Social Support, Source Credibility, Social Influence, and Impulsive Purchase Behavior in Social Commerce

ABSTRACT

Social commerce (s-commerce)—the use of social media to support electronic commerce—has become pervasive. This paper aims to investigate an important type of consumer behaviour that could generate considerable economic value: impulsive purchase behaviour. Specifically, we focus on the role of peer influence. Social influence theory posits that the process via which peers change a consumer’s behaviour can be interpreted along two dimensions: informational and normative. Furthermore, drawing from literature, source credibility and social support are proposed as the antecedent factors of the influencing processes in this context. We surveyed 303 s-commerce participants in Sina Weibo to empirically test the research model. The results indicate that peers’ expertise and trustworthiness are significantly related to both types of social influence that could exert an influence on a consumer. Further, consumers’ exchange of informational and emotional social support significantly facilitates social influence among them. This study contributes to both the s-commerce and the impulsive purchase literature by revealing the role of peer influence in consumers’ impulsive consumption behaviour in the s-commerce setting. The practical implications are also illustrated in the paper.

KEY WORDS AND PHRASES:

• Impulsive purchase
• peer influence
• social commerce
• social influence
• social support

Acknowledgments

This work is supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71801069) and the National Social Science Foundation of China (18VSJ017).

Notes

¹ Sina Tech. The number of monthly active weibo users reached 446 million. 2018; Available from: https://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2018-11-28/doc-ihmutuec4489108.shtml.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xi Hu

XI HU ([email protected]) is an assistant professor in the School of International Economics and Trade at Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, China. She obtained a Ph.D. from University of Science and Technology of China and City University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on social commerce and risk management. She has published in International Journal of Information Management, Weather, Climate and Society, Human and Ecological Risk Assessment, and other venues.

Xiayu Chen

XIAYU CHEN ([email protected]; corresponding author) is an instructor in the School of Management at the Hefei University of Technology, China. She obtained a Ph.D. from University of Science and Technology of China and City University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on the electronic commerce and social media. She has published papers in such journals as International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Information Systems Journal, Journal of Information Technology, International Journal of Information Management, and Computers in Human Behavior.

Robert M. Davison

Robert M. Davison ([email protected]) is a professor of information systems at the City University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on the use and misuse of information systems, especially with respect to problem solving, guanxi formation, and knowledge management, in Chinese organisations. He seeks to promote both an inclusive and a local perspective to research. Dr. Davison has published more than 200 articles in a variety of journals such as MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Journal, Information Technology and People, Journal of Information Technology, Journal of the AIS, and Communications of the ACM. He chairs the IFIP WG 9.4 (Social Implications of Computing in Developing Countries) and is the editor-in-chief of Information Systems Journal and Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries.