Paper Title
Endorser Credibility and its Influence on The Purchase Intention of Social Networking Sites Consumer: A Mediating Role of Attitudes Towards SNS Advertising
Abstract
Advertising becomes important for the companies to promote their products to the customers. The evolution of
technology has made many companies to shift from traditional advertising medium to new medium such as Internet as their
advertising channel. Social networking sites (SNS) advertising become one of the most popular advertising in Internet due to
increasing numbers of SNS users in Malaysia. However, Malaysia businesses were found to be not having a clear strategy of
SNS advertising and do not recognize the impacts to their businesses. This study examined one of the strategies that has been
used in SNS advertising which is the influence of endorser credibility and online purchase intention of SNS consumers in
Malaysia. The endorser credibility model was developed by Ohanion (1991) and Affect Transfer Hypothesis (ATH) has been
used in this study. The study carried out in Klang Valley using 200 respondents. Three elements were used to measure the
endorser credibility, which are, attractiveness, expertise and trustworthiness. To examine the relationship, this paper employs
an SPSS test that is capable of testing the relationship between the variables. The findings from this study showed that a
credible endorser leads the consumers to have an online purchase intention. Other than that, this study proved that attitudes
towards SNS advertising mediates the relationship between endorser credibility and online purchase intention. Overall, the
study provides supportive evidence on the impact of using endorser in SNS advertising and the results help businesses to
formulate better strategy in advertising.
Keywords- Social Networking Sites Advertising; Endorser Credibility; and Online Purchase Intention.