Abstract:

Purpose – This study investigates the impact of social media marketing on customer inspiration and customer purchase intention in the telecommunication sector of Afghanistan. Design/methodology/approach – For examining the mentioned purpose, empirical research was conducted on the telecommunication sector of Afghanistan. Social media users formed the study population, following the telecommunications companies' social media accounts in the capital Kabul. A self-managed online survey was administered using the convenience sampling method. A total of 4oo valid responses were taken for analysis as the sample of the study. The collected data was analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 25 to test the suggested hypotheses. Frequency analysis, correlation analysis, and linear regression analysis were used to analyze the obtained data. Findings – The results revealed that social media marketing, customer inspiration, and customer purchase intention were significantly and positively correlated. Besides, all the suggested hypotheses were accepted, indicating that social media marketing has a significant positive impact on customer inspiration and customer purchase intention. Originality – Although some studies examine consumer inspiration in different contexts, extant literature does not provide an empirical study on examining the impact of social media marketing on customer inspiration and purchase intention. This research, therefore, addresses a gap in customer inspiration and offers valuable perspectives for the literature. This research also provides a sound basis of implications for telecom companies and their stakeholders.

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