Why customers participate in social commerce activities? – A laddering analysis

A new phenomenon emerging within virtual communities is a blurring between social and commercial activities. This paper explores the motivations of customers who participate in social commerce, The chosen context is micro-businesses operated by members of a virtual community of Malay lifestyle bloggers. Observations were carried out and 21 participants were interviewed in order to build an understanding of the community. We used laddering techniques in order to answer the research questions, which is “what is the relationship between participation in virtual communities and their participation in social commerce?” We found that virtual community relationship was the main influential factor, and that virtual community relationship contributed to the sense of social support as well as customers’ trust in social commerce

The Role of Personality Traits and Advertisement Characteristics in Social Shopping. An experimental study of personality and Instagram marketing

Objectives The main objective of this study is addressing a gap in existing research by looking into the role of The Big Five personality traits in the context of social shopping. Second, this study seeks to find different characteristics of Instagram advertisements that enhance a consumers likelihood to purchase. Summary A literature review was constructed in order to explore the current academic research about social shopping and personality. Based on the literature review, ten hypotheses were proposed in addition to presenting a conceptual framework. The hypotheses and the conceptual framework were utilized to guide the collection of primary data. The data was gathered quantitatively through an online questionnaire which included a brief Big Five personality test (Gosling et al., 2003), questions that measured intention to participate in social shopping activities and purchase intention via social media networks and finally an experimental Instagram part. The questionnaire was constructed to meet the research objectives of this study. Conclusions The Big Five personality traits were not found to have significant relationship with social commerce intention or purchase intention on social media. Likes on Instagram and trust were found to indicate purchase intention. Hashtags were not found to impact purchase intention or attitudes towards the brand. People with high neuroticism were found to have a high immediate purchase intention

Understanding Social Media Shopping : Instagram and the reconfiguration of the practice of shopping

In the recent past, social media has gradually evolved from a platfrom for communication and personal exchange to a space where contemporary consumer desires are awakened, directed, and also fulfilled. Instagram, in particular, is one of the social media platforms that has made specific design decisions to combine the social and entertaining aspects of the native, virtual social media experience with shopping and consumption. At the same time, Instagram and similar platforms have become an integral and meaningful part of many people’s daily routines.Based on these considerations, this dissertation examines the consequences of introducing social media to thepractice of shopping. Using a sociomaterial practice approach, it examines how social media – as a sociomaterial assemblage – reconfigures shopping. Drawing on a digital ethnography centering on Instagram as the research field for collecting empirical material, it conceptualizes and vividly illustrates how social media shopping is emerging as a new form of shopping, what defines, enables, and constrains it, and shows how social media ultimately shapes practical shopping enactments.Moreover, this work conceptualizes the social media shopper as a hybrid actor that is shaped and constituted by both virtual and analog, both human and non-human entities. It presents how this actor, referred to as the ”social media shopper”, is gradually taking shape in and through practice, while also pointing to the consequences that this form of shopping has for its practitioners’ everyday lives. It is shown that social media shopping can be both a leisure activity and a demanding profession – often resulting in practitioners having to meet different demands at the same time. For example, they often feel challenged as they must simultaneously cater to their audience and their personal relationships, or maintain individuality and authenticity while adhering to specific social media scripts.As such, this work expands our understanding of how humans and technologies interact and constitute eachother. This dissertation also allows us to more critically understand the role that technology plays in everyday life by illuminating both positive and negative implications. By showing how social media contributes to the blurring of previously established boundaries and roles – such as buyer/seller or digital/analog etc. – it demonstrates that social media is decisively contributing to shopping becoming an integral part of the mundane and ordinary life of a mostly young, very social media-savvy consumer group. This dissertation therefore offers new insights into the understanding of novel, technology-driven consumption habits, and sheds light on a special group of consumers who have firmly integrated social media into their everyday lives. In doing so, it contributes to the broader discussion on the transformation and digitalization of retail

A study of the factors influencing consumer satisfaction in social commerce: the case of Saudi Arabia

Consumer satisfaction has been cited to be an important determinant of repeat business. Therefore, it is important for businesses and other stakeholders to have insights about the factors influencing consumer satisfaction. The aim of this research is to explore these factors in the social commerce (SC) context. The research identifies the key predecessors of customer satisfaction, and gaining insights about the nature of their relationship with each other and with consumer satisfaction. Using a positivist paradigm and employing a quantitative approach, this study uses paper- and web-based surveys to collect research data. The study sample consist of Saudi Arabian students who have experience with SC websites and are studying either in Saudi Arabia or Australia. In total, 372 responses are collected. The collected data are analysed using the partial least squares (PLS) regression method to address the research questions and test the research hypotheses. Overall, the results support the theoretical model proposed in this study; that is, all factors affecting consumer satisfaction in SC are found to have a significant impact on consumer satisfaction. Specifically, it is found that word-of-mouth (WOM) is the factor affecting both trust and social influence most strongly, and trust is the factor affecting consumer satisfaction most strongly. Since trust is most strongly affected by WOM, it seems imperative that SC enterprises pay special attention to consumer feedback and responses. These findings are consistent with those of the current literature. This study provides insights into aspects of SC that have not previously been fully investigated. The SC phenomenon has been studied from the standpoint of consumer intention and behaviour but not in terms of consumer satisfaction. This study attempts to fill this gap, along with the gap that exists in terms of defining the concept of consumer satisfaction in SC settings. It is expected that the proposed framework in this study would improve the understanding of the factors affecting consumer satisfaction and the structural relationships between these factors. In addition, this research is expected to act as a guide for SC businesses to help them better meet consumer requirements, which ultimately may lead to an increase in sales revenue. The results of the quantitative analysis need to be interpreted within the limitations of the study. The sample for this research only consisted of students. The researcher acknowledges the limitation that students comprise only a subset of all consumers, and the findings from this research may not be generalised to all SC users