Online promotional content, business image, and purchase intention toward informal clothing enterprises: a pre–post survey study in Bangladesh
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This study investigates the relationship between exposure to online promotional content and changes in business image evaluations and purchase intention toward informal clothing enterprises in Bangladesh. Based on the O-S-O-R framework, the study conceptualizes online promotional content as the stimulus, post-exposure business image as the post-orientation construct, and purchase intention as the response, considering age group and frequency of social media usage as pre-orientation factors. Using a nonprobability purposive sampling approach with self-selected participation, the study implemented a one-group pretest-posttest design through an online questionnaire administered to 391 respondents in Bangladesh. Analyses included descriptive statistics, reliability tests, exploratory factor analysis, paired-samples t tests, Spearman correlations, and linear regression. Results indicated statistically significant increases between pre-exposure and post-exposure for business image (mean difference = −1.297, t = −50.945, p < .001) and purchase intention (mean difference = −1.254, t = −39.308, p < .001). Age group was negatively associated with post-exposure business image, whereas frequency of social media use was positively associated with it. Post-exposure business image was also a strong predictor of purchase intention (β = .486, p < .001, R² = .236). This study contributes to the literature by extending extant research on digital consumer response in informal small-business clothing retail in Bangladesh and suggests that well-designed promotional content is positively associated with business evaluations and purchase-related intentions. Since this study used a one-group pretest-posttest design, the results should be interpreted as evidence of association rather than causation.