S-commerce Context Research Articles

Enhancing customer value co-creation and stickiness in social commerce: integrating PLS-SEM and NCA for deeper insights into customer-to-customer dynamics

Social commerce(s-commerce), which emphasizes the predominance of customers, has become an important tool of company social marketing and provides new challenges to businesses in attracting customers. Based on customer-dominant logic theory, this study presents a model of the impact of electronic customer-to-customer interaction(eCCI) on customer stickiness with the mediation effect of customer value co-creation dimensions, specifically functional value and hedonic value in the s-commerce context and self-efficacy as a moderator in light of customer-dominant logic. This study adopted a survey method and obtained data from users in two s-commerce sites in China. The statistical technique of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and the analytical process of necessary condition analysis (NCA) were employed to analyze the data. The PLS-SEM results indicate that eCCI influences customer value co-creation, which in turn affects the consumer stickiness of s-commerce sites.The moderated mediation results showed that self-efficacy moderated the relationship between eCCI and customer stickiness.The NCA results identified the eCCI is meaningful and significant necessary conditions for fostering customer value co-creation and customer stickiness. The combined findings demonstrated to researchers and practitioners how to identify the critical factor that influence customer value co-creation and customer stickiness. The study provides novel insights into the mechanism underlying why consumers “stick” to s-commerce websites. Furthermore, the moderated mediation model extended customer-dominant logic and demonstrated the moderating influence of self-efficacy. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Understanding Gamification Advertising Effectiveness in an S-Commerce Context: A Study in an Emerging Market

The rapid expansion of social commerce (S-commerce) has necessitated the development of effective advertising strategies. Despite claims that gamification offers several benefits when integrated with S-commerce, its significance in emerging markets remains unclear. This study was designed to evaluate the influence of gamification on advertising effectiveness in emerging markets such as Vietnam. Personalization and privacy concerns (S-commerce’s recent prominent factors) were also assessed. A quantitative approach was used in this study. Data were collected through a survey of 477 individuals exposed to gamification advertising on S-commerce platforms. The results demonstrate that gamification significantly influences the intention to interact with advertisements through both hedonic and utilitarian mechanisms. However, this factor only affects attitudes toward advertising through hedonic mechanisms. The influence of attitudes toward advertising on consumer behavioral intentions was also reinforced in our study. Moreover, the empirical findings show that personalization significantly influences gamification and attitudes toward advertising. Finally, privacy concerns were found to have no effect on gamification and attitudes toward advertising and, simultaneously, produced only a small negative effect on the intention to interact with advertisements.

Attitudes towards gamification advertising in Vietnam: a social commerce context

ABSTRACT Recognising the rapid growth and enormous potential of gamification and social media advertising in today's digital age, along with the increasing popularity of social commerce (s-commerce), especially in emerging markets, this study analysed attitudes towards gamification advertising in the Vietnamese s-commerce context. This study followed a quantitative approach by conducting interviews with 386 users who interacted with gamification advertising on s-commerce platforms in Vietnam. The empirical results indicate that perceived gamification in advertising (as measured by the experience of gamification ads) has a significant positive indirect effect on attitudes towards advertising via hedonic and utilitarian values. In addition, this study experimentally verified the impact of the prominent characteristics of s-commerce (interactivity, personalisation, and privacy concerns) on both the gameful experiences of ads and attitudes towards advertising in the s-commerce market. Our research has meaningful implications for marketers and social networking platform developers, in that marketers should be more proactive in gamifying advertisements to improve customer attitudes towards them. For social networking platform developers, it is essential to develop optimal algorithms to enhance the interactivity of the platform by taking advantage of a database to generate relevant advertising recommendations for users.

How Attachment and Community Identification Affect User Stickiness in Social Commerce: A Consumer Engagement Experience Perspective

Social commerce (s-commerce) is a rapidly developing form of e-commerce powered by social media influencers (SMIs). It can create valuable opportunities for retailers. In light of this growing trend, this study explores the influence of consumers’ engagement experiences (social support and presence) on community identification and consumers’ attachment to SMIs, along with their impact on consumers’ stickiness in the s-commerce context. We explore this through social presence and social support theory. The survey data from 411 s-commerce users via an online questionnaire were analyzed empirically with the PLS-SEM approach. The results indicated that presence and social support have significantly positive impacts on consumers’ attachment to SMIs and community identification, respectively. This increases users’ stickiness in s-commerce. This study enriches our understanding of user stickiness in s-commerce and can assist online vendors in developing marketing strategies and cultivating sustained relationships with their users.

Investigating the antecedents of e-commerce satisfaction in social commerce context

PurposeSocial media is still influencing consumers and is extending social commerce (S-Commerce) use. Different social media activities can influence the users' trust and e-satisfaction at different levels, which in turn influence the purchase intentions. This is evident for the food and beverage industry as S-Commerce mediated by social media can help realise a shorter time to market and meet buyer demands. In addition, credibility factors may influence trust and purchase intentions. Understanding the various factors of influence such as social constructs, namely ratings, reviews and referrals; design constructs such as credibility and features and behavioural constructs such as trust, satisfaction and motivation; and analysing the relationship between these factors and how they influence purchase intentions can provide deeper insights into S-Commerce research, decision-making process and purchase intentions particularly from a food and beverage context.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on trust through social media activities and surface credibility as well as e-commerce satisfaction, the authors have proposed a research model to investigate the purchase intention of consumers in S-Commerce platforms. Survey data were collected from six countries in Asia and analysed using SEM-PLS.FindingsResults indicated that both trust and surface credibility significantly influence e-commerce satisfaction leading to purchase intention. Furthermore, surface credibility, which is a novel predictor for purchase intention in S-Commerce context, is highly significant on e-commerce satisfaction. Besides, encouraged by surface credibility, it was identified that trust significantly affects e-commerce satisfaction and results in purchase intention. This research adds contribution to theory and practice in S-Commerce stream as discussed at the end of the paper.Originality/valueThe results of this research contribute to the S-Commerce literature and have practical implications for practitioners in the food and beverage industry. As such, focussing on these constructs, this paper analyses the relationship between the social media activities, trust, e-commerce satisfaction, surface credibility and intention to buy.

