Influence of Parasocial Relationships Over Social Media on Food Purchase Behavior Amongst Indian Millennials

Kaur, Tarleen (2021) Influence of Parasocial Relationships Over Social Media on Food Purchase Behavior Amongst Indian Millennials. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

The growing obesity trends in Indian millennials bring their food consumption behavior under scrutiny and therefore, the empirical findings of this research can act as a public health initiative to prevent India from more environmental damage and obesity. Social media platforms are proving to be a lucrative channel for the food industry to sponsor influencers and drive the marketing campaigns of their unhealthy products with high sugar, salt contents. This research aims to assess the impact of parasocial interactions over social media and how they influence consumer’s purchase behavior. Hence, the key findings of this research can be used to better utilize the parasocial relationships between food bloggers and consumers and encourage the adoption of a healthier sustainable diet. Consumer awareness about trending diets and sustainable organic food products has been growing significantly yet it is not always translated to an actual purchase. It is argued when it comes to assessing consumer’s purchase behavior, multi-attribute evaluations should be incurred. Hence, a thorough review of the existing literature on social media’s influence on the consumer’s food purchase behavior identifies trustworthiness, hedonic and utilitarian motivations, features of the influencer, and the social media platform, that affect their purchase intent. This research is one of the few studies that integrate multiple factors in one research framework to empirically evaluate their influence and give credence to the hypothesis that social media impacts the food purchase behavior among the youth. This research measures the millennial’s social media engagement with food brands/bloggers, repercussions of socio-demographic differences, and causes of repeat purchase intention. A demographically represented sample (N = 543) was taken to carry out an online survey whose results revealed significant effects of Hedonic and utilitarian motivations and the features of the influencer on the consumer's purchase intentions.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Parasocial Relationship; Marketeer; Millenial; Food; Purchase behavior; Social Media Influencer
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DS Asia H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > Marketing > Consumer Behaviour H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > Specific Industries > Food Industry Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > ZA Information resources > ZA4150 Computer Network Resources > The Internet > World Wide Web > Websites > Online social networks T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering > Telecommunications > The Internet > World Wide Web > Websites > Online social networks
Divisions:	School of Business > Master of Science in Management
Depositing User:	Clara Chan
Date Deposited:	10 Feb 2022 15:31
Last Modified:	10 Feb 2022 15:31
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/5413

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