Content area
Purpose
Consumers may enjoy the information sharing and social support made available when a social media platform is used for pre-purchase research; however, do consumers reevaluate the privacy and security of the platform differently when ordering and payment capabilities are added? As social media systems have evolved into social commerce platforms (SCPs), individuals are often faced with whether to complete a purchase they have been researching or switch to a traditional e-commerce platform to complete the transaction. This research examines consumer trust formation in the SCP channel and how consumer interest and engagement in the channel are maintained and influence consumer decisions to purchase via the SCP.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on trust and involvement literature, a research model was conceptualized to capture consumer beliefs about SCP privacy and security and whether the SCP can be trusted, using these inputs into subsequent consumer interest, engagement and decisions on whether to use the SCP for purchasing. The research model was empirically tested using the panel data's structural equation modeling (AMOS) (n = 405). The data showed acceptable reliability and convergent validity, while the original research model provides predictive validity and theory-confirming insights.
Findings
Results confirm that consumer perceptions of privacy and security play a crucial role as decision criteria, informing their judgments of whether a new social commerce channel can be trusted enough to conduct purchases. Further, consumer trust supports their interest in the SCP, resulting in enduring and enhanced behavioral use and, to a lesser extent, purchase intent. Still, a majority of this sample declined to purchase using the SCP and rather preferred to transact on tried and trusted traditional e-commerce sites.
Originality/value
This study is among the first to examine trust formation in new SCPs, where consumers are deciding to expand their engagement level from social and informational to commercial.
1. Introduction
Social commerce platforms (SCPs) help consumers quickly evaluate products, services and tourism destinations, and many SCPs now offer transaction settlement. SCPs are essentially social media platforms with purchasing functionality and a connected supply chain. SCPs provide easy access to diagnostic information from non-vendor sources and aids consumers through the product evaluation and consumption cycle. We adopt the following definition of social commerce as “an activity that harnesses Web 2.O technologies/social media that supports sellers and buyers to interact, engage, collaborate, and create value that eventually leads to the intentions or actual decision making to shop for or acquire information about products and services” (Nadeem 2016, p. 13). As social media communities hosted on applications (e.g. Meta) evolve into commercial platforms, it remains important to continually measure consumer trust formation processes.
While a driving force behind traditional e-commerce growth was maximizing shopping efficiency via online product catalogs, advanced search, product recommendations, one-click buying and rapid delivery; the driving force behind current social commerce is community, sharing, socializing, networking and collaborating with a secondary focus on shopping (Huang and Benyoucef, 2013). Community members typically help each other by sharing product consumption news, tips, experiences and perspective. Furthermore, SCPs provide vendors the ability to build community and strengthen brands (Nadeem et al., 2021a).Consumer interest in social commerce is evolving (Liu et al., 2022; Jia et al., 2022; Yang, 2021) as channels such as Instagram embed sponsored product offerings into community and personal Instagram shopping sites; however, it remains to be seen to what extent consumer adopt SCP purchasing, or prefer to rely on trusted e-commerce websites for e-purchases.
Especially when shopping for products, consumers enjoy SCP's ability to provide easy access to product, service, maintenance and destination information thereby increasing consumer engagement (Bilgihan et al., 2014), SCPs, for example, allow pre- and post-transaction activities, including searchable services and items, marketing and customer service, as well as additional shopping assistance such as product ratings, suggestions, reviews and payments (Lu et al., 2016). The theoretical descriptions and definitions of social commerce available in the relevant literature are presented in Appendix 1.
Social media apps (paired with smartphones) have improved shopping and ordering experiences for consumers and retailers alike (Hew et al., 2019; Lu et al., 2016). For the products, services and tourism destinations that a consumer maintains long-term, enduring interest; many consumers are involved and loyal to specific SCP communities and e-shopping channels; often digitally “living” in these communities daily to learn, gain perspective and discounts and contribute their perspective. Consumers appreciate the ability to quickly, read and view consumption experiences on often very specific products. In communities' members have questions answered, receive troubleshooting support, share product-related information, show off their purchases, forward branded content and receive feedback from friends and community members (Lin et al., 2012; Tuncer, 2021). Lifestyle brands and experiences have become an important aspect of consumer identity and give people of different regions a chance to connect (e.g. when people wear the same Adidas track suit). SCPs help to connect like-minded consumers via a forum for consumers to express and reinforce their branded lifestyle. Will consumers begin to purchase on primarily social media platforms (now referred to as SCPs) or prefer to purchase from traditional e-commerce platforms?
Consumers have reported concerns related to security, privacy and trust in the information exchanges (Liang and Turban, 2011; Kim and Park, 2013). Statista (2016) reports the biggest concerns that consumers report for making purchases through SCPs are issues related to security (76%) and privacy (64.8%). For example, an ethical dilemma exists when a consumer expert product review video is actually a paid testimonial or sponsored content. As a result, many consumers hesitate to use services offered at SCPs because of their concerns regarding the level of information integrity and related privacy protections (which may be different at social media companies, than traditional e-commerce such as Amazon.com. For a decade, researchers have warned that consumer privacy and security concerns will impede e-commerce growth (e.g. Mekovec and Hutinski, 2012).
Notable publications regarding SCP's examine ethical consumption behavior (Gummerus et al., 2017) and the ethical environment of online communities (Hajli, 2018), while other researchers report a persistent lack of consumer trust in new commercial platforms (Nadeem et al., 2015, 2017). If consumer trust in SCPs wanes, consumers may delay or avoid purchasing, using SCP's and the proliferation of SCP commerce could be restrained. We see this as a problem as a reliance on vendor-hosted systems for purchasing, may reduce the breadth of pre-purchase information that consumers rely upon, thus encouraging sub-optimal purchasing and resource allocation. Our research questions, therefore, are “to what extent does consumer positive beliefs of shopping infrastructure privacy and security support platform trust, and does trust in the SCP shopping platform lead to consumer interest and use?”
