CHAPTER II

REVIEW RELATED LITERATURE

This Chapter provides the related literature and studies that will merely explain more of this research
study.

Introduction

The realm of Social Networking Sites is increasingly emerging as the subject of research in the field of
social sciences. Scholars in many fields have begun to investigate the various aspects of Social
Networking Sites. Many studies have been conducted around the world to investigate how these sites
may influence issues of identity, privacy,social capital, youth culture, education and interpersonal
relationships.Therefore, an attempt has been made in this chapter to review studies and articles related
to the theme of the research. The review of literature allows us to study the main perspectives similar
studies conducted in the same field. This will give a proper guideline to the research work and enable
integration of the past studies leading to the expansion of knowledge.Further review of literature has
not only widened the horizon for understanding the themes related to the study, but also has sharpened
the method of arranging the components in the framework of the study.This chapter is sub-divided into
various sections to facilitate the emergence of a clear picture regarding the different dimensions of
Social Networking Sites.This second chapter contains a review of select studies that have been carried
out on different aspects of Social Networking Sites. As mentioned earlier, the review has been presented
under different sub-headings.

Studies on the Usage of Social Networking Sites among Students

Since the last decade the usage of Social Networking Sites among students is increasing rapidly
throughout the world. Evidently Social Networking Sites have become a significant part of the lives of
these youth (Gemmill and Peterson 2006). Compared with any other group of people the usage of Social
Networking Sites among college students is more, mainly because they are attracted extensively to the
new technology and particularly to the opportunity it offers for creating social networks.

According to Keol Lim and Ellen B Meier (2012) in their study clearly highlighted how and why Korean
students use Social Networking Sites and what are the advantages they find by using Social Networking
Sites. The study as such begins with the explanation of how the number of international students getting
admission in US universities has increased. It also refers to psychological experiences of international
students such as disorientation, nostalgic depressive reactions, and feelings of isolation, alienation and
powerlessness. However, international students may have limited ways to cope withstress, which could
lead to stress-related illnesses such as anxiety or depression. Hence these limitations make it hard for
international students to acclimatize themselves new circumstances.

Further, Keol and Meier (2012) mainly constrained themselves foronly two research questions: How
do these international students use Social Networking Sites? And how do these international students
perceive the impact of Social Networking Sites on their affective andacademic adaptation? This research
was conducted in the United States with Asian international students, all from Korea, who were not
raised in a western culture. Respondents in the study used Social Networking Sites in various ways and
the tools played an important role in their adaptation to a new life in the United States. Findings of the
study clearly showed that the respondents benefitted from their use of social networking sites and that
the interactions helped to decrease their anxiety in the new culture by providing them with a means of
connecting to their parents and friends in Korea. At the end it also stressed on the need of more
research to identify the potential of Social Networking Sites in contributing to the affective and cognitive
adaptation for international students including the connection between Internet use and academic
achievement. In a study entitled “Social capital as Facebook differentiating uses and users” Based on
the study of Moira Burke and Cameron Marlow (2011) discuss extensively about the perspective to look
at the uses of Social Networking Sites. It says though usage of Social Networking Sites is often treated as
a monolithic activity, in which all time is equally social and its impact the same for all users. The study
primarily examines how Facebook affects social capital depending upon types of site activities,
contrasting one-on-one communication, broadcasts to wider audiences, and passive consumption of
social news, and individual differences among users, including social communication skill and
selfesteem. In this study (2011) a survey was conducted using 415 Facebook users, which revealed that
receiving messages from friends is associated with increase in bridging social capital. The major goal of
the study was to observe how different uses of a large Social Networking Site influence different types
of user’s social capital. Social capital is the actual or potential resources which are linked to a durable
network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance or recognition. The study
states that college students are motivated by social information-seeking, using Social Networking Sites
to learn about people they have met offline, and expressive information sharking,feeling greater to
bridge social capital.

According to Kuan-Yu Lin and His-Peng Lu (2011) applied network externalities and motivation
theory to understand the usage of Social Networking Sites among college students. After conducting an
empirical research involving 402 samples, using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) Approach, Lin and
Lu (2011) found that “Enjoyment” was the most influential factor for the increasing usage of Social
Networking Sites among the students. Based on the study of Bicen and Cavus (2010) evaluated the
usage of Social Networking Sites among students in the department of computer education instructional
technology and found which social networking sites are the most preferred by students. The study
revealed that use and sharing of knowledge on Internet is made an integral part of college students’
lives. Results show that Live Spaces and Facebook are the commonly used sites by the students.

