The impact of social networking integration service of online retailer on consummers puchase intent the case of hochiminh city, vietnam

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

Lê Thoại Bảo Trân

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL
NETWORKING INTEGRATION
SERVICE OF ONLINE RETAILER ON
CONSUMERS’ PURCHASE INTENT:
THE FACEBOOK CASE OF
HOCHIMINH CITY, VIETNAM

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2014


UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

Lê Thoại Bảo Trân

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL
NETWORKING INTEGRATION
SERVICE OF ONLINE RETAILER ON
CONSUMERS’ PURCHASE INTENT:
THE CASE OF HOCHIMINH CITY,
VIETNAM

ID: 29110021

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)
SUPERVISOR: DR. PHẠM PHÚ QUỐC

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2014


ACKNOWLEDGMENT
To complete this Master of Business Administration associated between Western
Sydney University and University of Economics Ho Chi Minh city with the thesis “The
impact of social networking integration service of online retailer on consumers’ purchase
intent – the case of Hochiminh city, Viet Nam”, beside exerting myself during last time,
firstly, I want to thank deeply to my family that always encouraged me throughout studying
process and finishing this thesis.
Secondly, I also want to give my gratefulness to Professors and lecturers from
University of Economics Ho Chi Minh city. They provided to us useful knowledge and also
highly valuable experiences within two years. Especially, I really want to express heartfelt
thanks to Dr. Pham Phu Quoc guided me enthusiastically to accomplish the thesis.


ABSTRACT
The growth of social networks integration service around the world has created a new
place of interaction and communication among people. Web-based social communities,
weblogs, online social networks provide features, allow consumers to share their personal
experiences, knowledge, opinion with one other by writing reviews, rating reviews, and
chatting among trusting members.

This study empirically explores how the social networking integration service of
online retailers (Facebook shops) impact on consumers’ purchase intent. Formal quantitative

research through survey questionnaire with a sample of 219 consumers who are living and
working in Hochiminh city, the result reveal that Website social presence, trust and
involvement have positive impact on consumers’ purchase intent. Implications of these
finding for e-retailers and future research are outlined.

Key words: Website social presence, trust, product attitude, involvement, purchase intent


TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABSTRACT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF TABLES
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................1
1.1 Research background .............................................................................................1
1.2 Research gap ............... ...........................................................................................2
1.3 Research objectives ................................................................................................3
1.4 Research methodology and research scope ............................................................4
1.5 Research contribution .............................................................................................4
1.6 Research structure ..................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ...............................................................................6
2.1 Online shopping and social networking services (Facebook case) ........................6
2.2 Consumers’ purchase intent ...................................................................................9
2.2.1. Consumer behavior .............................................................................................9
2.2.2. Step of a intention process ..............................................................................10
2.2.3. The impact of online social networks on consumers’ purchase intent ...............11
2.3 Website social presence ......................................................................................12
2.4 Trust ........................................................................................................................13

2.5 Involvement ............................................................................................................14


2.6 Product attitude ............ ..........................................................................................15
2.7 The conceptual model and hypotheses of the research ..........................................16
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...................................................................18
3.1 Research process ....................................................................................................18
3.2 Sample design.............. ...........................................................................................19
3.2.1 Population...........................................................................................................20
3.2.2 Sample size ........................................................................................................20
3.3 Data collection procedure .......................................................................................21
3.4 Measurement scale ..................................................................................................22
3.5 Questionnaire design ..............................................................................................24
3.6 Data analysis method ..............................................................................................26
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS ............................................................27
4.1 Descriptive analysis – demographics and variables.................................................27
4.2 Reliability Analysis ................................................................................................28
4.3 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)........................................................................30
4.4 Regression Analysis ...............................................................................................33
4.4.1 Testing assumption of multiple regressions .......................................................33
4.4.2 Result of multiple regression analysis.................................................................35
4.5 Hypotheses testing result and discussion of the findings .......................................37
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS AND LIMITATIONS ............................42
5.1 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................42


