Clothing brand purchase intention through SNS
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-02-2017-0042 |
| Pages | 867-892 |
| Published date | 09 September 2019 |
| Date | 09 September 2019 |
| Author | Jordi Pujadas-Hostench,Ramon Palau-Saumell,Santiago Forgas-Coll,Javier Sánchez-García |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management |
Clothing brand purchase intention
through SNS
Jordi Pujadas-Hostench and Ramon Palau-Saumell
Universitat Ramon Llull IQS School of Management, Barcelona, Spain
Santiago Forgas-Coll
Department of Business, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, and
Javier Sánchez-García
Universitat Jaume I, Castellon, Spain
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intention to purchase products through clothing
brands’social network sites (SNS) based on the theory of planned behavior and uses and gratifications theory
(U&G), and the moderating effects of self-image congruity (SIC).
Design/methodology/approach –Data were collected from 1,003 followers of their favorite clothing
brands’SNS. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling (SEM) and multi-group SEM
analysis. The models were estimated from the matrices of variances and covariances by the maximum
likelihood procedure using EQS 6.1.
Findings –The results highlight the positive impact of U&G on attitude, SNS intentions and SNS use, and
U&G, SNS intentions and SNS use were seen to be the main antecedents predicting purchase intentions.
Furthermore, SIC was found to have moderating effects between SNS attitude and SNS intentions and
between SNS intentions and SNS use.
Practical implications –This research can help clothing brands understand the need to generate brand
beliefs, and to develop contents or events to help accomplish the transition from use to purchase.
Originality/value –This research contributes to the literature by providing a better understanding of
intention to use and purchase intention through clothing brands’SNS pages.
Keywords Theory of planned behaviour, Social network sites, Purchase intentions, Self-image congruity,
Uses and gratifications
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Social networking sites (SNS) are a vast space where businesses and individuals interact
and trade at ever-increasing rates. On average, Facebook has around 1.4bn daily active
users (Facebook, 2018). Instagram has also experienced substantial growth, going from
100m monthly active users in early 2013 to 700m in 2017 (Instagram, 2018). Clothing brands’
SNS activity is also growing. Zara has over 25m “Likes”on Facebook (Zara, 2017a) and
15.4m followers on Instagram (Zara, 2017b) and Mango has 10.5m “Likes”on Facebook
(Mango, 2017a) and 6.1m followers on Instagram (Mango, 2017b). Moreover, shopping
habits and the use of information search systems are changing among consumers of
clothing brands. In total, 52 percent of global clothing shoppers prefer to search for
information about possible purchases online, while 40 percent prefer to actually shop online
(PwC, 2018). These trends are also true in Spain. More than 80 percent of online shoppers
seek information through websites or brand apps, and 53 percent interact on clothing
brands’SNS, while the percentage of offline shoppers who connect to these SNS is
29 percent (PwC, 2018). These figures show that SNS could be essential to clothing-related
brands as a means to understand the motivations driving customers to use their SNS and
their purchase behavior while doing so.
The exponential growth of the use of digital technologies has empowered consumers of
the fashion industry to interact, influence, belong to and be part of the brands. In fact, the
vast majority of consumers use digital channels before, during or after making their
Online Information Review
Vol. 43 No. 5, 2019
pp. 867-892
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-02-2017-0042
Received 8 February 2017
Revised 25 October 2017
2 March 2018
30 September 2018
Accepted 9 November 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
867
Clothing brand
purchase
intention
purchases (Lay, 2018). Thus, SNS participation has become a strong predictor of customer
equity for global brands (Chae and Ko, 2016).
The clothing-related literature suggests that many consumers who visit clothing brands’SNS
do so in search of websites where they can buy products (Touchette et al., 2015). In the same
literature there is also strong evidence of a correlation between SNS usage and online sales
through websites (Zhang et al., 2017). These consumers are informed and selective and they look
for information on social media. Consequently, social media and e-commerce could have already
shifted consumer preferences toward immediate gratifications and heightened expectations for
novelty (Lay, 2018). Accordingly, uses and gratifications (U&G) theory, the theory of planned
behavior (TPB) and self-image congruity (SIC) have been examined in the conceptual framework.
U&G can predict the main motivations and gratifications consumers feel toward SNS,
whereas TPB is able to predict the drivers of attitude on SNS use (Currás-Pérez et al., 2014).
The third theory, SIC, can be used to study how individuals’attitude and behavior toward
clothing brand’s SNS could influence the way they express and match their SIC with the
pages of different brands’SNS (Kourouthanassis et al., 2015). Focusing more particularly on
the first two, on the one hand, U&G identifies how people use media and for what reasons
(Rubin, 2009). Some studies conducted in the SNS context show that U&G affects the
affective and behavioral factors concerning participation in SNS (Sun et al., 2017). Others
have identified how motivations influence the intention to use SNS (Dhir et al., 2017; Han
et al., 2015; Wu et al., 2010; Zhou, 2011). On the other hand, TPB is aimed at identifying
individual planned behavior and has been employed in many previous studies that seek to
determine what factors drive users’willingness to use SNS for entertainment purposes
(Al-Debei et al., 2013; Baker and White, 2010; Kim et al., 2016). By considering U&G and TPB
together, we think that relevant information regarding users’adoption of clothing brands’
SNS and their purchase intentions will be revealed. However, both theories have only been
used to measure SNS’intentions to use or use, not as antecedents of purchase intentions
(Currás-Pérez et al., 2014; Dermentzi et al., 2016). Conversely, each theory alone would not be
able to show the same level of information. Given that, to the best of our knowledge, no
previous studies have specifically examined the influence of U&G on attitude and users’
adoption of SNS in the context of clothing brands as antecedents of purchase intentions
through SNS, additional clarification is needed in order to examine the effects of the
motivational and behavioral factors on purchase intentions among users of clothing brands’
SNS pages. Thus, the first research question is:
RQ1. How do U&G influence user attitude and the adoption of clothing br ands’SNS pages?
It is known that in the case of clothing products, customers’SIC moderates the
decision-making process and influences their attitudes and intentions toward a product
(Haj-Salem et al., 2015). Furthermore, when customers purchase a product, they consider
their own identity and self-image in association with that brand (Sirgy, 1985). This matching
is also produced on SNS. For example, Kang et al. (2013) identified a positive relationship
between SNS users with a high degree of SIC and continuance intentions and continued use.
Therefore, different results may occur depending on the level of SIC. However, the literature
examining the moderating effects of SIC in consumer behavior on SNS is scarce, and no
studies have been reported within the context of clothing brands’SNS pages. Accordingly,
we aim to answer the following research question:
RQ2. Are there any differences in the relationships between attitude and SNS intention,
between SNS intention and SNS use, and between SNS use and purchase intentions
among the users of clothing brands’SNS according to their different levels of SIC?
This study aims to help expand the explanatory power of TPB among users of clothing
brands’SNSpages by incorporating the motivationalfactors of U&G theory as an antecedent.
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