THE EFFECTS OF SOURCE CREDIBILITY AND INFORMATION QUALITY IN EWOM ON GEN Z’S PURCHASE INTENTION FOR BEAUTY PRODUCTS ON TIKTOK SHOP: THE CONDITIONAL MEDIATING ROLE OF UGC

Abstract

Indonesia’s rapid digitalization and the dominance of Gen Z in social commerce, particularly on TikTok Shop’s beauty segment, highlighting the main role of Electronic Word of Mouth (E-WOM) in shaping Purchase Intention. However, persistent trust gaps in e-commerce underscore the need to know how source

credibility and information quality influence Gen Z’s decision-making, with user- generated content (UGC) potentially mediating these effects. This study employed

a quantitative survey with N = 257 Gen Z consumers in Indonesia and analyzed the data using SmartPLS. The results indicate that source credibility (β = 0.384, p<.001,95% BCa CI [0.281, 0.494]) and information quality (β = 0.299, p<.001,95% BCa CI [0.207, 0.393]) significantly influence purchase intention (R2 = 0.517). Both source credibility (β = 0.460, p<.001) and information quality (β = 0.175, p = .010) also increase UGC, which in turn predicts purchase intention (β = 0.175, p<.001). A comparative analysis further confirmed that source credibility is a significantly stronger driver of purchase intention than information quality (Δ = 0.124, p=.004). UGC partially mediates the effect of source credibility on purchase intention, but mediation of information quality via UGC is not supported. The model demonstrates moderate predictive relevance for UGC (Q2 predict =0.311) and substantial predictive relevance for PI (Q2

predict = 0.483), confirming its out-of-sample predictive power. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of E-WOM dynamics in social commerce and provide practical insights for beauty brands in optimizing TikTok-based marketing strategies.