Impact of Consumers’ Online Motivations on the Online Purchase Intentions: Mediating Role of Consumers’ Attitudes towards Social Media Marketing

Social media has deeply penetrated into lives of millions of people around the world which has also attracted the attention of marketers. However, despite the popularity of social media marketing, companies still lack clarity about consumers’ attitudes towards social media marketing. There is lack of understanding about underlying consumers’ motives that affect their attitudes and online purchase intentions in the context of social media marketing. The aim of this research is to identify the impact of consumers’ motives on the online purchase intentions in the context of social media marketing in the fashion industry of Pakistan. In addition, it examines the mediating role of consumers’ attitude in affecting the relationship between motives and online purchase intentions. Data were collected from 574 consumers through convenience sampling from the metropolitan cities of Pakistan and hypotheses were tested through SEM using AMOS 21 statistical package. The results revealed that utilitarian, hedonic and content personalization motivation have significant influence on consumers’ attitudes towards social media marketing. However, only utilitarian motivation has a direct influence on the online purchase intentions of consumers. Attitude towards social media marketing partially mediates the relationship between utilitarian motivation and online purchase intentions and fully mediates the relationship between hedonic motivation, content personalization motivation and online purchase intentions. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed. The paper concludes with limitations and future research directions.