Assessing the Influence of Online Reference Group on Consumer Behavioral Intentions

Abstract

The aim of this study is to identify the influence of online reference groups on users’ behaviors in the social networking site (SNS) context In doing so this study applied SOR theory to operate a conceptual model with four social environmental cues (reciprocity tie strength trust information quality) as SNS stimuli to individual states which measured by affective involvement and cognitive involvement The impact of OSN groups will then guide individuals to come up with buying behavior or referral intention Referral Intention was introduced as the next level of purchase intention considering the borderless characteristic of OSN which encourage people not only buy the product but also recommend the information sources to other group members Confirmation factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation model (SEM) were applied to examine the framework Research findings show that perceived reciprocity and perceived information quality positively associate with affective involvement Both affective and cognitive involvement exhibited positive influence on purchase intention and referral intention Regarding to the results some theoretical and practical implications were discussed in the last chapter respectively

Date of Award	2014 Feb 11
Original language	English
Supervisor	Tien Wang (Supervisor)