THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ONLINE CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR IN BANGALORE CITY

Abstract

The paper examines the casual relationship between social media and consumer purchasing behaviour in the mobile telephony industry in India. The study was driven by a strong desire to convert social media usage into desirable purchase behaviour. Social media was examined using four variables namely, firm generated communication, user created communication, word of mouth and social media platforms. The study results indicate that social media is a significant driver of consumer purchase intention. Consumer purchase behaviour is mainly driven by social media word of mouth, whilst firm generated content was found to be inversely related to purchase intention. User generated social media resulted in moderately weak association with purchase behaviour, whilst an insignificant association was obtained between social media platforms and consumer purchase intention. The results imply that social media is an effective tool but needs to be adapted so as to minimum generating content which distorts desirable consumer behaviour. The researchers therefore recommend a cautious social media campaign which generates more desirable viral content