Effects of social media on consumers’ purchase decisions: evidence from Taobao

Kee-Young Kwahk () and Byoungsoo Kim ()
Additional contact information
Kee-Young Kwahk: Kookmin University
Byoungsoo Kim: Yeungnam University

Service Business, 2017, vol. 11, issue 4, No 6, 803-829

Abstract: Abstract Given the rapid growth of social media, it is important to understand the effects of social media on consumers’ purchase decisions in the e-commerce environment. However, although some e-commerce sites have started to link themselves to social media to enhance user interactions, previous studies of social media and service management have shed little light on the effects of social media on consumers’ purchase decisions. This study proposes a theoretical research model that includes social media factors, social impact transfer factors, and e-commerce outcome factors. We posit social interaction ties and social media commitment as key elements of social media. An online questionnaire was conducted to test the research model and hypotheses based on survey data collected from Taobao, the largest e-commerce site in China. The analysis results indicate that social interaction ties have significant positive effects on social impact transfer factors and trust in online vendor, whereas they do not directly influence visit intention. Social media commitment plays a crucial role in increasing social impact transfer factors and e-commerce outcomes. The findings reveal the different effects of normative and informational social influences on consumer purchase decisions. Further implications are discussed.

Keywords: Social media; Taobao; Social impact theory; Informational social influence; Normative social influence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11628-016-0331-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:svcbiz:v:11:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1007_s11628-016-0331-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/business/journal/11628

DOI: 10.1007/s11628-016-0331-4

Access Statistics for this article

Service Business is currently edited by S.M. Lee and J. Millet Roig

More articles in Service Business from Springer, Pan-Pacific Business Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().