Consumers' decisions in social commerce context: An empirical investigation

Abstract

With the popularity and growth of social networking, consumers often rely on the advice and recommendations from online friends when making purchase decisions. Social commerce in this regard represents a shift in consumers' thinking from inefficient individual-based consumption decisions to collaborative sharing and social shopping. In this study, we investigate social commerce from two different but interrelated angles (i.e., social shopping and social sharing). Built on the literature of social support, commitment-trust theory, and trust transfer theory, a research model was developed and empirically examined. The findings of this study demonstrated that both emotional and informational social support significantly affected consumers' trust and community commitment, which in turn exerted profound impacts on both social shopping and social sharing intention. Trust toward members also can be transferred into trust toward community, which further led to users' community commitment. Limitations and implications for both research and practice are discussed.