Viral marketing master thesis

VIRAL MARKETING INFLUENCES ON
FACEBOOK ADVERTISING
EFFECTIVENESS
RACHEL ANAK NOEID
FACULTY OF BUSINESS, ECONOMICS AND
ACCOUNTANCY
UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SABAH
2018

VIRAL MARKETING INFLUENCES ON
FACEBOOK ADVERTISING
EFFECTIVENESS
RACHEL ANAK NOEID
BUSINESS RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMITTED
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE DEGREE
OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
FACULTY OF BUSINESS, ECONOMICS AND
ACCOUNTANCY
UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SABAH
2018

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DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the material in this Business Research Project is my own except for
quotation, excerpts, equations, summaries and references which have been duly
acknowledged.
10 August 2018
Rachel Anak Noeid
MB1712411T

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CERTIFICATION
NAME : RACHEL ANAK NOEID
MATRIC NUMBER : MB1712411T
TITLE :.VIRAL MARKETING INFLUENCES ON FACEBOOK
………………………..ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS
DEGREE : MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
VIVA DATE : 28 AUGUST 2018
CERTIFIED BY;
1. SUPERVISOR
Madam Haslinda Hasan
Signature

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This Business Research Project is dedicated to my loving father, Noeid Anak Linoh for his
endless support. Without him, I would not be able to pursue my Master. To my dearest
mother, Sengan Anak Tongong for her meaningful life advises that keeps me going. I would
like to express my heartiest appreciation to my supervisor, Madam Haslinda Hasan for all
her guidance, advice and time spent to assist and complete my dissertation writing. To all
my best friends, Kathleen, Ester, Debra and Papi, let us be proud of our self-achievements
because we have made this journey full of bittersweet. Let us not forget those sleepless
nights completing our Master journey. This research is also dedicated to my favourite girl
Grace Eza, Happy 25th
Birthday to you and may God bless you abundantly. I would like to
give my heartfelt thanks to all my respondents for your kind participations in my previous
survey. Also not to forget, all my business associates for supporting my academic quest. I
am feeling blessed and honoured to be here in this finishing point of Master of Business
Administration and I am absolutely proud of all of my achievements. Whatever we do in
this life, it is not legendary unless your friends are there to see it. Thank you everyone!
Rachel Anak Noeid
18 September 2018

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ABSTRACT
Originated in the mid 1990’s, the application of viral concept to commercial communication
has represented a broad arrays of opportunities for brands to advertise and turned it into
an active communicator of brand messages. Viral Marketing is commonly used in any forms
of social media. Nowadays, the term ‘viral’ means spreading the messages to others by
hitting ‘share’ button on Facebook. Facebook Advertising on the other hand means a form
of advertisements to promote the business in Facebook. The purpose of this study is to
determine viral influences towards Facebook advertising effectiveness. This study went in-
depth to find viral factors contributing towards Facebook advertising effectiveness. Data
collected from 155 Malaysian Facebook users via Google forms. Among four independent
variables, only two were applicable towards Facebook advertising effectiveness. It was
found that the reason why online viral marketing is important among businesses and
advertisers is because of several types of consumers’ perceived attitudes consisting of
attractiveness, trustworthiness, likeability and informativeness. The findings in this
research will be important for companies who are interested to use viral marketing to reach
out consumers across the globe. Discussion, limitations, contribution of the study and
suggestions for future research are presented in this study.

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ABSTRAK
Pengaruh Pemasaran Viral Terhadap Keberkesanan Iklan Facebook
Bermula pada pertengahan tahun 1990-an, penggunaan konsep tular sebagai komunikasi
komersial telah memberi peluang-peluang yang luas terhadap pelbagai jenama dan
menjadikan ia sebagai komunikator aktif. Pemasaran tular biasanya digunakan dalam
pelbagai bentuk media sosial. Pada masa kini, istilah 'tular' bermaksud menyebarkan mesej
kepada orang lain dengan menekan butang 'sebar' di Facebook. Pengiklanan Facebook
sebaliknya bermaksud satu bentuk iklan untuk mempromosikan perniagaan di Facebook.
Tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk menentukan pengaruh tular terhadap keberkesanan
pengiklanan Facebook. Kajian ini berkenaan tentang pencarian faktor-faktor tular yang
menyumbang terhadap keberkesanan pengiklanan Facebook. Data yang dikumpul
daripada 155 pengguna Facebook Malaysia melalui borang Google. Antara empat
pembolehubah, hanya dua yang terpakai terhadap keberkesanan pengiklanan Facebook.
Oleh yang demikian, jelaslah bahawa pemasaran tular dalam talian adalah penting dalam
kalangan perniagaan dan pengiklanan dan terdapat beberapa jenis sikap yang dilihat dalam
pengguna yang terdiri daripada daya tarikan, kepercayaan, kesabaran dan maklumat.
Penemuan dalam kajian ini akan menjadi kepentingan kepada syarikat-syarikat yang
berminat untuk menggunakan pemasaran tular untuk menarik minat pengguna-pengguna
di seluruh dunia. Perbincangan, batasan, sumbangan kajian dan cadangan untuk kajian
masa depan akan diperhalusi lebih dalam melalui kajian ini.

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LIST OF CONTENTS
Page
DECLARATION ii
CERTIFICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
ABSTRACT v
ABSTRAK vi
LIST OF CONTENT vii
LIST OF TABLES x
LIST OF FIGURES xi
LIST OF ABBREVIATION xii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Problem Statement 4
1.3 Research Objectives 6
1.4 Research Questions 7
1.5 Significance of Study 7
1.6 Scope of Study 8
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction 9
2.1 Facebook Advertising Effectiveness 9
2.2 Viral Marketing 10
2.3 Viral Marketing Attitude 12
2.4 Trustworthiness 13
2.5 Attractiveness 14

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2.6 Likeability 15
2.7 Informativeness 15
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction 17
3.1 Research Framework 17
3.2 Proposed Research Hypotheses 19
3.3 Research Design 20
3.4 Research Instrument 20
3.4.1 Questionnaire Design 20
3.4.2 Measurement Items for Advertising Effectiveness 21
3.4.3 Measurement Items for Viral Attractiveness 22
3.4.4 Measurement Items for Viral Trustworthiness 22
3.4.5 Measurement Items for Viral Likeability 23
3.4.6 Measurement Items for Viral Informativeness 23
3.5 Sampling 24
3.6 Data Collection Method 24
3.7 Data Analysis Technique 24
3.8 Summary 25
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
4.0 Introduction 26
4.1 Profile of Respondents 26
4.2 Factor Analysis 28
4.3 Measurement Models
4.3.1 Convergent Validity
4.3.2 Fornell- Larcker
4.3.3 Heterotrait-Monotrait (HTMT)
30
30
32
32
4.4 Bootstrapping 37
4.5 Reliability Analysis 39
4.6 Descriptive Analysis 39
4.7 Multiple Regression and Hypothesis Testing 40
4.8 Summary of Findings 44

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CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
5.0 Introduction 45
5.1 Recapitulation 45
5.2 Discussion 46
5.2.1 Viral Attractiveness towards Facebook Advertising
Effectiveness
46
5.2.2 Viral Trustworthiness towards Facebook Advertising
Effectiveness
5.2.3 Viral Likeability towards Facebook Advertising Effectiveness
5.2.4 Viral Informativeness towards Facebook Advertising
Effectiveness
47
48
48
5.3 Limitation of the Study 49
5.4 Contribution of the Study
5.4.1 Contribution to Academicians
5.4.2 Contribution to Businesses
5.4.3 Contribution to Government
49
50
50
51
5.5 Suggestions for Future Research 51
5.6 Conclusion 51
REFERENCES 53
APPENDIX 63

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LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 3.1 Facebook Advertising Effectiveness Measurement Items 21
Table 3.2 Viral Attractiveness Measurement Items 22
Table 3.3 Viral Trustworthiness Measurement Items 22
Table 3.4 Viral Likeability Measurement Items 23
Table 3.5 Viral Informativeness Measurement Items 23
Table 4.1 Profile of Respondents 27
Table 4.2 Factor Analysis 28
Table 4.3 Measurement of the Item Constructs 29
Table 4.4 Convergent Validity 31
Table 4.5 Fornell-Larcker 32
Table 4.6 Heterotrait-Monotrait (HTMT) 33
Table 4.7 Loadings and Cross Loadings 34
Table 4.8 Reliability Analysis 39
Table 4.9 Descriptive Analysis 40
Table 4.10 Hypotheses Testing 42
Table 4.11 Confidence Level 42
Table 4.12 Predictive Relevance 43
Table 4.13 Summary of Hypothesis Testing 44

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.1 Research Framework of Viral Marketing Influences on
Facebook Advertising Effectiveness.
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Figure 4.1 Result of Path Analysis 36
Figure 4.2 Bootstrapping 38

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List of Abbreviation
ASA - Advertising Standards Authority
MDA - Malaysian Digital Association

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction
The introductory chapter is to discuss the background of the study and aims to provide the
insights of marketing communication underlying in social media. This chapter further
discuss the research background, problem statement followed by research objectives,
research questions, significance of study, and scope of study.
1.1 Background of the Study.
The fundamental of marketing is to target the right customers with the right valuable
message in order to meet their needs and wants profitability (Keller and Kotler, 2009).
Marketing concept before Internet era started when customer focus through developing
products and services that could meet their needs and wants instead of going further into
mass production for products that already exist (Jones and Shaw, 2002; Minowa and
Witkowski, 2009; Moore and Reid, 2008; Shaw and Jones, 2005). According to Wilkie and
Moore (2006), they highlighted that in the 1950s, where televisions and radios were the
most common method of media playing the roles of advertising. They also noted that soon
after the emergence of selling concept, goods were widely available and marketers back
in the days were aggressively pushed their customers to buy through many sorts of offline
communications like advertising, direct selling, public relation and sponsorship. Apart from
that, such trends before Internet era suggesting that traditional mass media advertising
like television, printed ads, radio, newspapers advertising is not the way of the future

