1.3.

Subject and scope of research

The subject of the research is customers’ behaviour toward app-based mobile coupons in social
commerce, incuding redeeming them. Data will be collected from Vietnamese users, who have
used social media, aged under 34. The survey will be carried out on some social networks such
as Facebook, Instagram, Zalo. Data collection will be lasted for five weeks.

1.4. Research method

This research conducts both qualitative and quantitative approaches. In the first stage, each
construct is measured by using multiple item scales. Most itemsare adapted from validated
constructs but with minor wording modifications to suit the context of app-based mobile
coupons. Apart from perception of others, which is a formative construct, all other constructs
are reflective. The scales are adapted from previous studies. After that, the questionaire is
designed and then will be tested by 30 app-based mobile coupon users, who are required to
comment on the readability, understandability, and adequacy of the wording. Minor
modifications to the questionnaire will applied after the pretest.
In the second stage, the research model is verified through the partial least squares (PLS)
method. The PLS method was used here because of its suitability for predictive study and
theory development (Hair, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2011) and its capability of handling formative and
reflective variables (Goo, Kishore, Rao, & Nam, 2009). In this study, how mobile coupon and
social commerce characteristics influence Percieved coupon Value (PCV), Situational product
Involvement (SPI), and consequently, redeeming intention, are explored. The formative
construct (i.e., perception of others) is also included in our model. Thus, SmartPLS 3 is used to
assess the measurement and structural models, comprising these following steps:
measurement model testing; hypotheses testing; the importance performance map analysis
(IPMA) (for further recognizing the important but low-performance variables); competing
model testing; mediating effects testing (for further understanding the roles of the organism
variable).