Investigating the determinants of consumers’ attitude towards social media marketing: Moderating role of gender

Social media marketing is a trending topic in marketing research. However the research on its effectiveness is still at embryonic stage. Marketers are faced with challenging issues of identifying consumers’ motivations that affect subsequent trust on social media retailers and attitudes of consumers with respect to social media marketing. The aim of the present research is to address these gaps and identify the impact of consumers’ socialization motivation on consumers’ attitude towards social media marketing and trust on social media retailers. In addition to this, the study identifies the moderating role of gender in affecting the relationship between socialization motivation, trust and attitude towards social media marketing. Data were collected from three cities of Pakistan. Structural equation modelling through AMOS was used to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that socialization motivation has a positive impact on consumer’ trust on social media retailers. Moreover, socialization motivation has a positive impact on consumers’ attitude towards social media marketing. Trust on social media retailers has a significant positive impact on consumers’ attitude towards social media marketing. Gender was found as an important moderating variable in affecting the path estimates among different variables of the research model. The study has important theoretical and managerial implications and concludes with few limitations and future research directions.