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(Leskovec, Adamic and Huberman, 2007). Past literature had proved that the popularity of
traditional marketing strategies would continue to decline overtime, as the Internet
penetration rate increases and the traditional marketing messages credibility continue
being uncertained (Sweeney, Soutar and Mazzarol, 2012).
Since the introduction of Facebook in 2004, the number of its worldwide users has
increasing significantly, along with the increasing penetration rate of smartphones
(Malaysian Digital Association, 2017) to possibly keep us connected at anywhere and
anytime. Subsequently, huge influenced has impacted on people’s everyday life in forms
of social changes and knowledge exchange because they can socialize with their peers
across the globe easily while sharing knowledge with just a few clicks (Statista, 2014).
Such impactful changes in social network sites thus created many new opportunities among
businesses to get even closer to their customers in terms of marketing perspectives.
The emerging social media advertising approaches have gained an important role
over the past few years, providing more useful tools for advertisers to influence their target
customers directly at a minimum cost. Viral marketing is the new term used worldwide as
mean of spreading messages which Wolpponen et al. (2006) considered as part of internet
word-of-mouth advertising. Multiple social media formats are used in the process such as
Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Whatsapp and Facebook. Among all these social media
platforms, Facebook will be the major focus for this research study because the right
marketing content will determine the viral marketing speed and amount of attentions spend
by Facebook users.
The growing use of Facebook is on the rise and the entire Malaysian population do
not want to be left behind in this digital era. It is indeed the most famous social media
used among Malaysians. Statistic shows that Facebook penetration in Malaysia in 2017 is
67% compare to other social networking sites (Global Web Index, 2017). With this growing
percentage, it leads to more business opportunities because Facebook provide numerous
advantages for businesses to possibly connect with consumers directly at a timely manner
and cost efficient (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010).
In fact, the number of television viewership in Malaysia for which advertising are
excessively channelled into are expected to decline with the emergence of digital
(comScore Media and Video Metrics, 2015). The belief under the dying number of television
viewers is that Malaysians are watching more digital contents being viraled on a daily basis.

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Television advertisers nowadays are facing the devotion of social media among
consumers so much until their lives revolve around it. A recent survey by Kantar TNS
Malaysia and Google Malaysia interestingly found Malaysians preferred to watch online viral
contents daily rather than normal television broadcast (Malaysian Digest, 2017). Not only
that, Malaysian Digital Association (2016) showed Malaysians average time spent watching
online videos a week is 7.2 hours and 42% of Malaysian online users watch television
content and movies from the Internet. Such interesting trends may suggests that more
and more people are switching their viewing medium from television to Facebook thus,
increasing its effectiveness in terms of advertising.
Viral marketing is generally viewed as a type of electronic word-of-mouth, aim to
persuade pass along messages by forwarding from one to another (Patel, 2009). Spread
like a virus (Wilson, 2000), viral marketing began to rise in online social environment along
with the rapid development of e-commerce (Cheng, Sheen and Lou, 2006). As such, viral
marketing creates domino effect because of one person forward the content to another
and another, and is continuing to reach more audience. Palka et al. (2009) suggests this
domino effect of viral marketing stating that consumers can be influenced by marketing
message that are shared from one consumer to another like an unrestrained influenza
virus. In Malaysia, the term viral is so common and mainstream and is deemed to be one
of the most powerful marketing technique used among Malaysian marketers to grab
consumers’ attention.
Nonetheless, Malaysian consumers are mostly exposed to viral contents of
ridiculous video clips, sensational singing and immoral act caught on video posted by the
famous Facebook viral websites like ‘Siakap Keli’, ‘Rojak Daily’, ‘Oh Bulan!’, ‘Himpunan
Cerita Lawak’ and many other websites (Socialbakers.com, 2018). All these Malaysian
famous Facebook viral websites share similar tactic used by Hotmail. Hotmail is a classic
example of successful viral marketing back in the early millennium resulting an exponential
growth from zero to 12 million within 18 months, with 270,000 new users every day
(Bronson, 1998; Jurvetson, 2000; Ralph F. Wilson, 2012). The viral tactics used among
Malaysian famous Facebook websites share similarities with Hotmail in terms of posting
chain messages towards other users. These messages reached to targeted users and then
decided to share or forward to their connections and their connections did the same to
their secondary connections, and so the list went on. According to Wan Hong and Yusniza
Kamarulzaman (2016), their previous research found that most Malaysian respondents

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have a repeated sharing content behaviour and are willing to proceed such act of viral
contents online. In their previous research supported that most Malaysians Whatsapp users
favour funny, informative and inspirational messages which further suggest that marketers
must bring out a positive consumers’ attitude towards viral advertisements.
1.2 Problem Statement
Facebook today has profoundly represent an important viral marketing channel since it has
won the largest number of users compared with others (Global Web Index, 2016).
Nowadays, we can see businessmen and entrepreneurs are learning about the potentials
of viral marketing on Facebook in order to promote their products and services in a cheaper
way. However, viral marketing in Malaysia today is still far behind Thailand, China and
other neighbouring countries in terms of overall attractiveness, informativeness, likeability
and trustworthiness in spite of its significant potentials.
Statistics have shown that most Malaysian advertisers and marketers are yet to
exploit the potentials of Facebook viral marketing in delivering effective marketing
campaigns. According to Malaysian Advertisers Association (2017), viral marketing
knowledge is what marketing managers and advertising firms are lacking of. Take into
account on how Thailand advertisers exploit viral marketing in social media and became
successful in China (Manya Koetse, 2017) with millions of viewers, likes, shares, followers
and subscribers. Manya Koetse in her published article reporting social trends in China
highlights that Thailand commercials are greatly focused on narrative and plot which made
it highly attractive. Music played in every Thailand commercials are essential in developing
the commercial’s movie-like atmosphere. She proposes the reason why Thailand
advertisers are among the successful viral marketers in Asian countries like China is due to
family ties and filial duty emphasized, which are also essential to reflect Chinese culture.
Malaysian advertisers and marketer on the contrary, are restrained by Advertising
Standards Authority (ASA) established since 1977, a Malaysia Code of Practice to advertise.
According to ASA (2014), all advertisements should be legal, decent, honest and truthful.
Apart from that, all advertisements in Malaysia must comply with Rukun Negara and project
the Malaysian culture and identity. This problem challenges many viral marketers because
if the viral marketing campaigns could not arouse consumers’ interests due to the need to
comply with the ASA, their viral marketing campaigns will tend to look less appealing.

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Therefore, this problem addresses more attention so that viral marketing can be exploited
while complying with the Advertising Standards Authority by Malaysian advertisers and
marketers.
Secondly, social media forms are most likely to yield great influence towards brand
image and awareness (Lee and Um, 2014) rather than printed ads and television
advertising due to significant amount of online viewers spending their times viewing and
browsing Facebook. Such significant amount of online viewers forces many local marketers
to minimize their print ad and other traditional media efforts to produce more viral
advertisements to pin inside of each potential viral videos made by famous Facebook page.
For example, ‘PenMerah[dot]com’, ‘Siakap Keli’, ‘RotiKaya’ and ‘Kaki Share’ are among the
fastest-growing pages in Malaysia gaining millions of audiences (Socialbakers, 2018).
Despite the call, very few researches have been conducted and focused in Malaysian
context to determine on how viral marketers could potentially influence the largest target
audiences on Facebook. Noticing the Malaysia viral marketing campaigns posted on
Facebook are less popular in other countries because of different perceived attitudes. In
the level of informativeness of viral marketing, many previous researches have proved that
viral informativeness showed positive relationship towards social media advertising
including Pakistan (Zernigah and Sohail, 2012) thus became an important element in
creating viral marketing campaigns. However, a recent research study in South Africa
(Rukuni et al., 2017) concerning on informativeness showed findings in the other way
round. Since these findings were from Pakistan and South Africa, it is important to conduct
this research study within the Malaysian context to understand Malaysian consumers’
perceived attitude on similar variables.
Besides that, the level of viral trustworthiness and likeability are also differs from
other countries. There is an increasing proves to support the claim that viral marketing
matters (Allsop et al., 2007). The growing lack of trust in marketing communication has
made consumers seek information from other sources and became dependence towards
viral marketing. Previous research studies have shown that most consumers engage social
media to learn and accept recommendations from their connections or peers in terms of
product and service reviews being viraled as they considered their viraled opinions of a
certain products and services as unbiased (Allsop et al., 2007; Keller, 2007; Smith et al.,
2007). Therefore, consumers’ trust in viral marketing varies by source in Malaysian context
and very few researches have been carried out to support this claim. It may be difficult to

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generalize that all consumers are directly interested towards the viraled products and
services based on high likeability. De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang (2012: 89) argue that
both positive and negative comments lead to positive influence in the number of likes and
comments a post receives thus this research aimed to identify this issue.
According to Internet Users Survey (2017), Malaysian online shoppers between 20
to 39 years old were the primary age cohort who engaged in Facebook as their marketplace
for online shopping and leisure activities like gaming and dating. However, there is a less
research concerned to provide reasons of the increasing use of viral marketing occurred so
rampant in Facebook. Furthermore, viral marketing research is relatively unexplored
because Dickinger and Kleijnen (2008) emphasize that most marketing researches analyse
mobile couponing and is supported by Reichhart, Pescher and Spann (2013) whom stated
that the acceptance of advertising text messages were relatively explored as compared
with mobile viral marketing.
1.3 Research Objectives
 To study significant relationship between consumers’ perceived viral
attractiveness towards Facebook advertising effectiveness.
trustworthiness towards Facebook advertising effectiveness.
likeability towards Facebook advertising effectiveness.
informativeness towards Facebook advertising effectiveness.
1.4 Research Questions
 Does viral marketing attractiveness influences Facebook advertising?
 Does viral marketing trustworthiness influences Facebook advertising?
 Does viral marketing likeability influences Facebook advertising?

