Utilitarian and Hedonic Motivation in E-Commerce Online Purchasing Intentions

This study uses the theory of social learning to investigate the relationship between hedonic and utilitarian motivation and e-commerce online shopping intentions. Based on a literature review, four hypotheses and eight sub-hypotheses are proposed. The study's novelty derives from the study region and the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results indicate a correlation between utilitarian and hedonic motivation and online shopping intentions, while information searching is a significant predictor of online purchase intentions. This paper contributes to both the academic and practical fields, and e-vendors can use it as a framework to manage website activity.

Data mining analytics investigate WeChat users' behaviours: online social media and social commerce development

PurposeAs of December 2021, WeChat had more than 1.2 billion active users worldwide, making it the most active online social media in mainland China. The term social commerce is used to describe new online sales through a mix of social networks and/or peer-to-peer communication or marketing strategies in terms of allowing consumers to satisfy their shopping behaviour through online social media. Thus, given the numerous active users, the development of online social media and social commerce on WeChat is a critical issue of internet research.Design/methodology/approachThis empirical study takes WeChat as the online social media research object. Questionnaires for WeChat users in China were designed and distributed. All items are designed as nominal and ordinal scales (not Likert scale). The obtained data was put into a relational database (N = 2,342), and different meaningful patterns and rules were examined through data mining analytics, including clustering analysis and association rules, to explore the role of WeChat in the development of online social media and social commerce.FindingsPractical implications are presented according to the research findings of meaningful patterns and rules. In addition, alternatives to WeChat in terms of further development are also proposed according to the investigation findings of WeChat users' behaviour and preferences in China.Originality/valueThis study concludes that online social media, such as WeChat, will be able to transcend the current development pattern of most online social media and make good use of investigating users' behaviour and preferences, not only to stimulate the interaction of users in the social network, but also to create social commerce value in social sciences.

Enterpreneurial Strategies for the Female Sector: Leveraging Instagram Sales During the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly influenced the purchasing behavior of consumers, who began to see in the tools available in the virtual environment the necessary allies to satisfy their consumption desires. Given the relevance achieved by the virtual environment, organizations began to explore more intensively the various digital platforms to enhance their reach to their customers. The traditional electronic commerce then evolved into what we call Social Commerce (S-commerce), which allowed a substantial increase in the way of interacting and promoting sales. Despite the limitations and incipient studies on how organizations use their strategies and explore digital media tools to leverage sales, it is perceived as relevant to understand how the process of joining these organizations to digital media and the influence they have passed to exercise in the reformulation of its strategies and business models. Focusing on the Instagram environment, the objective of this research is to characterize the sales strategies used by three female-owned enterprises, through Instagram, during the pandemic by COVID-19. As a methodological research strategy, the study of multiple cases was used. Three Brazilian female-owned enterprise were analyzed, being: a jewelry company, a women's adult footwear company and a beauty salon. The entrepreneurs responsible for the companies were submitted to a semi-structured questionnaire, which was conducted in loco. As a result, it was observed that the most used Instagram tools are feed resources, stories and metrics. On the other hand, the sales strategies most used by entrepreneurs were e-WOM, recommendations and feedbacks and, finally, encouraging user participation. In conclusion, it was noticed that both the entrepreneur and the company that wants to implement sales strategies in digital media, need to understand the functions and objectives of the set of tools made available by Instagram. Once the functionalities present in these resources are understood, entrepreneurs and managers can formulate their strategies in an assertive way, being more efficient in their commercial transactions, since the actions aim to promote involvement with the public that follows the business. Instagram proved to be a tool with great potential for business in the female sector. © 2022, Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited. All right reserved.

