Consumer intentions to engage in s-commerce: a cross-national study

ABSTRACT

Social media has reached global proportions; yet, little is known about how consumers engage with firms in ways that lead to social commerce (s-commerce) – an emerging area of importance in the literature. This study addresses this gap and extends previous research by examining factors that influence consumers’ intentions to engage in s-commerce in four countries: Chile, Spain, South Africa and Australia. Specifically, this study develops and tests a model of consumers’ intentions to engage in s-commerce through brands’ Facebook pages incorporating personal variables (involvement in brands’ products and services, satisfaction with brands’ Facebook page), trust variables (message credibility of Facebook posts, trust in firms’ Facebook) and social variables (peer communication, social media dependency, online social interaction propensity) on predicting intentions to purchase products and services through brands’ Facebook pages if s-commerce was available to them. The findings show that the main drivers of s-commerce engagement are message credibility, trust in the brands’ Facebook, involvement, peer communication and online social interaction propensity, as influencers of consumer satisfaction with brands’ Facebook and social media dependency, which in turn drive intentions to engage in s-commerce. Contributing to theory and practice, these relationships are discussed for the four countries involved in the study.

KEYWORDS:

• Social commerce
• social media
• s-commerce
• Facebook
• consumer behaviour

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Andres Cuneo at Esade School of Business for his help with data collection in Spain.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

We acknowledge the support from Millennium Nucleus in Entrepreneurial Strategy Under Uncertainty [NS130028].

Notes on contributors

Constanza Bianchi

Constanza Bianchi has a PhD in Management and MSc. in Marketing from Queen’s University, Canada. Constanza is currently Professor of Marketing at Universidad Adolfo Ibanez, Chile and Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Her research interests focus on international marketing, international services, tourism, technology, and branding. Constanza´s research has appeared in a range of journals including the Journal of Business Research, International Marketing Review, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism marketing, among others.

Lynda Andrews

Lynda Andrews has a PhD in Marketing (Queensland University, Australia). Lynda is Senior Lecturer in Marketing, specialising in consumer behaviour and technology, at the School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Her research interests focus on technology in marketing and consumer behavior. Lynda´s research has appeared in a range of journals including the Journal of Business Research, International Marketing Review, Journal of Marketing Management, and European Journal of Marketing, among others.

Melanie Wiese

Melanie Wiese has a PhD in Marketing (University of Pretoria, South Africa). Melanie is an Associate Professor in the field of Marketing Management at the University of Pretoria (UP). She is currently employed as a professor in the Economic and Management Sciences faculty of UP. Her research interests focus on shopping and consumer behavior. Melanie´s research has appeared in a range of journals including Southern African Business Review, African Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Consumer Sciences, African Journal of Business Management, and South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences, among others.

Syed Fazal-E-Hasan

Syed Fazal-E-Hasan has a PhD in Marketing (School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations, Queensland University of Technology, Australia). Syed is a Lecturer in Marketing, specialising in consumer behaviour, at the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics and has over 10 years' experience in quantitative research and teaching.  His research skill-set covers linear and non-linear, parabolic, periodic and exponential relationships using multiple statistical techniques.  His present and future research agenda focuses on research pertaining to consumer emotional and cognitive responses in different contexts such as B2C, B2B and C2C.