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 Does viral marketing informativeness influences Facebook advertising
effectiveness?
1.5 Significance of Study
This research may help the businesses in meeting the gaps of viral marketing effectiveness
in Facebook since there are still limited researches regarding on this matter. Apart from
that, this research is aimed to identify whether viral marketing attitudes can be applied in
determining a successful content marketing. The result of the study will provide valuable
insight for future researchers, marketers, managers and policy makers when determining
consumers’ attitudes towards viral marketing.
By using viral marketing, managers, advertisers and marketers will be able to
reduce the costs of product and service delivery while maximizing the quality of advertising.
It is indeed incredible that throughout these years, the Internet has successfully adjusted
the thought and point of view of marketing. Through this study, the marketers are able to
identify the consumers’ attitudes towards viral marketing with the applicability of
theoretical framework proposed by Ajzen (1985) modified to fit the attitude of viral
marketing.
This research study may assist the company’s managers to clearly understand the
consumers’ attitudes towards viral marketing in Malaysia. It also helps them to understand
how consumers’ attitudes generate interests towards the products and services advertised.
By having this knowledge, they will be able to utilize viral marketing appropriately to market
their products or services on Facebook. If advertisers disregard viral marketing influences,
it will make viral marketing ineffective as consumers will not share and forward the
message as expected. Therefore, it is significant to identify the viral marketing influences
on Facebook advertising effectiveness. Consequently, this research will be useful for future
market researchers, marketers and business managers as a benchmark or guidelines of
viral marketing.

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1.6 Scope of study
From the extent literature on advertising effectiveness, some of the factors that have been
narrowed and identified to influence advertising effectiveness such as attractiveness,
trustworthiness, likeability and informativeness. These factors may have a significant
relationship towards the effectiveness of Facebook advertising. While many studies have
already been conducted to examine the traditional word-of-mouth effectiveness, this study
attempts to examine the influence of viral marketing on Facebook advertising effectiveness
targeting Malaysian Facebook users as respondent for this research. Malaysian Facebook
users are specified based on Malaysian nationality; own Facebook account, frequency of
browsing Facebook and other demographic traits like ethnicity, gender, age, educational
level and occupational level. This approach is meant to compare results with other countries
Apart from that, this research also study on how effectively the Malaysian
advertisers implement viral marketing campaigns to improve marketing communication
among Facebook users.

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
This chapter is intended to provide a review of existing literature in order to propose new
contributions to the body of knowledge regarding on digital marketing. Throughout this
chapter, the exploration of the main variable involved in the present study was included
such as Facebook advertising effectiveness and viral marketing that comprises of attitudes
which are trustworthiness, attractiveness, likeability and informativeness. Next, a proposed
research framework is also discussed.
2.1 Facebook Advertising Effectiveness
Corporate market nowadays are depending on public perception through consumers
evaluations of advertisements to measure their success and failure. The growing number
of Facebook users has encouraged a wide platforms for viral online recommendation to
increase consumers’ evaluation over a certain products and services (Smock, Ellison,
Lampe and Wohn, 2011). This forces advertisers to spend on a reasonable portion of their
budgets to analyse potential customers in order to appropriately target them on Facebook
(Falls, 2009). The American Marketing Association (2010) defines advertising as the
description and promotion of the idea, products or services of confirmed advertisers who
pay without personal participation.

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Advertising effectiveness can also mean the extent advertising concept that
generates a certain desired effect which in supported research suggested that Facebook
advertising as an effective medium could increase products and services brand image by
developing word-of-mouth (WOM) through Facebook (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Despite
of the difficulties in measuring the overall effectiveness, there are several criteria that
assures its effectiveness that should be taken into considerations. Firstly, advertising
interacts with other business variables such as behaviour, marketing, policies, financial
decision and etc. Secondly, the effects of advertising are varied and not always translatable
into quantitative terms. Thirdly is, advertising causes long-term effects, not always,
therefore, the results occur in the same period in which are the costs (Corvi and Bonera,
2010). With these considerations emphasized, consumers will have more chances to
enhance viral messages created through Facebook thereby, suggesting an increased
opportunities for consumers to view augmented contents posted by their social peers
(Rodgers, Melioli, Laconi, Bui and Chabrol, 2013).
2.2 Viral Marketing
Viral marketing campaigns focus on the information spread of customers, that is, their
referral behaviour regarding information or an advertisement. Companies are most likely
are interested in cost-effective marketing campaigns that perform well in spreading the
messages by itself like an auto messages to form a buzz (Kirby and Marsden, 2016). The
good thing about launching a viral marketing campaign is that, it has no ending date
because most work is done by the consumers so companies do not have to spread the
message by themselves. Patel (2009) emphasizes that viral marketing approach in
spreading messages may accelerate growth at an exponential rates. Interesting viral
campaigns may influence consumers to keep sharing, liking, subscribe and commenting
unlimitedly. Therefore, it is undeniable fact that viral marketing as according to Eckler and
Bolls (2011) has become important tool for advertising among many companies.
Even though viral marketing campaign could operate for a long time without
resources, Ferguson (2008) says that it may also have cons behind because after some
times, the message can be undesirable and irrelevant. It is risky to increase time and
money investment because determination to focus on developing interesting viral

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marketing campaigns should be at an enhanced share and attention quality than the
previous otherwise, people may be better off and viral marketing will look useless with no
proper strategy. A constant need for differentiation and unlimited creativity are an
important factors towards successful viral marketing which in turn, develop a buzz
(Ferguson, 2008). To be able to control the communication process, Barnes et al. (2012)
suggests that it is highly crucial because when a campaign goes viral at a larger scale,
companies tend to lose control of the message delivered and how people perceive it. In
effect, negative buzz against viral marketing will makes it difficult for companies to regain
positive attitude among consumers (Bruyn and Lilien, 2008). Investing a reasonable
amount of time and money to recover the damages is indeed a good move but it would
not settle the damages at the larger scale drastically.
The ‘viral’ term usage is very popular among netizens. The word netizen is derived
from the word citizens of the internet who networking resources online (Hauben, 2003).
He added in his notable article describing netizen as those online participants who greatly
enrich the news available to the public. Therefore, their significant roles are observed as
the viral influencers of digital marketing because they harness the power of social media
insights (Oloffson, 2017). While many popular internet terms usage such as netizens, viral
marketing, buzz marketing and stealth marketing are extensively focused, there are still
less scholarly work conducted to deepen the knowledge in this area including the viral
concept from an advertising perspectives (Porter and Golan, 2006).
According to Porter and Golan (2006), viral advertising is similar with electronic
word-of-mouth (eWOM) because both provide alternative source of information from a
wide geographically dispersed communities. Viral advertising is different from traditional
advertising because unlike traditional advertising such as television and radio station, Galak
(2009) suggests that there is no paid media involved in creating contents for viral
advertising. Another differences between conventional advertising and viral advertising as
according to Riasi (2015b) is that viral advertising depends most on online marketing
strategies to extend its market competitiveness. Successful viral marketing content has a
several particular characteristics (Scott, 2010) which determines to prove Facebook
advertising effectiveness.

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2.3 Viral Marketing Attitude
The complexity of viral marketing campaigns arises from the understanding of how
consumers react or respond to online marketing messages (Haryani S, Motwani B and
Sabharwal S, 2015). Marketers have long pursued the constructs of attitude valence and
strength as key antecedents to consumer behaviour.
Attitude is referred to as the degree of positivity or negativity with which an attitude
object, brand, product or service are assessed, for example viral marketing attitudes (Frost
D, 2007), weighed by the confidence or certainty with which it is held (Chaplin and John,
2005; Fedorikhin, Park and Thomson, 2008; Park and MacInnis, 2006; Park et al., 2009;
Schouten and McAlexander, 1995; Thomson, 2006). In other words, effortful thought of
the attitude object may result strong attitudes because it held by guided behaviour (Petty
and Cacioppo, 1986). Attitude and behaviour linked to each other as supported by Cohen
and Areni (1991) that strong brand attitudes reflect assessments and cold impact which
involved judgement of the products and services brands. Hence, attitude gives emotional
and self-implications that serve as powerful catalysts of behaviour. Eckler and Bolls
(2011:8) highlighted that emotional appeals of viral video ads for instance Facebook viral
video advertisements has a direct effects on attitudes whereby, it generates positive
attitudes towards the brands. This implication suggesting that consumers with viral
marketing attitude has a positive tendency to adopt social media advertising like Facebook
as well as the tendency to forward messages. Therefore, it is essential to tap the right type
of consumer attitude in order to gain market opportunities because consumers with positive
tendency towards viral marketing tend to share information more often (Gangadharbatla,
H. and Lisa, J., 2007).
In the field of consumer behaviour research, Ajzen (2015) used the theory of
planned behaviour to describe consumers’ behaviour as function of intention to perform
the behaviour which it considers the intention based on attitude, subjective norm and
perceived behavioural control. He highlighted that behavioural beliefs which are readily
accessible in memory could cause the development of either positive or negative attitude
towards the behaviour. Thus in this research, theory of planned behaviour was applied to
determine the attitude development towards advertising impacts on Facebook.

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2.4 Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness in advertising perspective is about consumers’ confidence towards the
source of information or contents that brings honesty, objectivity and good faith (Boyd and
Shank, 2004). Trustworthiness is the dimension of credibility (Goldsmith, Lafferty and
Newell, 2002) which associated with believability, expertise and attractiveness.
Trustworthiness is selected for this study because Goldsmith et al. (2000) view this
component as the most crucial among other dimensions which determines the degree of
confidence in advertiser’s intent to viral their statements that they think is most reliable to
increase its brand image.
Falsies illustration and messages on the goods and services descriptions will cause
negative outcomes particularly on consumers’ attitudes (Korgaonkar et al., 2001). This is
because, consumers respond to Facebook advertising that is based on their ability and
motivation to process the viral contents advertised. Recent studies suggest that consumers
are most likely to accept message arguments if the senders are perceived as trustworthy,
credible and experts (Andreoli and Worchel, 1978; Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann, 1983;
Sternthal et al., 1978). This asserts that when consumers are unsure whether or not the
viral campaigns can give an accurate information, the viral source trustworthiness will be
questionable thus suggesting that viral endorsers should influence the attitudes by
increasing the amount of attention towards the Facebook advertisement.
Interestingly, trustworthiness is associated with strong ties. Previous research has
shown that strong ties are more credible and trustworthy (Bruyn and Lilien, 2008). In
effect, information received will be valuable due to strong ties which makes it more
influential and therefore facilitate the word of mouth communication. This means that
trustworthiness is an important attitude towards viral marketing that determines purchase
intention. Not only that, trustworthiness is associated with perceived risk because any
information posted are unfiltered thus difficult to believe and rely on so trustable
advertising that goes online would become an issue ( Kelly et al., 2010).

