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Archives of Business Research – Vol. 11, No. 8

Publication Date: August 25, 2023

DOI:10.14738/abr.118.15281.

Al-Qadasi, A., & Karim, F. (2023). Consumer Trust as a Mediator of the Link Between Promotional Mix and Customer’s Decision to

Use Cellular Phone Service. Archives of Business Research, 11(8). 82-95.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Consumer Trust as a Mediator of the Link Between Promotional

Mix and Customer’s Decision to Use Cellular Phone Service

Ahmed Al-Qadasi

Faculty of Business and Management,

University Sultan Zainal Abidin, Terengganu, Malaysia

Fazida Binti Karim

Faculty of Business and Management,

University Sultan Zainal Abidin, Terengganu, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Customer’s (use) purchasing decision making have the crucial point of several

marketing decision-makers in all type of businesses. Studies have suggested that

ambiguity still exist in terms of variables capable of enhancing the indirect link

between the promotional mix (PM) and customer’s purchasing (use) decision,

specifically in the cellular communication sectors of most of the developing

countries. This study is an attempt to explore the link between promotional mix

(PM), consumer trust, and customer use decisions in the context of Yemen cellular

communications sector. The hierarchy of effects theory is used as underlying

theory, and quantitative cross-sectional survey method with questionnaire were

used in collecting data. The random sampling method was used in distributing the

questionnaire to 382 respondents. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation

Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used in analyzing the data. The result shows that

promotional mix and customer trust has significant and positive effect on customer

use decisions, and customer trust mediate the link between promotion mix and

customer use decisions. Finally, the study provided some useful suggestions for

future studies.

Keywords: Consumer trust, promotional mix, customer’s decisions to use, Yemen.

INTRODUCTION

The telecommunication sector has become an area of interest to numerous researchers. This is

because of its features that tends to distinguish it from other kind of sectors of every economy

in the world in terms of high growth rate and rapid technological advancement as well as its

overall contribution to growth of other related industries (Saif et al., 2021). Hence, the

telecommunication sector is said to be amongst the vital infrastructure a country requires for

its overall growth and development. The availability of telecommunication system in a country

helps in attracting several investors, it also helps in enhancing the diversification of

productivity among several industries as well as decrease the cost of transportation by

ensuring easy access to the market (Pradhan et al., 2017). The communication sector is

regarded as one of the most productive sector of the economy of different countries of the world

(Pradhan et al., 2017). In most recent times, developing countries have acknowledged

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Al-Qadasi, A., & Karim, F. (2023). Consumer Trust as a Mediator of the Link Between Promotional Mix and Customer’s Decision to Use Cellular Phone

Service. Archives of Business Research, 11(8). 82-95.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.118.15281

significant transformation in the telecommunication sector considering its influence on their

economies (Qasem et al., 2022; Saif et al., 2021).

Thus, the development of technologies as well as mobile phones has stretched the history of

advancement and innovation picked up considering the dynamic changes in consumers’ needs

and their service preferences. Part of these advancements, cellular phone devices have gained

the wildest household adoption rate amongst other technologies in the global modern history

(Comer & Wikle, 2008). Nowadays, cellular phones have become integral aspect of human day- to-day life as well as personal communication across the world. In the present highly

competitive cellular phone market, and its continuous adoption by individuals across the world,

service providers are constantly striving to find more competitive edge and other

differentiating elements towards persuading consumers to choose their services instead of

their competitors. Although, several economies, especially in developing and emerging

economies, still distrust the benefits of competition regarding cellular services. Thus,

international experience suggests that competition in digital technology provides substantial

benefits to customers by creating prevailing incentives to the service providers to lower the

prices and introduce new services as well as enhance productivity (Carlo et al., 2021).

In Yemen, the telecommunication sector is one of the major sectors that has been contributing

greatly to the country’s economic development (Al-Bashiri, 2021; Saif et al., 2021). The

increasing rate in the use of cellular phones can be related to widespread and availability of

telecommunication services in the country. In consideration of the significance of the

telecommunication sector, several companies such as MTN, Yemen Mobile, and Saba-Phone

have entered the cellular communications market in Yemen with approximately 18,708,333

subscribers amongst the entire cellular companies (Sana’a, 2021).

