Abstract
This study investigates the factors influencing Generation Y men’s electronic trust (e-trust) and purchase intention towards athleisure apparel on Instagram within South Africa’s social commerce landscape. As the South African athleisure market continues expanding, understanding the digital purchasing behaviours of Generation Y men – who represent a substantial portion of this market segment – has become crucial for retailers operating in the social commerce space.
The research employs a multi-theoretical framework integrating relationship marketing theory, perceived risk theory, social media engagement theory, and communication privacy management theory. Using a quantitative methodology, the study examines data from Generation Y men across the Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, and Tshwane metropolitan areas through purposive and quota sampling techniques. The investigation revealed significant non-normal data distributions across all constructs, necessitating appropriate analytical approaches and median-based descriptive statistics.
The study examined relationships between six antecedents – e-service quality, social support, online customer reviews, Instagram cues, online shopping experience, and perceived risk – and e-trust formation, while exploring the moderating influences of perception of privacy and electronic word of mouth on purchase intention.
Key findings reveal several counter-intuitive relationships that challenge conventional social commerce theory. Most notably, perceived risk demonstrates a strong positive influence on e-trust, contradicting traditional assumptions and suggesting that Generation Y men interpret transparent risk acknowledgement as evidence of retailer credibility, rather than weakness. Online shopping experience and Instagram cues also emerge as significant positive predictors of e-trust. Unexpectedly, online customer reviews exhibit a negative influence on e-trust, indicating that digitally sophisticated consumers may perceive excessive review focus as potentially manipulated, preferring authentic visual storytelling inherent to Instagram’s platform.
E-trust emerges as the strongest predictor of purchase intention, confirming its critical mediating role in consumer decision-making, while electronic word of mouth demonstrates a significant independent influence. The validated model demonstrates exceptional explanatory power for both e-trust and purchase intention outcomes. Hypothesised moderation effects are...