Impact of Social Media Marketing and E-Wom on Purchase Intention Keeping Customer Trust as a Mediator: Evidence from Telecom Sector of Pakistan

Abstract

Due to the rapid advancements in digital innovations and technological evolution, the world today has witnessed a upsurge in digital adaptation by the masses and tech geeks alike. Advertising agencies and brand managers have been consistently finding ways to explore potential markets and retain existing customers. This research focuses on the effect of E-WOM and Social Media Marketing on Purchase Intention keeping the customer trust as a mediator within the telecommunication sector of Pakistan. For this purpose, data in the form of responses was collected through published Questionnaires with the help of convenient sampling. The respondents were three hundred and five customers using different telecommunication networks of Pakistan. From results, it has been observed that E-WOM and Social Media Marketing have a strong impact on developing and maintaining Purchase Intention. However, the mediation of Customer Trust didn’t prove to be significant as per results. The research, done on these variables, shows their impact in developing purchase intention. Moreover, practical implications of this research have been suggested and research directions for future work have also been proposed with respect to other factors affecting Purchase Intention