Exploring Consumer Switching Behaviour to Social Commerce: A Study on Generation X in Malaysia

The Drivers of Social Commerce: A Broad View of the Factors That Predict Intention to Buy

Aim/Purpose: Social commerce is an emergent topic widely used for product and service sourcing. It helps companies to have frequent interaction with their customers and strive to achieve a competitive advantage. Yet there is only little empirical evidence focusing on social commerce and its adoption in SMEs to date. This study investigates the key factors affecting social commerce adoption in SMEs. This research designed a theoretical model using the Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) Model Background: Despite its rapid growth and usage, social commerce is still in its evolution phase and its current conception is vague and restricted. Therefore, considering the benefits of social commerce for consumers and businesses, it is important to explore the concept of social commerce. Methodology: The research floated a self-administered questionnaire and surveyed 218 Jordanian SME businesses. The data was analyzed using smart PLS and the results were drawn that covers the detail of the characteristics of respondents, study descriptive, results of regressions assumptions, e.g., data normality, reliability, validity, common method biases, and description of the measurement model, followed by the findings of hypothesis analysis. Contribution: This study has many significant contributions to the existing studies on firms’ adoption of social commerce. It indicates that organizational readiness from the organizational perspective and consumer pressure from the environmental dimension of the TOE model are significant influential elements in the adoption of social commerce in business, followed by high-level management support and trading partner pressure, respectively. This shows that organizational readiness to adopt social commerce and consumer pressure has a vital role in Jordanian SMEs’ adopting social commerce. Findings: The results were drawn from a survey of 218 Jordanian SMEs, indicating that organizational readiness from an organizational dimension and consumer pressure environmental perspective, followed by top management’s support and trading partner pressure, significantly predicts the adoption intentions of social commerce. However, perceived usefulness and security concerns from a technological context do not significantly impact behavioral intentions to utilize social commerce. Recommendations for Practitioners: Lack of awareness about new technology and its potential benefits are not well diffused in the Jordanian context. In short, both organizational and environmental dimensions of the TOE framework significantly influence the behavioral intentions for social commerce adoption in the Jordanian context whereas the third-dimension technological factors do not affect the behavioral intentions of SMEs to adopt social commerce. In the technological context, SMEs need to invest in technology and must spread awareness among Jordanian consumers about the potential benefits of technology and must encourage them to use social commerce platforms to interact because of the high significance of social commerce for businesses as it facilitates the quick completion of tasks, enhances the productivity, and improves the chances of high profitability. Recommendation for Researchers: First, the study is limited in scope as it discusses the direct links between the TOE framework, behavioral intentions to use social commerce, and the actual usage of social commerce in the Jordanian context rather than testing the mediation, and moderation. Future research may examine the mediators and moderators in the conceptual model. Second, the research examined the behavioral intentions of SMEs rather than consumers to adopt social commerce. Further research might consider the consumer perspective on social commerce. Impact on Society: This research aims to identify the key factor that impact the behavioral intentions of SME businesses to practice social commerce. The theoretical underpinning of the study lies in the TOE model, as using its basic assumptions the conceptual grounds and hypothesis of the study are developed. Future Research: The study findings are not generalizable in different contexts as it was specifically conducted by gathering data from the Jordanian population. However future studies may consider different contexts, sectors, cultures, or countries to examine the model. Lastly, the research collected data using convenience sampling from 218 SMEs in Jordan, which may create difficulty in the generalizability of the research, so needs to examine a larger sample in future studies.