14
2.5 Attractiveness
Presented in this literature review is the viral marketing attractiveness influence on
Facebook advertising effectiveness. The focus on attractiveness in this study is understood
as a focus on content or illustration attractiveness towards the consumers. A recent study
has proven that the use of attractive features may have a positive effect on emotional
reaction towards advertising (Baker and Churchill, 1977). In this context, a viral marketing
campaign should embody the attractiveness features, elements or ways to stimulate
consumers’ interest on the advertised goods and services (Alwitt, 1987). For instance,
advertisement videos that pop up in Facebook with attractive illustrations, animations and
graphics will be easier to capture consumers to view it (Tsang and Tse, 2005). Through
viral videos, it will surprise and excite them to share and comment it. Marketers therefore,
should ensure their advertising is attractive and enjoyable in order to stimulate consumers’
curiosity to click and share the content (Katterbach, 2002).
According to Prianti (2011), advertising not only promotes goods and services
offered but also exert influence on things consumers view as attractive. This also enhances
the viral potentials as consumers share the advertisements to others that have significant
level of attractiveness comprising of uniqueness, desirable and appealing. The existing
literature also emphasized attractiveness as part of critical factors for viral marketing
success (Gladwell, 2002; Porter and Golan, 2006) because attractive messages, content or
illustrations can be memorable.
Furthermore, Facebook would not be an attractive place for online social interaction
without interesting advertisements so Redsicker (2011) suggests that content advertisers
need to take into account their advertisement to be consistent with the message of the
brand and also attractive enough to retain consumers and other supporters. In this regard,
Kotler et al. (2009) emphasize the websites physical attractiveness by following factors.
Firstly, the pages are clean and less clutter with content. Secondly, the typefaces and font
size should be readable and third, the use of appropriate colour and sound effects. For
consumers evaluation of Facebook advertisements on the other hand, is characterized into
three evaluations including shareable, downloadable and understandable contents.

15
2.6 Likeability
Previous research suggests that consumers’ attitude towards the advertisement can be
adjusted by approaching funny appeals to make it more likeable (Chattopadhyay and Basu,
1990; Gelb and Pickett, 1983; Muehling and McCann, 1993). To better improve advertising
strategy, Sacharin (2001) suggests likeability should be emphasized on as it has
consistently recognized to influence consumers’ behaviour (Biel and Bridgewater, 1990;
DuPlessis, 1994a). This is because liking an advertisement showed strongest factor related
with persuasions and sales (Haley and Baldinger, 1991) making it a very substantial
determinant of Facebook advertising effectiveness.
A recent study by Mills (2012) supports this viral likeability suggesting that
messages or contents spread across social networks should have these traits of likeable
and shareable in order to make the consumers like the messages and share it to their
friends. Another research study regarding on viral advertisement also proved that when
advertisement likeability increases, the sharing level also increases because viral
advertisements is closely related with advertisers’ selection of likeability criteria to motivate
the sharing reaction by target audiences ( Aydin et al., 2013 ).
In the prior research by Batra (2012) states that company significant assets also
included consumers that have high liking for brands because of their brand advocacy and
resistance toward competitors which advances a consistent purchase of the company’s
goods and services overtime. This extend the increased marketing attempts to provoke the
emotion of likeability through advertisements (Yilmaz et al., 2011; Helkkula et al., 2012).
However, there is still limited research drawn in a cross cultural context particularly in Asia
in terms of standardization versus adoption debate thus important for marketers to
understand advertising elements and variations in overall likeability as likeability level may
varies across cultures.
2.7 Informativeness
When sourcing information on products and services categories, brands, manufacturers
and retailers, Internet is the most common search media (Kulkami, Ratchford and Kannan,
2012). Informativeness is referred to as providing useful and resourceful information for

16
users (Ducoffe, 1995a, 1995b; Chen, 1999) as mean to inform reasons for accepting the
advertisement which in turn influence consumers’ purchase decision (Erdem, Swait and
Valenzuela, 2006). When it comes to purchase decision, De Mooij and Hofstede (2010) find
that consumers are prone to show more signs of searching product information through
unlimited and interpersonal information references exchange.
This concept has been empirically proven that the importance of informativeness
can attributes to social media advertisement effectiveness. According to Kim (2017),
characteristics of social media marketing are comprised of information, immediacy,
responses and access which attribute to consumer attitudes. Based on consumers’ attitude
study, Chang (2012) proposed that consumers’ involvement, information display, unique
differentiation, content suitability, information usage and response characterized social
media marketing. In addition, viral marketing provides the latest news and information,
thereby making it an inexpensive platform for advertising (Datta et al., 2005, p.73) to
enhance brand engagement (Online Communities, 2009, p.13).
In this essence, social media is shifting towards core capacity for sharing
information (Carrabis et al., 2008) because it takes an ability to affect people’s emotions
to make viral marketing works so that information can be shared with others who are like-
minded (How to launch, 2008, p.2). This infers that viral marketing may have the potentials
to encourage information sharing among consumers and exploiting existing social networks
like Facebook by maximizing numbers of reach. However, viral marketing informativeness
is yet to be furthered in depth (Cruz and Fill, 2008) considering that it is still a new trend.
Despite such gap, viral marketing can be achieved if the products and services are
outstanding enough to debate on, so that the information can be shared, forwarded and
reached from one to another. Previous research has proved that there is a positive
relationship between informativeness and consumers’ attitude towards viral marketing
(Muzaffar and Kamran, 2011) but inadequate research is drawn to extend whether viral
marketing informativeness could have positive relationship with Facebook advertising
effectiveness.

CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
This chapter presents research framework, proposed research hypotheses, research
design, instrument development, sampling and data analysis method. Included in research
framework is theoretical framework adopted for modifying purpose particularly on
independent variables of viral marketing determinants towards dependent variable of
Facebook advertising effectiveness.
3.1 Research Framework
Figure 3.1: Research Framework of Viral Marketing Influences on
……………...Facebook Advertising Effectiveness.

18
Figure 3.1 shows the framework adopted and modified from the Theory of Planned
Behaviour (TPB) by Ajzen (1985). Theory of planned behaviour is one of the most famous
social-psychological models to in-depth describe, predict and understand consumers
behaviour because it helps recognizes the potential of every variables including attitudes,
emotions and so on (Cheung and Thadani, 2012). This theoretical framework gives us the
idea to further our understanding of relationship between viral marketing attitudes or
determinants (attractiveness, informativeness, trustworthiness and likeability) as
independent variables and effectiveness of Facebook advertising as dependent variable.
Theory of planned behaviour explains the outcomes that are linked to the behaviour by
considering not only attitudes toward choice alternatives but also permits this research to
directly measure the considerations that guide consumer decisions (Ajzen, 2015).
Apart from that, this developed framework is based on the whole research objective
and question of this study. Subsequently, this framework is also to examine the
relationships prediction between independent and dependent variables whether both relate
and affect each other. There will be several hypotheses developed in the next section of
this study.
All variables were selected based on many previous studies. For dependent variable
of Facebook advertising effectiveness, consumers are influenced by digital application
features which many marketers see this as advertising platform to effectively target
customers at a larger scale. Curran, Graham and Temple (2011) support this statement
whereby consumers today perceived Facebook as their source of information by viewing
company advertisements of products and services, and commenting their opinions with
peers about the new products that they are considering to purchase.
For independent variables, four attitudes were selected to relate with the
advertising effectiveness. Attractiveness was selected based on past research reporting
attractive communicators may have positive effect towards goods and services which they
are related (Wang et al., 2013). It can be expected that attractiveness perceived could
result in positive effect towards Facebook advertising. Informativeness as the second
selection was based on Zernigah and Sohail (2012) previous research implying that this
variable has positive relationship with viral marketing. Thus in this study reattempts to
imply informativeness relationship with Facebook advertising to prove positive result in
different cultures of Malaysia. Likeability as the third selection was based on the further
studies to moderate relationship of likeability between brand equity and financial

19
performance (Bedman Narteh, 2018). However, the effect of viral likeability towards
Facebook advertising has yet to be explored. So, this study attempts to fill the gap and
contribute valuable findings by using viral likeability. Lastly, trustworthiness as the fourth
selection was based on the belief of social network sites as trustworthy in engaging
environment for branded messages which indicates trustworthiness as the key determinant
in consumers’ purchase decision (Chu and Kim, 2011). In recapitulation, this research study
attempts to prove these variable in regards of Malaysia’s online users as respondents.
3.2 Proposed Research Hypotheses
Based on the research objectives and questions, it is hypothesized that for H1, H2 and H4,
the independent variables were selected from credibility dimensions model to determine
consumer attitudes. H1 Attractiveness was selected from Silvera and Austad (2004), H2
Trustworthiness (Priesty and Petty, 2003; Kamins, 1989; Atkin and Block, 1983; McGinnies
and Ward, 1980), H4 Informativeness (Kim, Kim and Park, 2010). These previous
hypotheses developed for H1, H2 and H4 are suggesting that there is an existing
relationship with Facebook advertising effectiveness. Likeability however, is supported by
Fam (2008) findings emphasized on Asian perspective which showed advertisement
likeability has a relationship with purchase intention. Therefore, this study proposed that;
H1: There is a positive relationship between viral attractiveness towards Facebook
H2: There is a positive relationship between viral trustworthiness towards Facebook
H3: There is a positive relationship between viral likeability towards Facebook advertising
effectiveness.
H4: There is a positive relationship between viral informativeness towards Facebook

