The Effect of Salesperson Credibility on Continuance Usage through Customer trust and Purchase Decision Quality with Information Overload as a Moderating Variable (Study on B2B Telecommunication Customers in the Central Java and DIY Area)

Abstract

This study aims to examine the influence of Salesperson Credibility on Continuance Usage through Customer Trust and Purchase Decision Quality as mediating variables, and Information Overload as moderating variables on business (B2B) customers of telecommunication services in Central Java and the Special Region of Yogyakarta. The grand theory used is the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) proposed by Petty and Cacioppo (1986). This study uses a quantitative explanatory approach with the Structural Equation Modeling – Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) method using SmartPLS 4.0 software. The research sample consisted of 350 respondents who were decision makers in the procurement of telecommunication services from three main providers, PT Telkom Indonesia (Telkom Indibiz), Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (Indosat HiFi), and XL Axiata (XL Satu) selected through purposive sampling technique. Data collection was carried out using a questionnaire with 28 indicators measured using a Likert Scale of 1–5. The results of the measurement model evaluation show that all indicators meet the requirements of convergent validity (outer loading > 0.70) and reliability (Cronbach's Alpha and Composite Reliability > 0.70), and the Average Variance Extracted is above 0.50. The results of hypothesis testing through bootstrapping 5,000 subsamples show that: (1) Salesperson Credibility has a positive and significant effect on Customer Trust (β = 0.400; p < 0.05), so that H1 is accepted; (2) Customer Trust has a positive and significant effect on Purchase Decision Quality (β = 0.213; p < 0.05), so that H2 is accepted; (3) Salesperson Credibility has a positive and significant effect on Purchase Decision Quality (β = 0.679; p < 0.05), so that H3 is accepted; (4) Purchase Decision Quality has a positive and significant effect on Continuance Usage (β = 0.700; p < 0.05), so that H4 is accepted; and (5) Information Overload significantly moderates the effect of Salesperson Credibility on Customer Trust but with a weakening direction (β = −0.093; p < 0.05), so H5 is rejected because the direction of the effect is opposite to the hypothesis. The mediation test proves a significant dual-mediation mechanism, with the strongest path on Salesperson Credibility → Purchase Decision Quality → Continuance Usage (β = 0.476). Simple slope analysis confirms that the effect of Salesperson Credibility on Customer Trust decreases as the information load increases (low IO: β = 0.493; medium IO: β = 0.400; high IO: β = 0.307). This study contributes to the expansion of ELM applications in the context of B2B face-to-face interactions, as well as introducing Information Overload from the proliferation of AI content as a moderator with a weakening effect, a new theoretical nuance that opens up a further research agenda.