Effects of various characteristics of social commerce (s-commerce) on consumers’ trust and trust performance

Sanghyun Kim and Hyunsun Park

International Journal of Information Management, 2013, vol. 33, issue 2, 318-332

Abstract: The development of social networking sites (SNSs) has given rise to a new e-commerce paradigm called social commerce (s-commerce). S-commerce is a subset of e-commerce and uses SNSs for social interactions and user contributions to facilitate the online buying and selling of various products and services. Recent years have witnessed the rapid growth of s-commerce in Korea, but this growth has involved a number of transaction-related issues such as no delivery and the delivery of wrong items. In particular, consumers’ trust has become a crucial factor in the success of s-commerce firms, requiring these firms to make more effort to gain this trust. In this regard, this study identifies the key factors in s-commerce [reputation, size, information quality, transaction safety, communication, economic feasibility, and word-of-mouth (WOM) referrals], that is, the characteristics of s-commerce influencing Korean consumers’ trust in s-commerce. In addition, the study assesses the effects of trust on trust performance (purchase intentions and WOM intentions). The results of an empirical analysis based on a sample of 371s-commerce users indicate that all the characteristics of s-commerce (except for economic feasibility) had significant effects on trust and that trust had significant effects on purchase and WOM intentions. The results have important implications for s-commerce firms wishing to develop a successful business model for providing their customers with trustworthy services.

Keywords: Social commerce; Trust; Trust performance; Purchase intentions; Word-of-mouth intentions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (63)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ininma:v:33:y:2013:i:2:p:318-332

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2012.11.006

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