Investigating the Impact of Social Media Content by Influencers and Users on the Purchase Intention of Low-Income Customers Using the SOR Model

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 MSc Student, Department of Business Management, FFaculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

2 Prof., Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

3 MSc Student, Department of Business Management, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

4 PhD Candidate, Department of Human Resources, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

Abstract

Objective
Nowadays, considering the variety of products and services offered by organizations, individuals review the desired product or service before making a purchase to reduce the uncertainty arising from decision-making. This issue is particularly significant among the low-income group, as these individuals benefit from a lower level of welfare and income (United Nations,2017). Content produced by consumers and influencers on social media plays an important role in shaping potential consumers' purchasing decisions by meeting their informational needs (Barta et al.,2023; Stephen,2016). Therefore, brands have shifted their marketing strategies and budgets more in this direction. Two factors, the quality of information and the credibility of the source, are among the determining factors in the impact of published content. The quality of information refers to the extent to which the shared content is understandable, sufficient, and objective (Monczka et al.,1998; Park et al.,2007). On the other hand, trustworthiness refers to the degree to which the message receiver accepts and trusts the message sender (Ohanian,1990). The more consumers consider the content available on social media to be of high quality or the source to be reliable, the more they evaluate the content as useful (Sussman and Siegal,2003). The aim of this research is to examine the impact of the information quality and source credibility of content published by users and influencers on social media pages on the purchase intention of low-income consumers.
Research Methodology
The present study is applied in terms of its objective and is survey-analytical in terms of its method and execution. The statistical population of the present study includes active users who are members of social networks such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. The year is1402. To determine the sample size, the structural equation modeling rule of5 to15 times the number of questionnaire items was used. Therefore, since the present study's questionnaire has27 items, the sample size was determined to be between135 and405, with164 samples collected. The data collection tool in this research is a27-question questionnaire that consists of two sections. The first section includes questions related to the respondents' personal information, while the second section includes questions aimed at examining the impact of the content produced by influencers and customers on social media on the willingness of potential customers to pay more. In this section, the variable "information quality" was measured using three items adapted from the studies of Sussman and Siegel (2003) and Billey and Pearson (1983). The variable "source credibility" was adapted using four items from the studies of Sussman and Siegel (2003) and Bhattacharya and Sen (2006). The variable "importance related to participant sharing" was measured using eight items, and "importance related to non-participant sharing" was measured using eight items based on the scale developed by Dadavolu (2016). Additionally, "purchase intention" was measured using four items adapted from Luo et al. (2010). The scoring in this questionnaire was based on a5-point Likert scale (strongly disagree =1 to strongly agree =5). To determine the reliability of the questionnaire items, composite reliability was used, and to examine the convergent validity of the questionnaire, the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) test was conducted. Finally, to assess the discriminant validity, according to the Fornell-Larcker test, the square root of AVE should be greater than the correlation values between the constructs (Fornell & Larcker,1981). For data analysis in the descriptive statistics section, SPSS software was used, and for the inferential statistics section, Smart PLS3 software was used.
Findings
In this study, the variables of information quality and source credibility were considered independent variables, while the variables of user-generated content and influencer content (with dimensions of importance related to participatory and non-participatory sharing) were considered mediating variables. The purchase intention was considered the dependent variable. Twelve hypotheses were formulated in the present study, and data collected from active users in the virtual space were used for their analysis. The results showed a positive and significant relationship between the quality of information and the importance related to the sharing of influencer posts by both participating and non-participating users. This research also showed a positive and significant relationship between source credibility and the importance related to sharing influencer posts by both participating and non-participating users. Furthermore, a positive and significant relationship was found between the importance of sharing influencer posts by both participants and non-participants and the consumer's purchase intention. Ultimately, the findings confirm the role of information quality and the credibility of the sources of content published by influencers and users on the purchase intention of low-income consumers.
 
Discussion & Conclusion
The conceptual model of the research is a blend of the conceptual models of Tangher and Cartel (2023) and Onfry et al. (2022), and the innovation of this research lies in testing this model in a new statistical population. In addition to theoretical knowledge, the present study provides practical insights for marketers and managers to operate in the social media space. Social media managers should consider the role that influencers and users play in influencing people's decision-making. Low-income individuals, due to their limited budgets for purchases, scrutinize information published on social media more carefully than others. As this study also showed, the dimensions of information quality and source credibility have a significant impact on people's purchase intentions. Since the more real and tangible the content is perceived, the greater its impact on purchase intention, it is suggested that marketing managers utilize users and media influencers.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

 
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Media Management Review
Volume 3, Issue 2
2024
Pages 260-287

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