Beyond Browsing: Motivations for Experiential Browsing and Goal-Directed Shopping Intentions on Social Commerce Websites

This study investigated motivations and potential influence paths driving experiential browsing and goal-directed shopping intentions coexisting on social commerce (s-commerce) websites based on the model of goal-directed behavior (MGB). Surveys and research model tests were conducted using SmartPLS. Results revealed that users have more substantial social and hedonic motivations and social desire than utilitarian motivation for using s-commerce websites, which can lead to a higher experiential browsing intention. However, goal-directed shopping intentions of users can only be boosted using utilitarian motivation through the mediation of attitude toward s-commerce or commercial desire. Moreover, the results revealed the critical role of user attitude toward s-commerce compared with that of user desires in both experiential browsing and goal-directed shopping intentions. This study is the first in which the MGB was extended to explore the influence paths driving experiential browsing and goal-directed shopping intentions in the s-commerce context by simultaneously considering the mediating roles of desire and attitude. The empirical results of this study can be utilized by companies and s-commerce websites to develop effective strategies for strengthening user motivation to use s-commerce websites, which can enhance their shopping and browsing intentions.

The Effect of Information Quality on Social Networking Site (SNS)-Based Commerce

This study aimed to examine how information quality (IQ) attributes affect perceived usefulness and customer satisfaction of SNS-based commerce from the perspective of Malaysian SNS users. Although many studies have been conducted to identify possible IQ attributes in the context of e-commerce, only a limited number of studies have tested and examined the direct effects of the IQ attributes on perceived usefulness and customer satisfaction, particularly in the s-commerce context (i.e., SNS-based commerce). The data from Malaysia respondents were collected through an online survey, using a snowball sampling technique. The hypotheses were analysed using multiple linear regression. The results indicated the perceived usefulness was significantly affected by completeness, ease of understanding, and personalization. Customer satisfaction was significantly affected by the completeness and perceived usefulness. However, neither the accuracy nor timeliness had an effect on perceived usefulness or customer satisfaction. The findings suggest that completeness is the strongest attribute of IQ.

Factors Influencing Customer Engagement in Social Commerce Websites: A Systematic Literature Review

The evolution of social commerce (s-commerce) has changed both businesses and customers. Therefore, understanding customer engagement behaviour in the s-commerce context has become a key competitive advantage for companies that aim to build a customer-centric business. The purpose of this study is to provide an in-depth review of customer engagement studies in the context of s-commerce. This study used a systematic literature review approach on customer engagement studies in the context of s-commerce. The results show that social theories and factors play a significant role in customer engagement along with technological factors. More importantly, drawn from the review results, a research framework was developed to show the factors that provide the greatest influence in customer engagement behavior.

Consumers’ decisions in social commerce: the role of guanxi elements

Purpose Recently, the popularity and growth of social media have boosted the development of social commerce (s-commerce). The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’ decisions in s-commerce, for which this study conducted empirical research on WeChat, a very popular social media in China, to validate how guanxi elements (e.g. ganqing, renqing and xinren) affect consumers’ decisions in s-commerce. Design/methodology/approach To examine the research model, an online survey instrument was developed to gather data. The hypotheses were tested using partial least squares modeling. Findings The results confirm that guanxi elements are positively related to eWOM sharing intention and social shopping intention. Moreover, these effects are mediated by a sense of belonging. Originality/value This study enhances the existing literature by introducing the concept of guanxi elements to the context of s-commerce, and linking the concept of guanxi elements and consumers’ decisions. Moreover, this study improves the theoretical and empirical understanding of guanxi elements by investigating its impact on eWOM sharing intention and social shopping intention. Third, the results confirm that guanxi elements not only influence a sense of belonging but also conjointly impacts eWOM sharing intention and social shopping intention in s-commerce.

The effects of service quality determinants on social networking site-based commerce: the Malaysian customers’ perspective

Although the information systems success model has been used widely in measuring the success of e-commerce, limited studies have been conducted focusing on identifying service quality (SQ) determinants that lead to the e-commerce success particularly s-commerce. This study examines the effect of SQ determinants on social networking site (SNS)-based commerce in the s-commerce context from the customer’s perspective by adapting the IS success model and combining it with a modification of SERVQUAL. We analysed a total of 249 samples from an online survey through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the structural equation model (SEM) using IBM SPPS AMOS to test the research model and hypotheses. The results indicate that assurance, responsiveness, and reliability have a significant effect on perceived usefulness and that empathy and responsiveness have a significant effect on customer satisfaction. In addition, the results show a positive relationship among perceived usefulness, customer satisfaction, and net benefits in SNS-based commerce.