The next section reviews the pertinent literature that informs this research. The following section presents the theory-informed research model, followed by a detailed justification for each hypothesis. The results are presented and discussed, followed by the theoretical and practical implications of our research model and findings.
2. Literature review
2.1 Social commerce as an extension of relationship marketing and e-commerce
Marketing research identifies the importance and helpfulness of online forums and communities, consumer ratings and reviews, consumer recommendations and referrals, social advertising and social applications and social shopping tools (Qiu and Benbasat, 2009; Constantinides et al., 2009; Parise and Guinan, 2008). We contend that SCPs are an evolution of relationship marketing made popular in the prior century (Berry, 1995; Sheth and Parvatiyar, 2000). While relationship marketing attempts to draw the consumer and vendor closer, the SCP evolution entails consumers flocking together into like-minded communities. While many SCPs are brand based and sponsored by specific vendors, others are independent groups such as the Corvette Club of America, Inc. on Facebook.com.
Consumers rely on the knowledge, experience and advice gained from other consumers and experts in social media groups. If the objective of relationship marketing is “establishing, maintaining and enhancing relationships with customers at a profit, so that the objectives of both parties are met” (Ravald and Grönroos, 1996), then vendor-hosted SCPs can be viewed as very successful implementations of relationship marketing. SCPs enable vendors to leverage consumer desire to congregate into self-formed, like-minded groups. While social networking platforms can be argued to have changed processes of social interaction for many individuals, SCPs are similarly changing processes of shopping for many target markets. This research examines SCP community member evaluations of their “new and improved” shopping experiences focusing on SCP platform evaluation and factors which influence purchase intention.
2.2 Technological advancements and ethical concerns at SCPs
Significant technological investments are being made at social networking websites (SNSs) to create SCP shopping experiences that convert visitors to buyers (Charnigo and Barnett-Ellis, 2013; Hajli et al., 2017a). Some SNSs provide commercial functionalities such as the addition of marketplace and shop now buttons at Facebook (FBNews, 2016); “buyable pins” for 60 million users at Pinterest; and “shoppable” posts at Instagram (Herman, 2017). Simultaneously, e-commerce websites (e.g. Nike.com) are linked with SNSs (e.g. Facebook.com) in order to encourage “one-click” purchasing. In other cases, SNSs are adding new shopping and engagement experiences tailored to different target markets supporting them throughout the product evaluation and consumption process.
It is natural for new shopping systems to be examined to ensure ethical standards are met. Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the concepts of right and wrong, fairness, virtue and vice, good and evil. Ethics provides a standard and forum for events to be judged and for individuals and organizations to be held accountable (Brinkmann, 2002; Cheng et al., 2014; Javalgi and Russell, 2015). Trust is a central concept for ethicist researchers (Limbu et al., 2012). E-commerce research regarding ethical concerns inherent in e-commerce, however, lags research into the technological changes of online platforms (Limbu et al., 2012; Roman, 2007; Sharma and Lijuan, 2014).
While vendors continue to face criticism about unethical seller behavior (Goolsby and Hunt, 1992; Javalgi and Russell, 2015), marketing-centric e-commerce research has examined important ethical issues such as consumer safety, information privacy, security and consumer recourse for dispute resolution (Bush et al., 2000; Maury and Kleiner, 2002; Milne and Culnan, 2004; Miyazaki and Fernandez, 2000; Singh and Hill, 2003; Stead and Gilbert, 2001; Javalgi and Russell, 2015). A current ethical concern regards the collection and data mining of consumer posts and clickstream data. Powerful data mining efforts enable paid advertising content to be pushed at consumers in an effort to manipulate them, narrowing their consideration set to focus on a branded product.
Consumer ethical concerns persist in emerging smartphone-based SCP's that are now deployed with an increasingly commercial focus (Hajli, 2018; Hajli and Lin, 2016). Ethical concerns are amplified in commercial settings where consumers and vendors interact digitally and engagement decisions are made with intangible decision criteria (Laczniak and Murphy, 2006; Featherman and Wells, 2010) and when data management capabilities enable vendors to herd consumers towards vendor preferred outcomes.
2.3 Consumer trust formation in e-commerce and the SCP setting
With millions of individual posters, and millions of postings daily, consumers cannot trust all of the content (Dwyer et al., 2007) displayed on online channels. Therefore, in a self-preservation effort, we expect consumers to often be skeptical of posted information. With financial transactions popping up in new social community settings, consumers require a sense of security to “make the leap of faith” and complete a purchase process in new shopping channels. Consumer trust formation (Kim and Park, 2013; Nadeem et al., 2015, 2017; Zhang and Benyoucef, 2016) in new SCP channels is recognized as an important phenomenon deserving of continued research.
Prior researchers identify important ethical concerns such as sales behavior, privacy, security, service recovery, reliability and deception (Cheng et al., 2014; Roman, 2007). Social commerce exposes consumers to danger such as fraudulent vendors and offers, identity thefts and unethical leaks and usage of consumer personally identifying information (PII). Ironically the aforementioned dangerous outcomes are in addition to the tacit consumer approval that all of their digital correspondence is being collected, tracked, analyzed and data mined; therefore, information privacy is waived. Consumers remain concerned however, that SCPs protect their personal information from third parties.
Consumers' trust is often a pre-requisite that facilitates electronic transactions (e.g. Grabner-Kräuter and Kaluscha, 2003; McCole et al., 2010). Trust is a belief that exchanges will be consistent with expectations (Ba and Pavlou, 2002). Consumer trust bonds sellers with consumers (e.g. Gefen et al., 2003), allowing consumer risk-taking behaviors and repeat purchases.
