The impact of Online Social Network? usage on the purchase decision process: Quantitative and Qualitative stud

The main goal of this research has to show how online social networks (ONS) influence the consumers? purchase decisions. Our efforts to study empirically the online social network? usage and its impact on the purchase decision process might account for the important frequency of the access of this tool led to the employ of both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. We present a quantitative research including descriptive method on the use of ONS by 187 students from Sidi Bel Abbes University (Algeria). Data analysis has been done by using Sphinx V5 computer software. Results indicate that Facebook is the most popular site. The results also demonstrate that the students engage with social media platform daily and they spend between one to four hours. The other method of the research has been qualitative which 13 students have been interviewed as users of online social network for mainly identifying the stage where social media has interfered in the consumer decision making process. The results of this research highlight that the OSN is an important tool for information search stage, in which is influenced by the level and direction of purchase decision. The findings offer insight into consumers? behavior in brand communities and into the prospects of social media being a viable sales and communication channel to companies. As a future research direction, authors suggest studying the OSN post-experience.