The Effects of TikTok Content Marketing and e-WOM on Purchase Decisions through Consumer Trust in Culinary MSMEs in East Java

This study examines questionnaire-reported purchase decisions among 392 purposively recruited TikTok users who had bought culinary MSME products in East Java. Consumer trust refers to culinary MSME sellers. SmartPLS 4 estimated positive direct relationships between content marketing, e-WOM, consumer trust, and purchase-decision scores. Trust showed complementary partial mediation (indirect coefficients 0.134 and 0.114). Explained variance was 57.4% for trust and 61.4% for purchase decisions. PLSpredict and CVPAT favored the model within internal cross-validation. Findings describe existing buyers, predominantly young and female, and support evaluating informative content and credible reviews. They do not establish conversion, sales gains, or temporal purchasing mechanisms.