Abstract
• We examined seller uncertainty in social commerce in a developing economy context. • The number of positive comments and seller popularity significantly reduce seller uncertainty. • Customer service quality reduce seller uncertainty, this effect is stronger when customer service is coupled with return policy or the number of positive comments. • To manage uncertainty, social commerce customers rely on specific signals or combinations of such signals. Even though the problem of uncertainty in online business is widely discussed, there is still limited knowledge of the mechanisms used by social commerce customers to reduce uncertainty perception. Therefore, this study attempts to bridge this gap by investigating the influence of the number of positive review comments, seller popularity, customer service quality, and return policy on seller uncertainty. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The empirical evidence from 155 social commerce customers shows that the number of positive review comments, seller popularity, and customer service quality has a negative influence on seller uncertainty. Moreover, customer service quality enhances the negative influence of the number of positive review comments on seller uncertainty. Furthermore, the study revealed that the seller that offers a lenient return policy in addition to good customer service quality experiences lower levels of seller uncertainty than the seller that only offers good customer service.
Highlights
Social media is increasingly becoming an integral part of people’s lives around the world
The study provides empirical evidence that shows how customer service quality reduces seller uncertainty, especially when good customer service is coupled with an efficient returns policy or a number of positive review comments; (2) the study highlights the differences between social commerce and e-commerce and provides directions for future studies, especially in a social commerce setting; (3) in terms of analytic techniques, the study provides an evaluative pro cedure of “predictive consistency” for assessing two analytical research models
We propose the following hypothesis: H4: Customer service quality moderates the association between number of positive review comments and seller uncertainty
Summary
Social media is increasingly becoming an integral part of people’s lives around the world. The study provides empirical evidence that shows how customer service quality reduces seller uncertainty, especially when good customer service is coupled with an efficient returns policy or a number of positive review comments; (2) the study highlights the differences between social commerce and e-commerce and provides directions for future studies, especially in a social commerce setting; (3) in terms of analytic techniques, the study provides an evaluative pro cedure of “predictive consistency” for assessing two analytical research models This simple procedure will be useful to researchers in assessing two “competing” models; and (4) the study highlights several manage rial implications that provide strategic options and new insights for ecommerce and social commerce operators on how to manage the un certainty problem in online business. We end with conclusions, limitations, and future research suggestions
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