The Relevance of Source Credibility Theory on Purchase Intention in the Field the of Marketing: A Systematic Literature Review

Purpose: the purpose of this paper is to explore the current stage of knowledge on the theory of source credibility and analyse the usage of the source credibility theory to learn about customer purchase intention in the marketing field. This paper analyses to what extent and in what ways source credibility theory and the concept of source credibility are used to learn about customer purchase intention. Further, we know that the theory can further be extended or added to the current theory by adding the concept of receiver credibility and messenger credibility to know about credibility and its impact on purchase intention. Design/Methodology/Approach: A systematic literature review is used to identify helpful research articles from 3 major databases i.e. SCOPUS, APA Psyc Articles, and EBSCO. 20 journal articles are extracted after a careful review of 143 articles through the systematic review process of PRISMA. Findings: The conceptual model design defines purchase intention as the credibility of three sources, i.e., source credibility, message credibility, and receiver credibility. The source's credibility is further dependent on expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness. In contrast, message credibility is majorly defined with the help of argument quality and completeness, and receiver credibility can be defined through the receiver's attitude, emotional attachment and social influence. Originality/value: the study will help understand source credibility theory and how source credibility helps influence customer purchase intentions. This will help marketers in product development or servicing design, enhancing customer purchase intention by triggering source credibility.