Dissertation: Social Media Influence on Consumer Behavior in Morocco

This dissertation investigates the impact of social media on consumer behavior in the decision-making process in Morocco. It examines how social media influences consumer perspectives, the main components of the decision-making process before a purchase, and how social media is used in marketing. The study uses a positivism philosophy, deductive approach, descriptive design, and survey research strategy, with data collected from 100 social media users in Morocco. The findings suggest that social media significantly influences consumer decisions, highlighting its importance in shaping consumer behavior towards products and services in the Moroccan market. The research concludes with recommendations for businesses to effectively leverage social media to influence consumer behavior and improve marketing strategies.

Running head: DISSERTATION
Impacts of Social Media on Consumer Behavior in Decision Making Process in Morocco
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1DISSERTATION
Acknowledgement
It provides me utmost contentment to make the final submission of the research that concentrates
on the “Impact of social media of social media on consumer behavior in decision making process
in Morocco”. Since the beginning of the research until the submission, I have been able to gain a
chance of conducting an in-depth research on the impact of factors influencing consumer
behavior in the decision making process.
I want to thank many people who have helped me in producing this project work. Firstly, I would
like to give regards to my supervisor ………………… who helped me a lot to prepare this work.
I also show my gratefulness towards my respondents of the surveys without whose help, I would
not be able to do the work. Special thanks to my children for their tolerance during the last four
years of my MBA studies, all the travels I had to do to attend lectures and sit for exams.
Thanking you all.

2DISSERTATION
Abstract
The aim of the research is to investigate the impact of social media on consumer behavior in
decision making process in Morocco. Social media is largely influencing as well as changing the
way consumers should behave followed by making decision before purchasing a product or a
service. Considering the huge benefit social media offers to the individuals in terms of
communication regardless of the location and time, it is used drastically by the business
organizations for communicating with the target customers. Compared to the past years, a rise of
the social media use has been encountered in regards to online forums, blogs and social media
platforms. As a result, social media has become the voice of the consumers that has grown in
strength due to the various advantages it provides to both the consumers and the business
organizations.
Issues in terms of the use of social media have been noticed that is having an impact on the
consumer behavior in decision making in Morocco. Morocco is having issues in cascading the
appropriate information to the target users by social media. As a result, the actual information is
not being transferred to the customers and the business organizations are unable influence the
decision making process of the consumers in Morocco. Analyzing the impact of social media in
consumer behavior in decision making in Morocco is important, as this provides an opportunity
to address the impact of the gap of the use of social media on consumer behavior in buying
decision in Morocco.
Positivism philosophy, deductive approach, descriptive design and survey research strategy has
been used. In accordance with the above-mentioned methods, random probability sampling

3DISSERTATION
technique has been used for selecting the social media users as the population out of which 100
social media users in Morocco has been selected. Primary data collection technique and
quantitative data analysis technique has been used for gathering relevant and updated data and
assessing the relationship between social media use and consumer behavior in decision-making
in Morocco.
Therefore, it can be stated that the alternate hypothesis has been considered in this research, as
the regression analysis value obtained is .000. This shows that the factors of consumer decision
making process on the social media platforms play an important role in purchasing the products
in the market. The acceptance of the alternate hypothesis also suggests that these factors are
important on the part of the decisions that are taken by the customers in purchasing the products.
Social media plays an important role in influencing the decisions of the customers towards a
particular product or service that leads to its accepted or rejection

4DISSERTATION
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................9
1.0 Overview...........................................................................................................................9
1.1 Problem statement...............................................................................................................10
1.2 Research aim........................................................................................................................10
1.3 Research objectives.............................................................................................................10
1.4 Research questions...............................................................................................................11
1.5 Research hypothesis.............................................................................................................11
1.6 Research rationale................................................................................................................11
1.7 Structure of the dissertation.................................................................................................12
1.8 Summary..............................................................................................................................13
Chapter 2: Literature review..........................................................................................................15
2.0 Overview..............................................................................................................................15
2.1 Conceptual framework.........................................................................................................15
2.2 Social media.........................................................................................................................16
2.3 Use of social media globally................................................................................................17
2.4 Use of social media in Morocco..........................................................................................18
2.5 Factors affecting use of social media for business..............................................................18
2.5.1 Relevance......................................................................................................................18

5DISSERTATION
2.5.2 Quality..........................................................................................................................19
2.5.3 User-generated content.................................................................................................20
2.5.4 Volume.........................................................................................................................20
2.6 Concept consumer behavior and decision-making..............................................................20
2.7 Factors affecting consumer behavior and decision-making................................................21
2.7.1 Culture..........................................................................................................................21
2.7.2 Perception.....................................................................................................................22
2.7.3 Trend.............................................................................................................................22
2.7.4 Economic level.............................................................................................................23
2.8 Theories of consumer behavior and decision making.........................................................23
2.8.1 Theory of reasoned action................................................................................................23
2.8.2 Hawkins Stern Impulse Buying........................................................................................24
2.9 Model of consumer behavior...............................................................................................25
2.9.1 Engel, Kollat, Blackwell (EKB) model............................................................................25
2.10 Current economic scenario in Morocco.............................................................................26
2.11 Benefits of using social media for business organizations................................................26
2.12 Impact of social media on consumer behavior in decision making process......................27
2.13 Challenges of using social media on consumer behavior in decision making process.....27
2.14 Summary............................................................................................................................28
Chapter 3: Research methodology.................................................................................................29

