The Relationship between Virtual Community and Perceived Risk in the Social-Commerce: An Exploratory Study

Author(s):  
Leila Othmani ◽  
Neji Bouslama
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Syahida Hassan

<p>Although the field of social commerce has gained a lot of attention recently, there are many areas that still remain unexplored. A new phenomenon emerging within virtual communities is a blurring between social and commercial activities. To date, scholars in the social commerce literature have either focused on customers in the community or on medium to large scale businesses. There has been little research on social commerce communities which include micro-businesses despite their rapid growth in South East Asian countries.  This study explores a social commerce community of Malay lifestyle bloggers, who are a subset of the Malaysian blogosphere community. Bloggers begin by using the personal genre, some then move on to set up online businesses using their personal blogs as a platform. The characteristic of blogging’s ease of use means there are low barriers to starting a small business, merging blogging and commerce. This changes the nature of the community by bringing in a new relationship, as well as relationships between bloggers and readers, there are now also relationships between sellers and customers.  This study aims to understand the motivations for both sellers and customers, and how their relationships as bloggers and readers influence their participation in social commerce within the same community. To address the research objective, 20 sellers and 21 customers who also play a role as bloggers or readers were interviewed. In-depth interviews using laddering and semi-structured interview techniques were carried out to explore social commerce behaviour, the perceived consequences, and goals or values of participation. In addition, observation was also conducted on the platform used by the sellers. Data was coded using NVivo whilst the themes arising from the coding process were transformed into an implication matrix and hierarchical value map using Ladderux software.  This study found that strong ties within the community, influenced by homophily and the sense of virtual community, motivated the customers to participate in commercial activities in order to obtain their goals which included a sense of obligation, loyalty, satisfaction and self-esteem. The relationships influenced customers to trust each other, provide social support and made purchasing products more convenient. Sellers were influenced by the convenience of using social media and the social support provided by the customers which helped them to achieve their goals which are profit and business sustainability.  This study contributes to social commerce theory by highlighting an underexplored type of social commerce setting and addressing how trust can be transferred from social to commercial activities. The findings provide a useful insight for businesses, regardless of their size, to build an understanding of the need to create a good relationship with their customers. For macro-businesses, this model can be used to identify what is lacking in their social media marketing strategy.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-125
Author(s):  
Andres Dharma Nurhalim

The growth of active internet users in Indonesia is increasing positively. Smartphone users in Indonesia are projected to be the largest in the world wide. This traction creates opportunity for the presence of e-commerce. Nowadays, e-commerce is not only selling a low involvement product but also selling high involvement product in this study a new car. This study aims to analyze the relationship between social commerce construct to trust and purchase intention, consumer trust to purchase intention and perceived risks, perceived risk to purchase intention and perceived benefit to purchase intention. This study used questionnaire as tools to gather data from 200 respondents who never bought a new car through e-commerce. Partial least squares structure equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used in this study to analyze the data. The result of this study showed that social commerce construct has influence on trust and purchase intention, other variable such as perceived risk also has influence on purchase intention


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 112
Author(s):  
Risca Fitri Ayuni

Introduction/main objectives: A virtual community is a new form of social interaction that provides an alternative way for connectivity and creativity. As the most favorite platform, social networking site is one of marketing objectives and strategies for global brands. The purpose of this study is to examine the antecedents (social eWOM, image, and trust) and consequences (purchase intention) of eWOM’s adoption. Background problem: Today, taking part in virtual communities is a must. People with the same interests share their experiences and become trustworthy referees for others. Understanding the effect virtual communities can have will help companies to expand their markets. Novelty: Social eWOM has a great impact, but no prior studies have examined the effect of social eWOM or a virtual community on image, trust, eWOM‘s adoption and purchase intentions, this study would be the first study that provides a comprehensive model using recent issues. Research methods: Purposive sampling was used to recruit 240 active participants in virtual communities in Indonesia. To collect the data, spreading questionnaire was conducted. SPSS and PLS 3 were used to analyze the data. Findings: The findings proved the relationship among social eWOM, image and trust. It also revealed that eWOM’s adoption affected purchase intentions. Surprisingly, image has no statistically significant effect on eWOM’s adoption. Conclusion: Well-managed social eWOM creates a better image, and increases trust, and eWOM’s adoption leads to an increase in the purchase intention. This study offers managerial insights to manage social eWOM from any virtual communities, to improve their image and trust. Finally, managers should maintain positive reviews, as this will also create an intention to purchase. 


