Research On The Effects Of Peer Influence On Consumer Purchase Intention On B2C Cross-border E-commerce Platform

With the further opening of China’s door,more and more high-quality foreign products have entered the Chinese market.Facing all kinds of imported products,consumers will inevitably feel novel,so they need to get the knowledge of these products by a convenient and efficient way that can generate purchase intention.Peer influence refers to the influence that individuals receive from peers with similar identities and status.Nowadays,with the vigorous development of Internet social networking,peer influence spreads and expands its effects through the Internet platform and has become an important factor to affect people in making behavioral decisions in various aspects of daily life.Therefore,in the scenario where consumers purchase imported goods on B2 C cross-border e-commerce platforms,whether and how peer influence can promote consumers’ willingness to purchase has become a question worthy of research and discussion.Accordingly,this research which is in the scenario of consumers shopping on B2 C cross-border e-commerce platforms,takes the S-O-R(stimulus-organismresponse)model as the basic research framework,and studies the impact of peer influence on consumers’ purchase intentions on B2 C cross-border e-commerce platforms via two intermediary variables perceived value and consumer trust.Among them,information influence,normative influence,social support and emotional infection are selected as four subdivision dimensions under peer influence as independent variables and the part of stimulus,and perceived value is divided into two dimensions: perceived emotional value and perceived functional value.According to the above research model,this thesis proposes corresponding research hypotheses.Next,this thesis conducts empirical research through questionnaire survey.In terms of questionnaire design,this thesis draws on the mature scales of different scholars to form measurement items for different variables,and then distributes questionnaires twice online.The first distribution is a pre-survey,aiming to further optimize the questionnaire,and the second distribution is large-scale and formal after the optimization of the questionnaire.A total of 450 questionnaires were recovered in the two questionnaire distributions,of which 374 were valid questionnaires.Then this research uses the data collected above to construct a structural equation model with the help of AMOS software to carry out empirical analysis.Through the path test,it is found that the different sub-dimensions in the peer influence have significant positive effects on the mediator variable and all the mediator variables have significant positive effects on the purchase intention.Through the mediation effect test,it is found that in the path of different peer influence sub-dimensions to purchase intentions,different mediation variables play different mediation effects: perceived functional value does not play a mediating role in the path of emotional infection to purchase intention and perceived emotional value does not play a mediating role in the path of information influence to purchase intention,but they all play a mediating role in other paths;consumer trust only plays a mediating role in the path of normative influence to purchase intention,while does not play a mediating role in other paths.Lastly,the PROCESS plug-in in SPSS software is used to test the moderating effect of gender on the whole model,and it is found that females’ perceived value has a stronger effect on promoting purchase intention than males.According to the results of the empirical test,this thesis puts forward management suggestions for the three groups,respectively cross-border ecommerce platforms,merchants and consumers.For the platforms,it is recommended that the platform take measures to create a virtual space for consumers to obtain the peer influence.In this case it can enrich consumers’ shopping experience and increase their own transaction volume.For merchants,it is recommended that they carry out relevant marketing activities online and offline based on the gender of the main audience of their products in order to amplify the peer influence.For consumers,it is recommended to establish a sense of rational consumption,form the habit of independent thinking,reasonably analyze their own needs,and avoid blind obedience and the trap of consumerism.