Consumers that lack trust in a social commerce platform (SCP) or branded SCP application are not likely to e-transact. Recently, Hajli et al. (2017b) reports that during pre-purchase shopping, consumers can experience many uncertainties when evaluating SCP content. A central reason for the uncertainty is that the majority of social commerce (SC) content is unverified user-generated opinion and product endorsements. When consumer ability to verify product information is limited or content is believed to be biased (e.g. sponsored testimonials), trust issues can arise. Trust is said to exist “in an uncertain and risky environment” (Bhattacharya et al., 1998, p. 61) and that “trust is embedded in uncertainty” (Hardin, 2002, p. 12). Given the intangible nature of SCPs transactions, consumer trust formation remains a pre-requisite to mitigate the effects of uncertainty and risk in online settings and buyer-seller relationships (e.g. Ha and Stoel, 2009).
Trust has been conceptualized as both a unidimensional and multi-dimensional construct (Gefen, 2002; McKnight et al., 2002). Aiken and Boush (2006) conceive of trust with the major dimensions credibility (beliefs that the exchange party is reliable) and benevolence (beliefs that exchange partners are motivated to seek a joint gain out of transacting). McKnight et al. (2002) provides a widely adopted conceptualization where trust encompasses the dimensions of benevolence, integrity and credibility.
2.3.1 Consumer privacy concerns
With the shift from social networking sites (SNS) product evaluation and review to SCP shopping, the technology platforms must evolve to include stronger privacy and security protections, prioritizing consumer protections. For example, consumer should be protected from misleading information (e.g. planted glowing consumer reviews). To provide evidence of current ethical concerns in e-commerce channels, we research consumer trust formation in social commerce communities. Privacy and security breaches of consumer (e.g. Cadwalladr and Graham-Harrison, 2018; Fung, 2018) such as at the top social networking site (Facebook) raised concern and doubt for some consumers, shaking beliefs that SCPs can be trusted.
An ethical dilemma exists regarding the usage of consumer clickstream data. While SCPs allow consumers to connect and communicate their opinions and ideas freely and conveniently, SCPs also allow providers to perform questionable practices, data mine consumer data to profile and segment consumers, direct marketing content to them, perform marketing research and even sell compiled consumer dossiers.
When required, the recorded PII can make consumers feel vulnerable and in different contexts cause consumers to hesitate to further share, engage and transact. Consumers face a tradeoff; they can enjoy free services (e.g. medical support groups) however high levels of personal and sensitive information disclosure can also cause concern (Mekovec and Hutinski, 2012). Some consumers may never trust that a SCP provider will protect their personal information.
2.3.2 Consumer security concerns
Security pertains to the logical, physical and procedural safeguards that enable transaction and PII data to be kept private. Security of PII is another consumer concern that inhibits information sharing on SCPs. With the addition of financial transaction settlement, the enticement for unethical behavior has multiplied Mekovec and Hutinski (2012) contend that privacy cannot be achieved without adequate security practices and security mechanisms cannot fully guarantee privacy protection.
As efficient, useful, ubiquitous and enjoyable as a handheld smartphone or tablet SCP shopping experience may be (as opposed to prior generations of consumers sitting upright at tabletop PCs), SCPs present a new playground for unethical hackers, merchants and data aggregators. While in the past, consumer sentiment and behavior were influenced by unethical postings in social media systems (e.g. self-serving vendor ratings or planted reviews). While a planted review may be easily detected when shopping at a commercial site, false information may be harder to discern in consumer communities.
Ethical transgressions are more likely to occur in online settings rather than in face-to-face transactions (Citera et al., 2005; Roman, 2007), causing some authors (e.g. Hajli et al., 2017a) to caution that the technological advancement of quick purchase functionality will not be the determining factor for the success of SCPs. Rather, Hajli et al. (2017a) contend that the success of SCPs will be determined by the ethical merging of social and shopping channels into themed communities where individuals can confidently interact, learn, shop and transact. This research adds to the measurement of consumer trust levels and the composite influences of information and financial privacy concerns and security concerns.
2.4 Encouraging SCP interest, involvement and engagement
Additionally, we examine how consumer trust influences consumer interest and to a broader extent their decision whether to e-transact with an SCPs shopping channel. Involvement is considered “a motivational variable that is presumed to affect persuasion because it instigates more thorough [cognitive] processing”. Consumers become involved with branded products and what they stand for when the product matches their values. A consumer actively engaging with SCP community members and community content is expressing their value-relevant involvement when they consume the SCP shopping information. More experienced community members (e.g. technicians, engineers, contractors) evaluate product categories, branded products.
Because “values are presumed to be aspects of the self that are especially important and enduring” (p. 290), we interpret consumer SCP engagement and commerce to be driven by consumers' ingrained value of community involvement, the value that community members draw from engaging over time with a SCP community and the connection to the values that the community stands for. Some examples are the values of adventure that off-road campers share and competition and grit expressed by members of an athletic community.
For example, an SCP consumer performing a pre-purchase evaluation by reading consumer generated content, is likely to be very involved in the e-shopping process. The engaged consumer may feel deeply involved with the community who provided useful shopping cues and facilitated product evaluation.
Cognitive Response Theory relatedly asserts that involvement increases consumer motivation to cognitively process information, due to consumers acting in their self-interest. Consumers that are shopping but not ready to purchase will demonstrate their interest by their enduring SCP engagement, over time reading and posting content. We next present our conceptual model and tests of the hypothesized relationships and processes.
3. Research model
Given the importance of social commerce as a market-changing paradigm shift, this study focuses on (1) the concerns consumers have regarding privacy and security assessments in an SCP (here Facebook brand fan pages), (2) consumer trust formation processes at a referent SCP and (3) consumer interest and engagement levels. The conceptual model organizing this research is presented in Figure 1 below.
3.1 Hypotheses development
This research examines consumer assessments of an SCPs security, privacy and trust and the influence of these concerns on consumer interest in online shopping via Facebook brand pages and to complete a product purchase vis the SCP. The research model is shown in Figure 1 and places focus on consumer interest (a measure of SCP involvement) for its ability to influence SCP actual usage and decisions to purchase via the SCP.
