GEMMA ROSE T.

CUNAMAY MAY 03,2021

BSBA MM-2201 DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT

JOURNAL ARTICLE REVIEW

Irshad, M., Ahmad, M.S. and Malik, O.F. “Understanding Consumers’ Trust in Social Media
Marketing Environment”. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management (2020)
Vol. 48 No. 11: pp. 1195-1212. Reviewed by Gemma Rose T. Cunamay. BSBA Marketing
Management- 2201

In the fields of psychology, marketing, and customer behavior, motivation is a key term.
The desire to accomplish goals can be described as motivation. In order to understand why
customers, participate in shopping practices, both online and physical retailers must provide a
thorough understanding of customer motives. The use of social media platforms to develop,
connect, distribute, and share product offerings that have value for an organization's stakeholders
is known as social media marketing. From the standpoint of uses and gratifications, social media
marketing can be seen as including a variety of motivating factors. The Uses and gratifications
theory (UGT) is one of the most widely used theories to explain consumers' underlying desires and
how they influence various behavioral intentions. The primary goal of UGT is to demonstrate how
various needs, often known as motivations, lead people to use a specific medium to meet those
needs. Researchers believe that UGT can be used to better consider customers' desires when it
comes to social media marketing. Previous research has used UGT to investigate the effects of
various forms of customer motivations (utilitarian and hedonic) on a variety of behavioral
outcomes, such as consumers' intentions to enter brand sites.

Researchers have empirically evaluated the TRA by extracting elements from it in online
and social media environments, such as confidence and purchasing intentions. The TRA can be
used for confidence-related research, according to Kim and Park (2012), because trust can be
viewed as a preceding belief factor that influences an individual's online purchasing intentions.
Other researchers have used the TRA as a theoretical tool to empirically examine the relationship
between confidence and purchase intentions in a social media context. As a result, they use UGT
and the TRA to illustrate how antecedents like motivation and confidence can influence consumers'
online buying intentions in a social media context. Consumers' ability to receive rewards in the
form of discount discounts, complimentary coupons and samples, and other loyalty bonuses is
referred to as remuneration motivation. Consumers' reactions to any marketing offer are heavily
influenced by promotional offers, which often aid in the development of optimistic buying
intentions. Incentives for customers in the offline world have traditionally been shown to have a
substantial positive impact on confidence in retailers. Businesses on social media, including those
in physical stores, allow customers and fans to engage in sweepstakes, competitions, and other
promotional events through their various social media platforms. In their research, Kang et al.
(2015) found that monetary benefits moderate the relationship between active engagement on a
brand's Facebook pages and brand confidence. Individuals can now share or search out product
information from their personal social networks and even strangers, thanks to the advent of social
media, which allows them to communicate and form relationships with like-minded peers. While
the idea of empowerment has been extensively debated in the social sciences, consumer
empowerment has received little attention in the sense of consumer behavior. Individuals are
motivated by empowerment to use online media to exert their influence or control over other
people or organizations. Consumers who are well-informed in today's world aren't just goals for
marketers; their effect on how marketing efforts are shaped is also worth paying attention to.
Consumers now have more influence than ever before thanks to the proliferation of emerging
Internet technologies, which have given them expanded information capacities and greater
freedom of choice. Consumers may use social media to amplify their voices all over the world.
Businesses may use empowerment tactics to capture customer ideas, reactions, and suggestions
for product and process innovation. The involvement of a large number of different retailers on
social media has resulted in increased competition; as a result, retailers must accept customers'
feedback regarding their goods and services in order to increase customer loyalty and online
purchasing intentions. In many Asian countries, several companies, including well-known brands
and even small businesses, use social media to promote their goods and services. Since a large
number of people are present on social media and regularly give their opinions about the goods
and services provided by various retailers, trust is crucial in transactions involving social media.
In a number of studies, trust has been established as a significant mediating variable. Different
variables have an effect on consumer behavior when they take the logical path, i.e., trust, which
signifies its mediating function. Trust fosters cooperation among the various parties involved in a
partnership and aids customers in making informed decisions. Consumers are unable to form
constructive behavioral intentions if they believe the other party is taking advantage of them and
is unable to keep promises. Consumers and sellers form emotional bonds as a result of trust, which
affects the relationship between various variables and behavioral intentions. Given the significance
of customer confidence, researchers have suggested that it be tested as a mediator between
antecedents such as website efficiency and outcomes such as online purchasing intentions.
However, on social media, there is a debate about consumers' confidence in retailers as an
underlying mechanism in influencing the relationships between consumers' motives and their
online purchasing intentions.

As a key driving force of customer online buying intentions, trust is critical in mitigating
uncertain feelings and enabling actual purchases. When consumers' needs are met, they may
establish positive behavioral intentions (such as purchase intentions). The findings have important
theoretical implications. It adds to our knowledge of the factors that influence confidence and
online buying intentions in the context of retailing in a social-mediated marketing context. It adds
to the body of knowledge in the field of trust by focusing on customers' underlying desires and
motives. Furthermore, researchers have suggested that current theories or basic models may be
used to produce testable hypotheses in order to better understand various aspects of consumer
behavior in a socially mediated marketing context. Three other forms of customer motives were
included in their research. It looked at customers' remuneration motivation to see how it affected
their confidence in social media retailers. Previous research has looked at the effect of monetary
incentive on users' interaction with social media posts in terms of posting, liking, and commenting.
The research looked at the effect of remuneration motivation (such as sweepstakes, promotional
deals, and other seasonal sales) on consumers' confidence in social media retailers as well as online
purchasing intentions.