The impact of word of mouth occuring through Facebook on the Lebanese consumer's purchase behavior

Abstract

Social network sites are websites that offer a medium for social media which is best described as an intermediate that allow the exchange of contents (Goddard, 2010) and thoughts (Luna, 2011). One of the activities practiced on social network websites is social network which is the pattern of advice seeking and advice giving used to reduce the risk of a decision taken by a decision maker (Goddard, 2010). Social networking through social media has become a phenomenon since it gave users connected to internet a chance to share their opinion and get in contact with other users instantly, easily and constantly despite the geographical barrier. Word of mouth which is defined as the act of sharing attitudes, opinions and feedback that leads to a major role in consumer decision making process depends on social network (Richins & Root-Shaffer, 1988). Past studies done outside Middle East region about this subject have shown an influence of social media on purchase decision and sales (Chevalier and Mayzlin 2006; Liu 2006; Moe and Trusov 2011; Berger & Shwartz 2011). Moreover, studies show that word of mouth and trust increases as sender and receiver are alike (Brown and Reingen, 1987; Price et al., Gilly et al., 1998; Bayon & Wangenheim, 2003). Based on the above studies from other countries, two hypothesis were developed stating that trust and closeness of social tie between sender and receiver are positively associated with the intention to adopt information shared on facebook as an aid in purchase decision-making process second hypothesis states that word of mouth occuring through Facebook has positive effect on purchase decision making process. This study will concentrate on Facebook which was chosen out of all social media network sites since this site was recorded to be the most visited social media network sites in the world (Alexa, 2012) including Lebanon which will be the focus of the study. Lebanon has shown an increase in internet and smart phones users in the past years in parallel with an increase in Facebook usage. This rising phenomenon is to be detected and analysed to determine its effect on purchase decision. This will be done by analysing the data findings gathered from 190 respondents living in Lebanon. In addition to demographics, key questions include frequency of visits to Facebook, smart phones, degree tie strengh, trust and word of mouth influence; Tie strengh is defined as a combination of the amount of time, emotional intensity, intimacy, and the reciprocal services which characterize the tie (Granovetter, 1973) whereas Trust is defined as the confidence that the person have in someone or something. Social factorsencouraging word of mouth will be examined in specifically trust and tie strengh. Findings from the statistical analyses concluded that trust and tie strengh have positive effect on the word of mouth ; on the other hand word of mouth was shown to influence purchase decision. A cross-cultural comparison was done between Lebanon, Chine and USA in order to know which of those social factors have greater influence on word of mouth transfer occuring through using social network sites in those countries. China and Lebanon was shown to shave greater influence than USA. Managerial implications are presented for global marketers in the end which includes using incentives to increase the enthusiasm of posting positive reviews which will lead to positive results for the company.