3.1.1 Effects of privacy and security beliefs on consumer trust
Security issues have traditionally been investigated in the marketing ethics literature (D'Arcy and Hovav, 2009; Roman, 2007) in fact, SNSs have been criticized because users at times lack trust in the site's security (Dwyer et al., 2007). Perceived security captures the degree to which individuals believe in the security of a particular social networking site (Yenisey et al., 2005). With rising concerns over a lack of security within SNSs (Acquisti and Gross, 2006) there is a continued need to measure SCP security beliefs. SNS user perceptions of security capture an individual's feeling of control over their data and processes when using a social networking site platform (Kim, 2008).
When consumers feel safe with a company or an online store, we expect them to purchase more often, in larger quantities and in effect relying on the vendor to provide a stream of benefits. Selnes (1998) reports that trust develops through safety, credibility and security. Recently, Shin (2010) asserts the importance of perceived security in the development of consumer trust. Traditionally, measures of consumer perceived security (Flavian and Guinaliu, 2006) include only technical aspects to measure consumer perceptions of security of a technology platform (e.g. authentication and confidentiality). The current study expands the measurement of consumer perceptions of security based on Shin (2010) who conceptualize perceived security as beliefs of the overall security and well-being of consumers.
Further, Linck et al. (2006) argues that consumer overall perceptions of security influences trust formation (Limbu et al., 2012; Roman, 2007), behavioral intentions and system use. Agag et al. (2016) also highlights that security tends to influence purchase intentions in the online retail context. Earlier studies have investigated the role of perceived security in mobile commerce (Hew et al., 2016), SNSs (Dwyer et al., 2007; Acquisti and Gross, 2006) however these studies are dated. Therefore, we hypothesize:
In the social commerce setting, privacy implications are determined by the level of identifiability of information, who will receive this information and how it will be used (Dwyer et al., 2007). Generally, privacy refers to understanding how personal information disclosed by the user will be received and further used, denoting the level of user control over personal information (Metzger, 2004). Shin (2010) contends that ensuring system users have control over the privacy of their information, will likely generate feelings of trust for the SNSs. Signals of privacy appreciated by SNS users include privacy seals and privacy statements (Kim et al., 2008; Palmer et al., 2000). Signals of privacy protections and enhancements to privacy systems can eventually lead to perceptions of trust (Shin, 2010).
Previous e-commerce research reveals that individuals are more likely to provide personal information if privacy seals are displayed and simplified privacy statements are utilized (Hoffman et al., 1999; Roman, 2007). Relatedly, we contend that the degree to which shoppers believe the SCP platform will protect their privacy and not misuse their personal information; shoppers will gain platform trust. Therefore, we hypothesize:
3.1.2 Effects of consumer trust on interest in SCP shopping
This research accepts the conceptualizations of trust recorded by Mayer et al. (1995) and Rousseau et al. (1998). Our research focuses on two primary components of trust first highlighted by Colquitt et al. (2007), positive expectations and intention to accept vulnerability. This research adopts Suh and Han's (2003) conceptualization where a transacting partner develops trusting beliefs when an individual can rely on the promise of the exchange partner and in case of any unforeseen issues, believe the exchange partner will act with goodwill. Furthermore, Alsajjan and Dennis (2010) assert trust to be crucial in influencing behavioral intentions towards new technologies.
Marketing research notes the role of trust to influence behavioral and purchase intentions (Nadeem et al., 2015, 2017). Consumers of one study reported higher intention to engage with a brand via their Facebook page (if it became available in the future) when message credibility was high, and an acceptable level of trust was assessed (Bianchi et al., 2017). If the branded SCP provides the utility to complete shopping goals (and therefore has outcome relevancy), then shoppers with higher trust levels should exhibit a higher motivation to process SCP purchase intentions; therefore, we hypothesize:
3.1.3 Effects of consumer interest in SCP shopping on purchase intentions and transactions
With so many apps and shopping channels available, which shopping platforms will hold consumer interest? Annie-Jin (2012) define interest as the “involvement expressed by consumer willingness to browse for information, follow brands and eventually purchase the items.” This research examines whether consumer trust in the SCP contributes to elevated consumer interest to engage and shop via the SCP channel and complete purchases.
The majority of content on SCPs is generated by other members, rather than vendor driven. With a wider variety of available unfiltered content, it is more likely that consumers will trust the information provided, as in aggregate the data is less biased. A wider array of perspectives and information produced by community members (rather than planted or sponsored by vendors), might encourage long-term enduring involvement and interest which is measured by SCP engagement and usage. Therefore, we hypothesize:
Moreover, if the branded SCP has value relevancy, then the community members with higher interest are believed to exhibit higher motivation to actually purchase via the SCP. Therefore, we hypothesize:
3.1.4 Effects of consumer SCP use on purchase decision-making
Chahal (2016) reports that nearly 31% of people that have purchased online use and browse Facebook (26%), Instagram (8%) and Pinterest (6%) before purchasing. Those engagement numbers are likely to have increased. Similarly, a survey conducted by the American Marketing Association indicates that of the individuals utilizing social media for pre-purchase information search and gift ideas, 29% report interest in purchasing the product via the social media (Horovitz, 2006). In addition, Cohn and Park (2007) report that social media not only allow consumers to shop effectively, by providing relevant information, but by also satisfying consumer hedonic needs. Some of the gratifications obtained by consumers while purchasing through SNSs include the desire for entertainment, desire for self-approval from peers and desire for self-expression through sharing and posting content (Cohn and Park, 2007) which enhances the use of such platforms. Hence, we contend that consumer usage of an SCP to read, post and share information encourages decisions to complete purchase transactions. Therefore, we hypothesize:
4. Methodology
We now present the utilized empirical research methodology. In general, a survey of current SCP users was performed, and the hypothesized relationships of the research model were tested with AMOS-based structural equation modeling.