20
3.3 Research Design
Research design entails the blueprint or framework meant to pursue marketing research
study detailing several procedures essential to gather data needed to address marketing
research problems (Malhotra, 2004). To design a research, descriptive design was chosen
for the purpose of conducting quantitative research detailing these variables forwarded
such as informativeness, trustworthiness, likeability and attractiveness towards dependent
variable of Facebook advertising effectiveness aimed to achieve the research objectives.
By using descriptive research, this study could extract information of thoughts, opinions
and perceptions from a selected sample size.
3.4 Research Instrument
Included in this section is the designated questionnaires of 22 measurement items
formulated for Malaysian respondents using convenient sampling.
3.4.1 Questionnaire Design
A well- structured questionnaire comprises of a clear and understandable sets of question
items written in bilingual, English and Bahasa Melayu formulated for Malaysian
respondents. Fieldwork procedures were applied such as instruct selection, approaching
and written question respondents. Verbal question was carried during the fieldwork to test
validity of respondent nationality as a Malaysian and a Facebook user before handing in
the questionnaires. By carrying verbal question, unnecessary errors were reduced. A
validated scales of the constructs were created for this survey questionnaire to gather valid
and reliable measures of the variables. The questionnaires were developed will be straight
forward to provide a clear understanding and ease of reading before answering. The
questionnaire include three parts which is part A, B and C. Part A comprises of qualifying,
occupation, education level, age and other demographic related question, while Part B
includes independent variables related questions of viral marketing attractiveness,
informativeness, likeability and trustworthiness. Part C contains dependent variable related
questions of Facebook advertising effectiveness. Qualification to proceed to Part B and Part

21
C was needed and necessary to avoid invalid response such as if a respondent do not have
a Facebook account, the respondent is high unlikely to experience viral marketing on
Facebook.
For Part A, multiple choices were set to assess demographic traits of gender,
ethnicity, age, education level and occupation. Next to demographic traits are the interval
scales to measure its mode, median and arithmetic means, necessary to assess
respondents’ viewership of Facebook frequency and exposure of viral advertisements. In
part B and C, 5-point Likert Scale ranging from Strongly Disagree= 1 to Strongly Agree= 5
was used to assess variables accurately.
3.4.2 Measurement Items for Advertising Effectiveness
Table 3.1 consists of three items measured for Facebook advertising effectiveness all
adopted from Calder et al. (2009). 5-point Likert scale ranging from Strongly Disagree= 1
to Strongly Agree= 5 was used for these selected items.
Table 3.1 Facebook Advertising Effectiveness Measurement Items
No. Facebook Advertising Effectiveness Author
1 Viral advertisements in Facebook is more
interesting to watch because it gives me
something to talk about.
Adopted from Calder et al. (2009)
2 I think Facebook viral advertisements are
very effective because it always appear
every time I scroll down.
3 I believe that Facebook viral advertising is
effective to influence my interest towards
a certain product and service.

22
3.4.3 Measurement Items for Viral Attractiveness
Table 3.2 consists of three items measured for viral attractiveness adopted from Dobele A.
et al. (2007) and DuFour (2011) respectively. 5-point Likert scale ranging from Strongly
Disagree= 1 to Strongly Agree= 5 was used for all these selected items.
Table 3.2 Viral Attractiveness Measurement Items
No. Viral Attractiveness Author
1 I prefer to watch Facebook viral
advertisements that have attractive
contents (funny, sad, informative,
surprise, serious, controversial).
Adopted from Dobele A. et al. (2007)
2 Viral advertisements in Facebook are
worth sharing because of its attractive
contents.
Adopted from DuFour (2011)
3 I would viral the Facebook advertisement
because it attracts me.
Adopted from DuFour (2011)
3.4.4 Measurement Items for Viral Trustworthiness
Table 3.3 comprises of three items measured for viral trustworthiness all adopted from
Aghdaie et al. (2012). 5-point Likert scale ranging from Strongly Disagree= 1 to Strongly
Agree= 5 is used for these four selected items.
Table 3.3 Viral Trustworthiness Measurement Items
No. Viral Trustworthiness Author
1 Facebook viral advertisements are trustable source
of information.
Adopted from Aghdaie et
al. (2012)
2 I only trust Facebook viral advertisements that has
high shares.
al. (2012)
3 I consider Facebook viral advertising as a useful
marketing tool to increase credibility.
al. (2012)

23
3.4.5 Measurement Items for Viral Likeability
Table 3.4 details the three items measured for viral likeability adopted from Mills (2012),
Aydin et al. (2013) and Berger and Milkman (2012) respectively. 5-point Likert scale
ranging from Strongly Disagree= 1 to Strongly Agree= 5 was used in these items.
Table 3.4 Viral Likeability Measurement Items
No. Viral Likeability Author
1 I like viral advertisements that appear on
Facebook.
Adopted from Mills (2012)
2 I like viral advertisements that relate with a
product I searched for.
Adopted from Aydin et al.
(2013)
3 I like viral advertisements that are catchy and easy
to understand.
Adopted from Berger and
Milkman (2012)
3.4.6 Measurement Items for Viral Informativeness
Table 3.5 presents the three items measured for viral informativeness all adopted from
Zernigah and Sohail (2012). 5-point Likert scale ranging from Strongly Disagree= 1 to
Strongly Agree= 5 was used to measure these selected items.
Table 3.5 Viral Informativeness Measurement Items
No Viral Informativeness Author
1 Facebook viral advertising will provide me a useful
and up-to-date information about a product and
service
Adopted from Zernigah and
Sohail (2012)
2 I find Facebook viral advertising contents are very
informative.
3 All Facebook viral advertisements have high
informativeness

24
3.5 Sampling
Convenience sampling was used to determine and represent the entire large population.
In convenience sampling, non-probability sampling techniques were conducted as
suggested by (Malhotra, 2004) to gather a simple convenience element. To framing a
sample of targeted population, Malhotra (2010) suggests that a sample frame should
entails the elements represented for target population. Thus in this survey, questionnaires
were distributed directly to Malaysian respondents from various backgrounds such as
educations, business, government services, healthcare and so on. College students from
private and public were also included as part of respondents. Determining sample size
accuracy is necessary to carry out before starting with data collection to avoid less number
of targeted respondents causing insufficient data analysis hence, G* Power was tested
earlier with accuracy of 129 sample size.
3.6 Data Collection Method
In this survey, respondents are among Malaysians from various backgrounds with legit
Facebook accounts in order to contribute reliable information. Conventional hardcopy of
questionnaires and Google forms applications as mean to embrace technology
advancement and gain cost-effective responses across Malaysia were distributed.
Malaysian respondents as primary source of data were briefed about the purpose of this
study before proceed with questionnaires. To gain respondents’ interests to fill out
questionnaires in Google forms, Facebook was used as the main platform to share Google
form link address as frequent as possible including Whatsapp application to reach out from
one Whatsapp group to another.
3.7 Data Analysis Technique
Smart Partial Least Square (SmartPLS) version 3.0 was used to analyse the obtained data
of a structural equation models (Chin, 1998). Unlike the most common used technique like
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), PLS has the ability to reduce latent
construct measurement errors while simultaneously analyse the structural model

25
significance. PLS is an appropriate approach to address a complex model which it could
examine a large sets of relationship between the constructs and the sub-constructs thus
more flexible than SPSS.
3.8 Summary
In sum, this research study emphasized the attributes of viral marketing towards Facebook
advertising effectiveness. The literature review for each variables prolong the discussions
further with several hypothesis proposed to prove relationship between one another. A
quantitative technique through distribution of questionnaires was conducted to gather the
data that was furthered analyse using SmartPLS version 3.0.

CHAPTER 4
DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
4.0 Introduction
This chapter presents the results of the study and is divided into four sections of response
rate and respondents’ backgrounds overview. Highlighted in these four sections are
exploratory factor analysis results, reliability test results, descriptive statistics results,
correlation analysis and hypothesis testing results.
4.1 Profile of Respondents
Table 4.1 shows the demographic profile of the respondents. A total of 155 respondents
had answered sets of questionnaires via Google forms and sets of questionnaires. Based
on this table, 88 of the respondents are females (56.8%) which is higher than males with
67 (43.2%) participations.
Based on ethnicity, it is revealed that 39.4% respondents are Sarawakians, 23.2%
are Sabahan respondents, 20.0% are Malay respondents, 9.0% are Chinese respondents
and remaining 8.4% are Indian respondents. In terms of age group, the range between
18 to 22 years old is 11.0%, 23 to 27 years old is 60.0%, 28 to 32 years old is 12.3%, 33
to 37 years old is 7.0%, 38 to 42 years old is 5.2% and remaining 4.5% are those in
between 43 years old and above.
In terms of education level, it is found that 52.3% respondents are degree holders,
followed by 18.7% are Master or Phd holders, 14.8% are Diploma holders, 5.8% are SPM

27
holders, 4.5% are STPM holders and remaining 3.9% are Certificate holders. In occupation
level, 54.2% of respondents are working, 32.3% are students, 10.3% are in between jobs
and only 5% are housewives.
Furthermore, in terms of Facebook login frequency, 58.0% of respondents are often
login, 32.3% are occasionally login, and only 9.7% are little frequent. In terms of frequency
expose to viral advertisements on Facebook, 45.2% of respondents are occasionally
expose, while 30.9% are often expose and only 23.9% of respondents have little exposure
to viral advertisements.
Table 4.1 Profile of Respondents
Demographic Variables Categories Frequency Percentage
Gender Female
Male
88
67
56.8
43.2
Ethnicity Malay
Chinese
India
Sarawakian
Sabahan
31
14
13
61
36
20.0
9.0
8.4
39.4
23.2
Age Group 18-22
23-27
28-32
33-37
38-42
43 and above
17
93
19
11
8
7
11.0
60.0
12.3
7.0
5.2
4.5
Education Level SPM
STPM
Certificate
Diploma
Degree
Master-Phd
9
7
6
23
81
29
5.8
4.5
3.9
14.8
52.3
18.7
Occupation Level Student
Working
In between jobs
50
84
16
32.3
54.2
10.3