5.2 Managerial Implications .........................................................................................43
5.3 Limitations and future research ..............................................................................45
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................46
APPENDICES .......................................................................................................................52

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: A theoretical model .............................................................................................17
Figure 3.1: Research Process .................................................................................................18
Figure E1: Histogram of Purchase intent ...............................................................................61
Figure E2: Normal Plot of Purchase intent ............................................................................61
Figure E3: Scatter Plot of Purchase intent .............................................................................62


LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Source of data collection........................................................................................21
Table 3.2 Source of measurement scale .................................................................................22
Table 4.1 Respondents’ characteristics ..................................................................................28
Table 4.2 Reliability test result ..............................................................................................29
Table 4.3 Rotated component matrix (time 1)...................................................... .................30
Table 4.4 KMO and Bartlett’s test result ...............................................................................31
Table 4.5 Rotated component matrix (time 2) .......................................................................32
Table 4.6 Correlations matrix ................ ...............................................................................35
Table 4.7 Model Summary of multiple regression analysis ..................................................36
Table 4.8 ANOVA of multiple regression analysis ............................................................... 36
Table 4.9 Coefficients of multiple regression analysis .........................................................37
Table 4.10 Summary of hypotheses testing results ................................................................ 40
Table D1: Total Variance Explained of factor analysis .........................................................60
Table D2: Model Summary of multiple regression analysis .................................................62


1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research background

Internet is a social place where created new forum for customers. Virtual communities,
blog, and online social networking sites provide a platform to influence consumers‟ purchase
intents (OTX research, 2008). For more information, Hitwise (2011) indicates that the market
share of different online social networking websites has been grown. Online retailers have
recently taken care about potential objective of understanding and leveraging social influence
in customers‟ purchase intent to improve customer relationship management and increase
sales. Therefore, nowadays, we can find that lot of online retailers have begun to connect
their websites with social networking sites, such as online shops in Facebook or Facebook
shops.

Facebook.com is one of the most popular social networking sites in the world and in
Vietnam also. There are 19.6 million Facebook users in Vietnam by August 2013, accounting
for 21.42 percent of the population and 71.4 percent of Internet users. By July 2013, Vietnam
is the country ranked 16th in the world for percentage growth of Facebookers. These
impressive numbers in the results of the study Socialbakers & SocialTimes.Me (2013) is
announced at the 18th workshop Panorama ICT Vietnam - VIO place in Hochiminh city.
Socialbakers study (2013) also points out the growing trend on Facebook in Vietnam. Hence,
Facebook is suitable place for retailers; they can open online shops to do business efficiently.

There are many applications and in Vietnam website allows retailers to build an
online shop quickly. When using the shops on Facebook, they absolutely do not need to
worry about their shops will be destroyed when the user overload or fault of the network
service providers. However, Facebook does not support creating a direct online shop, which


2

is only possible through the application or interact with the Facebook iframe. According to

Schiffman, Kamk & Hansen (2008), diverse ranges of people have influence on consumers
such as family members, friends, co-workers, and group or individual that consumers would
like to compare themselves with them. The members of Facebook can design their profiles
and share information with other individual within the group. Group that may never meet in
the physical world but nevertheless they are able to affect purchase intents (Evans, Jamal &
Foxall, 2009).

This online social network is good place for consumers to get information and give
advices. In order to reduce the risk of buying a new product, many cosumers tend to search
the opinion of early adopters before making purchase intent. The use of social networks in
online shopping provides marketers and business with the new revenue opportunities, while
providing consumers with product information and both economic and social rewards for
sharing (Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh & Gremler, 2004).

As Vietnamese people still have a habit of trust when they can prehensile and directviewing goods. The purchase intents are often influenced by people who the consumer knows
and trust. However, since internet thriving and the time is more valuable, the e-business in
developing economics like Vietnam need to develop more utility shopping for customers.
No-one denies the performance of utility online shopping model. Therefore, the retailer shops
in Facebook are more and more popular particularly in Vietnam, especially in big city as
Hochiminh city.