4.1 Sample and data collection measures
Brands and e-retailers enjoy a strong channel presence via branded fanpages on SCPs such as Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. The current study examined the Meta SCP (formerly Facebook). While SCPs differ based on size, reputation, focus on either information dissemination or mutual interaction, privacy policies and the quantity and quality of peer generated content they all serve to connect branded products and branded shopping experiences with potential and existing consumers Kim and Park (2013). Results here may, therefore, generalize to other SCP platforms.
Following prior research (e.g. Hajli and Sims, 2015; Hajli et al., 2017b), data was collected from an online website and narrowed the respondents (based in the United States) to current Facebook users who frequent (follow) branded fan pages and e-retailers. The final count of respondents consisted of 141(35%) males and 264(65%) females.
4.2 Measurement instrument
Measurement scales were adopted from prior research, each utilizing seven-point Likert scales with the endpoints 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree. Following prior research, involvement was operationalized as interest, which “activates a heightened state of arousal with greater cognitive activity, and active information search and acquisition”. A scale for consumer interest were adapted from Annie-Jin (2012) and a scale of consumer trust was adapted from Lin and Lu (2011). A scale of perceived privacy was adapted from Buchanan et al. (2007) and Shin (2010), while a scale of perceived security was adapted from Yenisey et al. (2005) and Shin (2010). Finally, a scale of consumer's use of SCP and purchase intention was adapted from Nadeem et al. (2017).
4.3 Reliability and validity of the research variables and measurement model
Amos version 24 was employed to analyze the data and hypothesized relationships of the research model. The first step screened the data and removed incomplete, unengaged respondents resulting in n = 405 cases being retained (88% retention). Skewness and kurtosis checks verified the data as normally distributed as the values were within the ± 3 thresholds. The examination of the reliability and validity of the constructs was conducted utilizing confirmatory factor analysis tests (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Our study adapted constructs and items from established scales of consumer interest in online shopping through SCPs, including consumer trust, perceived security, perceived privacy, consumer use and consumer purchase intentions. Given the nature of these constructs, the utilization of confirmatory factor analysis was a logical choice. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) not only confirmed the factor structure but also identified items that were contributing to the poor fit of the measurement model. Through the removal of items with low loadings, one item from perceived privacy, one item from perceived security, and three items from consumer purchase intentions at SCP were eliminated. In an effort to maintain representativeness, our aim was to retain as many items as possible. As a result, a total of 20 out of 25 items were retained for further analysis. The figures of confirmatory factory analysis are given in Appendix 2. The set of retained items are presented in Table 1.
As suggested by Nunnaly (1978), the Cronbach's alpha scores for each variable were higher than the 0.70 recommended cut-off, therefore each scale was deemed to be reliable. Table 2 results also indicate that the goodness of fit of the overall measurement model is acceptable.
All the loadings were above 0.7 thus indicating convergent validity. In addition, as evidence of discriminant validity (Hu and Bentler, 1999), there were no strong cross-loadings, which is also evidenced by heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) analysis and thus discriminant validity has been established (Hu and Bentler, 1999) see, e.g. Table 3. Further, the correlation matrix shows that there were no loadings greater than 0.70. Additionally, Table 4 shows all average variance extracted (AVE) values were above the threshold of 0.5 and composite reliability (CR) values were above the 0.7 threshold (Table 4).
4.4 Checks for common method bias
Common method bias can occur when all the data is collected from the respondents at the same time. Therefore, to overcome the issue, the unconstrained factor model was compared with the fully constrained (zero factor) model and the chi-square difference test was significant. Therefore, it is stated that there was a lot of shared variance. In this regard, the factor scores were imputed, including the common latent factor in the model, which contains the common method bias corrected measures. Cook's distance was checked for identifying the outliers, and the factor scores were far below 0.1 (Cook, 1977). Moreover, multi-collinearity was not a problem as VIF were below 3 and tolerance values were greater than 0.1.
4.5 Hypotheses tests
To test each research hypotheses, the structural model was analyzed. Model results indicated that consumer interest in online shopping via SCP, behavioral intention to use and actual usage of SCP is explained through consumers' perceptions of security, privacy and trust of SCP. The hypothesis tests are given as follows (Tables 5 and 6):
4.6 Post-hoc mediation tests
On checking mediation, bootstrapping of specific indirect effects was run to identify unique indirect effects for every hypothesis where mediation is possible. It has been found that the relationship between consumers' trust of SCP and their behavioral intentions to use SCP is mediated by consumers' interest in SCP shopping via and this effect turned out to be the strongest amongst all. On the contrary, the relationship between consumers' trust of SCP and consumers' actual use of SCP is not mediated by consumers' interest in online shopping via SCP. Moreover, the following indirect effects were indicated (see Table 7).
4.7 Structural modeling results
Structural equation model results are presented in table five above. Furthermore, R2 values denote the percentage of variance explained, the predictive power of the hypothesized antecedents. Results indicate 24% of the variance in consumer trust; 22% of the variance in consumer interest; 51% of the variance in behavioral intention to use an SCP and 34% of the variance in actual SCP use was explained by the research model. Moreover, consumers' perceived security of SCP is found to contribute positively and significantly to consumers' trust of SCP (β = 0.344, p < 0.01) supporting H1. Further, consumer perceptions of privacy influenced consumer trust in SCPs (β = 0.177, p < 0.041), supporting H2. Consumer trust of SCPs positively and significantly impacted consumer interest in SCP shopping (β = 0.465, p < 0.01) giving support to H3. Moreover, consumer interest in SCP shopping impacted usage of the SCP (β = 0.709, p < 0.000) and purchase intent (β = 0.177, p < 0.166), supporting H4 and H5, respectively. Lastly, we have also found support for consumers SCP use with intent to purchase via the SCP (β = 0.452, p < 0.041).