28
Housewives 5 3.2
Frequency Login
Facebook
Little
Occasionally
Often all the time
15
50
90
9.7
32.3
58.0
Frequency Expose To
Viral Advertisements
on Facebook
Little
Occasionally
Often all the time
37
70
48
23.9
45.2
30.9
Total 155 100
4.2 Factor Analysis
SPSS 24.0 and Partial Least Square (Smart PLS) version 3.0 were used to assess the
measurement and structural model of this research which subsequently present the
exploratory factor analysis and loadings. Exploratory factor analysis was carried out to
verify the validity of the questionnaire. The result of factor analysis comprises of 5 factors
extracted namely Facebook advertising effectiveness, viral informativeness, viral likeability,
viral trustworthiness and viral attractiveness. Each item across constructs presented values
above 0.60 which is acceptable. This means that all items loaded are significantly on their
predicted factors with minimal cross-loadings, suggesting that the 5 factors show
discriminant validity and strongly on their relevant factor. The results of path coefficient
and hypothesis testing were assisted by all these measurement and structural models.
Table 4.2 Factor Analysis
Construct Measurement
Item
Loading
Facebook Advertising Effectiveness BFB8
BFB9
BFB10
0.847
0.875
0.834
Viral Attractiveness CVA11
CVA12
CVA13
0.835
0.924
0.824
Viral Trustworthiness CVT14 0.813

29
CVT15
CVT16
0.828
0.846
Viral Likeability CVL17
CVL18
CVL19
0.829
0.848
0.807
Viral Informativeness CVI20
CVI21
CVI22
0.851
0.931
0.857
Table 4.3 Measurement of the Item Constructs
Construct Item Measurement
Facebook
Advertising
Effectiveness
BFB8
BFB9
BFB10
Viral advertisements in Facebook is more
interesting to watch because it gives me something
to talk about.
I think Facebook viral advertisements are very
effective because it always appear every time I
scroll down.
I believe that Facebook viral advertising is effective
to influence my interest towards a certain product
and service.
Viral
Attractiveness
CVA11
CVA12
CVA13
I prefer to watch Facebook viral advertisements
that have attractive contents (funny, sad,
informative, surprise, seriousness, controversial).
Viral advertisements in Facebook are worth sharing
because of its attractive contents.
I would viral the Facebook advertisement because
it attracts me.
Viral
Trustworthiness
CVT14
CVT15
Facebook viral advertisements are trustable source
of information.
I only trust Facebook viral advertisements that have
high shares.

30
CVT16 I consider Facebook viral advertising as a useful
marketing tool to increase credibility.
CVL18
CVL19
I like viral advertisements that appear on Facebook.
I like viral advertisements that relate with a product
I searched for.
I like viral advertisements that are catchy and easy
to understand.
Viral
Informativeness
CVI20
CVI21
CVI22
Facebook viral advertising provides me a useful and
up-to-date information about a product and
service.
I find Facebook viral advertising contents are very
informative.
All Facebook viral advertisements have high
informativeness.
4.3 Measurement Models
Discriminant validity consisting of convergent validity, heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) and
Fornell-Larcker criterion were included in the measurement models. Discriminant validity is
used to capture a construct measure that is empirically unique and represents phenomena
of interest which other measures in structural equation model cannot capture (Hair et al.,
2010). According to Carmines and Zeller (1979), discriminant validity is defined as the
degree to which any single construct in a model is different from other constructs in that
model.
4.3.1 Convergent Validity
Convergent validity is measured by which a construct converges on other different
measures, measuring the same concept showing results of loadings, composite reliability
(CR) and average variance extracted (AVE). Hair et al. (2014) highlights that loading results

31
must be greater than 0.7, CR must be at a minimum value 0.7 and AVE should be higher
than 0.5. Table 4.4 shows all results have fulfilled the criterions of convergent validity.
In composite reliability (CR), the following constructs have reached above 0.7
value, therefore, the value between 0.867 to 0.911 were proved to be high convergent
validity. In average variance extracted (AVE), the following constructs have reached above
0.5 value, hence, the value between 0.686 to 0.743 were proved to be higher than 0.5 as
recommended. It is confirmed that convergent validity results shows all constructs are
correlate with each other.
Table 4.4 Convergent Validity
Construct Measurement
Item
Loading CR AVE
Facebook
Advertising
Effectiveness
BFB8
BFB9
BFB10
0.847
0.875
0.834
0.888 0.726
Viral
Attractiveness
CVA11
CVA12
CVA13
0.835
0.924
0.824
0.896 0.743
Viral
Trustworthiness
CVT14
CVT15
CVT16
0.813
0.828
0.846
0.868 0.688
CVL18
CVL19
0.829
0.848
0.807
0.867 0.686
Viral
Informativeness
CVI20
CVI21
CVI22
0.851
0.931
0.857
0.911 0.775
Note: CR means Composite Reliability = (Squared of the summation of the factor loadings) / (Squared of the
summation of the factor loadings) (Square of the summation of error variances). AVE means Average Variance
Extracted = (Summation of squared factor loadings) (Summation of error variances).

32
4.3.2 Fornell-Larcker
The Fornell-Larcker criterion, developed by Fornell and Larcker (1981) was applied for this
data analysis as a standard dominant approach to evaluate discriminant validity in a
covariance-based structural equation model (Shah and Goldstein 2006; Shook et al., 2004).
This dominant approach has been widely used in many published research fields such as
management information systems research (Ringle et al., 2012).
Based on the table 4.5, it is clear that the cross loading of the respective factor is
greater than that factor’s AVE. For example, the cross loading of item CVI is 0.88 which is
greater than its respective AVE of 0.7, including the rest of cross loading. This result further
suggests that the discriminant validity is confirmed and established. According to Hair et
al. (2010), the loading related with a construct must exceed than all other constructs
loading and if cross loading exceeds the outer loadings indicators, the construct is likely to
have discriminant validity problem.
Table 4.5 Fornell –Larcker Criterion
Construct BFB CVA CVI CVL CVT
1 BFB 0.852
2 CVA 0.587 0.862
3 CVI 0.456 0.585 0.88
4 CVL 0.558 0.649 0.553 0.828
5 CVT 0.392 0.575 0.581 0.478 0.829
Note: Bolded diagonal represents the square root of AVE while other represents the correlations.
BFB= Facebook Advertising Effectiveness; CVA= Viral Attractiveness; CVI= Viral Informativeness; CVL= Viral
Likeability; CVT= Viral Trustworthiness.
4.3.3 Heterotrait-Monotrait (HTMT)
Illustrated in this table is the HTMT ratio of correlations used as a new approach to assess
discriminant validity in a variance based on structural estimation model (SEM). Heterotrait-
Monotrait (HTMT) is proposed by Henseler et al. (2015), with the result ranging between
0.474 to 0.801 across all the constructs. This means that the threshold values are below
0.85 thus further suggests that the result is within the acceptable zone.
According to Henseler, Ringle and Sarstedt (2014), heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT)
demonstrate the efficacy by means of a Monte Carlo simulation, in which it compare

33
performance of the Fornell-Larcker criterion and with the assessment of the cross-loadings.
Therefore, HTMT is developed based on the available measures and data contrary to the
standard MTMM approach so it does not need a simultaneous surveying of the same
theoretical concept with alternative measurement approaches. In fact, this approach does
not suffer from the standard multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) approach of well-known
issues regarding data requirements and parallel measures (Schmitt 1978; Schmitt and
Stults, 1986).
Using the HTMT as a criterion involves comparing it to a predefined threshold. There
is a lack of discriminant validity if the value of the HTMT is greater than this threshold. The
exact threshold level of the HTMT is debatable because some authors suggest that
threshold value should be about 0.85 (Clark andWatson 1995; Kline 2011), but others
propose threshold value should be at 0.90 (Gold et al., 2001; Teo et al., 2008). The
notations of HTMT at 0.85 was used in order to distinguish between these two absolute
thresholds for the HTMT.
Table 4.6 Heterotrait-Monotrait (HTMT)
Construct BFB CVA CVI CVL CVT
1 BFB
2 CVA 0.712
3 CVI 0.541 0.697
4 CVL 0.684 0.801 0.662
5 CVT 0.474 0.713 0.715 0.563
Table 4.7 shows loadings and cross loadings results obtained from Smart PLS where
the bolded values of each blocks indicate higher loading than the other rows and columns.
To exhibit discriminant validity for each measurement item, Gefen and Straub (2005, p.92)
suggest that measurement item must correlates weakly with all other item constructs
except one that is theoretically related, by tracing back to exploratory analysis in which
indicator loading patterns must be examined to determine indicators that have high
loadings on the same factor, including high loadings on the multiple factor (Mulaik, 2009).
This implies that the loadings and cross loadings results have fulfilled the second method
of discriminant validity which consider as satisfactory and fit to use for structural model
estimation. Cross loadings is popular and widely use nowadays as an approach to establish
discriminant validity or commonly called as item level discriminant validity.

34
Table 4.7 Loadings and Cross Loadings
BFB CVA CVI CVL CVT
BFB10 0.834 0.511 0.396 0.484 0.364
BFB8 0.847 0.461 0.339 0.476 0.279
BFB9 0.875 0.525 0.427 0.467 0.355
CVA11 0.479 0.835 0.501 0.589 0.5
CVA12 0.569 0.924 0.496 0.553 0.49
CVA13 0.462 0.824 0.523 0.544 0.504
CVI20 0.384 0.585 0.851 0.464 0.513
CVI21 0.456 0.539 0.931 0.534 0.522
CVI22 0.353 0.413 0.857 0.455 0.5
CVL17 0.551 0.604 0.525 0.829 0.573
CVL18 0.41 0.469 0.38 0.848 0.292
CVL19 0.391 0.516 0.445 0.807 0.257
CVT14 0.284 0.461 0.511 0.357 0.813
CVT15 0.264 0.457 0.475 0.357 0.828
CVT16 0.397 0.504 0.467 0.454 0.846
Note: Horizontal check Discriminant Validity
Vertical check Convergent Validity
*It must not higher than the loading of the variable in bold items.
In figure 4.1 exhibits the result of path analysis where casual models are compared from
the correlation matrix, shown by circles, squares and arrows to show the causation. The
casual models predict the regression weight and calculate the goodness of fit statistic to
see whether the models are fit for the data as suggested by Coffman et al. (2005).
Basically, path analysis is the regression model extension (Edwards et al., 2007). In path
analysis, a simple expedient of not using labels to state independent variables and
dependent variables is used like exogenous and endogenous variables to avoid confusion
(David L Streiner, 2005). According to him, exogenous variables refers to straight arrows
developing from them and none pointing to them except error items. Endogenous variables
on the other hands refers to at least one straight arrow pointing to them. David L Streiner
(2005) suggests these terms to rationalize the causes of exogenous variables that are
tested outside the model and the factors affecting endogenous variables that are
determined inside the model.
Therefore, viral trustworthiness, attractiveness, likeability and informativeness
were considered as exogenous variables whereas Facebook advertising effectiveness was

35
considered as endogenous because all exogenous variables pointing straight arrows to it.
This result in line with Wuensch (2016) where it suggests that the four exogenous variables
have no straight arrows pointing at them compared with Facebook advertising
effectiveness because of its variance theorized to result from variance in viral
trustworthiness, attractiveness, likeability and informativeness sources. In other words, all
exogenous variables that pointed straight arrows toward endogenous variable have a direct
effects to Facebook advertising effectiveness.

