User engagement in social network platforms: what key strategic factors determine online consumer purchase behaviour?

Abstract

Social network platforms as ubiquitous media in our today lives are the venue of many everyday activities including purchasing products and services. This study set out to explore key strategic factors of online consumer purchase behavior in social network platforms. ISM methodology is used for comparing the variables that are extracted from the Delphi technique and confirmed by the experts. To collect the data, a questionnaire was developed and distributed among a limited sample of experts in microeconomics, social networks marketing and consumer purchase behavior to compare twelve factors. The findings revealed that ‘Consumer engagement’, ‘Consumer’s value perception’ and ‘Perceived risk’ are placed at the level I. Thus, they would be positioned at the top of the ISM model. Meanwhile, findings show that ‘Trust’, ‘Social influence’, ‘Social support’ and ‘Value co-creation’ are the most important strategic variables of research. Thereafter, all linkage variables are strategic variables. This, in terms of MICMAC analysis, means such variables are significant and are worth the investment in the future based on the cross-impact analysis. The results of this study can be used for platform businesses to deepen the user engagement level and to lead the customers to purchase decision. Also future researchers can use the findings of this research to propose new models of user engagement in social network platforms or to investigate the relationship among the identified factors.