The Role of Trust on Social Media Purchase Behavior: A Study on Young Consumers in the Context of the Technology Acceptance Model

Abstract

In today's dynamic market conditions, it has become a critical competitive element for businesses to use social media platforms in their marketing activities in order to raise awareness about their products and services, improve their brand image, make their relations with existing customers sustainable, and reach new customer groups. Social media platforms, whose number of users is increasing day by day, have caused a great transformation not only in the daily lives of individuals but also in their businesses, especially in their marketing activities. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the impact of social media marketing activities on young consumers within the framework of the technology acceptance model. In the research, the perception of trust in the social media purchasing behaviors of young consumers was emphasized, and trust in social media was adapted to the Technology Acceptance Model as an external factor. In this context, a research model was established as a result of examining the relations between the related theoretical and applied research and the related variables, and the research was designed quantitatively based on the cause-and-effect relationship in order to test the hypotheses put forward in the conceptual framework. Survey data collected from young consumers in Turkey was analyzed with PLS-SEM. The findings of the research show that young consumers' perception of trust in social media shows that the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of social media use positively affect and are an important determinant of purchasing behavior. In addition, it is among the research findings that the social media purchasing behaviors of young consumers are positively affected by perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, two important factors of the technology acceptance model