Resilience, vulnerability and personality effects on social commerce intentions: the COVID-19 era

Purpose: This study aims to explore the relationship between social commerce purchase intention and consumer psychological factors (i.e. resilience, vulnerability and personality traits) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on social cognitive theory (SCT), an econometrical behavioral model was developed to explore the key determinants of online purchase behavior of 303 students in Greece. The research data were collected with a two-wave online survey (pre- and during the pandemic) which was distributed randomly to students in Generation Z. Findings: A series of regression analyses revealed a positive effect of openness and a negative impact of extraversion and neuroticism on internet, Instagram and Facebook purchases during the pandemic. Findings suggest that loneliness serves as a moderator, while resilience and vulnerability have a positive effect on social media purchase behavior. Practical implications: This study provides insights and implications for social commerce marketers and sheds light on the determinants of online purchase intentions of young consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value: Elaborating on SCT, this study provides novel insights into young consumers' internet use and online purchase behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e. longitudinal approach), by focusing on consumer vulnerability and resilience while also embedding personality traits and mental health aspects (i.e. loneliness levels during the pandemic). © 2023, Evangelos Mourelatos and Emmanouela Manganari.

Consumers' acceptance of social commerce during COVID-19 lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic changed everything, especially marketing, leading to increased digital usage. Social media allows faster connectivity among people and gives marketers new pathways to engage with consumers. The lockdown dramatically reduced economic activity by numbers that are worth understanding. This study examines the numerous aspects contributing to the consumer's favorable opinions toward their social commerce intents and behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using SEM, the data examination of 297 respondents established that applying the social support theory and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model to the proposed theoretical framework is significantly associated with social commerce intentions. The results state that all the direct hypotheses have been supported, confirming that social support, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, offline subjective norms, and online subjective norms are significantly associated with social commerce intentions. The results also indicated that Information Technology Infrastructure (ITI) moderated social support, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and online subjective norms. © 2022 Korean Scholars of Marketing Science.

Shaping path of trust: the role of information credibility, social support, information sharing and perceived privacy risk in social commerce

PurposeCurrently, the Covid-19 pandemic is changing how consumers shop, encouraging deeper levels and increased reliance on e-commerce systems and social media such as online communities. The online interaction of consumers is more important and brings many uncertainties, which impact the original commerce environment. This study aim to investigate the ethical consideration of information credibility and perceived privacy risk from a psychology perspective in marketing, this study draws on social support theory from social psychology to develop a research model to investigate the role of information credibility and perceived privacy risk on social commerce websites.Design/methodology/approachThis study investigated social commerce websites and communities. The research data of this study was collected through a questionnaire from consumers on three famous social commerce platforms. Using PLS-SEM to perform data analysis, this study research the importance of information credibility, perceived privacy risk and trust on social commerce websites.FindingsThe findings discuss individuals' reaction to privacy issues and to understand the motives to disclose or reveal personal information within a marketing or consumption context. The research also explores the theoretical implications by integrating theories from information systems and social psychology to investigate ethical issues in social commerce.Originality/valueCovid-19 makes peer-to-peer communication in online communities is developing collaborative consumption, and information produced in these communities can influence the decisions of consumers. Covid-19 has exacerbated such a change in social commerce environment. Therefore, information credibility plays an important role in developing online communities. It is important to look at the psychological antecedents that drive consumers' willingness to share their personal information when using online communities. The author has clarified which aspects of trust in social commerce should be strategized, including information trustworthiness, perceived privacy risks, social support and information sharing. These are the details that companies should pay more attention to when operating social commerce. Only by paying more attention to these details and giving consumers a positive feeling can consumers' trust be maintained or enhanced, ultimately leading to a successful trust economy.

Consumers' acceptance of social commerce during COVID-19 lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic changed everything, especially marketing, leading to increased digital usage. Social media allows faster connectivity among people and gives marketers new pathways to engage with consumers. The lockdown dramatically reduced economic activity by numbers that are worth understanding. This study examines the numerous aspects contributing to the consumer's favorable opinions toward their social commerce intents and behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using SEM, the data examination of 297 respondents established that applying the social support theory and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model to the proposed theoretical framework is significantly associated with social commerce intentions. The results state that all the direct hypotheses have been supported, confirming that social support, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, offline subjective norms, and online subjective norms are significantly associated with social commerce intentions. The results also indicated that Information Technology Infrastructure (ITI) moderated social support, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and online subjective norms.

