A Latent analysis on The Effect of Social Networks on Major Shopping Center Choice

The effect of intra-household and intra-personal relationships has recentlyrecognized to significantly influence many aspect of travel behavior. Previousresearch has considered the effect of these relationships on travel behaviors.However, research on the relationship of social networks and shoppingdestination choice has been scares. This paper aims to study the effect of socialnetworks on non-grocery shopping center destination choices. This study is basedon a random sample survey. A Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) has beenused to model Internet-Friendliness, Sociability and Family bonds as three latentvariables that are related to the formation of social networks and shoppingdestination choice. The model results have confirmed the effect of these latentvariables on the destination choice behavior of respondents.

Keywords:

Social Networks , Shopping center destination choice , sociability , internetfriendliness , family bonds