Abstract

One of the factors that influence purchase decisions is information about buying experiences and products that obtained from customer-to-customer (C2C) communication in online communities. Advances in information technology have had a major influence on customer-to-customer communication. Today, consumers are free to communicate with others who have the same interests in an online community, where the form of information produced is persuasive. Based on the information adoption model, this study aims to analyze the effect of C2C communication on purchase decisions in the online community. Variables such as Argument Quality, Source Credibility, and Tie Strength influence purchasing decisions through Product Usefulness Evaluation. Data processing was performed using 100 respondent data with Partial Least Square (PLS) processing techniques. The results of this study indicate that the Argument Quality and Tie Strength respectively positively influence the Product Usefulness Evaluation of 58.8% and 26.2%, while the Product Usefulness Evaluation positively influences the Purchase Decision of 72.9%. Important practical managerial implications for both customer and seller are further discussed