How Social Interaction Affects Purchase Intention in Social Commerce: A Cultural Perspective

Abstract

In the context of social commerce, the influence of culture on consumers’ behavior and attitude is more significant. This paper empirically analyzes the influence of social interaction (perceived risk, trust, and intimacy) on consumers’ purchase intention in social commerce, and the antecedent effect of cultural dimensions (uncertainty avoidance and individualism/collectivism) on social interaction is also explored. Data were collected in China and France from consumers who had prior online shopping experience on social commerce websites. The results show that the impact of perceived risk on subsequent purchase intention in social commerce will be transferred by trust and intimacy to a certain extent. The intimacy between users contributes to trust-building, and both of their positive impacts on purchase intention would show distinct effects in different cultures. Besides, cultural dimensions are proved to have a significant effect on users’ social interaction. Although high uncertainty avoidance brings perceived risk, it can promote subsequent trust-building. These findings help provide managerial insights for social commerce community to establish effective trust mechanism in a multicultural context.

An Empirical Study of Social Commerce Intention: An Example of China

“…In social commerce, ethnic culture plays an important role in the content and quality perception of customer reviews [3]. Purchase intention will show distinct effects in different cultures [4]. Cultural characteristics influence people's values and trust [5].…”

Community Buyers’ Affective Reactions in Social Commerce: Stimuli and Response

“…Mayer et al (1995) also consider trust as "the willingness of a person to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor another party" (p. 312). However, lack of more information about products or services in social commerce will make consumers undergo information asymmetry and further lead to either hinder them from engagement/payment or arouse transaction disputes (Yin et al, 2019). In the study, therefore, trust in social commerce is defined as a buyer's belief that future transactions with sellers in social commerce will occur in a manner consistent with their confident expectations (Pavlou & Gefen, 2005).…”

“…In this study, in consequence, trust in the S-O-R model is considered as individual internal evaluations (organism). Findings of the empirical study by Yin et al (2019), for example, point out the higher the level of trust in community of sellers, the stronger consumer purchase intention. The findings are in line with the studies by Pavlou and Gefen (2005) and Rehaman et al (2019).…”

“…), for example, not only can people engage in entertaining activities (e.g. watching videos and playing games), social interactions, and professional networking, but can also engage in a variety of user-centered business activities, so-called social commerce (Yin et al, 2019). Hoffman and Fodor (2010) point out that not only is social commerce a subset of electronic commerce involving a two-way interactive social media, but is also online media supporting social interaction and user contributions to assist online buying and selling of products and services.…”

Better Earlier than Longer: First-Mover Advantage in Social Commerce Product Information Competition

“…In a SC network, marketers release product information, consumers share purchase experiences, and both of these processes influence the sales volume [27,28]. We develop a model that reflects these features of information spread and consumer behaviors in SC by combining the Engel-Kollat-Blackwell (EKB) model, which is a classic theory in consumer behavior research, with the well-known epidemiological Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model of disease diffusion.…”