6DISSERTATION
3.0 Overview..............................................................................................................................29
3.1 Research outline...................................................................................................................29
3.2 Research philosophy............................................................................................................30
3.2.1 Justification...................................................................................................................30
3.3 Research approach...............................................................................................................30
3.3.1 Justification...................................................................................................................31
3.4 Research design...................................................................................................................31
3.4.1 Justification...................................................................................................................32
3.5 Research strategy.................................................................................................................32
3.5.1 Justification...................................................................................................................33
3.6 Sampling technique and sample size...................................................................................33
3.6.1 Justification...................................................................................................................33
3.7 Data collection process........................................................................................................34
3.7.1 Justification...................................................................................................................34
3.8 Data analysis technique.......................................................................................................35
3.8.1 Justification...................................................................................................................35
3.9 Ethical considerations..........................................................................................................35
3.10 Accessibility issues............................................................................................................36
3.11 Summary............................................................................................................................37
Chapter 4: Findings and Analysis..................................................................................................38

7DISSERTATION
4.0 Overview..............................................................................................................................38
4.1 Demographic factors............................................................................................................38
4.2 Inferential statistics..............................................................................................................43
4.2.1 Correlation analysis......................................................................................................43
4.2.2 Regression analysis.......................................................................................................52
4.3 Summary..............................................................................................................................55
Chapter 5: Discussion....................................................................................................................56
5.0 Overview..............................................................................................................................56
5.1 Discussion............................................................................................................................56
5.2 Summary..............................................................................................................................59
Chapter 6: Conclusion and recommendation.................................................................................60
6.0 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................60
6.1 Linking with objectives.......................................................................................................61
6.2 Recommendations................................................................................................................62
6.3 Future scope of the study.....................................................................................................62
References......................................................................................................................................64
Appendix 1.....................................................................................................................................73
Survey questionnaire.................................................................................................................73

8DISSERTATION
List of Figures
Figure 1: Conceptual framework...................................................................................................16
Figure 2: History of Social Media.................................................................................................16
Figure 3: Types of Social Media...................................................................................................17

9DISSERTATION
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.0 Overview
Social media is largely influencing as well as changing the way consumers should behave
followed by making decision before purchasing a product or a service. Considering the huge
benefit social media offers to the individuals in terms of communication regardless of the
location and time, it is used drastically by the business organizations for communicating with the
target customers. As commented by Treem and Leonardi (2013), the business organizations use
social media as a marketing platform or tool, as this allows reaching far out customers as well as
ensure continuous communication in terms of the products and services and significant
information related to it such as offers and discounts. The field of consumer behavior is
relatively new in the research field, as prior 1960 consumer behavior was related to consumption
that belonged to the economic discipline. The business organizations use social media as a
medium or platform for marketing, as a shift in the scalability of the influence and the way the
customers share, analyze and select information has been noticed (Seidman 2013).
Compared to the past years, a rise of the social media use has been encountered in
regards to online forums, blogs and social media platforms. As a result, social media has become
the voice of the consumers that has grown in strength due to the various advantages it provides to
both the consumers and the business organizations. For this study, the use of social media in
Morocco has been studied followed by determining its impact on the consumer behavior in the
decision-making process. According to Cheston, Flickinger and Chisolm (2013), social media
has gained huge popularity in Morocco in the past few years and is used by the population for
communicating with people and business organizations. The most preferred social media

10DISSERTATION
platforms in Morocco are Facebook and YouTube. In Morocco, Facebook is not a mere network
for communication but it has become an open and independent platform for sharing information
and communicating. However, problems in terms of consumer buying in the decision making
process is studied in this research.
1.1 Problem statement
Issues in terms of the use of social media have been noticed that is having an impact on
the consumer behavior in decision making in Morocco. Morocco is a blooming country with
wide range of opportunities for the business organizations that needs to be used wisely. Thus, in
order to compete in the tough business environment, the social media is not used appropriately.
Though Facebook is used largely in Morocco, the business organizations are unable to use the
social platforms wisely for communicating with the target customers. The information the
business organizations want to cascade to the customers for influencing their behavior in the
decision making process for purchasing their product and service are at fault (Boulianne 2015).
As the social media platform is having huge active users, Morocco is having issues in
cascading the appropriate information to the target users by social media. As a result, the actual
information is not being transferred to the customers and the business organizations are unable
influence the decision making process of the consumers in Morocco.
1.2 Research aim
The aim of the research is to investigate the impact of social media on consumer behavior
in decision making process in Morocco.
1.3 Research objectives
The objectives of the research are:

11DISSERTATION
 To investigate on consumer perspectives towards social media and its decision making
 To evaluate the main components in decision making process before an actual purchase is
taken place
 To know how social media is used in marketing processes
 To evaluate the essentials' social media offered to both marketers and consumers.
1.4 Research questions
The research questions are:
 How do consumers attend, process, and obtain the information through social media?
 What are the changes social media has brought to consumers in different stages of their
decision making?
 How do social media influence the purchase intention of Moroccan consumers?
 How currently local corporations are using such powerful for communicating an
influencing the purchase decision of their target segments?
 How important is the social media representation in their marketing plan and campaigns?
1.5 Research hypothesis
The research hypotheses are:
H0: Social media does not influence the pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase stages of the
consumer behavior regarding any product in Morocco
H1: Social media influences the pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase stages of the
consumer behavior regarding any product in Morocco