Social commerce is the latest development in e-commerce to combine the power of online social networking with shopping. While the adoption of information technology is well studied, new theoretical development is needed to account for the specific characteristics of social commerce applications and their interactions with the user. This study examines factors that are associated with user acceptance of social shopping websites, which are sites designed specifically to support social interactions while users shop. This paper augments the Technology Acceptance Model with constructs that enhance the specificity of the model to the social shopping application of social commerce, including social comparison, social engagement, enjoyment as well as perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. The model was empirically tested, and the results provided strong support. Implications and directions for future research are also discussed.
Technical career paths have been implemented in Information Systems (IS) departments to address the career development needs of employees whose career aspirations are not met by the traditional managerial career path. Understanding how to meet the needs of the technically oriented IS employee is important to IS career planning and development. Much has been written in both academic and popular literature about what composes a successful technical career path. Equity theory has been used in much of the existing research on technical career paths. This literature suggests that a successful technical career path should provide equitable rewards to those of a managerial career path. The present research establishes scales for four "key success factors" - equitable compensation, career path status, decision making influence, and career planning tool availability --- and examines the relationship of perceived equity of these factors to job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is relevant to an organization because it has been shown to be related to motivation to stay in an organization and organizational commitment. IS personnel on a technical career path were surveyed with regard to their equity perceptions and job satisfaction. Scales for the perception of equity for all four success factors were established. Data analysis showed that only the perception of equity of career planning tool availability is related to job satisfaction for these employees. Implications for management and areas for further research are discussed.
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