According to Lack, Beck and Hoover (2009) investigated the usage of Social Networking Sites by
undergraduate psychology major. They found that majority of students using Facebook and their
account information have publicly accessibility and some user profiles have content of a questionable
nature on their publicly viewable accounts. They suggest that formal education must be presided to
students regarding the usage of these sites.
The influence of Social Media on consumers during their decision-making process

According to Howard and Sheth have established another consumers’ purchasing decision-making
model in 1969. In contrast with the well-known 5 stages model seen above, this model counts 3 stages
in which consumer go through to make their purchase decision. At the first stage called ‘Extensive
problem solving’, consumers have only little information about brands and have not yet defined criteria
that will help them to choose among products and services. Moreover consumers have no experience
about products/services they are looking for. At this stage consumers don’t have enough information
and undertakes information search to find about the brands. At the second stage ‘ Limited problem
solving’ consumers have found out information and succeeded to define criteria choices but are still not
decided about which brands will be suit them. At the final stage called ‘Routinized response behaviour’
consumers have strong predispositions toward the brand and are now ready to purchase a particular
brand that they have chose after having enough information and made an evaluation of alternatives.
Based on the study of Howard and Sheth model has the particularity to highlight the importance of
inputs to the consumers’ purchasing decision making process and to imply how consumers will order
outputs to make their final purchase decision.

Based on the study of McKinsey Company (2009) created the ‘Consumer Decision Journey’ model. In
this model, consumers go through different stage through their decision making journey. Here the
loyalty loop is integrated in the model and will allow consumers who want to repurchase the same
product to don’t go through all the stages they went through for the first purchase. As seen in the
literature there exists different theories and models for the consumers’ purchasing decision-making
model and if they present some differences, especially in the way they are drawn and presented, all of
them integrate the five steps presented above: Need Recognition – Information Search – Evaluation of
Alternatives – Purchase Decision and Post purchase Behaviour.

The different Social Media types

There are many types of Social Media available to people to connect to each others and form
communities. These Social Media types allow people to publish, share, play, build network, buy
and localize. These Social Media are available on different types of devices, allowing thus
people to connect from everywhere. According to Parker (2011 ,pXX) broke down Social Media
into 8 different categories Blogging (e.g. Type Pad, Word Press, Blogger) Micro blogging(e.g.
Twitter, Friend Feed)Social networking(e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Orkut, Plaxo, Ning,
MySpace)Social bookmarking (e.g. Digg, Stumble Upon, Delicious…),Multimedia sharing (e.g.
YouTube, Flickr),Reviews and opinions (e.g. Epinions, TripAdvisor, eHow…),Wikis (e.g.
Wikipedia) Forums.

This list cannot be considered as exhaustive since every year new Social Mediaplatforms are
developed allowing communities to interact together in different ways.Consumers today are well
exposed to Social Media types and can be influenced in their purchase decision-making process
by communities. Given that consumers have thus access to Social Media in various ways and for
different uses, the influence on their consumption decision-making process can be reflected in
different forms and at different degrees. It can be thus complicated to define what is the exact
influence exerted by Social Medial in this process.

The power of non marketing sources

Social Media has transformed the method of influence during the consumer’s decision
making process. Indeed, Social Media that are considered as non marketing sources appear thus
to the customer as being more credible due to the fact they don’t believe that these sources have
personal stake in the consumer purchase consumption. This demonstrates that consumers are
aware of the difference between companies that push messages toward them to make them
consume products and consumers in communities that are similar to them and have no stake in
spreading positive or negative word-of-mouth on Social Media.

According to Hoyer and Mac Innis (2010), non marketing sources are more credible and have
a stronger influence on consumer decisions-making process than traditional marketing sources
do. Social Media are among these non marketing sources and gather a lot of people who can
easily, through word-of-mouth, share contents and ideas with other consumers (Jaffe, 2010).
Social Media platforms allow consumers to interact together and form communities. This implies
that consumers on Social Media are more willing to listen to their peers, to trust them, and thus
be influenced by them in their purchase decision-making process. Nielsen (2009) reported that
opinions posted by consumers online were the most trusted forms of advertising. According to
the study, 70 % of people trust in consumers opinions posted online.

Purchase Decision stage

Based on the study of Belch and Belch (2003,) explained that at some point in this process
consumers stop searching and evaluating information to move to the next stage and make a
purchase decision. At this stage, consumers will decide whether they will buy a products/services
or not. This purchase decision depends partly on the motivation of consumers but also on the
influence that will have the previous stage that allowed them to evaluate alternatives thanks to
tools,reviews and recommendation available on Social Media.
Post purchase Behavior stage

Based on the study about post purchasing behavior concerning the last stage, which is post
purchase behavior consumers evaluate the outcome of their purchase decision (Hoyer and Mac
Innis, 2010,). For Foxall (2005), this stage is really important for consumers, as it will influence
their future purchase patterns. In addition to influence their own future purchase patterns, they
can also influence those of their peers. Indeed, consumers today use Social Media to talk about
their own good or bad experiences and thus share feedback and opinions with peers (Jaffe,
2010,). Social Media has increased the possibility offered to consumers to share their good or
bad experiences with their peers like never before. A decade ago, consumers who wanted to talk
about their own experience could only spread the world to a small circle of people around them.
Now a days with Social Media it has become easier for consumers to spread the word really
quickly to hundreds of people and influence their purchase decision-making processes. The
literature review demonstrated that the increasing influence of Social Media might play a role on
the consumer’s purchasing decision-making process. However, it seems still unclear about what
exact role of influence is played by Social Media and if this influence is different at the various
stages of consumer’s purchasing decision-making process.