Antecedents and consequences of trust in online product recommendations. An empirical study in social shopping
| Published date | 30 November 2010 |
| Pages | 935-953 |
| Date | 30 November 2010 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521011099414 |
| Author | Kuo‐Lun Hsiao,Judy Chuan‐Chuan Lin,Xiang‐Ying Wang,Hsi‐Peng Lu,Hueiju Yu |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Antecedents and consequences of
trust in online product
recommendations
An empirical study in social shopping
Kuo-Lun Hsiao
Department of Information Management, Shu-Te University,
Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Republic of China
Judy Chuan-Chuan Lin
Department of Computer Science and Information Management,
Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
Xiang-Ying Wang and Hsi-Peng Lu
Department of Information Management,
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan,
Republic of China, and
Hueiju Yu
Department of Business Administration, Chinese Culture University,
Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to improve understanding of the reasons why people trust the
information about product recommendations on social shopping networks of websites, a new
e-commerce method which combines social networking and shopping, and to investigate the impact of
the trust on the consumers’ intention to purchase products from the online shop of a website.
Design/methodology/approach – An online survey instrument was developed to gather data, and
1,219 questionnaires were used to test the relationships in the proposed model.
Findings – The results indicated that perceived ability, perceived benevolence/integrity, perceived
critical mass, and trust in a website were four important antecedents of trust in product
recommendation in a social networking site. In addition trust in product recommendations can
influence the consumers’ intention to purchase from the website through increasing their intention to
purchase the products.
Research limitations/implications – The research model demonstrated the importance of trust in
product recommendations to online consumers’ transaction intention.
Practical implications – The results of the study showed that trust in product recommendations
will influence consumers’ purchase intentions. Therefore a social shopping website or the websites
transforming into social shopping websites should put more emphasis on ways to establish the virtual
communities or social networks which can provide the information about product recommendations
that consumers trust.
Originality/value – The study provides a comprehensive framework of the antecedents and effects
of consumers’ trust in recommendations in the context of social shopping.
Keywords Shopping, Socialinteraction, Trust, Internet, Shopping
Paper type Research paper
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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Antecedents and
consequences
935
Refereed article received
18 August 2009
Approved for publication
14 March 2010
Online Information Review
Vol. 34 No. 6, 2010
pp. 935-953
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/14684521011099414
Introduction
With the change of consumer shopping behaviour and the popularity of social network
services, a new type of e-commerce called “social shopping” is emerging. This
e-commerce method which combines social networking and shopping can satisfy the
needs for searching information before shopping and sharing personal experiences
online after use (Stampino, 2007; The New York Times, 2006; Wikipedia, 2009). Unlike
many online shops that display products for sale, a few social shopping sites, such as
ThisNext and Kaboodle, provide blogs or virtual communities for users to share
shopping ideas, exchange opinions on specific products and recommend their
favourites. For consumers these opinions or recommendations can help them find new
product information of interest to them and assist them in making shopping decisions.
In addition it has been found that people are more likely to trust the information
provided by other shoppers like themselves more than that provided by companies
(eMarketer, 2008a). Therefore through consumers’ trust in the opinions or
recommendations shared by other shoppers, websites may increase their sales volume.
Recently trust has been studied as an important factor in e-commerce (Hoffman et al.,
1999; Noteberg et al., 1999), and it was found that most consumers use trusted websites
when purchasing online (Yahoo! Inc., 2006). Kim et al. (2008) found that customers’
intention to purchase products online was also influenced by trust in the web vendor.
For this reason online merchants continuously improve website quality and update
website services to enhance buyers’ trust. Moreover because of the trend of exchanging
shopping experiences online, online merchants are adding functions for customers to
review and rate the products in their online stores. According to a survey by Internet
Retailer in 2008, 36.7 percent of online merchants planned to include this service in
their websites by the end of 2008, as the third priority in expected new functions
(Brohan, 2009). This indicates that online merchants hope to drive more traffic and
sales not only by the function of multimedia but also by the service of peer-to-peer
recommendations.
However, although consumers’ trust in other shoppers’ recommendations on the
websites may affect consumers’ online purchase decisions, few studies have examined
which factors influence their trust in the information about product recommendations.
This issue is important since the phenomenon of social shopping is rising and online
shoppers are becoming accustomed to sharing their detailed observations as well as
personal opinions on a specific product. Accordingly the reasons why people trust the
recommendations on social shopping networks which other consumers provide merit
further investigation. In addition to trust in recommendations, trust in websites is
another important factor influencing online shopping behaviours (Wu and Chang,
2006). Hence this study attempts to examine the interrelationship between trust in
recommendations and trust in websites, and also investigate the impact of each kind of
trust on the intention to purchase products from a website.
Social shopping applications
Owing to the rise of social shopping, online shops/auction managers are developing
social shopping functions or launching social shopping networks on their websites.
Social shopping networks entail “creating places where people can collaborate online,
get advice from trusted individuals, find goods and services and then purchase them”
(Rubel, 2005). Other people’s advice or recommendations about products play an
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