EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA CON l’ENT & E-WOM ON BEHAVIORAL INTENTION TOWARDS E-COMMERCE CONSUMERS OF KARACHI

Abstract

Purpose: The current study investigated the impact ofsocial media advertising content, social media sales promotion content and eWOM on the behavioral intention of customers with the mediating impact of hedonic brand image and functional brand image. Methodology: The study employed a survey using a self-administered five-point Likert scale questionnaire and applied the purposive sampling approach to collect data of404 responses from the e-commerce consumers of Karachi, Pakistan. PLS-SEM using SmartPLS v3 has been employed for data analysis. Findings: The results revealed that HBI and FBI had a significant effect on BI. Also, SMAC has a significant effect on HBI, FBI, BI and it has a significant effect on BI with the mediation of HBI and FBI. Further, SMSPC has a significant effect on HBI, FBI, and BI. Moreover, SMSPC has a significant effect on BI with the mediation of HBI and FBI. Lastly, eWOM has a significant effect on HBI and BI while eWOM has a significant effect on BI with the mediation of HBI Limitations: Other forms of marketing communication are missing in the conceptual framework ofthe study, such as interactive marketing, direct marketing, and customer evaluations, all of which are shared by businesses and/or customers on different social media platforms. The cross-sectional method was used for the study that was based on surveys. The findings of this research, which were obtained by means of a cross-sectional survey, are based on the data from the survey itself, rather than on any other secondary sources. Implications: The focus ofthis research is to offer managers advice on creating plans and tactics that will influence the behavioral intention of those who shop online. Managers must have a solid of their brand's key performance indicators in order to improve brand image. Marketers should also be aware oflegal changes because they are likely to place restrictions on how they may use customer data. They may need to discover new methods to exploit it because managing and controlling e-WOM (such as paying influencers) may become mote awareness challenging.