EXPLORING THE DETERMINANTS OF FAN PAGE MEMBERS’ WILLINGNESS TOWARD PARTICIPATING IN AN ONLINE GROUP BUYING ON FACEBOOK: AN INFORMATION ADOPTION MODEL PERSPECTIVE

Recently, online group buying has become an important channel for consumers to purchase commodities. The development of its business models is flourishing. Because fan page of Facebook is easy to aggregate consumers who have common interests and needs, many individuals have used fan page as a place to initiate an online group buying. Through long-term sharing their opinions and reviews of some products they have used and interacting with fan page members, they can attract a lot of followers to participate in their initiated online group buying on fan page. Clearly, fan page group buying (FPGB) has become a new business model for individuals to initiate an online group buying. However, rare researches target on understanding why consumers on fan page would participate in FPGB. Based on the information adoption model (IAM), the aim of this study was to explore the factors that may influence fan page members’ willingness to participate in FPGB. Moreover, because the concept of critical mass is an essential factor for online group buying, this study integrated the construct of critical mass into IAM. The research results found that the perception of information quality that was posted by FPGB operators and the creditability of FPGB operators would significantly increase fan page members’ perception of information usefulness. Moreover, the perception of information usefulness was also associated with fan page members’ perception of critical mass. Finally, fan page members’ perception of information usefulness and critical mass would promote their willingness toward participating in FPGB. Several suggestions for FPGB operators were also proposed by the discussion of practical implications.