Title:	INFLUENCING FACTORS FOR PURCHASE OF VIRTUAL AND DIGITAL GOODS
Author(s):	Mayank Sharma, Pradeep Kumar, Bharat Bhasker
ISBN:	978-989-8704-03-0
Editors:	Piet Kommers and Pedro Isaías
Year:	2014
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Social networking sites, social apps, TAM, word of mouth, purchase intention, virtual goods, digital goods
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	3
Last Page:	10
Language:	English
Cover:
Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	Social networking sites have become a hub for personal interactions and business transactions in Internet. Social apps exist in these social networking sites and thrive in the environment provided by them. The network effect observed in social networks provides ideal way to spread word of mouth about the products and services. Motivated by these facts, companies are focusing more on social networking sites to promote their products and identify new sources of revenue generation. One such nascent way is by sale of virtual and digital goods through social apps in social networking sites. Social networking sites provide a platform for social apps and the features favoring the growth of users in social apps. Apart from sale of virtual and digital goods, the word of mouth intentions of user to spread the information about such social apps and their virtual and digital goods is extremely important. Word of mouth helps social app providers to increase their user base and influence the purchase decision for their virtual and digital goods. To the best of our knowledge, research in this area is growing, with limited studies exploring the business potential involved with purchase of virtual and digital goods. The objective of our paper is to identify the influencing factors for purchase decision and word of mouth of virtual and digital goods in social apps existing in social networking sites. In our exploratory study, we incorporated Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), social influence, social app usage among other constructs. Our findings from our empirically validated research model indicate that the social self-image expression is an important determinant of both purchase intention and word of mouth of virtual and digital goods. Also, the adoption of social networking sites affects the social app usage which in turn affects the purchase intention of virtual and digital goods.
	Go Back