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Syahida Hassan

<p>Although the field of social commerce has gained a lot of attention recently, there are many areas that still remain unexplored. A new phenomenon emerging within virtual communities is a blurring between social and commercial activities. To date, scholars in the social commerce literature have either focused on customers in the community or on medium to large scale businesses. There has been little research on social commerce communities which include micro-businesses despite their rapid growth in South East Asian countries.  This study explores a social commerce community of Malay lifestyle bloggers, who are a subset of the Malaysian blogosphere community. Bloggers begin by using the personal genre, some then move on to set up online businesses using their personal blogs as a platform. The characteristic of blogging’s ease of use means there are low barriers to starting a small business, merging blogging and commerce. This changes the nature of the community by bringing in a new relationship, as well as relationships between bloggers and readers, there are now also relationships between sellers and customers.  This study aims to understand the motivations for both sellers and customers, and how their relationships as bloggers and readers influence their participation in social commerce within the same community. To address the research objective, 20 sellers and 21 customers who also play a role as bloggers or readers were interviewed. In-depth interviews using laddering and semi-structured interview techniques were carried out to explore social commerce behaviour, the perceived consequences, and goals or values of participation. In addition, observation was also conducted on the platform used by the sellers. Data was coded using NVivo whilst the themes arising from the coding process were transformed into an implication matrix and hierarchical value map using Ladderux software.  This study found that strong ties within the community, influenced by homophily and the sense of virtual community, motivated the customers to participate in commercial activities in order to obtain their goals which included a sense of obligation, loyalty, satisfaction and self-esteem. The relationships influenced customers to trust each other, provide social support and made purchasing products more convenient. Sellers were influenced by the convenience of using social media and the social support provided by the customers which helped them to achieve their goals which are profit and business sustainability.  This study contributes to social commerce theory by highlighting an underexplored type of social commerce setting and addressing how trust can be transferred from social to commercial activities. The findings provide a useful insight for businesses, regardless of their size, to build an understanding of the need to create a good relationship with their customers. For macro-businesses, this model can be used to identify what is lacking in their social media marketing strategy.</p>


1977 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 843-850 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Johnson ◽  
Ardyth Norem-Hebeisen

Although a variety of psychological theorists have posited that a central aspect of psychological health is the ability to join with other persons in cooperative efforts to achieve mutually desired goals, there is little direct evidence linking the social psychological literature on cooperation with the personality literature on psychological health. An exploratory study was conducted to examine the relationship between attitudes toward cooperation, competition, and individualism and psychological health as indicated by the MMPI. Subjects were 70 white, middle-class, high-school seniors in a midwestern suburban community. Attitudes toward cooperation were significantly negatively correlated with 8 of the 10 clinical MMPI scales and with a variety of the research MMPI scales. Attitudes toward competition were significantly negatively correlated with 7 of the 10 clinical MMPI scales and with a variety of the research MMPI scales. Attitudes toward individualism were positively correlated with 9 of the 10 clinical MMPI scales and with a variety of the research MMPI scales.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongzhong Yang ◽  
Yunyan Tang ◽  
Yu Zhang ◽  
Ruo Yang

The visual revolution and attention economy of the digital world have put visual aesthetic communication into the primary position of social media marketing. However, this phenomenon remains underexplored within social commerce research. This study thus develops a visual information adoption unimodel (VIAUM), to explore the relationship between visual aesthetics and social commerce intentions. Users with social commerce experience are invited to complete our online survey, and 321 valid data are collected. The results reveal that visual aesthetics has direct and indirect (via perceived usefulness) effects on the social commerce intention of users. Besides, interdependent self-construal (InterSC) strengthens the direct effect between visual aesthetics and social commerce intention. In contrast, independent self-construal weakens the mediation effects of perceived usefulness. This study is among the first attempts to empirically examine the intervening mechanism and boundary conditions between the visual aesthetics of self-presentation of micro-celebrity and the social commerce intention of consumers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaryab Sheikh ◽  
Liu Yezheng ◽  
Tahir Islam ◽  
Zahid Hameed ◽  
Ikram Ullah Khan

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of social commerce constructs (SCCs), social support and relationship quality on social commerce intentions, which lead to use behaviour of social networking sites for social commerce.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 343 users of social networking sites in Pakistan. The data analysis was conducted using PLS-SEM.FindingsThe results show that SCCs have empowered consumers through the existence of virtual groups, ratings and reviews and recommendations and referrals, thereby having a significant impact on social commerce intentions. The relationship quality with social networking sites, measured through commitment, satisfaction and trust, also proved to be a leading forecaster of social commerce intentions. The impact of social support could not positively influence the relationship quality with the social networking site. However, social support influences the social commerce intentions significantly.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research should enrich model with some moderating variables and data may be collected from actual online shoppers only.Practical implicationsThis study provides valuable insights to retailers to formulate their social commerce strategies as per decision factors results to have maximum engagement of consumers in social commerce.Originality/valueThe study proposes the unique model for finding the social commerce intentions and use behaviour using social support theory, relationship marketing theory and information systems literature.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiabao Lin ◽  
Lei Li ◽  
Yanmei Yan ◽  
Ofir Turel

Purpose Building on the Chinese guanxi perspective, the purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model that explains the indirect effects of social support from friends on social commerce intentions, as mediated through the relational aspects that potential buyers develop with sellers. Design/methodology/approach Hypotheses are tested with partial least squares (PLS)-graph applied to data collected via a survey of social media users (n=511). SPSS and PLS-graph are the statistical analysis tools used in this study. Findings Relationship exists in social commerce interactions and its quality can be captured by swift guanxi and trust. These swift relationships matter as they drive users’ behavioral intentions on social commerce sites. The informational and social support people receive from friends helps in improving the relationship quality and can indirectly influence user behaviors on these sites. Research limitations/implications This study has relied on a convenient sampling and this may limit the generalizability of the findings. Future research should employ broader and more random sampling techniques to re-validate and extend the findings. Originality/value The interpersonal aspect of relationship quality has received little attention in the social commerce literature. This study develops a theoretical model that explains consumers’ intention in social commerce. The findings reveal the mechanisms through which different types of social support indirectly influence social commerce intentions. They provide a unique glimpse into consumer behavior in Chinese settings, in which the guanxi aspect of relationship quality highly matters.


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