Abstract
Gender roles are an integral part of people's lives, and exert observable influences in many ways on
their evaluation of issues and objects. By using the innovation diffusion theory, this study examines the impact of
the gender of SME managers on their perception of mobile marketing acceptance in the South African tourism
sector. A simple random sampling was used to obtain responses from the managers of 178 tourism-sector SMEs.
The results of an analysis using Partial Least Squares identified relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity
as salient factors that explain mobile marketing adoption intention among the SMEs. The results further revealed
that the managers’ gender plays a significant role in their assessment of the characteristics of the mobile
marketing innovation. Thus, while complexity is important for male SME managers, relative advantage and
compatibility underscore mobile marketing adoption intention by female SME managers. These findings
emphasize the need for mobile marketing vendors and marketers to devise effective marketing strategies that
address the different needs of male and female SME managers if they are successfully to promote a more rapid
acceptance of this innovation among SMEs.