Following prior research (e.g. McCole et al., 2010; Liébana-Cabanillas and Alonso-Dos-Santos, 2017) the research model isolated and controlled for the effects of age, gender and prior SCP experience on consumers' behavioral intentions to use an SCP and actual use. None of the control variables significantly influences decisions to use an SCP and actual usage.
5. Discussion
This research extends prior marketing research of retail e-shopping (Javalgi and Russell, 2015; Limbu et al., 2012; Nadeem et al., 2021b) by examining consumer concerns of transaction privacy and infrastructure security in new social commerce e-shopping platforms. With the purchase button (and therefore supply chain infrastructure) now wired into many SCPs, consumers are faced with the business practice of the recording of the entirety of their browsing, shopping cart and purchasing history being data mined and leveraged. When faceless technology platforms can easily suffer system failures, [1] consumers are more likely to consider the safety of the transaction app, therefore this research also examines consumer trust formation in the SCP channel. In support of prior research (Cheng et al., 2014; Dincelli and Goel, 2017; Wu et al., 2015) here, consumer beliefs of the SCP infrastructure being secure and providing information privacy contributed to higher levels of trust in them.
Not surprisingly, consumer interest drove SCP engagement (i.e. information reading, posting, sharing, etc.). Consumer interest was needed to drive commercial transactions onto formerly information sharing social media platforms. The importance of consumer interest in driving use and switch in purchasing activity from traditional e-commerce (e.g. Amazon.com) to new SCP (e.g. Facebook marketplace) is in line with previous studies (Hajli and Sims, 2015; Sheikh et al., 2017; Alam et al., 2020).
Results suggest that regular use of a SCP for information sharing is a pre-cursor to deciding to purchase using the same SCP rather than switch to a traditional e-commerce store that is commonly frequented (Nadeem et al., 2015, 2017; Ooi and Tan, 2016). Our results align with Sheikh et al. (2017) who reported that SCPs that are entertaining and enjoyable generate positive emotions that influence purchase intention. Here it is more likely that consumers will purchase using the SCP if it is habitually used for other activities.
6. Theoretical implications
The current study adds to prior marketing ethics and e-commerce literature (Javalgi and Russell, 2015; Hajli and Lin, 2016; Nadeem et al., 2021b) by providing a conceptual framework and empirical test of consumer technology adoption processes in the social commerce context. Recent studies identify the importance of continued research into consumer privacy concerns (Nikkah and Sabherwal, 2022; Venkatesh et al., 2022) trust formation, and related factors that influence channel participation (Yao and Xu, 2022; Hou et al., 2021). This study reaffirmed that consumer interest and engagement with online SCP shopping is in part based on the evaluation of shopping platform transaction and information privacy, transaction security and trust in using the platform. Here, consumers with stronger beliefs of the privacy, security and trustworthiness of an SCP also reported higher interest in SCP-based shopping. Secondly, consumer interest in the SCP platform supported consumer usage levels and, to a much less degree, purchase intent. While continued interest in SCP content moderately increases the likelihood of purchasing using the SCP, the important finding is that SCP interest drives continued SCP usage and engagement which is the path to higher purchase intent. The implication is that SCP providers should continue to provide engaging content to connect individuals to the SCP channel, with higher engagement eventually yielding purchase activity.
For the current sample and context only a small minority of consumers were willing to buy through the SCP channel. Rather the majority of the sample reported that they prefer to complete purchases at other platforms after researching them on SCP. Prior research similarly reports that four out of ten surveyed consumers prefer to complete the purchases at Amazon after seeing the product at Facebook (King, 2018).
6.1 Practical implications
The current study provides significant insights to social media and e-commerce platform designers and managers. We suggest that SCP business ventures should pay increased attention towards the privacy and security of consumer information posted on brand fan pages. Managers should understand that it is difficult to convert the “likes”, “shares”, “wows” and “hearts” into actual purchases if consumers' concerns are not addressed by prioritizing platform security. Consumer perceptions of privacy, security and trust based on continued investments in platform security can bring about positive change in consumer interest in online shopping and further use of SCPs as a primary shopping platform.
The research model suggests that to maintain consumer interest in SCPs significantly protections are needed to enable consumers to feel secure and at ease reading and posting comments about branded products and buying products and services without any negative emotions and harmful thoughts of unwanted privacy and security breaches. For example, a consumer that buys skin cream for a rare ailment, does not want to see this product category constantly advertised to them. We advocate for SCP practices that enable secure postings, encrypted financial transactions and frequent checks for compliance with posted privacy and data protection policies. Branded fan pages hosted on SCPs should make efforts to encourage information sharing and generate positive word of mouth that let the consumers freely talk about products/services and enhance trust in the products and the SCP shopping channel. The continued SCP posting and engagement strongly predict future adoption of SCP purchasing.
7. Future research
While the current study analyzed Facebook as a SCP, future research can survey users of other SCP channels such as Renren, QQ, VKontakte, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest. Future research can also utilize a range of diverse methodologies such as experimental studies, netnography (Malaska and Nadeem, 2012) longitudinal studies, cross-cultural studies and generational comparisons. Important ethical concerns persist in evolving e-marketplaces and include transaction security, information privacy, illegal activity (hacking and fraud), the truthfulness of information and honesty (Roman, 2007). Given the thriving context of social commerce, future research can examine consumer risk beliefs that measure whether negative consequences and personal losses (measured as perceived risks) are believed to be likely (Featherman and Hajli, 2016) and which personality traits influence ethical decision-making (Harrison et al., 2016; Alimamy and Nadeem, 2022).
8. Conclusion
E-commerce activity is transitioning from vendor-hosted transaction-oriented websites, to non-vendor social-oriented webpages where consumers can learn about products from each other and complete the purchase at the same social media site. As social media evolves to social commerce; platform security and privacy become important pre-cursors to enable consumer trust formation and interest in using a SCP for transaction settlement. Using an information sharing perspective, consumer interest fuels actual SCP engagement and use. SCP-based purchasing may be adopted slowly; however we predict that social commerce will eventually become more prevalent than vendor-based e-commerce.
