Abstract

Integrating marketing principles with IT suggests new developed models for the marketing world such as viral marketing (VM). On the other hand, lots of prior studies have theoretically articulated and empirically examined the fact that trust is the essence of any human interaction especially for the online activities. Grounded on the viral marketing and trust literature, this descriptive and applied study, was targeted to integrate trust and viral marketing through the technology acceptance model (TAM). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the consumers’ trust effect on viral marketing acceptance. Respondents to the questionnaire are 69 experts responsible for the selection and purchase of the medical equipment in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran. This study is originated from the perspective of the graduated consumers whose behaviors look different from the average. Applying a census-based methodology and statistical analysis, especially path analysis, the study showed that trust plays an important role in the attitude toward engaging in VM and in the intention of the consumers to engage and finally to actual use of VM by the experts. This study verified TAM too. It was followed by some managerial implications for the companies in order to design their viral marketing campaigns to be more successful. Finally, considering the findings and the limitations of this study, some academic suggestions for further researches have been made.

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