Hence, these telecommunication companies have been engaged in fierce competition amongst

themselves for the purpose of obtaining the largest amount of market share in the sector. Thus,

several studies have shown concern on the need to focus on the decision to buy/use by the

customers and the factors affecting the companies seeking to obtain the highest market share

(Abdelhady et al., 2019; Ahakwa et al., 2021). Thus, considering customer’s limited knowledge,

the buyer may be constrained rationality while trying to choose appropriate rating criterion

(Rafdinal & Amalia, 2019). Customers tend to purchase products with higher prices due to the

believe that the products are highly qualitative (Qasem et al., 2022). Consequently, companies

must develop a certain strategy so as to influence this phase towards increasing the number of

purchasing decisions made by customers (Rafdinal & Amalia, 2019; Yacub, 2022). Based on this,

previous studies have emphasized on the importance of promotional mix in providing a mixture

of vital information to the customers regarding products and other services available in the

market which tends to offer them with different alternative choices towards making intelligent

decision on particular products (Abdelhady et al., 2019; Vincencia & Christiani, 2021; Yeboah,

2021). In addition, studies have suggested that customers trust is capable of boosting the

indirect effect of promotional mix on customer’s decision to use cooperate services (Abimbola

et al., 2020; Rafdinal & Amalia, 2019). However, the main idea of this study is to conduct an

empirical exploration of the mediating influence of customer trust in the relationship between

promotional mix and customer’s decision to use cellular phone services.

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Problem Statement

The telecommunication business has become highly competitive due to the technological

advancement that took place in most of the developing countries and Yemen in particular. This

advancement has reduced the rate at which customers changes their service providers from

one telecommunication product to another. However, customer’s buying decisions solely

depends on the best service and benefit provider amongst the telecommunication products

(Abimbola et al., 2020; Qasem et al., 2022). It has been revealed that the market share of the

telecommunication companies has been affected due to the fierce competition amongst the

companies in Yemen. For instance, Yemen mobile gained largest market share with

approximately 40 percent, Saba-Phone 28 percent, MTN 27 percent, and company ‘Y’ 5 percent.

This indicates that the Yemeni consumers are rapidly moving from one service provider to

another with fluctuating subscribers between 2011 to 2019, suggesting that there is serious

problem regarding customer trust in the cellular communication service providers amongst the

four companies in Yemen. This have reflected in customers’ decisions to use cellular services

provided by the four companies operating in Yemen. Studies have indicated that for a company

to gain relevance and most preferred by the consumers as well as compete in a larger market

share, it has focus much on promotional activities geared towards ensuring a greater

competitive advantage (Abimbola et al., 2020; Al-sharafi et al., 2018; Qasem et al., 2022). Hence,

promotional activities such as; sales promotion, advertising, personal selling, public relations

and publicity are all considered as marketing efforts used in presenting company’s products,

its features, as well as what distinguish it from other products (Alananzeh et al., 2018; Clow &

Donald, 2017).

Inspite the importance of these activities (promotional mix) towards customer’s purchasing

decision, there is a paucity of studies investigating the link between the elements of

promotional mix as a group and customer’s decision to use cellular communication services in

Yemen (Qasem et al., 2022). Based on this, several studies has recommended for the need to

investigate the mediating construct such as customer trust which is capable of describing the

link between promotional mix and customer’ purchasing decision (Abimbola et al., 2020;

Rafdinal & Amalia, 2019). Hence, this study is one that seek to examine the mediating role of

customer trust in the link between promotional mix and customer’s decision to use cellular

communication services in Yemen. Thus, the paper suggest that ensuring customer’s trust in

the telecommunication sector in most of the developing countries, especially in Yemen through

promotional mix (sales promotion, advertising, personal selling, public relations and publicity)

may have significant effect on customer’s decision to use cellular communication services in

Yemen as well as the entire system.

Research Objectives

The current study aimed at exploring the mediating influence of consumer’s trust in the link

between promotional-mix elements (advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, publicity,

public relations) and customer’s decision to use cellular phones in Yemen. The main research

objectives are;

a. To examine the link between promotional-mix elements and customer’s decision to use

cellular phones in Yemen.

b. To examine the link between promotional-mix elements and consumer trust

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Al-Qadasi, A., & Karim, F. (2023). Consumer Trust as a Mediator of the Link Between Promotional Mix and Customer’s Decision to Use Cellular Phone

Service. Archives of Business Research, 11(8). 82-95.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.118.15281

c. To investigate the effect of consumer trust on the customer's decisions to use cellular

communication service in Yemen.

d. To examine the mediating influence of consumer’s trust in the link between

promotional-mix and customer’s decision to use cellular phones in Yemen.

Underlying Theory

In quantitative studies, theories are mostly used in order to assist the researcher towards

answering the research questions (Cresswell, 2014). The main theory used for the purpose of

this study is the hierarchy of effects theory.

The Hierarchy of Effects Theory

The current study is based on hierarchy of effects theory (AIDA model). The theory was

propounded by Lavidge & Steiner, (1961). Thus, it is a prominent theory in the field of

marketing communication framework (Nzioka & Waithaka, 2021; Páramo et al., 2021).