This study was supported by National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) of Taiwan under The Einstein Program: Project Number NSTC 112-2636-H-008-005-.
Since submission of this article, the following author(s) have updated their affiliations: Nick Hajli is at the Loughborough Business School, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK.
Note1.https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/13/live-updates-ftx-collapse-house-lawmakers-hold-hearing-following-arrest-of-founder-sam-bankman-fried.html accessed 12-18-22.
Figure 1
Research model
[Figure omitted. See PDF]
Constructs and measurement itemsStandardized loading (t-value)Mean*SD*CAConsumer's interest in online shopping via SCP (Annie-Jin, 2012)*0.83I'm interested in utilizing Facebook to follow up brands' online updates0.76(std.)5.261.56I'm interested in utilizing Facebook to browse brands I like0.87(16.9)5.621.35I'm interested in utilizing Facebook for shopping products/items online0.72(14.3)5.431.43I'm interested in utilizing Facebook to refer to consumer reviews0.65(12.8)5.721.32Consumer's trust at SCP (Lin and Lu, 2011)*0.87Brand's Facebook fanpage enthusiastically address their member problems0.73(std.)4.931.38Brand's Facebook fanpage provide trustworthy information0.93(17.4)4.911.29In general, brand's Facebook fanpage are very trustworthy0.85(16.7)4.781.31Consumer's perceived security of SCP (Yenisey et al., 2005; Shin, 2010)*0.77I believe the information I provide with brand's Facebook fanpage will not be manipulated by inappropriate parties0.69(std.)3.794.00I am confident that the private information I provide with brand's Facebook fanpage will be secured0.91(12.3)1.601.60Consumer's perceived privacy of SCP (Buchanan et al., 2007; Shin, 2010)*0.81I am confident that I know all the parties who collect the information I provided during the use of brand's Facebook fanpage0.84(std.)3.131.63I am aware of the exact nature of information that will be collected during the use of brand's Facebook fanpage0.81(16.5)3.481.80I believe there is an effective mechanism to address any violation of the information I provide to brand's Facebook fanpage0.69(14.1)3.901.64Consumer's use of SCP (Nadeem et al., 2017)*0.81I will continue commenting on the posts of product/item on brand's Facebook fanpage0.67(std.)4.931.65I will continue tagging friends to a post on brand's Facebook fanpage for they may like it as well0.74(12.4)4.931.69I will continue sharing the posts of product/item on your wall at brand's Facebook fanpage0.86(13.5)4.601.76I will continue saving pictures to my computer from brand's Facebook fanpage showing it to others0.62(10.7)4.751.81Consumer's purchase intentions at SCP (Nadeem et al., 2017)*0.83I intend to continue using brand's Facebook fanpage for shopping in the future0.78(std.)5.171.28I will always try to use brand's Facebook fanpage in my daily life for purchase0.59(11.7)5.281.412I plan to continue to use brand's Facebook fanpage frequently for gathering information for my preferred products/items0.72(14.5)5.391.22To the extent possible, I would use brand's Facebook fanpage for shopping0.85(17.2)4.951.36Note(s): *Scales adapted from the mentioned authors and altered in the context of social commerce
SD = standard deviation; CA = Cronbach's alpha
Table 2Goodness of fit indexes
| SRMR | NFI | CFI | GFI | PClose | Chi-square | df | p-value | RMSEA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.050 | 0.913 | 0.948 | 0.918 | 0.058 | 360.770 | 158 | 0.000 | 0.057 |
Note(s): SRMR = standardized root mean square residual; NFI = normed fit index; CFI = comparative fit index; GFI = goodness of fit index; Df = degrees of freedom and RMSEA = root mean square error of approximation
Table 3HTMT analysis
| CUSE | CINST | TRUST | CBINT | PS | PP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CUSE | ||||||
| CINST | 0.494 | |||||
| TRUST | 0.392 | 0.471 | ||||
| CBINT | 0.595 | 0.695 | 0.475 | |||
| PS | 0.256 | 0.235 | 0.455 | 0.406 | ||
| PP | 0.367 | 0.338 | 0.452 | 0.428 | 0.765 |
Note(s): PS = consumers' perceived security of SCP; PP = consumers' perceived privacy of SCP; Trust = consumers' trust of SCP; CINST = consumers' interest in online shopping via SCP; CBINT = consumers' behavioral intention to use SCP and CUSE = consumers' actual use of SCP
Table 4Correlation matrix and model validity measures
| CR | AVE | MSV | MaxR(H) | CUSE | CINST | TRUST | CBINT | PS | PP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CUSE | 0.814 | 0.527 | 0.318 | 0.845 | 0.726 | |||||
| CINST | 0.840 | 0.571 | 0.469 | 0.863 | 0.468*** | 0.756 | ||||
| TRUST | 0.877 | 0.707 | 0.230 | 0.912 | 0.367*** | 0.421*** | 0.841 | |||
| CBINT | 0.829 | 0.552 | 0.469 | 0.854 | 0.564*** | 0.685*** | 0.480*** | 0.743 | ||
| PS | 0.783 | 0.648 | 0.505 | 0.844 | 0.273*** | 0.255*** | 0.456*** | 0.428*** | 0.805 | |
| PP | 0.823 | 0.610 | 0.505 | 0.836 | 0.346*** | 0.306*** | 0.424*** | 0.422*** | 0.710*** | 0.781 |
Note(s): CR = composite reliability; AVE = average variance extracted; MSV = maximum shared variance; MaxR(H) = maximal reliability; PS = consumers' perceived security of an SCP; PP = consumers' perceived privacy of an SCP; Trust = consumers' trust of an SCP; CINST = consumers' interest in online shopping via SCP; CBINT = consumers' behavioral intention to use an SCP and CUSE = consumers' actual use of an SCP
Table 5Path estimates
| Relationships | Hypotheses | Std. estimates | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perceived security → trust | H1 | 0.344 | 0.000 | Supported |
| Perceived privacy → trust | H2 | 0.177 | 0.041 | Supported |
| Trust → CINST | H3 | 0.465 | 0.000 | Supported |
| CINST → CUSE | H4 | 0.709 | 0.000 | Supported |
| CINST → CBINT | H5 | 0.166 | 0.000 | Supported |
| CUSE → CBINT | H6 | 0.452 | 0.000 | Supported |
| Age → CBINT | Control | −0.040 | 0.354 | |
| Experience → CBINT | Control | 0.0000 | 0.999 | |
| Gender → CBINT | Control | −0.034 | 0.431 | |
