Habit as a moderator of the association of utilitarian motivation and hedonic motivation with purchase intention: Implications for social networking websites

Abstract

The role of social media as a marketing platform has become increasingly important as the number of retailers targeting young adults through social networking sites (snss) has grown, making these platforms central to their marketing strategies. A cross-sectional survey was conducted utilizing a self-administered questionnaire for testing the hypothesized research model. The sample group for the research comprised of 370 undergraduate and graduate students selected from four malaysian universities through cluster sampling. The results revealed that consumer intention was positively affected by utilitarian motivation, hedonic motivation, habit, and trust in snss. Multi-group analysis on the effect of usage habit as a moderating variable on the relationships between selected factors and the intention to purchase through snss revealed moderating effects of usage habit impacting relationships between utilitarian motivation and purchase intention (low habit usage β = .265) as compared to high habit usage of (β = .052). The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are offered, suggesting that marketing and online advertising strategists should be aware of the behaviour of online shoppers when planning online marketing campaigns for snss.

Keywords

• social networking sites (snss)
• utilitarian motivation
• hedonic motivation
• habit
• purchase intention