Investigating Indian Car Buyers’ Decision to Use Digital Marketing Communication: An Empirical Application of Decomposed TPB

Abstract

Digital marketing communication has affected consumer behaviour across product categories like books, music, fashion accessories, clothing, banking, online gaming, and so on. However, the automobile industry, despite being one of the largest digital spenders in India for past many years, has faced a dearth of academic studies. The objective of the research is to investigate the Indian car buyers’ decision to use digital marketing communication while buying a car using Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour model (DTPB). Data was collected from 801 actual and potential car buyers from Delhi. Structural equation modelling was used to assess the overall fit and explanatory power of the model. The DTPB model successfully explained 63 per cent of the variation in usage intentions. Attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control were found to be the significant determinants affecting usage intentions and actual usage of digital marketing communication.