| Age → CUSE | Control | 0.070 | 0.140 | |
| Experience → CUSE | Control | 0.035 | 0.459 |
Note(s): PS = consumers' perceived security of an SCP; PP = consumers' perceived privacy of an SCP; Trust = consumers' trust of an SCP; CINST = consumers' interest in online shopping via SCP; CBINT = consumers' behavioral intention to use an SCP; CUSE = consumers' actual use of an SCP
Table 6Goodness of fit indices of causal model
| SRMR | NFI | CFI | GFI | AGFI | Chi-square | Df | p-value | RMSEA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.085 | 0.885 | 0.931 | 0.906 | 0.878 | 487.128 | 212 | 0.000 | 0.057 |
Note(s): SRMR = standardized root mean square residual; NFI = normed fit index; CFI = comparative fit index; GFI = goodness of fit index; AGFI = adjusted goodness of fit index; Df = degrees of freedom and RMSEA = root mean square error of approximation
Table 7Mediation tests
| Indirect path | Unstandardized estimate | Lower | Upper | p-value | Standardized estimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TRUST→CINST→CUSE | 0.383 | 0.287 | 0.496 | 0.001 | 0.330*** |
| TRUST→CINST→CBINT | 0.085 | 0.001 | 0.176 | 0.097 | 0.077† |
| CINST→CUSE→CBINT | 0.303 | 0.192 | 0.447 | 0.001 | 0.321*** |
Theoretical description and definitions of social commerce over the years
| Authors | Year | Theoretical descriptions and definitions of social commerce |
|---|---|---|
| Jascanu et al | (2007) | The combination of e-commerce and online social networks is referred to as social commerce |
| Kim and Srivastava | (2007) | E-commerce companies utilizing the web-based social communities that focus on the impact of social influence shaping interaction among consumers |
| Murugesan, Wigand et al | (2007, 2008) | Social commerce is an online mediated application that combines Web 2.0 technologies with interactive platforms such as social networking sites and content communities in commercial environment |
| Parise and Guinan | (2008) | A more creative, social and collaborative approach that is used in the online market places is referred to as social commerce |
| Wigand et al | (2008) | Social commerce refers to applications of social media that alter the business in a way that transform a market of goods and services into more socially centered and user driven marketplace |
| Constantinides et al | (2009) | Social commerce is the combination of social commerce and Web 2.0 |
| Dennis et al | (2009) | Word of mouth that can be applied to e-commerce |
| Kang and Park | (2009) | The possibility to relate and discuss about products, is new kind of e-commerce that is referred to as social commerce |
| Shen and Eder | (2009) | Social commerce is based on communication and information sharing |
| Marsden | (2010) | The psychology of social shopping where people within the networked community are influenced by salient information cues while shopping online |
| Afrasiabi Rad and Benyoucef | (2011) | Social commerce is a subset of e-commerce but with more interactive, personal and social relations approach |
| Zhong | (2012) | A process which facilitates through the interactions of users is social commerce |
| Huang and Benyoucef | (2013) | An Internet based commercial application that leverages Web 2.0 technologies and social media to support user generated content and social interaction that assists consumers in decisions making and acquisition of products and services within communities and online marketplaces |
| Yadav et al | (2013) | It refers to the exchange related activities, which are influenced by or occur in the individual's social network in computer-mediated social environments. Where in these activities correspond to the need recognition, pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase stages of a focal exchange |
| Hajli | (2014) | A new concept that enables customers to have an active space in cyberspace is referred to as social commerce. It is a development in e-commerce that incorporates the network of buyers and sellers and more commonly found in interactive and social forms of e-commerce |
| Gatautis and Medziausiene | (2014) | Social commerce is basically the deployment of social media tools in e-commerce |
| Hajli and Lin | (2015) | Social commerce has been evolved through e-commerce and is facilitated by new advances in Web 2.0 technologies |
| Nadeem | (2016) | An activity that harnesses Web 2.0 technologies/social media that supports sellers and buyers to interact, engage, collaborate, and create value that eventually leads to the intentions or actual decision making to shop for or acquire information about products and services |
| Hajli et al | (2017b) | The delivery of e-commerce activities and transactions via the social media environment, primarily through social networks and the use of Web 2.0 software refer to social commerce |
| Han et al | (2018) | Social commerce is a new electronic commerce (e-commerce) business model that uses Web 2.0 tools like social networking to assist business activities |
| Doha et al | (2019) | The use of Web 2.0 apps and social media to promote individual interactions on the Internet to assist customers' acquisition of products and services is known as social commerce |
| Bugshan and Attar | (2020) | Consumers, businesses, and other stakeholders collaborate to undertake different commercial activities and business interactions via social media, allowing for new methods to sharing online in social commerce settings |
| Jia et al | (2022) | Social commerce's main characteristic is that businesses use social networks to facilitate online product or service sales. It has converted e-commerce into a more sociable and engaged method of conducting business, due to the advent of Web 2.0 technology and social media |
| Liu et al | (2022) | Social commerce start-ups are companies that arrange and launch their operations on social media networks initially |
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