Adapting the UTAUT2 Model for Social Commerce Context

Social commerce (SC) became a major channel for conducting business as a result of the ban adopted by many countries because of Covid-19 era. The simplicity of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and use of Technology (UTAUT) and its extended version (UTAUT2) invites researchers to explore other options that can yield better explanation of the adoption of SC. This study extended the UTAUT2 with perceived value, trust and a SC related construct. In addition, the study re-structured the UTAUT2 to fit with SC environment. The study utilized 463 surveys distributed in Qatar, and analyzed the data using SEM. Results fully supported the proposed model, where trust, perceived value, facilitating conditions, and hedonic motivation significantly predicted behavioral intentions with an R2 value equal to 72%. The model supported the role of performance expectancy and SC constructs in predicting perceived value, and the role of effort expectancy and habit in predicting hedonic motivation.

A trust model for consumer conversion in community-based group buying: the dual roles of group leaders

Purpose>In the presence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), due to the social distance restriction, consumers' regular consumption behaviors and patterns have been changing fundamentally. Thereafter, an innovative group buying model has emerged and developed explosively with a specific focus on consumer's location, known as community-based group buying (CGB). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the transfer mechanism of user's trust in dyadic contexts of social and commercial role-playing in the CGB program.Design/methodology/approach>This study adopts an empirical research method, with an online and offline questionnaire survey, a total of 382 responses have been obtained. Then, both descriptive analysis and hierarchical regression analysis are conducted to explore the dual roles of group leader and its corresponding effects on consumers' trust (i.e. emotional trust and behavioral trust) and engagement actions (i.e. purchase and share) in the CGB program.Findings>Results indicate that resident's trust and their perception of group leader's friend role can positively enhance their engagement actions in the CGB programs. Meanwhile, for the purpose of profit maximization, the group leader is more willing to play a friend role in transactions no matter whether the role conflict exists.Originality/value>Research findings provide some managerial insights for CGB platform on the selection and training of group leaders and the incentive mechanism design.

CROSS-BORDER SOCIAL COMMERCE: FROM A TRUST TRANSFER PERSPECTIVE

Social commerce has been seeing exponential growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought a wave of cross-border commerce as consumers purchase more items online. Business uses social media to reach new markets by accessing potential global buyers, expanding their target markets, and increasing brand popularity. Cross-border ecommerce studies showed that perceived risk is a critical factor that reduces individuals’ willingness to purchase unfamiliar foreign products. We introduced an emerging business model, cross-border social commerce (CBSC) and examined the mitigation of perceived risk through trust transfer in a CBSC context. To capture consumers’ purchase intention of cross-border commerce, we conducted an online scenario-based survey. Survey respondents comprising a total of 321 social media users in Indonesia were observed. The results demonstrate that consumers’ trust can be transferred from friends and platforms to brands, and the transfer effect is contingent on the popularity of the brand. Our findings have crucial implications for trust transfer and cross-border social commerce. This study contributes to academia by introducing a new business model and advancing our understanding of how to enhance trust and mitigate risk. Practitioners can gain insight into trust building in CBSC context. © 2022. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research. All Rights Reserved.

Antecedents of Facebook e-purchasing site and Social CRM: A Structural Equation Modeling from the customers' perspectives

Social Customer Relationship Management (Social CRM) is gaining ground globally, especially in this era that demands cashless transactions for promoting social commerce and reducing the spread of COVID-19. However, in some emerging nations like Nigeria, Social CRM via Facebook from the customer's perspective has not been researched widely. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the antecedents of Facebook e-purchasing site and Social CRM from the perspective of customers. To realise the purpose of this study , we explored the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) via a quantitative approach because of the descriptive and inferential requirements. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM-AMOS) were employed to analyse the effects and mediation mechanisms. We found that the perceived information usefulness of Facebook purchasing sites does not significantly influence Social CRM while perceived site trustworthiness significantly influences Social CRM. Our findings further demonstrate that the perceived ease of use mediates the relationships between information usefulness and trustworthiness with Social CRM. However, the perceived site ease of use mediation mechanism on site information usefulness with Social CRM has a full mediation effect on Social CRM. We therefore, encourage Nigerian malls and other emerging countries' malls to consider making their Facebook e-purchasing sites simple for customers and potential buyers to boost Social CRM and promote social commerce. Our study further proffers insights to factors that can boost Social CRM and social commerce on Facebook and other social media platforms.

