Impact of Social Media on Consumer Behavior: Case Study from a Leading Hotel in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Social Media has become a phenomenal technological advancement in present world where individuals connect and communicate with each other. Furthermore, Social Media has become a knowledge hub where consumers share, interact, express and engage in multitude of activities related to different products, services and other related functions. Travel and tourism sector has been one of the key fields where consumers rely on Social Media based information due to its’ experiential nature and the importance of sensitive information in the decision-making process. Role of Social Media on consumer behavior has been addressed throughout the years and it has become a moot point where the scholars and other academic professionals have identified that it needs further researches and studies to identify the relationship as it evolves frequently. This study discusses the concepts of Social Media and Consumer Behavior and related topics in literature review with the support of academic references and build the conceptual framework accordingly to conduct the analysis. Author has been identified main independent variables based on the literature review and collected 278 responses from local consumers of particular hotel chain through a survey based questionnaire. Descriptive research method has been used to analyze the collected data and the findings discovered that the identified variables have an impact on consumer behavior. As concluding remarks, the study proposes that Social Media has an impact on consumer behavior and identifying the discussed areas would benefit the organization to understand the consumer behavior and execute their marketing plan accordingly. Recommendations were made to improve the lacking areas and limitations of the study have been identified to provide an outline of the study. Furthermore, the study has provided future suggestions for future researchers as there could be other Social Media related factors affect consumer behavior in different contexts.