36
Figure4.1ResultofPathAnalysis

37
4.4 Bootstrapping
According to Mooney (1996), bootstrapping refers to non-parametric approach to statistical
inference that have no distributional parameters assumptions such as traditional methods
by drawing conclusions on the population characteristics, that are strictly from the sample
at hand. Bootstrapping benefits when there is no statistical theory or weak theory about
the parameter distribution, or when the underlying distributional parameters assumptions
needed are violated. This is because, bootstrapping allows possibility to carry out
significance testing of a statistic (Ɵ) such as a path or a factor loading by analysing the
probability of the observed statistic of that size or larger when the null hypothesis Hₒ: Ɵ =
0, is true.
However, Bollen and Stine (1992) argue that a naive bootstrap procedure works well
in many cases, it may also fail if the sample used to generate bootstrap samples could not
represent the population. They suggest the mean of naïve bootstrap population is unlikely
to be equal to zero because the bootstrap samples were drawn from the population in
which the null hypothesis does not hold, even if the null hypothesis represent the unknown
population from the original sample drawn. Thus, the bootstrap test statistic values are
likely to always reject the null hypothesis.
Sharma and Kim (2012) previous research provide the bootstrap guidelines focusing
on bootstrapping behaviour while choosing among Covariance Based Structural Equation
Model (CBSEM) and SmartPLS. Their goal is to address naïve bootstrap issue by carrying
out the Monte Carlo study to evaluate the efficiency and accuracy in the model parameter
recovery.
Therefore, bootstrapping helps to obtain T-statistics for significance testing of both
the inner and outer model, by using a large number of subsamples (Kwong and Wong,
2013) which for this research, 150 samples were taken to conduct the bootstrapping
procedure. In turn, T-values were produced for significance testing of the structural path.
The result of bootstrap indicates the approximated normality of data.

39
4.5 Reliability Analysis
Table 4.8 shows the reliability analysis that determine whether each of the measurement
item is consistently reflecting its measured construct. Cronbach’s Alpha results indicates
that all measured constructs ranged from 0.776 to 0.854 of Cronbach’s Alpha values
obtained higher than 0.6 thus consider as acceptable. The 3 items of viral informativeness
produced a reliability coefficient of 0.854 while 3 items of viral likeability produced an alpha
coefficient 0f 0.776.
Table 4.8 Reliability Analysis
Construct Measurement Item Cronbach’s Alpha
Facebook Advertising
Effectiveness
BFB8
BFB9
BFB10
0.812
Viral Attractiveness CVA11
CVA12
CVA13
0.826
Viral Trustworthiness CVT14
CVT15
CVT16
0.779
CVL18
CVL19
0.776
Viral Informativeness CVI20
CVI21
CVI22
0.854
4.6 Descriptive Analysis
Table 4.9 shows the results of mean and standard deviation for dependent variable,
Facebook advertising effectiveness and independent variables consisting of viral
attractiveness, trustworthiness, likeability and informativeness. N is the total respondents
recorded which is 155.

40
A five-point Likert scale with 1= “Strongly Disagree” and 5= “Strongly Agree” was
used to measure each item relating viral marketing influences towards Facebook
advertising effectiveness. Therefore, this table reflects the descriptive data where mean
of each variables are greater than 3.00. With mean of 27 items, the frequency of
respondents answering strongly agree and agree is more than strongly disagree and
disagree. This result reveals that the respondents consider that all the variables listed
consist of some degree of importance thus implicating the proposed hypotheses H1, H2,
H3 and H4. However, other test and analysis must be conducted to measure the amount
of effectiveness of each independent variables.
Table 4.9 Descriptive Analysis
Items N Minimum Maximum Mean
Std.
Deviation
Facebook Advertising
Effectiveness
155 1.33 5.00 3.7269 0.86912
Viral Attractiveness 155 1.00 5.00 3.5914 0.93478
Viral Trustworthiness 155 1.00 5.00 3.1140 0.94008
Viral Likeability 155 1.67 5.00 3.6731 0.77429
Viral Informativeness 155 1.00 5.00 3.4194 0.88015
Valid N 155
4.7 Multiple Regression and Hypothesis Testing
This section presents the bootstrapping performed to get the t-value by connecting the
latent variables to one and another. Hence, the computation for this latent variables and
path analysis are shown in Table 4.10 Hypotheses Testing.
Coefficient of determination (R²) indicates the amount of variance in dependent
variable explained by independent variables. Higher R² value indicates the increased
predictability ability of structural model. Path coefficient on the other hand indicates the
direct relationship between independent variables and dependent variables. Apart from
that, the significance and acceptance level can be determined from the path coefficient
output to generate hypotheses testing result. According to Hair et al. (2011), the level of

41
acceptance should be at least 0.10 in order to validate the proposed hypotheses. The
supporting analysis by calculating t-value to validate the proposed hypotheses should be
higher than 1.645. Table 4.10 shows results of supported Hypothesis 1 with Standard
Beta ß= 0.348, t-value 3.22; p< 0.01 and supported Hypothesis 3 with Standard Beta ß=
0.277, t-value 2.744; p< 0.01. It indicates that viral attractiveness and viral likeability
show positive relationship with Facebook advertising effectiveness. Whereas viral
trustworthiness and viral informativeness have no relations towards Facebook advertising
effectiveness. Thus, the Hypothesis 2 and 4 were rejected.
The F statistic is the regression of mean square (MSR) divided by the residual mean
square (MSE) hence, the F values were computed in this hypotheses testing table. The
next table presents the predictive relevance where Q² was computed. Based on Q² result,
0.263 value indicates that it is well constructed and has the predictive relevance as it
reached above zero (Henseler et al., 2009).

42
Table 4.10 Hypotheses Testing
Hypothesis Relationship
Std.
Beta
Std.
Error
T-
Values
R² F VIF
P-
Values
LL UL Decision
H1 CVA -> BFB 0.348 0.108 3.22 0.404 0.094 2.158 0.001 0.147 0.509 Supported
H2 CVT -> BFB 0.003 0.088 0.039 0 1.737 0.484 -0.169 0.128 Not Supported
H3 CVL -> BFB 0.277 0.101 2.744 0.068 1.887 0.003 0.105 0.437 Supported
H4 CVI -> BFB 0.097 0.108 0.901 0.008 1.865 0.184 -0.068 0.287 Not Supported
Table 4.11 Confidence Level
Relationship
Original Sample
(O)
Sample
Mean (M)
Bias 5.00% 95.00%
Viral Attractiveness -> Facebook Advertising Effectiveness 0.348 0.347 -0.001 0.147 0.509
Viral Informativeness -> Facebook Advertising Effectiveness 0.097 0.094 -0.003 -0.068 0.287
Viral Likeability -> Facebook Advertising Effectiveness 0.277 0.279 0.003 0.105 0.437
Viral Trustworthiness -> Facebook Advertising Effectiveness 0.003 0.013 0.009 -0.169 0.128

43
Table 4.12 Predictive Relevance
Constructs SSO SSE Q² (=1-SSE/SS0)
Facebook Advertising Effectiveness 465 342.587 0.263
Viral Attractiveness 465 465
Viral Informativeness 465 465
Viral Likeability 465 465
Viral Trustworthiness 465 465

44
4.8 Summary of Findings
Presented in this Table 4.13 is the summary of hypothesis testing based on the proposed
hypothesis earlier. Hypothesized relationships were generated by the bootstrapping and
path analysis method. Results reveal two supporting hypothesis, Hypothesis 1 and 3 where
viral attractiveness and viral likeability show positive relationship towards Facebook
advertising effectiveness and another two rejected hypothesis, Hypothesis 2 and 4 where
viral trustworthiness and informativeness show negative relationship towards Facebook
Table 4.13 Summary of Hypothesis Testing
Hypotheses Description Result
H1 There is a positive relationship between
viral attractiveness towards Facebook
Supported
viral trustworthiness towards Facebook
Not Supported
viral likeability towards Facebook
Supported
viral informativeness towards Facebook
Not Supported

CHAPTER 5
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
5.0 Introduction
This chapter discusses the summary for overall chapters consisting of further discussions
of the research findings. A brief review of purpose and results were presented before
discussing the hypotheses testing results as to differentiate with the previous research
studies followed by limitations, contribution, suggestions for future research and conclusion
to end this research study.
5.1 Recapitulation
The main focus of this study is to understand the insights of viral marketing method used
to enhance Facebook advertising effectiveness in order to target Malaysian users. This
means to explore viral marketing factors affecting Facebook advertising effectiveness.
Factors study under viral marketing were viral attractiveness, trustworthiness, likeability
and informativeness.
This research study was conducted based on three objectives:
• To study viral marketing attractiveness in Facebook advertising among Malaysian
online users.
• To identify attitudes (attractiveness, trustworthiness, likeability and
informativeness) influencing the growing use of viral marketing.

