Electronic word of mouth, price perception, and purchase-related behavioral responses: evidence from Universitas Musamus students

Abstract

This study examines the relationships of electronic word of mouth (E-WOM) and price perception with purchase-related behavioral response (PRBR) among Universitas Musamus students using Shopee in Merauke, South Papua. A quantitative cross-sectional associative design was employed with 191 respondents selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected using a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire and analyzed using multiple linear regression in IBM SPSS Statistics 25. The results show that E-WOM was positively associated with PRBR (β = 0.266, p < .001), while price perception demonstrated a stronger positive association (β = 0.686, p < .001). The model was statistically significant, F(2, 188) = 362.746, p < .001, with an adjusted R² of 0.792. These findings indicate that both social-digital information and economic evaluation are relevant to students’ purchase-related responses, with price perception showing the stronger relative contribution in the analyzed sample. The findings provide contextual evidence from an underrepresented Eastern Indonesian e-commerce setting.