Social desire or commercial desire? The factors driving social sharing and shopping intentions on social commerce platforms

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, businesses are paying increasing attention to how to conduct commercial activities on social networking sites (SNS). This has also made social commerce an important issue for both scholars and practitioners. The aim of this study is to use the Model of Goal-Directed Behavior (MGB) as a theoretical foundation to empirically explore the role of social desire and commercial desire in driving users’ social sharing and social shopping intentions on SNS as well as the antecedents to these two types of desires based on different goals of using social commerce. The results indicated that individuals tend to have a weaker desire to engage in commercial activities than to engage in social activities on SNS. However, compared to social desire, commercial desire is more influential to social sharing and social shopping intentions on SNS. Notably, the factors driving social desire and commercial desire may vary by goals of using social commerce. The results revealed that social-oriented factors, including anticipated positive emotion for social activities and perceived behavioral control for social activities, drive individuals to have a desire to engage in social activities on SNS. In contrast, commercial-oriented factors, including perceived behavioral control for commercial activities, anticipated positive emotion for commercial activities, and commercial attitude, are important drivers of commercial desire. The results also showed that social identity cannot arouse users’ social and commercial desires on SNS. Finally, theoretical and practical implications were also discussed.