Title: Online social shopping: the impact of attitude, customer information quality, effectiveness of information content and perceived social presence

Authors: Esmaeil Daliri; Sajad Rezaei; Wan Khairuzzaman Wan Ismail

Addresses: RAZAK School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Jalan Semarak 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ' International Business School (IBS), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Jalan Semarak 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ' College of Business Administration, Jazan University, 4412 Arrawadi, Jazan 45150, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract: Socialisation through online social media has changed the pattern in which customers behave. Few studies have examined the implication of social network website in online retailing context by extending the social presence theory and inclusion of attitude (ATT), customer information quality (CIQ) and effectiveness of information content (EIC) in understanding shopping behaviour among social networks users. Thus, this study attempts to examine the influence of ATT, CIQ, EIC and perceived social presence (PSP) on social shopping (SS) intention among social network users. Quantitative techniques, snowball sampling procedure and cross sectional data collection approach used to empirically test the hypotheses within structural equation modelling (SEM) using SmartPLS software for assessment of measurement model (internal consistency, indicator reliability, convergence and discriminant validity) and structural model (structural model for collinearity, the significance of the path coefficients, the level of the R² values, the f² effect size and the predictive relevance). A total of 326 valid online questionnaires were analysed. The findings indicate that CIQ, EIC, PSP and ATT are significant predictor toward SS intention. This study contributes to literature by examining social factors of shopping intention and examining Malaysian online social groups. Finally, the study limitations, implication and social contribution are discussed.

Keywords: attitudes; perceived social presence; PSP; customer information quality; CIQ; effective information; information content; social shopping; social networking; online retailing; Malaysia; SEM; structural equation modelling; online shopping; social media; socialisation; e-tailing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBE.2014.064995

International Journal of Business Environment, 2014 Vol.6 No.4, pp.426 - 450

Received: 04 Dec 2013
Accepted: 13 Jan 2014

Published online: 30 Sep 2014 *

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