PurposeIn today’s business world, adopting social commerce for day-to-day operations has increasingly become an important phenomenon. Several factors have been identified by previous researchers regarding the adoption of social commerce, but academic research is scarce on the relationship between the factors influencing social commerce adoption and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the post-COVID-19 situation. This study aims to identify the impact of technological, environmental and entrepreneurial factors on the adoption of social commerce by SMEs in Sri Lanka.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative study utilised the deductive approach and collected data through a field survey by distributing a five-point Likert scale questionnaire to conveniently selected respondents from Sri Lankan SMEs. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used for the analysis of 384 responses.FindingsThe results revealed that technological factors [technology availability (TA) and cost-effectiveness (CE)], environmental factors [bandwagon effect (BE)] and entrepreneurial factors [attitude (AT), innovativeness (IN) and IT knowledge (IK)] have a significant impact on the social commerce adoption of SMEs in Sri Lanka. This study, as the first of its type, offers insightful information on the influence of variables on the adoption of social commerce after the COVID-19 pandemic.Research limitations/implicationsSimilar to any research, this study also has inherent limitations. Due to time and financial restrictions, the study’s convenience sampling method was adopted. The study’s possible limitation is its narrow focus, which could mean that it only examines a select few social media (SM) networks. The study’s conclusions might be less generalised since it focused on the western province of Sri Lanka. Future studies should take a cross-cultural strategy to explore the influence of social commerce adoption to improve the generalisability of research findings.Practical implicationsThis study provides an in-depth assessment of critical factors, facilitating policymakers, owners, leaders and managers (decision-makers) to gain insight into the real influencing factors on social commerce adoption and the significance of SM. The study helps them comprehend how outstanding governance and knowledge of influencing factors can boost SME success in various ways. For example, research reveals that various factors have a major influence on social commerce adoption.Social implicationsThere has been limited research conducted on social commerce adoption after the COVID-19 pandemic period; thus, this study looked at the variables influencing it amongst SMEs in a South Asian developing country like Sri Lanka after the pandemic lasted for two years. By placing a strong emphasis on the role of entrepreneurial characteristics and the available technology within one single framework in the context of SMEs and their involvement with social commerce adoption, this study contributes to the past literature by emphasising the role of several significant factors in SMEs' adoption of social commerce. Whilst previous studies looked at multiple factors influencing the adoption of social commerce globally, this study focussed on how these factors have a significant impact on SMEs in Sri Lanka.Originality/valueThis study developed a multi-perspective framework combining technological, environmental and entrepreneurial factors influencing SMEs to adopt social commerce. The study provides a contribution to the literature on social commerce adoption from the perspective of SMEs in a developing country like Sri Lanka after COVID-19. Exclusively, it examines the impact of entrepreneur-related factors on social commerce adoption.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of social connectedness on social media users’ attitudes and intentions towards adopting social commerce in the technology acceptance model (TAM). Data collected from young adult social media users (n = 446) in the US support the proposed model. A structural equation model shows that social connectedness positively influences social media users’ perceptions of ease of use, usefulness, and enjoyment, which in turn, influence their attitudes and intentions towards adopting social commerce in apparel shopping. The impact of social connectedness is stronger on perceived ease of use than other TAM variables. Perceived enjoyment has the strongest impact on attitudes, and attitudes strongly influence consumer intentions for adopting social commerce for apparel purchases. Results of this study reveal that social connectedness enhances social media users’ perceptions of social commerce and positively leads to the adoption of social commerce in apparel shopping. Findings indicate that social connectedness has an indirect effect on attitudes towards social commerce through utilitarian (i.e., ease of use and usefulness) and hedonic (i.e., enjoyment) perceptions of social commerce. These findings highlight the importance of social connectedness through utilitarian and hedonic perceptions in enhancing consumers’ adoption of social commerce for purchasing apparel products.

Social media have wrought significant change since their inception. They have grown by leaps and bounds, transitioning from social networks to a powerful shopping platform known as social commerce. While some users embrace this technology, others opt out for various reasons. The objective of this study is to examine the factors that influence Malaysian consumers' social commerce shopping intentions. The extended technology acceptance model (TAM) was used to develop the conceptual framework. An online questionnaire was distributed across several social media platforms. Using convenience sampling, a total of 233 Malaysians participated in the study. The data was analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The study found that perceived enjoyment, trust, and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) had a significant influence on Malaysian consumers' social commerce purchase intentions, while perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and social influence did not. Trust is the most influential factor affecting Malaysian consumers' purchase intentions in social commerce, followed by perceived enjoyment and eWOM. This study hopes to add to the limited knowledge on social commerce and consumer behavior and provide retailers and marketers of social commerce with insights that will enable them to better understand their customers' preferences and, in turn, provide better service.

