Page 1 of 4 © 2020 The author(s). Published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ITAA Proceedings, #77 – https://itaaonline.org 2020 Proceedings Virtual Conference Motivation and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) Variables Affecting Social Media Usage by Market Mavens for Fashion-Related Information Provision Angie Lee and Ann Marie Fiore, Iowa State University Keywords: Market Maven, Fashion Involvement, Technology Acceptance Model, Social Media Introduction Market mavens—knowledgeable individuals who frequently gather and share information about goods and marketplaces (Feick & Price, 1987)—may extend their word-of-mouth (WOM) communication through online social networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In general, this e[electronic]- WOM has emerged as an impactful force, because opinions and experiences shared by consumers through e-WOM are trusted more than commercial messages (Kozinets, De Valck, Wojnicki, & Wilner, 2010). Consequently, e-WOM has been found to have a significant influence on a consumer’s attitude towards products and brands, product choice decisions, and purchase decisions (Subramanian, 2018). Yet, false reviews and paid endorsements abound and diminish the perceived reliability of e-WOM (Boerman, Willemsen, & Van Der Aa, 2017; Teng, Khong, Goh, & Chong, 2014). Given a market maven’s product/marketplace knowledge, propensity to share this knowledge, and associated trustworthiness due to their altruistic motivations (Price, Feick, & Guskey, 1995; Walsh, Gwinner, & Swanson, 2004), market mavens may have a salient bearing on consumer purchase decisions. Yet, it appears there is scant research (e.g., Barns & Pressey, 2012) that examines a market maven’s tendency to use social media for information provision behavior (i.e., sharing information with others; Slama & Williams, 1990). Given e- WOM’s impact and market mavens’ high fashion involvement tendencies (Hourigan & Bougoure, 2012), their use of social media to share fashion product/marketplace information is compelling and requires examination. Thus, the purpose of this study is to provide insight into factors affecting market mavens’ acceptance of social media as an instrument for fashion-related information provision. Theoretical Background Technology acceptance model (TAM) variables— perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived enjoyment associated with a technology (Davis, 1986; Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1992)— have helped explain attitude and behavioral intentions towards using a technology. Thus, TAM was used to examine market mavens’ social media acceptance for fashion-related information provision. Given that intrinsic motivations affect use of social media (Akrimi & Khemakhem, 2012), market mavens are motivated by pleasure from helping others and a sense of obligation to share marketplace information, and these motivations are seen as essential to understanding behavior of market mavens (Price et al., 1995; Walsh et al., 2004), the present study examined pleasure from helpfulness and sense of obligation as antecedent variables of social media acceptance. Moreover, given a market maven’s tendency to be highly involved in fashion (Hourigan & Bougoure, 2012), the study examined the impact of fashion