BEYOND PURCHASE INTENTION: EXPLAINING ACTUAL BUYING BEHAVIOUR THROUGH DIGITAL INFLUENCE AND SOCIAL MEDIA LITERACY

Abstract

Social media has become a major route to purchase in Pakistan, but it is unclear how digital influence turns into completed purchases and for whom. Integrating source credibility theory, the theory of planned behaviour, and the persuasion knowledge model, this study tests a moderated-mediation model in which attitude toward brand and purchase intention mediate the effect of digital influence on actual buying behaviour, and social media literacy moderates the intention–behaviour link. Survey data from 410 social media users aged 18–40 in Punjab, Pakistan, were analysed with partial least squares structural equation modelling (SmartPLS 4; 5,000 bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap resamples). Digital influence strongly predicted attitude toward brand (β = .724) and purchase intention (β = .716) and retained a small direct effect on buying behaviour (β = .165). Attitude (β = .275) and intention (β = .397) predicted buying behaviour, and both mediated the effect of digital influence (indirect β = .199 and .284), jointly carrying about 75% of its total effect (β = .648). Social media literacy had no main effect but positively moderated the intention–behaviour relationship (β = .407): intention strongly predicted behaviour at high literacy (β = .804) and not at low literacy (β = −.010). The model explained 71.7% of the variance in buying behaviour. Discriminant validity was satisfactory, but the literacy construct showed unstable bootstrap loadings, which qualifies the moderation estimate and is discussed. The findings show that influence converts into purchases mainly through intention and attitude and that this conversion depends on consumers’ competence in acting on social media