Adapting the UTAUT2 Model for Social Commerce Context

Social commerce (SC) became a major channel for conducting business as a result of the ban adopted by many countries because of COVID-19. The simplicity of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and its extended version (UTAUT2) invites researchers to explore other options that can yield better explanation of the adoption of SC. This study extended the UTAUT2 with perceived value, trust, and a SC-related construct. In addition, the study re-structured the UTAUT2 to fit with SC environment. The study utilized 463 surveys distributed in Qatar and analyzed the data using SEM. Results fully supported the proposed model, where trust, perceived value, facilitating conditions, and hedonic motivation significantly predicted behavioral intentions with an R2 value equal to 72%. The model supported the role of performance expectancy and SC constructs in predicting perceived value and the role of effort expectancy and habit in predicting hedonic motivation.

Functionalities of Social Commerce used by SME during Pandemic

Due to Covid-19 and to the lockdown enterprises are trying to find ways to continuously sell and promote their products even if their physical shops are closed. Online shopping has been increasing during the pandemic which helps enterprises to remain profitable. Social media are used as e-commerce channels from small and medium enterprises due to the lack of time, budget, and to their useful functionalities. This paper is addressing social commerce functionalities that are used from enterprises in order to remain competitive in the market during the lockdown. In this paper these functionalities are been evaluated and examined in order to find their advantages and disadvantages. The results of this evaluation were that the functionalities of social commerce can benefit SME during pandemic as they don't demand physical contact which is mostly prohibited during pandemic, they are affordable, they don't need much time to be implemented, and also the audience is already gathered and active on social media. However, enterprises should choose the most suitable function for them based on their product and their audience. Social commerce is proven to be useful as a selling channel to small and medium enterprises during the pandemic.

Shaping path of trust: the role of information credibility, social support, information sharing and perceived privacy risk in social commerce

Purpose: Currently, the Covid-19 pandemic is changing how consumers shop, encouraging deeper levels and increased reliance on e-commerce systems and social media such as online communities. The online interaction of consumers is more important and brings many uncertainties, which impact the original commerce environment. This study aim to investigate the ethical consideration of information credibility and perceived privacy risk from a psychology perspective in marketing, this study draws on social support theory from social psychology to develop a research model to investigate the role of information credibility and perceived privacy risk on social commerce websites. Design/methodology/approach: This study investigated social commerce websites and communities. The research data of this study was collected through a questionnaire from consumers on three famous social commerce platforms. Using PLS-SEM to perform data analysis, this study research the importance of information credibility, perceived privacy risk and trust on social commerce websites. Findings: The findings discuss individuals' reaction to privacy issues and to understand the motives to disclose or reveal personal information within a marketing or consumption context. The research also explores the theoretical implications by integrating theories from information systems and social psychology to investigate ethical issues in social commerce. Originality/value: Covid-19 makes peer-to-peer communication in online communities is developing collaborative consumption, and information produced in these communities can influence the decisions of consumers. Covid-19 has exacerbated such a change in social commerce environment. Therefore, information credibility plays an important role in developing online communities. It is important to look at the psychological antecedents that drive consumers' willingness to share their personal information when using online communities. The author has clarified which aspects of trust in social commerce should be strategized, including information trustworthiness, perceived privacy risks, social support and information sharing. These are the details that companies should pay more attention to when operating social commerce. Only by paying more attention to these details and giving consumers a positive feeling can consumers' trust be maintained or enhanced, ultimately leading to a successful trust economy. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

“They bought it, therefore I will buy it”: The effects of peer users' conversion as sales performance and entrepreneurial sellers' number of followers as relationship performance in mobile social commerce

