IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rnd/arimbr/v16y2024i2p115-128.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of False Advertising on Consumer Online Purchase Behavior with the Mediating Effect of e-WOM: Consumers in Malaysia

Author

Listed:
  • Ahmed Michail Awad Ahmed
  • Abdul Kadir Bin Othman

Abstract

Advertising is one of the main contributors to the rising number of online shoppers worldwide. The use of advertising in this digital era has become a powerful tool for the persuasion of consumers. However, some organizations have adopted false advertising as their marketing strategy. The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors that influence consumers’ online shopping behavior. The study focuses on the three independent constituent factors of false advertising, namely, unethical advertising, misleading information, and deception. The dependent variable is online purchase behavior. A questionnaire was distributed to 588 individuals who shopped once or more from the top e-commerce platforms in Malaysia. The questionnaire underwent validation and reliability assessments, followed by the collection and analysis of responses using SPSS software. The findings indicate that False advertising can have significant effects on consumer online purchase behavior in Malaysia. Through the use of misleading or false information, companies can manipulate consumer perceptions and ultimately influence their buying decisions. This can lead to several negative consequences for consumers, including financial losses, disappointment with purchased products, and erosion of trust in online shopping.

Suggested Citation

  • Ahmed Michail Awad Ahmed & Abdul Kadir Bin Othman, 2024. "The Effect of False Advertising on Consumer Online Purchase Behavior with the Mediating Effect of e-WOM: Consumers in Malaysia," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 16(2), pages 115-128.
    • Handle: RePEc:rnd:arimbr:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:115-128
    DOI: 10.22610/imbr.v16i2(I)S.3774
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ojs.amhinternational.com/index.php/imbr/article/view/3774/2472
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ojs.amhinternational.com/index.php/imbr/article/view/3774
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22610/imbr.v16i2(I)S.3774?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nekmahmud, Md. & Naz, Farheen & Ramkissoon, Haywantee & Fekete-Farkas, Maria, 2022. "Transforming consumers' intention to purchase green products: Role of social media," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    2. Md. Muzahidul Islam, 2021. "Impact of Deceptive Advertising on Women Buying Behavior: A Study on Cosmetics Industry of Bangladesh," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, Macrothink Institute, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, vol. 8(2), pages 1-21, December.
    3. Golf-Papez, Maja & Heller, Jonas & Hilken, Tim & Chylinski, Mathew & de Ruyter, Ko & Keeling, Debbie I. & Mahr, Dominik, 2022. "Embracing falsity through the metaverse: The case of synthetic customer experiences," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 65(6), pages 739-749.
    4. Zhi Yang & Quang Van Ngo & Yaguang Chen & Chung Xuan-Thi Nguyen & Hoa Thi Hoang, 2019. "Does Ethics Perception Foster Consumer Repurchase Intention? Role of Trust, Perceived Uncertainty, and Shopping Habit," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(2), pages 21582440198, May.
    5. Iqbal, Saira & Siddiqui, Dr. Danish Ahmed, 2019. "The impact of deceptive advertising on Customer loyalty: A case of Telecommunication industry in Karachi, Pakistan," MPRA Paper 93038, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 07 Apr 2019.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aysan, Ahmet Faruk & Batten, Jonathan & Gozgor, Giray & Khalfaoui, Rabeh & Nanaeva, Zhamal, 2024. "Metaverse and financial markets: A quantile-time-frequency connectedness analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(PB).
    2. Krishen, Anjala S. & Barnes, Jesse L. & Hu, Han-fen, 2025. "Consumer knowledge and sustainable decision-making: A mixed-method inquiry and proposed model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    3. Brij B. Gupta & Akshat Gaurav & Aiiad A. Albeshri & Dheyaaldin Alsalman, 2023. "New paradigms of sustainable entrepreneurship in metaverse: a micro-level perspective," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 1449-1465, September.