1.2 Research gap

In the literature, many studies about online shopping environment have been
researched (Hassanein & Head, 2006; Hsu & Tsou, 2011; Huang & Chou & Lin, 2010).


3

However, very few scholars do the research about social networking integration service of

online shops. For instance, the research of Wu & Lee (2012) studies about the effect of blog
Trust, involvement and product attitude on purchase intention in Taiwan. On the other hand,
Hassanein & Head (2006) consider about Perceived social presence and its impact on attitude
toward online shopping. These factors could play an important role in the online environment,
but did not investigate how these key factors impact on purchase intent of online consumers
in Facebook. Thus, in order to fulfill such gap, this research address key factors through a
detailed study of the world‟s largest social networks on Facebook, in specifically of online
shopping in Hochiminh city, Vietnam. Moreover, the motivation of this study also derives
from the lack of studies in terms of online shopping in Facebook in Vietnam.

Online shops in Facebook, the social networking integration service in Vietnam is
pretty new, but we can see so many social plug-in was integrated by online shopping which
can make the users to share the products to their online social networks easily, by not so
many people really have the experience of using the service. Considering the enormous
potential of this market, this study aims to investigate and develop the research of the
influences of Trust, involvement, website social presence and product attitude on consumers‟
purchase intent towards online shops in Facebook. In addition, this study expands the general
understanding of the perceptions of social networking integration service, understands one of
the fundamental interests of e-commerce is how social networks are used and how they shape
purchase intents.

1.3 Research objectives
The purpose of this study is to examine the key factors associated with consumers‟
purchase intent towards online shops in Facebook. Specifically, this research investigates:
-

The relationship between website social presence and purchase intent.


4

-

The relationship between trust and purchase intent.

-

The relationship between involvement and purchase intent.

-

The relationship between product attitude and purchase intent.

1.4 Research methodology and research scope:
This study uses questionnaire to collect data. The survey questionnaire is gotten from
credit sources and developed in English and then translate into Vietnamese. In order to make
clear of the Vietnamese version questionnaire, the in-depth interviewof five people are
conducted before the survey is implemented in mass. Then the analyzing of the collected data
are processed by SPSS software with three main stages. First, Cronbach‟s Alpha is used to
test the reliability of the measurement scale. Then, the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) is
used to check the validity of the measurement scale. Finally, multiple regression are
employed to investigate the relationship between factors in the research model.
This study choses Hochiminh city in Vietnam to examine the online shops in
Facebook since Hochiminh city is the big city in Vietnam and is the potential market for
study this research. The respondents of this study are the people who live in Hochiminh city
and know or have experience in online shopping in Facebook.
1.5 Research contribution

This study empirically explores how the social networking integration service of
online retailers in Facebook influences on consumers‟ purchase intent. Based on the findings

of this research, we hope to give some practical and meaningful contribution to online
shopping environment, especially to business people who have the intention to use social
networks for online shopping in Vietnam and expand their business in Hochiminh city.
Thence, the managers or online retailers can consider effective strategies with maximize
opportunities and minimize challenges before enter this potential market. This study with


5

deep research about the key factors impact on consumers‟ purchase intent toward online
shopping in Facebook can help the managers get more success in e-commerce applications.
In summary, this study suggests some useful theoretical contribution and practical
contrubution for business people who want to enter market, to who would like to improve
customer relationship management, get more loyalty of consumers and increase sales.

1.6 Research structure
The thesis contents are divided into 5 chapters.
Chapter one is general Introduction and outlines the content of this study. This chapter
presents the background of the research, motivation for doing the research, research objective,
research methodology and scope.
Chapter two is literature review of five concepts including website social presence,
trust, product attitude, involvement and purchase intent. This chapter also proposes the
research model and hypotheses.
Chapter three shows the research methodology for testing the research model.
Chapter four shows the analysis of result research.
Finally, chapter five discusses the conclusions of the study‟s findings, suggests some
solutions for developing online shopping in Facebook for now and in the future and finally
points out the limitation of this study.