Drawing from social learning theory and the mobile advertising literature on key performance indicators (KPIs), two experiments examined the influence of peer users' conversion in mobile social commerce. Experiment 1 (N = 211, between-subjects [high vs. low number of “sold items”]) tested the effects of peer users' conversion, operationalized as the number of “sold items” in the seller's profile, on the seller-and-profile-related outcomes. The main effect of peer users' conversion was found such that high conversion induced greater cognitive and affective appraisals, higher seller credibility, a more positive profile attitude, greater perceived entrepreneurial talent of the seller, and stronger social commerce conversion intentions. The mediating effect of social learning (mainly affective appraisal) was found. Experiment 2 (N = 348, 2 [high vs. low number of “sold items”] x 2 [high vs. low “followers”] between-subjects factorial design) showed the interaction effects of the number of “sold items” (seller's sales performance) and the number of “followers” (seller's relationship performance) on cognitive and affective appraisals, seller credibility, and profile attitude. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that peer users' conversion exerts a positive impact on the outcome variables through cognitive and affective appraisals when the number of followers is high but not when it is low. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Social Commerce in the Wine Sector: An Exploratory Research Study of the Italian Market

The development of Web 2.0 technologies and social media, along with the emergence of wikis, blogs, online communities, and social networks, has rapidly transformed e‐commerce. This phenomenon is commonly known as social commerce, an evolution of e‐commerce characterized by a strong customer orientation. The aim of this paper is to understand the support of social commerce for e‐commerce. We conducted an exploratory analysis of the Italian wine market via in-depth interviews with experts in the wine business: three wine producers and three companies run-ning an online wine business. The interviews were recorded with the consent of the interviewees and transcribed, and their content was analyzed through content analysis. In particular, an analysis grid was created, following a closed procedure, with an ex‐ante definition of the categories of anal-ysis. Our results reveal that the COVID‐19 outbreak has given a significant boost to digital transfor-mation and online purchases in the wine sector. While some operators in the sector have merely undergone this change, others have been riding the wave, trying to benefit from it. © 2022 by the authors. Li-censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Challenges of customer experience management in social commerce: an application of social network analysis

PurposeAs social media applications have turned into popular platforms for interacting with customers, creation of a consistent customer experience in social commerce has attracted the attention of many practitioners and academics. The migration to create and manage customer experience in social commerce has become an essential issue that will bring new challenges for companies. Despite the increasing investment in this area, few studies have been conducted on the challenges of managing customer experience in social commerce. To fill this theoretical gap, the current study aims at comprehensively exploring the main challenges of customer experience management (CEM) in social commerce and investigating their importance and possible effects in relation to each other.Design/methodology/approachUsing the mixed method, first, the main challenges regarding CEM in social commerce were identified by reviewing the related literature. Then the challenges were enriched and categorized by expert opinions. Next, the challenges and the categorizations were confirmed by conducting a survey analysis applying the t-test and the factor analysis method. Afterwards, the main challenges were identified and weighted. Finally, the Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach was applied to investigate the causal relationship network among the challenges.FindingsThe results indicated that the main challenges of CEM in social commerce can be categorized into eight groups. Their weights and causal effects were calculated to identify the high priority challenges. By calculating the main SNA metrics such as degree and betweenness centralities, the high priority challenges of CEM in social commerce were identified. It was revealed that challenges with high out-degree centrality can create many other challenges and those with high betweenness centrality act as intermediary points, through which cause challenges may create effect challenges.Research limitations/implicationsThe research results can help marketers to get a big picture of the challenges to successfully implement CEM in social commerce and select the appropriate migration strategies more effectively. They are further recommended to pay due attention to customers' issues as well as the organizational challenges of CEM in social commerce.Originality/valueSocial media has become a priority for businesses to create and improve the customer experience;yet there is no tool to identify the challenges of CEM in this context. This study addresses the overlooked but critically important area of social commerce. The most important contribution of this research is an attempt to provide a comprehensive and integrated framework of the challenges in implementing CEM in social commerce and explore the causal effects they may have on creation of other challenges using SNA.