THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMERS' PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR IN MALAYSIAN RESTAURANTS

Over the years, the dynamic advancement of technology has shaped the food and beverage industry in Malaysia. Today, the huge shift in the industry has resulted in consumers seeking readily accessible information. As such, various platforms, mostly social media, have influenced consumers' pre-purchase opinions before purchasing. Nevertheless, limited studies have been conducted in Malaysia, focusing on consumers' purchasing behaviour, specifically in the food and beverage industry in Malaysia. Thus, this study examines the impacts of social media on consumers' purchasing behaviour in Malaysian restaurants. Therefore, this study has incorporated recently proposed factors including E-WOM, social media and online community marketing, higher accessibility of information, and online ordering system, which stimulate the consumers' purchasing behaviour in Malaysia. This study utilised the critical review process of secondary sources to identify the determinants and measurements used in the surveying instrument. Purposive sampling was applied to select the restaurants, whereas the non-convenience random sampling technique was employed to collect data from 270 consumers over three months. Later, PLS-SEM was used to analyse the data. The results proved that the electronic word of mouth (E-WOM), social media advertisement and online ordering system significantly determined consumers' purchasing behaviour. However, highly accessible information via social media does not have a positive implication on consumers' purchasing behaviour. The study is contributing much to the food and beverage industry.