46
• To analyse the relationship between viral marketing attitudes towards Facebook
The purpose of the present study was to contribute viral marketing understandings in order
to enhance advertising effectiveness of Facebook in Malaysia perspective. Therefore, this
research seeks to identify and analyse viral attitudes that relate towards Facebook
advertising effectiveness. The hypothesis proposed from the very beginning will be
discussed in the next section of discussion to relate with present results obtained from
SPSS and Smart PLS.
5.2 Discussion
This section is to recap and reveal the present data of variables. Responses and feedbacks
gathered from 155 respondents have revealed some of unexpected results with two
contradicting hypothesis but managed to satisfy all three research objectives. Based on the
profile of respondents, about 58% of respondents were found often login Facebook but 70
out of 155 of them were occasionally exposed to viral advertisements on Facebook. This
finding indicates that viral advertisements have yet to capture more than half of 155
audiences because most viral advertisements on Facebook are unfavourable to view.
Therefore, literature review of variables involved was further discussed and justified with
the findings obtained.
5.2.1 Viral Attractiveness towards Facebook Advertising Effectiveness
Based on the data analysis, viral attractiveness shows significant positive relationship with
Facebook advertising effectiveness and it is positive. This suggests that viral contents that
they view mostly are attractive because it appeals to their emotions. According to Dobele
(2007) and Eckler (2011), positive emotions with surprise factors may positively influence
audiences to viral the advertisements while negative emotions may negatively affect the
viral behaviour. Because most Malaysian Facebook users do not want to view viral
advertisements that provoke fear, anger and disgust.

47
As seen in table 4.6 Hypothesis Testing, attractive contents that trigger emotions
like interesting features, elements and ways to stimulate audiences’ interest to viral the
advertised goods and services complement. This is in line with research by Katterbach
(2002) whom states that attractive contents may stimulate audiences to hit button “Share”
for viral. The result for viral attractiveness was found supported thus answering the first
research question that viral attractiveness does influences Facebook advertising. This could
shed some light on the potentials of viral marketing for advertisers to consider such as
successful viral marketing in Malaysia such as ‘Siakap Keli’ page and ‘Oh Bulan!’. This is
because most viral contents are attractive and comprises of funny content to support local
products. Moreover, these pages promote interesting facts of a certain products and
services to make it more appealing for viewers.
5.2.2 Viral Trustworthiness towards Facebook Advertising Effectiveness
Finding from the hypothesis testing reveals a contradicted hypothesis between proposed
hypothesis and present hypothesis. Viral trustworthiness hypothesis was not supported.
This suggests that viral marketing that contained falsies illustration and messages may
cause negative outcomes as suggested by Korgaonkar et al. (2001) where impacting viral
attitude would not happen if they are unsure of the advertisements. Therefore, the present
hypothesis cannot support the second research question because viral trustworthiness has
negatively influence Facebook advertising effectiveness.
The reason for unsupported hypothesis could be because not all viral
advertisements made by own company advertisers are trustable. Consumers mostly find
peer-to-peer viral marketing are more persuasive and more credible than controlled
communication channels by marketers (Murray, 1991; Bickart and Schindler, 2001). In
other words, perceived sincerity, similarity and trust are an essential factors for consumers
in evaluating the message credibility. This suggests that Malaysian consumers nowadays
are getting wiser and knowledgeable when deciding which products and services they
believe it worked or not. However, Golan and Zaidner (2008) argue that viral advertising
initiator seems unclear of whether it was initiated by advertising professionals or initially
resulted from enthusiastic viewers who wanted to share viral advertisements with their
friends on social media.

48
5.2.3 Viral Likeability towards Facebook Advertising Effectiveness
Viral likeability results showed positive relationship towards Facebook advertising
effectiveness thus supported the previous research by Mills (2012) which suggests that
viral likeability must have traits of likeable and shareable contents or messages across
social networking sites. Based on the data analysis, respondents are liking viral
advertisements because it appears on Facebook, relatable to certain products and services
they searched for. Moreover, likeable factor is due to catchy and understandable contents
featured in viral advertisements. According to Greenberg (2013), when people click like
and share to react positively towards viral contents, it shows that there is a high acceptance
rate towards using viral marketing to viral products and services on Facebook.
Based on the third research question concerning on the viral likeability, it does
influences Facebook advertising effectiveness with supporting hypothesis testing of
Standard Beta ß= 0.277, t-value 2.744; p< 0.01. This is incorporated with the level of
interest as supported by Mehta and Purvis (2006) and Mulligan (1998) when consumers
have awareness towards online advertisement, they are most likely to form a liking and
interest on the advertised products and services, which similarly occurred in viral marketing
on Facebook (Chu et al., 2011).
5.2.4 Viral Informativeness towards Facebook Advertising Effectiveness.
Viral informativeness variable however was rejected based on the presented hypothesis
because it negatively influences the Facebook advertising effectiveness. This indicates that
Facebook effectiveness requires more credible sources of information to ensure its
acceptance, usefulness and believability by Facebook users. To Malaysian Facebook users,
most viral information can be misleading and exaggerating to believe because of the
unbelievable source from one people to another.
Even though viral informativeness result showed negative relationship, this finding
still support Tsang et al. (2004) previous study stating that informativeness has an impact
consumers’ perceived attitude towards online advertisements. According to Zhang et al.
(2014) previous research on the influence of reviews posted online found that potential
customers identified the online review contents to develop their own form of perceptions

49
of the review informativeness and persuasiveness. This implies that Facebook viral product
and service reviews can be vital supplemental information which could assist potential
customers to reduce doubts and uncertainty of a product and service thus improve their
buying decision. Negative relationship in this context, could means that the consumers are
hardly persuaded and trust informative viral contents from a single source that is from
advertisers themselves. Potential consumers are more likely to rely on recommendations
from a real consumers instead of marketing message as proposed by (Enginkaya and
Yilmaz, 2014) because their reviews are can be highly informative than marketing
information as they are not easily swayed by claims made by advertisers. This may
indicates that real consumers can be a good proxy for overall viral marketing since they
have a strong influence on buying decision of other potential buyers.
5.3 Limitation of the Study
There are several limitations that need to be addressed for future research. In this
research, time constraint is the main limitation because of the low response rate using
Google forms causing the distribution of questionnaires took about 12 days to collect. Apart
from that, difficulties to share Google forms link address on Facebook Messenger as some
users purposely block for spam which hindered the share activity. In terms of sample size,
155 survey questionnaires may not be sufficient enough to represent Malaysia total
population thus it may subject to inefficient survey conduct. Sampling bias is indeed
unavoidable when using convenient sampling because selected samples did not accurately
represent the entire population. Moreover, information accessibility mostly require certain
fees for access so the alternative way is to rely heavily on Google Scholar and Emerald
Insights website using UMS database portal. However, many foreign journals available than
local journals and they may not be fully applicable for local context.
5.4 Contribution of the Study
Despite of the limitations, this research has several contributions to academicians and
businesses.

50
5.4.1 Contribution to Academicians
This research study had contributed to the Malaysian academicians by identifying predictors
of viral marketing towards Facebook advertising effectiveness. Even though viral
trustworthiness and informativeness have no relationship towards Facebook advertising
effectiveness but both reveal insights of Malaysians perceived attitude towards viral
marketing on Facebook and it somehow fulfilled the research gap of the little research on
Facebook advertising effectiveness in Malaysian context. Viral likeability and attractiveness
are included as well in revealing the insights of viral marketing in Malaysia perspective
hence useful to refer. Thereby, it will helps future researchers in narrowing their research
study later on by referring to this research study in Malaysian context of viral marketing on
Facebook as a useful source of information to support their literature review. Also, this
research study had provided evidences of present hypothesis and findings in hopes to
widen the local information about viral marketing on Facebook.
5.4.2 Contribution to Businesses
For an advertisement to go viral successfully, marketers and advertisers need to consider
on its informative contents in order to gain consumer’s trust. Based on the findings,
marketers and advertisers should carefully strategize their advertising strategy in terms of
inserting emotions to make an attractive advertisement viral. A lot of people tend to avoid
viewing and distrust viral advertisements due to misleading information, causing negative
emotions of fear, anger and disgust. So, when creating a viral advertisement, elements of
joy, happy, excitement and interesting info should be properly adjust with the right channel
to transfer the content into a purposeful message. That way, viral marketing can change
the way consumers perceive a product and service at an expected manner. Take into
account of how Apple company promoting Iphone X by exploiting social media besides
Facebook such as Youtube and Instagram with the power of viral marketing to manipulate
potential buyers in a way beyond expectations to keep interested towards Apple products.

51
5.4.3 Contribution to Government
Nowadays, Malaysians are more influenced by western culture involved which is not
consistent with Islam (Sloane and Patricia, 1999). Perhaps, this research study could help
our government to inspire Malaysians with Islamic appeals towards advertising as to uphold
Islamic culture in Malaysia by filtering inappropriate appeals and insensitive contents that
may trigger negative emotions thus affecting our viral advertisements perception causing,
consumers perceive viral advertisements as deceptive and bad influences to the
community.
5.5 Suggestions for Future Research
To overcome this shortcoming, it is important to find a way to conduct a research survey
efficiently. Google forms are way accessible and free to use to collect data so it is better
to replace questionnaire papers and convert all questionnaires into online forms because,
not only it is free, Google forms are the convenient approach to reach out larger sample
size from various demographics. Extended variables for viral attitudes are highly
recommended to widen viral marketing research scope in Malaysian context. Because
present study only involves four independent variables due to time constraint.
Correspondingly, future researchers can consider longitudinal study to research viral
advertising trends from time to time as online viral advertising can change overtime based
on trends and consumer’s perceived attitude.
5.6 Conclusion
The main purpose to pursue this research study was to determine viral marketing
influences towards Facebook advertising effectiveness among Malaysian Facebook users.
Viral advertising plays a vital role in order to ensure that Facebook advertising is effective.
About 155 of Malaysian respondents participated this survey and based on demographic
findings, half of them are often login Facebook but occasionally view viral advertising for
some reasons. As in viewing funny contents

52
Among all findings, viral trustworthiness and informativeness have negative
relationship towards Facebook advertising effectiveness which in my opinion, as long as it
involves viral, people would consider the information as exaggerating and misleading so
not many viral advertisements successful to gain trust but merely attractive to gain higher
likeability and shares.
More research studies necessary to further extend these findings into more causal factors
in order to compare whether there are more factors that contribute to different results
from this study. In conclusion, it is hoped that these present evidences could further
interest to pursue future research and explain in-depth reasons behind the underlying
effects of viral advertising on Facebook.

53
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