    4. Eva Sánchez-Amboage & Verónica Crespo-Pereira & Matías Membiela-Pollán & João Paulo Jesús Faustino, 2024. "Tourism marketing in the metaverse: A systematic literature review, building blocks, and future research directions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(5), pages 1-22, May.
    5. Kanishka Pathak & Gyan Prakash & Monika Jain & Reeti Agarwal & Rekha Attri, 2024. "Do eco labels matter for green business strategy and sustainable consumption? A mixed method investigation on green products," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 4271-4291, July.
    6. Kuo, Hsin-Tsz & Choi, Tsan-Ming, 2024. "Metaverse in transportation and logistics operations: An AI-supported digital technological framework," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    7. Saptarshi Bhattacharya & Rajendra Prasad Sharma, 2022. "The Impact of Country of Origin, Trust, and Satisfaction on Online Purchase Intention in Emerging Markets: An Indian Perspective," Jindal Journal of Business Research, , vol. 11(1), pages 70-80, June.
    8. Chen, Tianyi & Wong, Yiik Diew & Yuen, Kum Fai & Li, Duowei & Wang, Xueqin, 2024. "Investigating consumers’ usage intention of contactless logistics services: A learning-based score fusion approach to coping with uncertainty of perception," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    9. Yogesh K. Dwivedi & Nir Kshetri & Laurie Hughes & Nripendra P. Rana & Abdullah M. Baabdullah & Arpan Kumar Kar & Alex Koohang & Samuel Ribeiro-Navarrete & Nina Belei & Janarthanan Balakrishnan & Sripa, 2023. "Exploring the Darkverse: A Multi-Perspective Analysis of the Negative Societal Impacts of the Metaverse," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(5), pages 2071-2114, October.
    10. Saptarshi Bhattacharya & Rajendra Prasad Sharma & Ashish Gupta, 2024. "Determinants of Consumer Perceptions of the Ethics of Online Retailers: An Investigation Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis," Vision, , vol. 28(4), pages 436-447, August.
    11. Mayra Samaniego-Arias & Eva Chávez-Rojas & Andrés García-Umaña & Nelson Carrión-Bósquez & Oscar Ortiz-Regalado & Mary Llamo-Burga & Wilfredo Ruiz-García & Santiago Guerrero-Haro & Wladimir Cando-Aguin, 2025. "The Impact of Social Media on the Purchase Intention of Organic Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-16, March.
    12. Nadeem, Waqar & Ashraf, Abdul Rehman & Shahid, Shadma, 2025. "What drives metaverse retail environments (non)usage? A behavioral reasoning theory perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    13. Zohra Ghali-Zinoubi, 2023. "Online Retailers’ Perceived Ethics and Consumer Repetitive Purchases Under the Moderating Role of Reputation: A Commitment-Trust Theory Perspective," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, November.
    14. Rajat Kumar Behera & Pradip Kumar Bala & Nripendra P. Rana, 2024. "Reaching new heights: investigating adoption factors shaping the moon landing of metaverse tourism," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 219-253, June.
    15. Jiangyuan Hou & Mingyue Du & Qingjie Zhou, 2023. "What People Talk About Multi-Channel Purchasing Behavior and What They Intend to do: Related Perspective From ESG Evaluation System," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, October.
    16. Shuai Jin & Na Qiao & Francis Tang Dabuo & Changchun Zhu, 2024. "The evolution mechanism of green products supply and demand in a demand‐driven market," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 45(6), pages 3624-3640, September.
    17. Kim, Yuna, 2025. "Not just for play: Why the metaverse should be leveraged for cocreation," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 45-54.
    18. Saleem, Shaham & Zhang, Yixiang, 2024. "Impact of knowledge and trust on households' solar energy consumption behavior: Do social influence and gender matter?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    19. Giang Barrera, Kevin & Shah, Denish, 2023. "Marketing in the Metaverse: Conceptual understanding, framework, and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PA).
    20. Xuan Liu & Tae-Hoo Kim & Min-Jae Lee, 2025. "The Impact of Green Perceived Value Through Green New Products on Purchase Intention: Brand Attitudes, Brand Trust, and Digital Customer Engagement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-25, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rnd:arimbr:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:115-128. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Muhammad Tayyab (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://ojs.amhinternational.com/index.php/imbr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.