Antecedents of Consumer Attitude towards Blogger Recommendations and its Impact on Purchase Intention

Manuscript type: Research paper. Research aims: This study aims to fill in the literature gap by examining the relationship between various antecedent factors affecting consumer attitude towards blogger recommendations and their purchase intention. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: A total of 384 questionnaires were collected and analysed using the partial least squares (PLS) approach. Research findings: The results highlight the relationships existing between consumer attitude and the antecedent factors namely, perceived usefulness, trustworthiness, information quality and perceived benefits. The study also confirms the mediation role of consumer attitude towards blogger recommendations. Most impor- tantly, consumer attitude towards blogger recommendations is found to have significant influence on consumer purchase intention. Theoretical contributions/ Originality: This study provides a comprehensive empirical examination of the antecedent factors that contribute to consumer attitude towards blogger recommendations, previously examined by  different  researchers  in  separate  studies. It is found that trustworthiness is the main factor contributing to consumer attitude towards blogger recommendations, followed by information quality, perceived usefulness and perceived benefits. Attitude towards blogger recommendations is found to have a strong impact on purchase intention; it also serves as a mediator between the antecedent factors and purchase intention. Practitioner/ Policy implications: This study provides useful evi- dence which support the influential power of blogs as a type of effective integrated marketing tool. The findings also recommend some evaluation criteria for choosing and evaluating the effectiveness of blogger recommendations that influence consumer attitude and purchase intention. Overall, blogger recommendations have to be perceived as useful, trustworthy and carry good quality information before consumers can be influenced. Research limitation: This study is constrained by limitations such   as blog types and variables. Future research could be extended to include more diverse blog types, more contributing variables on attitude and a bigger geographical coverage.   Keywords: Blogger Recommendations, Consumer Attitudes, Infor- mation Quality, Purchase Intention, Trustworthiness. JEL Classification: M31