6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter mainly presents the theories, which are derived from many scholars in
academic field about each factor in the research model. Firstly, social networking integration
services are introduced to clarify the online shopping in Facebook definition. In addition, the
study introduces more about the online word of mount communication as a part of social
networks, consumers‟ purchase behavior and their roles influence to purchase intent. Second,
the literature review of each constructs, including website social presence, trust, product
attitude and involvement are discussed respectively. Finally, research model and relationship
hypothesize between these constructs are proposed and discussed.
2.1 Online shopping and social networking services (Facebook case)

Nowadays, most offline retailers have set up online retail shops directly or by thirdparties to increase revenues. We can find that lots of online retailers have begun to connect
their websites with social networks, like Facebook.

A social networking service (SNS) is an online service that focuses on establishing
and reflecting social networks or social interaction between families, friends, and also for
gaining new friends over the internet. These networks often include such services as e-mail
and instant messaging. SNS users can share their favorites, and habits in physical life on
social networks, and personal pages can represent each of them through profile, social links.
The rich of personal profile and personal social network, the most valuable asset of social
network services carry out.

Social networking integration means to connect your website with online networks so
that you can use your user‟s “social graph” in their online social network to connect their
activities with their online network friends. This service is provided by social network sites;

7

they open parts of their database, and allow others to develop an application to connect with
the network.

In addition, Solomon (2010) find that online social networks change the way we think
about marketing, companies and consumers have direct interaction and relationship with one
another. There are different forms of virtual communities that affect consumers‟ purchase
intent in different ways (Solomon, et al, 2010):


Multi-user dungeons (MUD): where people have social relationship with each
other in terms of game playing



Room, ring, and lists: rooms (chat rooms), rings (organizations that is related to
the home pages), and list (group of individuals that sharing information via email)



Board: online communities, which can be related to music, movies, cars, even
restaurants that allow individuals post messages.



Blogs: weblogs or blogs are personal journals and are form of online communities
that growing dramatically fast. Users of general interest can follow blogs.

The most users of virtual communities are finding friends or exchanging information,

opinions, and experiences on their common interests (Ridings & Gefen, 2004). Virtual
communities can help consumers to find information about specific company, product, and
service. Online social networks have become more trustworthy and relevant information
source than direct information from companies, thus consumers enjoy the interaction and
communication with each other and like to receive advice either positive or negative about
different products services on online social networks.
The growth of online participation and discussion has made consumers to impact the
products and brands (Riegner, 2007). The research of Riegner has been shown online users
spent 27 percent of their time on communication activities, such as social networking sites,


8

blog, email, and also 27 percent for leisure and entertainment which is more than the time
they spent together read news and personal activities
According to Shin, Park & Ju (2012), the integration tools of Facebook have some
common characteristics: (1) The convenience feature are for easy to use and share, example
the “like” option let you share your favorite things by one click, and the “registration” plug-in
let you login to the website with simple registration process, just use Facebook ID to login to
multiple websites. (2) The surveillance feature, such as “Facepile” and “Login” button allows
you log in your Facebook in the website, and to monitor who liked your page or did some
activities in your pages, it displays and shares the related activities and interest of stranger.
(3) Personalization feature connect your activities with your friends, such as
“Recommendation” plug-in let users who use the Facebook ID login to the website to get
some recommendations based on the user‟s Facebook profile

