M.A. Thesis:

Investigating the effect of subjective norms and perceived usefulness on online purchasing behavior by mediation of purchase intention

Since consumers are the inflection point of all the marketing activities, successful marketing begins with understanding why and how they behave in a specific manner. For understanding the consumers' behavior, behavioral intention is of the most important factors, which is considered as the key to understanding consumer behavior. Accordingly, after reviewing the literature relating to online purchase intention and purchase behavior, the purpose of this study was to examine the mediating role of purchase intention in the relationship between subjective norms and perceived usefulness and purchase behavior. In doing so, 487 students of Hakim Sabzevari University were investigated by distributing the questionnaires and 400 well-qualified ones were returned. Gathered data was analyzed using the structural equation modeling technique. Research results indicated that the tested model is goodly fitted to data, and all the seven hypotheses were statistically confirmed. According to these results, the effect of subjective norms and perceived usefulness on online purchase intention, and the effect of online purchase intention on online purchasing behavior was significant. In addition, indirect effects of subjective norms and perceived usefulness on on online purchasing behavior by mediation of online purchase intention were statistically significant. In the tested model, independent variables had no direct effect on online purchasing behavior. In general, results of this study indicated the efficiency of proposed model for increasing the under-study students' purchasing behavior.

Keywords: Subjective norm, Perceived usefulness, Online purchasing, Hakim Sabzevari University