THE EFFECT OF ONLINE CUSTOMER REVIEWS, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND INFLUENCER ENDORSEMENT ON PURCHASING VIDEO GAMES DECISION ON E-COMMERCE CASE STUDY: STEAM PLATFORM

The government supports game developers in Indonesia because video games contribute to its GDP. The government provides an incubator program to help startup game developers and encourage them to create video games that could compete globally. Therefore, research is required to understand how customer reviews, recommendations, and influencer endorsement affect purchase decisions as a reference for game developers in marketing their video games. This research used the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) method with 100 respondents, and data processing is conducted using SmartPLS software. From the analysis results, it can be concluded that customer reviews do not positively affect purchase intentions and purchase decisions since the T-statistics value are 1.54 and 0.20. In comparison, the recommendations do not positively affect purchase intentions with T-statistics value is 0.02 but positively and significantly influence purchasing decisions with T-statistics value is 2.16. In contrast, influencer endorsement has a positive and significant effect both on purchase intentions and purchase decisions with T-statistics value are 8.32 and 4.38. The purchase intention variable also does not affect the purchase decision since its T-statistics value is 0.56. =========================================================== Pemerintah Indonesia mendukung perkembangan industri game nasional karena kontribusinya terhadap pertumbuhan PDB negara. Dukungan yang diberikan diwujudkan dalam bentuk program inkubasi bagi para pelaku start-up di bidang pengembangan aplikasi game serta mendorong industri ini untuk menghasilkan produk yang bersaing secara global. Dengan demikian, riset untuk memahami pengaruh fitur customer reviews, rekomendasi, dan influencer endorsement terhadap keputusan pembelian konsumen diperlukan sebagai referensi bagi pengembang game dalam memasarkan aplikasinya. Penelitian dilaksanakan dengan metode Partial Least Square Structural Equation (PLS-SEM) dengan 100 orang responden. Data diolah dengan perangkat lunak SmartPLS. Hasil analisis menunjukkan customer reviews yang tidak berpengaruh positif terhadap purchase intention and decision dengan nilai T-statistik 1,54 dan 0,20. Sementara itu, fitur recommendation tidak memiliki pengaruh positif terhadap niat beli konsumen (T-statistik 0,02), tetapi memiliki pengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap keputusan beli konsumen (T-statistik 2,16). Sedangkan influencer endorsement berpengaruh positif dan signifikan baik terhadap niat dan keputusan beli dengan nilai T-statistik 8,32 dan 4,38. Ditemukan juga bahwa variabel purchase intention (niat beli) tidak memengaruhi keputusan beli (purchase decision) dengan nilai T-statistik sebesar 0,56