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1. Introduction
In the present era, rapid increases on the internet, especially in Web 2.0 technology, giving an enormous number of individuals a chance to use social networking sites (SNSs) like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The primary objective of the SNSs is to build an online environment where participants can share and pursue common experiences, activities and common interests (Zeng et al., 2009). SNSs are the key source of social commerce because they enhance the quality of the relationship between suppliers and consumers (Liang and Turban, 2011), increasing trust and motivating the consumer to buy company products after hearing about the complete satisfaction of other SNS users (Kim and Park, 2013). Social commerce is a novel concept and is the mixture of e-commerce and Web 2.0 technologies such as social media and SNSs (Ahmad and Laroche, 2017; Hajli, 2014c, 2015; Liang et al., 2011; Liang and Turban, 2011), which empower consumers to produce content (Heinonen, 2011).
According to Marsden (2009), 83 per cent online customers were eager to share purchasing details with peers, and while shopping, 67 per cent of virtual customers preferred recommendations received from the online community. Kelly et al. (2010) found that consumers believed that information provided by a friend is more credible than information received from a company about the product and there is a positive relationship between positive views of peers and purchase intentions. Scholars claimed that the role of social platforms in providing referrals, reviews, ratings, online communities and recommendations about the products and services enhanced the social commerce intentions (Park et al., 2007; Yadav et al., 2013). The online social platforms such as forums and communities provide opportunities to consumers to rate, review, recommend and refer the products and services for peer consumers and empower the consumers to communicate and negotiate with sellers. Such forums and communities, ratings and reviews, recommendation and referrals are known as social commerce constructs (SCCs) (Hajli, 2015; Hajli and Sims, 2015).
In the literature, relationship quality is measured through commitment, satisfaction and trust (Hajli, 2014c). These three facets of relationship quality play a significant role in social commerce (Hajli, 2014a). Yang et al. (2005) explained satisfaction as the user’s overall evaluation of a service provider. Researchers know that...