Social Media Marketing and SME Economic Sustainability: Integrating PLS-SEM and fsQCA Evidence from Thailand’s Service Sector

Digital technology adoption alone may not fully account for the economic sustainability of service-sector SMEs. This study examines how managerial technology perceptions and digital applications relate to organizational capabilities and SME economic sustainability in Thailand. Drawing on the Technology Acceptance Model and capability-based reasoning informed by the dynamic capability perspective, the framework was developed through a three-round e-Delphi (20 experts), refined using an integrated Rough Set and Fuzzy Logic procedure, and tested with 385 SMEs. PLS-SEM assessed 13 direct and four specific indirect hypotheses; fsQCA examined sufficient configurations and configurational asymmetry. All hypotheses were supported. Social media marketing was positively associated with organizational agility, business connections and opportunities, value creation, and SME economic sustainability; its largest specific indirect relationship was through business connections and opportunities. Under the primary fsQCA specification, seven configurations were sufficient for high SMEES, with no necessary condition. Sensitivity analysis showed configuration variation, while social media marketing, organizational agility, and business connections and opportunities remained recurrent. Predictive assessment showed moderate out-of-sample performance without significant overall superiority over the linear benchmark (CVPAT p = 0.555). The study distinguishes the roles of managerial perceptions, digital applications, and organizational capabilities; cross-sectional findings indicate associations and configurational sufficiency rather than causality.