Social commerce is a new perspective change in modern electronic business procedures bringing together individuals on social media sites and opens up another electronic social marketing channel to establish business. In developing countries like Pakistan, e-business can help organizations using social commerce and social marketing intelligently on particular social network sites to grasp their business clients while they are interacting with their online community on the social media sites. This study investigated consumers’ behavior towards adoption of social commerce and introduced a revised and extended social commerce technology model. The investigation proved the proposed model is valid by confirming loading factor, Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin (KMO), reliability analysis, and structural equation modeling approach for hypotheses tests. The study found Perceived Ease of Use (PEU), Perceived Usefulness (PU), Social Media Influence (SMI), and Risk (RI) have significant impact on social commerce adoption in e-business of Pakistan. More, Trust (TR) and Web experience (WXP) were insignificant that revealed the preventive behavior towards adoption of social commerce in e-business of Pakistan.

Many commercial companies are keen to exploit the rapid transformation of electronic commerce into social commerce. Social commerce is increasingly being observed in the purchasing behaviour of college-aged Generation-Y consumers. Drawing on theory of reasoned action, this study examines the strength and significance of trust and network externalities on social commerce adoption. By linking security, situational normality, vendor familiarity and structural assurance as determinants of trust, we propose a model of an individual's intention to engage in social commerce. Our model adds network externalities as antecedents influencing an individual's normative beliefs. Our findings reveal that security, situational normality and structural assurance have positive effect on trust. Number of peers has a positive relationship with normative beliefs. Both trust and normative beliefs are inextricably linked to behavioural intention. Our results provide insight into the role of trust and network externalities on social commerce adoption, thereby allowing social commerce providers to develop innovative strategies to compete in the social commerce industry.

Social commerce is a new trend in online shopping, which is different from e-commerce. Nowadays, social commerce is widely used because it complements the benefits of using traditional e-commerce with social interaction. Based on this condition, research on the adoption of social commerce has become the interest of new research increasingly being explored. Research on social commerce is novel and largely fragmented. It is theoretically important to evaluate what has been learned and gain meaningful insights through structured literature reviews. This study conducted a systematic literature review on the adoption of social commerce, analyzed based on the context, theories, and influencing factors. We identified 30 studies most relevant to the application of social commerce. The results of this systematic literature review have mapped the potential and direction of research related to the area of interest. Directions for further research will be discussed at the end of the paper.

Online interactions pave the way for new streams of collaborations and support among connected users of social networking sites, and this collaboration is leveraged for business purposes. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a growing body of research on social commerce by studying individuals’ behavior from the consumer perspective of information technology innovations. By adopting “social support” and the technology acceptance model as a theoretical base, this study used a web-based questionnaire survey to collect data from 325 users of SNSs in Jordan. The data were then analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences regression. Jordan was selected because it is a country that has reported high SNS usage compared to other countries. The main factors that were identified as playing a significant role in individual adoption of social commerce were social commerce construct and perceived usefulness. This study did not find enough evidence that perceived ease of use and perceived information quality were a significant determinant of social commerce adoption. These findings have important implications and value for the academia, businesses managers, and social media specialists in terms of formulating better strategies for handling social commerce effects on businesses. For social media specialists, using the research model in this study can assist in increasing their understanding of why some individuals choose to adopt social commerce services. Additionally, business managers may need to improve their interaction with SNS users and develop a better understanding of how consumers use social commerce in the purchasing decision process. Based on our review of the existing scientific literature on social commerce, few empirical studies have been conducted to scientifically evaluate and explain the usage behavior of social commerce in Jordan. This paper contributes to the continuing research in social commerce adoption and diffusion in the individual context.

PurposeThis study investigates the relationship between social commerce adoption determinants, perceived trust and purchase behaviour among pastry product consumers.Design/methodology/approachThe research data were collected using a five-point Likert from 409 pastry consumers through an online survey. Partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was utilised to test the study model and hypotheses.FindingsThe study findings indicate that pastry consumers perceived social commerce as effortless, engaging, enjoyable, can be trusted, simple to use and time-saving, motivating them to consume pastry products via social commerce platforms.Practical implicationsThis study provides insights and implications for social commerce researchers and marketers related explicitly to perishable products.Originality/valueThis study is one of the few studies that predict and explain the consumer acceptance of social commerce in the pastry products realm. As only a handful of research has endeavoured to research social commerce, this study findings contribute to the conceptualisation of technology acceptance theory by understanding the determinants of social commerce adoption among consumers.

