Disclosing customers' intentions to use social media for purchase-related decisions

The present study intends to shed light on behaviour of customers towards usage of social media for purchasing decisions. The study proposes an extension to technology acceptance model (TAM) to analyse the significance of monetary benefits and information reliability on customers' intention to use social media.

The sample was drawn from social media users of north-western region of India (n = 622). The proposed model was tested using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

Results indicate that monetary benefits and perceived ease of use have significant influence on customers' intention to use social media, while information reliability and monetary benefits significantly influence only through perceived usefulness.

The findings are valuable to marketers to acknowledge the potential of social media to reach to masses by providing timely and reliable information. The study also reveals that website/app developers should implement a user-friendly interface and reliable content to influence customers' usage behaviour.

The study is a unique attempt to examine the effect of monetary benefits and information reliability with TAM's key constructs in the context of social media adoption. Studies undertaken aforementioned dimensions are mainly concerned with examining direct contribution of social media and its effect on purchase decisions.