Impact of social support and presence on swift guanxi and trust in social commerce

Abstract

Purpose Swift guanxi and trust can influence consumers’ decision making in social commerce. What factors will influence the formation of swift guanxi and trust between buyers and sellers in social commerce has not been clearly investigated. The purpose of this paper is to identify antecedents and impacts of swift guanxi and trust in social commerce. Design/methodology/approach An online questionnaire was used to collect the data, and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling was employed for data analysis. Social support and presence are introduced as the antecedents for swift guanxi and trust, leading to the repurchase intention (RI) and social sharing intention of customers. Findings The results indicate that social support and presence can influence swift guanxi and trust. Social support and presence are positively associated with swift guanxi and trust which further lead to RI and social sharing intention. Practical implications The findings can be used to guide sellers in social commerce platforms to improve their services and make good use of platform features to improve customers’ perception of presence. To attract new customers and retain old customers, sellers should also build swift guanxi and trust through the recommendation and experience sharing of previous buyers on social media. Originality/value This study combines social support theory and presence theory to investigate the factors that influence customers’ purchase decision and social sharing intention in the context of social commerce in China. The integration of social support theory and presence theory explains both the social and technical factors that influence swift guanxi and trust in social commerce.

A Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Model for Understanding Social Commerce Adoption

“…Social support theory (SST) examines ways in which social network characteristics influence an individual's ability to manage life events (Fan et al, 2019;Maier et al, 2015). Social support is a psychological term (Lee & Chen, 2020), defined as "the social resources that persons perceive to be available or that are actually provided to them by nonprofessionals in the context of both formal support groups and information helping relationships" (Gottlieb & Bergen, 2010;p.…”

“…Within the s-commerce environment, intangible social support plays an important role in purchasing intention and enhancing relationships (Rashid et al, 2020;Sheikh et al, 2019). Several studies have applied SST to explore individual's behavior in the context of scommerce (Attar et al, 2020;Chen & Shen, 2015;Fan et al, 2019;Hajli, 2014;Hajli & Sims, 2015;Leong et al, 2020;Lin et al, 2018). Other studies found that informational and emotional support influence consumer behavior (Bhat & Singh, 2018;Lal, 2017;Makmor et al, 2018;Molinillo et al, 2018).…”

The Effects of Social Support, Trust and Social Presence on Social Commerce Intention: A Meta-Analysis

“…As it would be understood from these components, emotional support may pave the way for formation of interactions of consumers with other group members by directly increasing the warmth in their heart (Lin et al, 2015). With this interaction, the existing concerns of the consumer in the purchasing process are revealed, and the indirect emotional support provided by their peers (Leong et al, 2020) may be useful in purchasing decisions (Fan et al, 2019). Informational support rather consists of practical and useful support including advice, guidance, comments and recommendations provided to consumers by their peers (Hajli et al, 2015b;.…”

“…With development of the Web 2.0 technology and the emergence and prevalence of social media in connection to this, the use of social commerce has increased and become popular (Fan et al, 2019). The use of social media platforms like especially WeChat, Instagram and Facebook in social commerce is highly prevalent.…”

“…The platforms have provided significant contributions by transforming interactions, information accessibility and shopping experiences in e-commerce (Bugshan & Attar, 2020;Hajli, 2015;Leung et al, 2019). This is because, while conventional e-commerce practices are more sale-oriented, social commerce platforms are more focused on social interaction and users (Fan et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2014). Therefore, they may allow consumers to make a healthier decision by facilitating their interactions with other consumers who have purchased a similar product.…”