Investigating the Moderating Role of Social Support in Online Shopping Intentions

Abstract

Relationship building plays a crucial role in business success because of the saturated nature of the market. Thus, there has been stronger competition because many businesses offer similar products for sale on an online shopping platform. This has given online consumers a wide range of alternatives when shopping online. This present study aimed to investigate the influence of relationship quality on purchase intention among Ghanaian consumers in an online shopping platform while moderated by social support. A convenience sampling method was employed to collect 304 responses from the respondents via web-survey. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to assess the structural model. The findings reveal that customer trust and customer satisfaction did not significantly influence purchase intention. Furthermore, Customer commitment and social support had a significant and positive influence on purchase intention. Also, social support moderated the relationship between customer trust and purchase intention but had no moderation effect on the relationship between customer satisfaction and purchase intention and customer commitment and purchase intention. This article ends with theoretical and practical implications.

Why Do Donors Donate? A Study on Donation-Based Crowdfunding in Malaysia

“…Hence, these findings supported the idea that donors who considered making a donation were more likely to look for the input and advice of other members among the crowdfunding community and to develop a sense of confidence in the platform. A number of recent studies [39,47,48] have shown that the availability of information may influence donors' purchase decisions or intentions. Therefore, this study argued that informational support has an impact on donors' willingness to donate.…”