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This paper aims to explore the factors of social media adoption by zakat institutions.

This study uses qualitative data as the main source of evidence. Data were collected using semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Ten respondents from eight zakat institutions across Malaysia were interviewed. Judgement sampling and snowballing techniques were used to select respondents. Data analysis was done in three phases, namely, data reduction, data display and conclusion confirmation.

The findings of this study found perceived benefits, ease of use, accessibility, formalization, training, management push and indirect public push to be the determinant factors that contribute to the adoption of a social media application in zakat institutions. They are discussed and organized into a few groups under four categories, namely, technological, organizational and environmental contexts based on the TOE framework.

This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge in technology adoption understanding with the engagement of a range of Technology Organization Environment (TOE) framework. However, for future research, quantitative data involving the zakat payers should be anticipated to further understand the issue.

Output from this study may be useful to the adoption champions within zakat institutions, such as decision-makers and marketing officers. These people can help to provide guidelines and steer managers to focus on the identified factors in this study when adopting social media.

The finding from this study may help to increase the efficiency of two-way communication between zakat institutions and the community. It was found that the adoption of social media improved communication activities with the public and better handling of negative perceptions towards zakat institutions. The findings proved that using social media applications in zakat institutions can help create a better organizational image for the public by publishing instant and continuous news feeds on activities that specifically cater to the need of the asnaf. This can alleviate negative perceptions that zakat institutions are only good in collecting money, but not effective in helping the poor.

Previous zakat literature has focussed on different issues such as the determinants of zakat compliance behaviors, zakat fund management, distribution of funds, zakat information system and digital marketing; however, little is known about how and why zakat institutions adopt social media applications as a communication tool with the public. Thus, this research makes a difference by focussing on a new aspect of study in the zakat environment, which aims to explore the factors of social media adoption by zakat institutions. This study also proposes the new appropriate TOE framework to understand the adoption behaviour by the zakat institution towards social media application.