SOCIAL MEDIA ADOPTION AND BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY: A STUDY OF BORN-GLOBAL FASHION FIRMS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Nigerian born-global fashion firms increasingly rely on social media to reach international markets, yet many still struggle to convert high engagement into measurable, sustained business outcomes. Existing studies have largely examined social media's effect on business performance as a single outcome in developed-market contexts, leaving its relationship with business sustainability underexplored in emerging-market contexts. This study, therefore, investigated the influence of social media adoption on business sustainability among born-global fashion enterprises in the Lagos-Ogun State Nigeria. Social media adoption was assessed across four dimensions: Engagement and Community Building, Market Responsiveness and Agility, Influencer Leverage, and Platform Usage Intensity, while business sustainability was measured across Economic, Social, Environmental, and Operational dimensions, anchored on the Triple Bottom Line framework and Dynamic Capabilities Theory. A quantitative survey design was adopted, with structured questionnaires administered to 383 respondents drawn from born-global fashion entrepreneurs, designers, and social media managers in Lagos and Ogun States, and data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) via SmartPLS 4. Findings revealed that all four social media adoption dimensions had a significant positive influence on business sustainability (p < 0.001), with Engagement and Community Building explaining between 22.2% and 33.2% of the variance across the four sustainability dimensions. The study concludes that strategic social media adoption is a foundational driver of long-term business sustainability for born-global fashion enterprises in Nigeria, with engagement quality and influencer accountability generating the greatest sustainability returns.