A Study on the impact of information sources and product involvement on consumers’ purchasing intention

With the widespread popularity and deep penetration of social media worldwide, consumers increasingly rely on recommendations from key opinion leaders (KOLs) and ordinary users when making purchasing decisions. To further explore the behavioral mechanisms behind this phenomenon, this article innovatively adopts a 2 × 2 inter group experimental design, focusing on the Chinese social media user group. Through rigorous questionnaire surveys and data analysis, 232 representative sample data points were successfully collected. The study focuses on the interactive effects of information source types (KOL recommendations vs. regular user recommendations) and product engagement (high engagement vs. low engagement) on consumer purchase intention. The experimental results showed that the influence of information source type, product engagement, and their interaction on purchase intention did not reach a statistically significant level; However, it is worth noting that brand familiarity exhibits a significant positive driving effect, while the frequent use of e-commerce platforms unexpectedly suppresses purchase intention. This study provides a new perspective for understanding the consumer decision-making logic in the social media environment, and helps companies to optimize their marketing strategies accurately.