Understanding university students’ online purchase decisions through social networking services (Snss)

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effect of e-business integration with social networking services (SNSs), with a particular focus on university students’ online purchase decisions. A quantitative study was adopted, using online survey approach to collect 513 valid empirical data from the university students. Data analysis was conducted by SPSS, started from descriptive aspect to regression test progressively. Several impact factors namely advertisements (ads) on web-page, ads on official homepages, ads on interest groups, and ads posted by friends associated with SNSs were identified and the usage of SNS showed significant impact on university students’ online purchase decisions. The findings suggest SNSs is one of essential tool for the online purchase decision from the Chinese university students’ perspective.