There has been a growing social commerce adoption trend among SMEs for few years. However, it is often a challenging strategic task for SMEs to choose the right type of social commerce. SMEs usually have a limited budget, technical skills and resources and want to maximise productivity with those limited resources. There is much literature that discusses the social commerce adoption strategy for SMEs. However, there is no work to enable SMEs to choose social commerce—onsite/offsite or hybrid strategy. Moreover, very few studies allow the decision-makers to handle uncertain, complex nonlinear relationships of social commerce adoption factors. The paper proposes a fuzzy linguistic multi-criteria group decision-making in a complex framework for onsite, offsite social commerce adoption to address the problem. The proposed approach uses a novel hybrid approach by combining FAHP, FOWA and selection criteria of the technological–organisation–environment (TOE) framework. Unlike previous methods, the proposed approach uses the decision maker's attitudinal characteristics and recommends intelligently using the OWA operator. The approach further demonstrates the decision behaviour of the decision-makers with Fuzzy Minimum (FMin), Fuzzy Maximum (FMax), Laplace criteria, Hurwicz criteria, FWA, FOWA and FPOWA. The framework enables the SMEs to choose the right type of social commerce considering TOE factors that help them build a stronger relationship with current and potential customers. The approach's applicability is demonstrated using a case study of three SMEs seeking to adopt a social commerce type. The analysis results indicate the proposed approach's effectiveness in handling uncertain, complex nonlinear decisions in social commerce adoption.

Purpose: The transformation from e-commerce to social commerce has had a significant impact on consumer behaviour in Indonesia. This study aims to analyse the influence of local cultural values, perceived security and privacy, interaction between consumers and influencers, use of social commerce, and marketing strategies through social media on the adoption and use of social commerce. Method: Data was collected through an online questionnaire from 300 respondents and analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) method. Result: The results showed that all hypotheses were accepted. Local cultural values, perceived security and privacy, interaction with influencers, use of social commerce, and marketing strategies through social media significantly influence the adoption and use of social commerce. Local cultural values have a significant influence on social commerce adoption, while perceived security and privacy increase consumer trust. Interaction with influencers increases consumer engagement, which in turn influences purchase decisions. The use of social commerce encourages a consumptive lifestyle among young consumers. Marketing strategies through social media are effective in increasing consumer purchase intentions. This research provides insights for businesses to develop more effective strategies to increase the adoption and usage of social commerce in Indonesia.

