The Impact of Social Media Marketing and Influencer Credibility on the Purchasing Decision Behavior via Social Commerce of Generation Y in Nakhon Pathom Province

Abstract

While social commerce has fundamentally altered consumer behavior, empirical evidence regarding the specific mechanisms through which social media marketing activities and influencer credibility drive the purchasing decisions of Generation Y (Gen-Y) in expanding peri-urban economies remains limited. Addressing this research gap, this study encompasses two primary objectives 1) to compare Gen-Y's purchasing decision behaviors via social commerce based on demographic factors, and 2) to investigate the impact of social media marketing and influencer credibility on these behaviors within Nakhon Pathom province. Data were collected from a sample of 400 respondents utilizing convenience sampling. A rigorously validated and reliable questionnaire served as the research instrument. Analytical techniques included percentage, mean, standard deviation, independent t-tests, One-way ANOVA, and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings revealed that 1) Gen-Y’s purchasing decision behaviors via social commerce exhibited statistically significant differences based on gender and monthly income. 2) Social media marketing exerted the most substantial positive direct effect on purchasing decision behaviors (β = 0.578), followed by a significant positive direct effect from influencer credibility (β = 0.384). Furthermore, social media marketing demonstrated a profound positive direct effect on influencer credibility (β = 0.926), significantly explaining 85.70% of its variance (R2= 0.857). Collectively, both constructs accounted for 92.00% of the variance in social commerce purchasing decision behaviors (R2 = 0.920).