How Customers’ Perceptions of Environmental Sustainability Information Moderate the Relationship Between Social Media Use and Their Intention to Purchase Technology-Based Products

How Customers’ Perceptions of Environmental Sustainability Information Moderate the Relationship Between Social Media Use and Their Intention to Purchase Technology-Based Products

The major research questions addressed in this study are (1) whether customers’ perceptions of environmentally sustainable information moderate the relationship between the use of social media to obtain new product purchase information and customers’ intentions to purchase new technology-based products; and (2) whether there is a relationship between the use of social media for communicating with friends and customers’ intentions to purchase new technology-based products. The study explores the relationships among four concepts: (1) the perceptions formed by customers of new technology-based products who are influenced by environmentally sustainable, publicly available information, including organizations’ marketing communications; (2) the use of social media to obtain new technology-based product purchase information; (3) the use of social media for communicating with friends; and (4) customers’ intentions to purchase new technology-based products. The study finds that social media used to obtain product purchase information has a positive influence on customers’ intentions to purchase technology-based products, whereas social media used for communicating with friends has a negative influence on customers’ intentions to purchase technology-based products. In addition, the study finds that the perception of environmentally sustainable public information moderates and negatively accentuates the relationship between the use of social media for communicating with friends and customers’ intentions to purchase new technology-based products.