In addition, the study introduces more about the online word of mount communication
as a part of social networks to make clear about the sense of sociability in website, instead of
the sense of sociability in traditional market. Silverman (2001) indicates that word-of-mouth
(WOM) in traditional communication theory considers as processing strongly influence on

consumers‟ purchase intent behavior in every steps especially information search, evaluative
of alternative and product choice. Recently research of Huang, Boh & Goh (2011) find that
social influences for instance WOW can change people‟s feeling, actions, opinions, or
behaviors. Moreover, the positive WOM is more effective than negative WOM and it
depends on relationship between consumers (East, at el., 2008). Online word-of-mouth
communication is through online social networking sites, blogs, online discussion forums,
virtual communities (Goldsmith, 2006). The previous research by Li, Bernoff, Pflaum &
Glass (2007), 50 percent of adult of users of online social networks share and tell about the
product that they like. Brown, et al. (2007) points out the online communities are flexible,


9

and based on a wide range of cultural and social interests. Word-of-mouth communication is
a main part of online communication where consumers exchange and share their knowledge,
opinion, and experience and has an impact on consumers‟ purchase intents. In addition,
online word-of-mouth communication is cheaper, faster, and more effective than the other
marketing

tools

(Dellarocas,

2003).

Many

consumers

check

other

consumers‟

recommendations before making any purchase intent especially when it comes to buy new
products.
2.2 Consumer’s purchase intent
Purchase intent can be used to predict actual purchase behavior (Morrison, 1979). In
this study, purchase intent is defined as consumers‟ intention to purchase products from the
firms in the future.
Before investigate the impact of social networks on purchase intent, the study
introduces more about the consumers‟ purchase behavior, the steps of an intention process
and their roles influence to purchase intent.

2.2.1 Consumer behavior
Consumer behavior is defined as “the study of the process involved when individuals
or group select, purchase, use or dispose of products, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy
needs and desires.” (Solomon et al., 2010, p6).
Another definition of consumer behavior of Bennett (1989) is “the dynamic
interaction of affect and cognition, behavior, and environmental events by which human
being conduct the exchange aspects of their lives”
Study of consumer behavior of Lantos (2011) indicates one of the important aspects
of consumer behavior is market segmentation, the customer within the segment are more or


10

less similar in term of products needs and desires. In addition, Solomon, et al. (2010) finds
out market segmentation consists of variously categories for instance demographics (age,

gender, social class), geographic (region, country difference), psychographic (personality, life
style) and behavioral (brand loyalty, benefit desire). Every people make numerous intentions
in their daily life, the physical and social environment have large influences on consumers‟
purchase intent.

2.2.2 Steps of a intention process
The central part of consumer behavior is consumer‟s intention making. An intention
process involves in several steps, including problem recognition, information search,
evaluation of alternative; purchase intent; post-purchase evaluation (Kardes, Cronley & Cline,
2011)
When consumer has a desire for something new, problem recognition is the first step
of consumers‟ purchase intent process (Kardes, et al. 2011). Consumers‟ purchase intents
begin with the result of problems or a single problem. Hawkins and Motherbaugh (2010)
consider about different factors that impact to problem recognition step such as social factors,
cultural factors, reference group, and environmental factors.
Once a problem is recognized, consumers begin to seek about relevant information,
about internal and external information search. According Kardes et al., the internal search
involves the consumers‟ memory about the products, and external search includes word of
mouth, shops visit, trial and online social networking and social media. Nowadays, the
internet search tool development, online environment effectively involves in purchase intent
process.
When find out the full information sources, consumers start to compare and evaluate
several alternative in terms of products features and their desires and needs. In this stage


11

consumers consider which alternative would be the best to fulfill their need (Blyth, 2008).
There are different type of consumers‟ choice, sometimes consumers‟ choices are based on
simple intention such as buy the cheapest products, but there are some intentions that are

complex and consist of different process and stages.
Once consumers have found their relevant alternatives and evaluated them, they
should make their choice among the alternatives. The different types of intention influence on
the level and direction of the search (Hawkins & Mothersbaugh, 2010)
This stage is important of intention process, it determines the quality of intention and
how well the choice worked out. In this stage, consumers start to compare their perceptions
of the product with their expectations (Kardes, et al., 2011)
The impact of online social networks on customer’s purchase intent

