Role of Social Media in Information Search and Consumption Behaviour of Indian women

Abstract

Information search is an important step in the consumer decision making process. With democratization of information and advent of social media, the amount and quality of information available for making consumption decisions have increased substantially. Given the adoption rates of social media and specifically social networking sites among consumers and companies alike, practitioners and academics need to understand the role of social media within a company s marketing efforts. newlineSpecifically, understanding the consumer behavior process of how consumers perceive features on a company s social media page; process the information available on the page; how these features may lead to loyalty and ultimately consumers repurchase intentions is critical to justify marketing efforts to senior management. newlineThis study focusses on studying effectiveness of consumer s information processing process by situating online consumer engagement between consumers perceptions about features on a company s social media page and loyalty and (re)purchase intent. Because online consumer engagement is an emerging construct within the marketing literature, the purpose of this study is not only to test the framework of online consumer engagement but also to explore the concept of online consumer information processing within a consumer choice and marketing context. newlineThe social networking site, Facebook, was utilized to test the online consumer engagement framework. Specifically, the study examined whether and how perceived Facebook company page features (i.e., perceived information quality, perceived enjoyment, and perceived interactivity) predicted online consumer engagement, and further investigated whether and how online consumer engagement with companies on Facebook related to loyalty and ultimately (re)purchase intent. newlineFirst, focus groups were conducted to get a better understanding of the liking behavior on Facebook and to refine the survey questionnaire. Next, 233 online surveys were collected from Indian adult woman