Aim/Purpose: This study aims to identify the main factors influencing consumers’ adoption of social commerce (s-commerce). Based on the socio-technical theory, the study suggests a research model that investigates the key social and technical factors driving consumers’ decision to purchase from social commerce websites. In addition, the research model explores the interactive relationship among these factors. Background: The phenomenon of social commerce (s-commerce) has emerged due to the increased penetration of social media and the rapid development of Web 2.0 technologies. Electronic commerce (e-commerce) companies have made significant efforts to shift their operations to s-commerce. Therefore, to facilitate their efforts to transform, various research has been conducted to investigate the main factor influencing the adoption of s-commerce. Most of these studies have emphasised the social aspects related to s-commerce design features to understand how the use of advanced web technologies influence how customers interact with each other in s-commerce environments. However, s-commerce is viewed as a socio-technical system that requires the investigation of both social and technical factors to help in the design of effective s-commerce platforms. Methodology: To validate the proposed research model, 418 paper-based and online questionnaires were collected from online shoppers in Jordan. The Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) approach was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Contribution: This study offers a research model that serves as a theoretical framework for investigating customers’ behaviour in s-commerce environment. It represents a strong context-specific model that includes both the technical and social facilitators of s-commerce. The research model participates in gaining an improved understanding of how customers’ intention, actual purchase and post-purchase experience are formed in the s-commerce environment. Findings: The results of Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) reveal that s-commerce constructs, familiarity and user experience have a positive influence on the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of s-commerce. In addition, perceptions of its usefulness and ease of use have a positive influence on trust, which in turn influences the purchase intention and the actual purchase. Finally, the post-purchase experience significantly influences both trust and purchase intention. Recommendations for Practitioners: This study shows that social commerce constructs strengthen customers’ perceptions of usefulness. S-commerce service providers are required to provide their customers with various channels to seek social support. Both familiarity and user experience are key enablers of customers’ perceived ease of use. S-commerce service providers consider the variation in customers’ familiarity and experience with s-commerce websites because this has a significant influence on purchase intentions and behaviour. Consequently, system designers should offer useful and sufficient information and tutorials that effectively guide customers in their searching, decision-making and purchasing activities throughout the shopping process. S-commerce service providers should understand the importance of providing secure payment systems and make their privacy policies clear to customers. Post-purchase experience has an influential role in reinforcing customers’ trust and purchase intention. The findings confirm the important role of post-purchase experience in retaining customers by improving their trust and repurchase intention. Therefore, making a customer’s post-purchase experience pleasant should be a key priority for s-commerce service providers because it has a significant influence on customers’ trust and repurchase intentions. Recommendation for Researchers: This study offers a unidimensional conceptualisation of the design features of s-commerce. These features include three main forms: recommendations and referrals, communities and forums, and reviews and ratings. Such conceptualisation provides additional insights and an understanding of the activities of information sharing in s-commerce. The significance of the technical side of s-commerce is highlighted and empirical proof is provided that social interactions guided by social technologies enhance customers’ perceived usefulness of an s-commerce website, thus increasing their trust and intention to purchase which leads to an actual purchase. This offers insights into the various types of s-commerce characteristics that contribute to facilitating customers’ purchase behaviour on s-commerce websites. Impact on Society: The findings offer insights which have important implications for research and practice to help facilitate the adoption of s-commerce. Future Research: This study considered the s-commerce websites as a homogenous online environment. Additional research could collect data from diverse online communities, such as professional groups, to provide a comprehensive understanding of how a wider variety of user behaviour is affected. Second, this was a quantitative study based on data collected in a questionnaire. Further studies may consider using qualitative or mixed methodologies (i.e. focus groups and interviews) to explore other technical and social factors that influence the use of s-commerce.

Social commerce is widely used for people who like to socialize while shopping online. However, currently shopping on social commerce has some risk such as especially for security since social commerce platform could not cover end-to-end online transaction process in its platform. Ecommerce on the other hand, could still be relied on to ensure the security and ease of transactions. This characteristic might encourage user to switch from social commerce to e-commerce. This study aims to understand complete understanding of factors that influence user to migrate with push-pull-mooring (PPM) model. The model was used the evaluate the factor the drive user to leave social commerce (push factor), the factor that attract user to migrate to e-commerce (pull factor) and factor that can facilitate or hinder the buyer to switch (mooring factor). This study uses a quantitative approach with collecting data using an online survey filled by 1,271 consumers who have shopped online through social commerce and ecommerce. The process of data analysis uses PLS-SEM with SmartPLS (v. 3.2.8). The results of this study indicate that push factors including familiarity have a positive influence in encouraging consumers to leave social commerce, while the pull factor consists of a security concern and ease of use that positively influence consumers in using e-commerce. Meanwhile, mooring factors which consist of hedonic motivations, habit, and facilitating conditions positively influence the intention to switch.

Social commerce, the combination of e-commerce activities and social media, is a lucrative means for e-commerce companies to increase their sales volumes. As social commerce initiatives considerably depend on the consumers’ social interactions, it becomes important for companies to understand how consumers can be stimulated to participate in social commerce. While several empirical studies have already focused on investigating what factors influence consumers to adopt to social commerce, the findings of these studies are scattered across the literature base, sometimes not transparent, and not straightforwardly comparable. To synthesize these findings, we conduct a systematic review of the empirical literature on the consumers’ adoption of social commerce. In particular, we identify and classify conceptually similar factors and outcome variables (i.e., behavioral intentions and/or behaviors). Moreover, we apply a votecounting technique and a sign test to aggregate the reported effects between the factors and outcome variables. After analyzing 61 academic publications, we contribute a structured and comprehensive list of factors and their potential effects on various adoption-related outcome variables. Our results reveal that for some factors, such as trust, usefulness, or social influence, the effects point in a clear direction, while for several other factors, such as enjoyment, risk, or social presence, the effects are yet not clear and require further investigations.