Environmental Sustainability Information Moderates the Relationship between Social Media Use and the Intention to Purchase Technology-Based Products

This study explores the relationships among four concepts including the perceptions formed by customers of new technology-based products who are influenced by environmentally sustainable, publicly available information including organizations’ marketing communications (ESI), the use of social media to obtain new technology-based product purchase information (SMPI), the use of social media for communicating with friends (SMCF), and customers’ intentions to purchase new technology-based products (PI). The major research question that this study addresses is do customers’ perceptions of environmentally sustainable information (ESPI) moderate the relationship between the use of social media to obtain new product purchase information (SMPI) and customers’ intentions to purchase new technology-based products (PI), and the relationship between the use of social media for communicating with friends (SMCF) and customers’ intentions to purchase new technology-based products (PI)? This study found that social media used to obtain product purchase information (SMPI) has a positive influence on customers’ intentions to purchase technology-based products (PI) whereas social media used for communicating with friends (SMCF) has a negative influence on customers’ intentions to purchase technology-based products (PI). Additionally, the perception of environmentally sustainable public information (ESPI) moderates and negatively accentuates the relationship between the use of social media used for communicating with friends (SMCF) and customers’ intentions to purchase new technology-based products (PI).