1. Sergio Martín
Ferran Giones
Dr. Francesc Miralles
Social Media engagement as an
e-commerce driver, a consumer
behavior perspective
CISTI 2014
Barcelona
18-21 June 2014

2. Introduction (1/2)
• The irruption of the Web 2.0 and the Social Media
offer opportunities and challenges for e-commerce
players (Kim & Srivastava, 2007) .
• Social Media allows consumers to generate
information and share opinions with a bigger scope and
much more impact (Hennig Thurau et al., 2010).
• Consumers have gained influence on other
consumer's decision and purchase process.
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3. Introduction (2/2)
• Companies have lost perception of control on the
information flow during the purchase decision process.
• Organizations in e-commerce could benefit from a
better understanding of this often unobserved first
stage that now can be explored: problem recognition
stage (Santesmases, 2004).
• This work aims to analyze the relationship between
Social Media engagement (Facebook usage) and the
drivers of the problem recognition stage for the
purchase process.
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4. Literature Review (1/4)
• Understand the consumer behavior change and the
influence of the Social Media.
• The Engel, Kollat and Blackwell Model (EKB) uses the
purchase decision process to study the consumer
behavior.
• The EKB Model pictures the components of the
decision making process and highlights the multiple
links and interactions between different components.
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Problem
Recognition
Search
Evaluation of
alternatives
Choice Outcomes

5. Literature Review (2/4)
• The problem recognition is a passive process, difficult to
predict or influence (Sirgy et al., 2008).
• Problem recognition is the psychological process by which
the individual evaluates the difference between the “actual
state” and the “desired state” in relation to a good or
service.
• Actual state: the way an individual perceives his or her
feelings and situations to be at the present time.
• Desired state: the way an individual wants to feel or be at
the present time (Hawkins et al., 2010).
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6. Literature Review (3/4)
• The problem recognition stage of the consumer is
affected by different factors: (1) situational influences,
(2) consumer influences and (3) marketing influences
(Sirgy et al., 2008).
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Desired
State
Actual
State

7. Literature Review (4/4)
• Marketing and e-commerce researchers are
interested in understanding how the Web 2.0 and
Social Media are influencing the consumer behavior
(Kaplan et al., 2010).
• Facebook has emerged as the dominant online social
network and it’s a reference to study Social Media
engagement and the consumer behavior changes
(Wilson et al., 2012).
• Facebook could be a great platform to channel the
influence from one to another consumer, impacting on
the desired state of the consumer (Mukina, 2010).
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8. Research gap (1/2)
• Consumer behavior and Social Media literature offer
the possibility to build a framework to advance on the
understanding of the e-commerce era purchase
process.
• To the knowledge of the authors of this research, there is
still little empirical research on this area.
• Theoretical framework to explore different patterns in
the activation of the problem recognition using
Facebook usage as an indicator.
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9. Research gap (2/2)
*Based in the framework proposed by Punj & Srinivasan (1992)
• Explore whether the usage of Facebook introduces
differences in perceived state and thus would be
indicative of different paths to problem recognition
activation*.
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FB Usage↑
FB Usage↓
Desired state
Actual state
Problem
Recognition
- Higher expected
satisfaction
- New need
- Current dissatisfaction
- Product depletion
H1a
H2
Need
Opportunity

10. Method & Data
• Quantitative research approach, hypothesis test.
• Study on the acquisition of a smartphone.
• Self-administered online questionnaire to gather
evidence available during summer of 2013.
• Statistical analysis using T-Student test to check
significant differences in the perceived state (actual vs
desired) regarding the activation of the problem
recognition.
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11. Results (1/2)
• 101 individuals, 44% women and 56% men, with an
average age of 28 years.
• Facebook usage frequency as a group variable: “low
Facebook usage” and “high Facebook usage”.
• The two groups show differences in the state that
motivated their problem recognition:
• “High usage of Facebook” presents a closer influence to the
desired state as the activator of the purchase.
• “Low usage of Facebook” presents a closer influence to the
actual state as the activator of the purchase.
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12. Results (2/2)
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Social Media engagement
Usage characteristics
0 – actual state
1 - undetermined
2 – desired state

13. Limitations & Further Research
• Social and cognitive changes related to age and
experience could affect consumer state.
• Further research could benefit from introducing other
types of products purchases and reaching a more
varied population sample, both in age and
demographic profiles.
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14. Conclusions
• Web 2.0 and Social Media era have reignited the e-
commerce adoption.
• High Facebook usage profiles show higher desired
state as the activator of the problem recognition.
• Better understanding on how differences in Social
Media engagement could affect individuals’ e-
commerce purchases.
• Companies could personalize marketing messages so
that the efficacy of their marketing efforts increase.
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15. Sergio Martin
Ferran Giones
Dr. Francesc Miralles
Social Media engagement as an
e-commerce driver, a consumer
behavior perspective
CISTI 2014
Barcelona
18-21 June 2014