One of the interested things is that before deciding to purchase a certain item, instead
of listening to productions‟ advertisement or professional‟s consultant, Vietnamese people
often listen to the opinion of relationship people (AC Nielsen, 2013)

AC Nielsen survey shows that 92 percent respondent said that they are interested to
the opinion of relationship people before deciding to purchase a certain item. In addition, 63
percent also said that they often find the sharing experience on internet about the product
before purchasing

According to the research firm, more and more Vietnamese people use the internet as
a method to shop. This trend is inevitable since the Internet is spreading all over the country
and the numbers of people who own the connecting internet devices are increasing.


12

2.3 Website social presence

Cyr et al. (2007) defines social presence within a website as the feeling or sense of
warmth and sociability. The users recognize that the website develops a psychological
connection, human contact, interaction and personal.

The presence of both responsiveness and interactivity in an online social networking
integration service experience simulate the traditional social – interactive customer shopping
experience where retailers and customers interact via constant two-way communication and
can serve to increase the perception of social presence in consumers.
Customer feedback mechanisms and the ability to interact within a social networking
integration service of online retailers may encourage users to perceive others as being
psychologically present during an online shopping enjoyment.
Prior research of Gefen and Straub (2003) and Kumar& Benhasat (2002) have
suggested that the perception of website social presence positively influences user intentions
in an online context. Therefore, the context is thought to have an impact on customer
satisfaction with the emotions. This is a result of the interaction with the website design
elements in the consumption process.
In the web context, actual interaction with other humans may be incorporated through
website features such as e-mail after-sales support (Gefen & Straub, 2003), virtual
communities and chats (Kumar & Benhasat, 2002), message boards (Cyr et al., 2007). The
website feature that integrate a sense of social presence through imaginary interactions
include socially rich picture content (Gefen & Straub, 2003; Cyr et al., 2007), socially rich
text content (Gefen & Straub, 2003), personalized greetings support (Gefen & Straub, 2003;
Kumar & Benhasat, 2002)
In addition, Hassanein & Head (2006) find that social presence indeed has a positive
relationship with purchase intent and attitude toward a website.


13

Hypothesis 1: The perception of social presence within an online retailers‟ website
will positively influence consumers‟ purchase intent

2.4 Trust

Trust is complex concept that has been widely studied. Although there may many
ways to present this concept, the most commonly cited definition of trust in different contexts
is the “willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the
important to the trustee” (Mayer et al., 1995). The more trusting we are, the more willing we
maybe to take the risk of interaction. For instance, consumers will be more willing to
purchase products from a seller if they can trust that the seller will not take advantage of the
consumers‟ vulnerabilities (Geykens et al., 1996)
Trust can be used as an important construct, mechanism to explain interpersonal
behavior under social institution. Social psychologists justify that the trust relationship may
occur interpersonal or inter-organizational, stressing individual behavior with consistency and
predictable well-intentioned behavior (Doney, Canon, & Mullen, 1998)
Nowadays, the development of information technology, consumers confuse with the
generally-used mass marketing techniques and lack trust in the authenticity of goods or
services. Facebook marketing is a newly typed marketing pattern in recent years. Facebook
are a new sharing method for youth consumers, where the Facebooker can interact with each
other through direct comment on an unofficial basis and thus provide viewers with a
situational description of daily life that is closely linked with their attention and interest.
Shneiderman (2000) indicates that the recommendations from past or present users or
from a third party can help the promotion of the trust of consumer towards the website.
Briggs, et al. (2002) points out the website design is the most important things, the
website should look and feel appealing and transmission information should be reliable and


14

trustworthy, with clear and real service, including links to relevant alternative opinions or
products.
Gefen at el (2003) conducts research into the consumers‟ trust toward a shopping site,
when the trust increases, their purchase intent will accordingly increase, as the shopping site
not only satisfies the traditional buyer-seller relation, but also reduces the risk of online

shopping. Hence, the study proposes the hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2: the higher the trust of online shops in Facebook, the higher the
consumer‟s purchase intent.

