How Attachment and Community Identification Affect User Stickiness in Social Commerce: A Consumer Engagement Experience Perspective

Xian Gao (), Choy-Leong Yee and Wei-Chong Choo
Additional contact information
Xian Gao: School of Business and Economics, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Malaysia
Choy-Leong Yee: School of Business and Economics, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Malaysia
Wei-Chong Choo: School of Business and Economics, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Malaysia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 20, 1-16

Abstract: Social commerce (s-commerce) is a rapidly developing form of e-commerce powered by social media influencers (SMIs). It can create valuable opportunities for retailers. In light of this growing trend, this study explores the influence of consumers’ engagement experiences (social support and presence) on community identification and consumers’ attachment to SMIs, along with their impact on consumers’ stickiness in the s-commerce context. We explore this through social presence and social support theory. The survey data from 411 s-commerce users via an online questionnaire were analyzed empirically with the PLS-SEM approach. The results indicated that presence and social support have significantly positive impacts on consumers’ attachment to SMIs and community identification, respectively. This increases users’ stickiness in s-commerce. This study enriches our understanding of user stickiness in s-commerce and can assist online vendors in developing marketing strategies and cultivating sustained relationships with their users.

Keywords: s-commerce; user stickiness; consumers’ engagement experience; attachment to social media influencers; community identification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/20/13633/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/20/13633/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:20:p:13633-:d:949177

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().