Innovativeness and Involvement: An Unexpected Purchase Due to a Referral Behavior

The study aims to explore the impact of product innovativeness and product category involvement on the purchase willingness of employees in the IT sector of Lahore. It explains the long-term vision of understanding the mediating role of self- enhancement and moderating role of received word-of-mouth referrals. The survey was conducted using employees who fresh graduates were working in IT companies of Lahore. Convenience sampling technique was used to collect data from 187 employees working in NetSol Technologies, Arfa Software Technology, Arbisoft and LEAD concept using questionnaires. To achieve study objectives, the time horizon opted was cross-sectional and questionnaire was used for the collection of data from employees. The quantitative research is linked with survey research strategy. To conduct data analysis, various statistical tools were tested such as reliability, correlation, and analysis of hypotheses statements. All these tests were run on Process Hayes and SPSS 21 computer program for analyzing data. Simple mediation (Model 4) and moderated mediation analysis (Model 14) was also done to test for hypotheses. The results showed that product innovativeness and product category involvement have a positive and significant relationship with purchase willingness. The results for self-enhancement as a mediating variable supported the relationships between product innovativeness, and product category involvement with purchase willingness. The results for received word-of-mouth referrals as a moderating variable supported the relationships between product innovativeness and product category involvement with purchase willingness.