UNDERSTANDING VIRTUAL ITEM PURCHASE INTENTION IN ROBLOX: THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF TRUST ON INFLUENCER ENDORSEMENT, IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE, AND USER-GENERATED CONTENT
Keywords:
Endorsement Influencer, Immersive Experience, User Generated Content, Trust, Purchase Intention, Roblox, Virtual Item, PLS-SEMAbstract
This study aims to analyze the influence of Endorsement Influencer, Immersive Experience, and User Generated Content (UGC) on Purchase intention of Roblox virtual items, with Trust as a mediating variable. The respondents were 96 active students at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Malikussaleh, who had previously purchased virtual items on Roblox. Data were collected through questionnaires and analyzed using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS. The results indicate that Immersive Experience has a positive and significant effect on Trust, Trust positively and significantly affects Purchase Intention, and UGC positively and significantly affects Purchase Intention. Conversely, Endorsement Influencer does not significantly affect Trust or Purchase Intention, Immersive Experience does not significantly affect Purchase Intention, and UGC does not significantly affect Trust. Furthermore, Trust fails to mediate the relationships between Endorsement Influencer, Immersive Experience, nor UGC on Purchase Intention. These findings suggest that Trust and UGC are the most dominant factors in driving virtual item purchase intentions, while influencer marketing and immersive experiences alone remain insufficiently effective without robust user trust.
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