2.5 Involvement
The concept of involvement has been widely used as measurement of consumers‟
attitude and behavior (Laurent & Kapferer, 1985). According to consumers‟ behavior toward
certain involvement objects, Zaichkowsky (1986) divides involvement into advertisement
involvement, product involvement and purchase decision involvement.
(1)

Advertising involvement: refer to consumer‟s attention level and associated

reaction to advertisements on the basis of personal factors, such as demand, importance,
value, and interest, along with the external factors, such as communication source,
communication content, and stimuli, as well as purchase and consumption;
(2)

Product involvement: consumer‟s attachment and reaction differ for various

product types, brands and qualities
(3)

Purchase decision making involvement: consumer‟s different behavior

reactions with related information search, price, brand selection, time, alternatives and
intention making for the purchase purpose.


15

Wu et al. (2008) indicates that as far as involvement is concerned, online information
recipients are appreciable differences in terms of either their willingness to believe online
consumption rumors or their own consumption behavior and intention.

This study bases on definition of involvement created by Zaichkowsky (1985),
defines involvement with shops in Facebook as the perceived relevance of the Facebook to
the consumer based on inherent needs, values, and interests of the consumer. Involvement is
an encouragement and leads consumer to spend more time searching for information to make
the right choices (Celsi & Olson, 1998; Greenwald & Leavitt, 1984). Consumers who are
highly involved with a shop in Facebook regard the Facebook as an important source of
consumption information and perceive its content more intensively. In addition, such
consumers are also gain stronger experiences from browsing Facebook, thus including their
purchase intents. For example, highly involved consumers are more likely to remind
themselves of interesting activities when they are interacting with the content of Facebook. In
contrast, low-involvement consumers simply accept the information that they encounter on
Facebook and have low motivation to reflect upon their actions or relations with other people.
Therefore, this study proposes that hypothesis:
Hypothesis 3: the consumer‟s involvement is positive impact to the consumers‟
purchase intent.

2.6 Product attitude
Zhang (1986) defines attitude as an individual‟s persistent and consistent tendency
toward matter of surrounding conditions, people, which can be forecasted by individuals‟
behavior. Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) indicate that attitude is a certain observation of a
subject‟s like or dislike evaluation and state, views based on the cognitive appreciation of


16

matters. They also classify attitude with two concepts: “attitude toward the behavior” and
“attitude toward the object”. This study refers to an individual‟s attitude toward matters or
issues, such as the opinion that goods for sale online are cheaper. Attitude may directly affect
purchase intent, and also affect purchase behavior through other people‟s viewpoints and the
external environment. If a consumer‟s attitude toward advertising and a product is positive,
coupled with the consumers‟ demand for the product, the purchase intent should then come
into being. Product attitude prefers to the desirability level Facebooker experiences in
response to a specific product.

In the context of consumer website use and online shopping adoption, several
researchers have found positive and significant impacts of attitude on intention (Jeong &
Lambert, 2001; Koraan, 2003; Van der Heijen, 2003). Further, favorable attitude is expected
to make the transactions easier and reduce barriers to the adoption of e-Commerce (Jarvenpaa
et al., 1999). The research of Miyake and Norman (1979) indicate that a consumer‟s
knowledge allows them to put forward demands and assess the product quality. Chung et al
(2008) claimed that the quality of the product information provided by online vendors has a
positive impact on product attitude. Connecting these finding to Facebook shopping, the
study hypothesized that:
Hypothesis 4: the higher a consumer‟s product attitude, a higher the purchase intent.

2.7 The conceptual model and hypotheses of the research

This study aims to explore the effect of website social presence, trust, involvement,
product attitude on purchase intent. The conceptual framework is showed in Figure 2.1 and
consists of four hypotheses. In details, the group factors associated with hypothesis 1 to 4 are