 by the authors. Li- censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/). 1 School of Management, Department of Marketing, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China; 5103180243@stmail.ujs.edu.cn 2 Government of Pakistan BISP, Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection, Pakistan Secretariat, F-Block, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan 3 Department of Business Administration, Institute of Business Administration Sukkur, Sukkur 65200, Pakistan; manzoor@iba-suk.edu.pk 4 Faculty of Industrial Management Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Gambang 26300, Malaysia; asad@kiu.edu.pk * Correspondence: liwenyaun8@ujs.edu.cn (W.L.); naveedakrsp@yahoo.com (N.A.); Tel.: +86-1395-2886-293 (W.L.) Abstract: Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have become a vibrant and dynamic sector of the world economy. Information technology plays a vital role in improving the productivity and competitiveness of SMEs. The dynamic business environment has brought fierce competition among SMEs and, therefore, requires the owners to interact with internal and external members actively. Hence, this study aims to investigate the impact of technology, organization, and environment as important factors in the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises. It also examines the mediating role of social media adoption. Items were developed to measure the various purposes of social media use in organizations, which contribute to increasing the measurement of social media usage. For the empirical investigation, this paper used a closed-ended questionnaire. Using a quantitative method, we observed 423 responses through structural equation modeling. The findings of the study indicate that technology, organization, and the environment play effective roles for SME performance. More importantly, social media adoption positively mediates the relationship between technology, organization, environment, and SME performance. The study also helps organizations realize the advantages of using social media and specifies the rationale behind an organization’s investment in social media. Keywords: social media; small and medium-sized enterprises performance; organization; environment 1. Introduction Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can use social media (SM) because of its ease of use, low cost, technical manageability, and its ability to connect with many potential consumers [1]. SM adoption is growing exponentially among businesses [2] and is currently considered a key strategy [3]; however, firms are utilizing several different SM platforms [4]. SM is a popular choice for SMEs [5] because it enables clear communication, and gives firms the opportunity to understand and respond—competently and proactively—to customer needs [6]. SM is also a comparatively inexpensive choice for analytics, conversion tracking, content management, automated publishing, and customer targeting [7]. Research tends to consider the use of SM from a business-to-consumer perspective. For instance, studies have investigated the effects of SM on consumer purchase decisions [8], the impact on brand awareness and purchase intention [9], customer retention, electronic word of mouth, and purchase decision involvement [10]. Despite the significant impacts and perceived value for SMEs, research is limited regarding how SMEs choose or use SM channels. Few studies have investigated the use of SM to advance business practices and their effects on an organization’s performance [11]. Prior studies have investigated the Sustainability 2021, 13, 75. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13010075 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability