Online Review and Customer Purchase Intention in Social ECommerce Context; Role of Trust as a Mediator and Source Credibility as Moderator

Abstract

Previous literature supports the role of online reviews in influencing customer purchase intentions in the online context. However, the research gap exists based on the underlying mechanism of influence of online reviews on customer purchase intentions and the mediating and moderating variables in this relationship. The current study addressed this research gap by developing and testing a model of online reviews and customer purchase intention in the social media-e-commerce context. Additionally, we tested trust as mediator and source credibility as moderator. Data were collected from 360 participants of social media users by using an online survey. The analysis was performed through confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS and consists of two stages. The result indicates that online reviews have positive and significant effects on purchase intentions (β=.352, P<0.05); and customer trust (β=.691, P<0.05). Furthermore, customer trust has positive and significant effects on purchase intention (β=.240, P<0.05). Additionally, we found partial support for the mediating nature of trust between the relationship of online reviews and purchase intention. We also found support that source credibility moderates the mediating relationship of customer trust. Our findings imply that trust and source credibility play significant role in shaping the online reviews and purchase intention relationship.