Social Commerce from a Theory of Planned Behavior Paradigm

Abstract

Social commerce (s-commerce) is linked to social shopping, social sharing, and described as focusing on sharing information with affiliate shoppers. Due to the increased popularity of private and public social networking websites, this empirical study extends Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain and predict purchase intention after interacting with an s-commerce website. Results indicate significant support for the theoretical paradigm from an s-commerce perspective. No significant effects emerged from the multiple linear regression conducted to determine whether the current study’s theoretical paradigm confirmed to the applicability of the theory of planned behavior. Using a path model as outlined by Ajzen (2004), the path analysis produced good support for the model in which purchase intention had a positive relationship with attitudes, subjective norm, and perceived control behavior. Analysis of attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and intentions revealed subjective norm had the greatest influence on purchase intention. Implications for theoretical and practical analysis are presented, along with recommendations for future research.