Exploring The Impact Of Trust, Social Influence, And Peer Recommendation On Buying Behavior In Online Shopping: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach"

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of trust, perceived reliability, social influence, and peer recommendation on buying behavior in online shopping. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the relationships between latent variables and their observed counterparts. The findings revealed significant positive relationships between social influence, peer recommendation, trust, and buying decision, indicating that consumers are influenced by external factors and tend to trust recommendations from peers when making online purchases. Moreover, trust emerged as a key factor, highlighting the importance of consumer trust in online transactions. However, perceived reliability showed a trend towards significance, suggesting that while consumers value reliability, its impact may not reach conventional levels of statistical significance. The study contributes to understanding consumer behavior in the online shopping context, providing valuable insights for businesses and policymakers. Moving forward, exploring the impact of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality on online consumer behavior represents a promising area for future research, offering opportunities to enhance customer engagement and drive sales in the digital marketplaceinsights into student perceptions regarding the program's efficacy.