According to the theory, there are three primary channels through which a company's use of

promotional mix tools might affect customers' buying decisions. These are the cognitive,

emotional, and conative or behavioral processes (Nzioka & Waithaka, 2021; Páramo et al.,

2021). The first channel is the (cognitive element) which indicates that customers have

received messages and are fully aware of the messages. The second channel is the (effective

element), which tends to demonstrate the generation of a particular attitude as well as reaction

to the promotional messages (Nzioka & Waithaka, 2021; Páramo et al., 2021). The third channel

is the (conative or behavioral component), which stands as the act of actual purchasing of the

promoted product (Páramo et al., 2021; Tafa, 2018). The theory demonstrate the development

from consumer’s initial state of ignorance to their subsequent awareness of promotional

messages and behaviors as well as their subsequent reactions. The theory has been identified

as a powerful foundation for understanding the link between promotional-mix and consumer’s

purchasing decisions. Interestingly, several studies such as Nzioka & Waithaka, (2021), and

Páramo et al., (2021) have applied the hierarchy of effect theory in their studies and achieved

suitable result. Hence, the current study applied this theory in explaining the complex

relationship between the study constructs.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Consumer Purchasing Decision

Consumer purchasing decision is seen as an integrated procedure which mostly begins with

thinking that subsequently leads to consumer’s feeling of need of a particular product, then

research, determining the need, searching for options as well as comparing amongst such

options, then making choice of a particular product that tend to satisfy the consumer’s need

(Ahakwa et al., 2021; Faulds et al., 2018; Yeboah, 2021). In this study, consumer purchasing

decision is used a dependent variable.

Promotion Mix

Promotion mix is seen as the set of ingredients which mostly react and integrate together for

the purpose of attaining company’s promotional goals on the context of philosophy of

marketing principals (Abdelhady et al., 2019; Alananzeh et al., 2018; Kotler et al., 2017). Thus,

promotion-mix consist of a group of elements which includes; (a) advertising, which is

described as non-personal marketing communication regarding a company, product, service,

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or an idea by a specific sponsor who paid for the advertisement through mass media such as

radio and television; (b) personal selling, which involves direct personal contact between seller

and the buyer, in such a way that the seller provides the necessary information to the buyer so

as to be convinced on the importance of the product or service (Anderson et al., 2020); (c) sales

promotion, is regarded as the special sales presentations or as part of marketing

communication (Santoso et al., 2019; Yang & Mattila, 2020); (d) publicity, is considered as the

unpaid promotional activity which is mostly carried out by external parties with the sole aim

of spreading positive of negative news concerning a particular company and its products or

services by the media (Abimbola et al., 2020); (e) public relations, is seen as the promotional

element which is concerned about building the reputation of the company or individuals

through communication with the targeted audience as well as the media (Abimbola et al., 2020;

Martha et al., 2019; Qasem et al., 2022).

Customer Trust

Customer trust can simply be considered as the entire customer information as well as

conclusion drawn about particular products, advantages, and attributes (Irfan et al., 2022). It

can also be seen as the wish for another individual to behave in accordance with one’s

expectations (Rafdinal & Amalia, 2019). Hence, consumers tends to have a higher level of trust

in a company’s products when they have positive experience with such company (Jalantina,

2022).

HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT

Promotional Mix and Customer Use Decision

Several studies have conducted in an attempt to examine the relationship between promotional

mix and customer use decision in several context. For instance, the study conducted by Tafa,

(2018) to explore the connection between promotional mix and customer use decision in

Ethiopia telecommunication sector using 403 customers as sample size. The outcome revealed

that promotional mix such as public relation, personal selling, seles promotion, advertising

have positive and significant effect on customer use decision. Likewise, Abdelhady et al., (2019)

examines the influence of promotional mix on customers’ buying decision in Airlines using 600

passengers as respondents. The result also suggested that promotional mix has positive and

significant influence on customers’ use decision. In addition, a study was conducted by Yeboah,

(2021)to investigate the link between promotional mix (sales promotion, advertising, personal

selling, public relations, and publicity) and customers’ use decision in Ghana with 200

customers as respondents. The findings indicated that promotional mix is positively related to

customers’ use decision. Accordingly, the current study hypothesized that;

➢ H1: Promotional mix has significant and positive relationship with customers’ use

decision

Promotional Mix and Consumer Trust

Many researches have been carried out in an attempt to examine the relationship between

promotional mix and consumer trust in different context. For example, Rafdinal et al., (2021)

examines the connection between promotional mix and consumer trust with 200 participants

from technical institution. The result show a positive relationship between promotional mix

and consumer trust. Again, Mishbakhudin & Aisyah, (2022) carried out an investigation based

on online marketplace Tokopedia during Covid-19 pandemic on the effect of e-promotion on