The Moderating Role of Business Integrity Concern in Technology Acceptance Model Toward Social Media Marketing Messages

What the paper says

Consumers are inclined to formulate a diverse array of opinions (attitudes) when they scrutinise advertisements, assess digital goods and services, or encounter social media marketing messages. TAM and TPB clearly proposed that attitude is a mediator or a mechanism through which the technology acceptance factors affect the online purchase intention. However, current literature provides contradictory results about the relationship between technology acceptance factors, attitude, and online purchase intention. It also argued that future research should consider online concerns that may impede and diminish readiness to adopt online purchases and impact attitudes and online purchase intention. This study proposes a conceptual model by which technology acceptance factors directly affect online purchase intention and indirectly through the mediating role of attitude toward social media marketing message (SMMM), and the relationship between attitude toward SMMM and online purchase intention in social media is moderated (weaken) by business integrity concern. 390 individuals in the Saudi age group of 18-64 were selected as a sample to study the proposed relationship. By applying the PLS-SEM technique, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norms, and perceived behaviour have direct influence on online purchases and indirect influence through the mediating role of attitude toward SMMM. Furthermore, the results show that business integrity concern moderates the relationship between attitude toward SMMM online purchase intention in the context of social media. These findings provide empirically evidence to support TAM and TPB theories and have significant implications for online purchases through social media in the Saudi context.