Social Media Use and Paranoia: Factors That Matter in Online Shopping

Ignas Zimaitis, Mindaugas Degutis and Sigitas Urbonavicius
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Ignas Zimaitis: Marketing Department, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Vilnius university, Vilnius LT-10222, Lithuania
Mindaugas Degutis: Marketing Department, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Vilnius university, Vilnius LT-10222, Lithuania
Sigitas Urbonavicius: Marketing Department, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Vilnius university, Vilnius LT-10222, Lithuania

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-10

Abstract: The paper aims to explore the ways social media use is linked with paranoia, and how they influence buyers’ attitudes and intentions in online shopping, thus shaping overall consumer behaviour. The theoretical analysis suggests that paranoia, being influenced by social media use, plays a noticeable role in the process of online shopping. The main assumption is that paranoia is an antecedent of the attitude towards online purchasing and mediates effects of other factors towards it. This is confirmed with SEM modelling on the basis of empirical data: the analysis provides evidence that paranoia is an important antecedent of the attitude towards purchasing online and mediates relationships between computer competence, cyber-fear, social media use and the attitude towards online shopping. Additionally, a contradictory relation between paranoia and online purchasing intention is observed. Overall, these findings disclose a new important factor in online shopping and outline several new directions for future research.

Keywords: social media; paranoia; online purchasing; computer competence; cyber-fear (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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