The role of senses on purchase intention in social commerce
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-12-2020-0387 |
| Published date | 31 May 2022 |
| Date | 31 May 2022 |
| Pages | 44-67 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management |
| Author | Jao-Hong Cheng,Li-Wei Lin |
The role of senses on purchase
intention in social commerce
Jao-Hong Cheng
Department of Information Management,
National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Douliu, Taiwan, and
Li-Wei Lin
College of Business Administration, Fujian Jiangxia University, Fuzhou, China
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to examine how situational factors with social support affecting purchase
intention in social commerce (SC). In Taiwan’s SC, the relationship between trust belief and purchase intention
has always been a key issue.
Design/methodology/approach –This study presents a research model that comprises five hypothesis
with five constructs, including situational factors, social support, senses, trust belief and purchase intention.
The model is tested on data collected from 532 valid samples in Taiwan, using structural equation modeling.
The results show that, in order of importance, control senses and raise mediation trust belief reach the better
purchase intention.
Findings –The findings of the study provide practical insights in understanding how seller should notice
consumer’s trust belief, in order to enhance purchase intention for the SC as a whole.
Originality/value –Much existing consumer behavior research is focused on decision making rather than
the trust belief themselves. Accordingly, analyzing how senses influence trust belief and purchase intention is
an important issue in SC.
Keywords Situational factors, Social support, Senses, Trust belief, Purchase intention, Social commerce
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Purchase intention constitutes a key factor in establishing and sustaining successful social
commerce (SC).SC is an emerging form of marketingin which business is conductedvia social
networkingplatforms.In particular, purchaseintention is criticalfor the survival and successof
any SC store. SC uses friendships on social networking platforms, such as Facebook and
Twitter, as the vehicle for sharing products or sellers to induce interest, thereby increasing
purchase intention. According to the Theory of Planned Behavior, intentions are the most
influential predictor of behavior that plays an increasingly important role in influencing
consumers’purchase intentions.Further, SC represents a considerableextension of traditional
e-commerceand brings significantbenefits to both businessesand society. Thus, the field ofSC
is believed to be “oneof the most challenging researchareas in the coming decade”(Liangand
Turban, 2011).In recent years, the increasing popularity of social networkinghas opened up a
new era of electronic commerce, called SC, which changed the way we think about online
shopping. By the end of 2018, worldwide e-commerce sales were expected to surpass $2.8
trillion. SCpromotes online transactionswith the support of a large networkof online peers in
assistingproduct/servicemarketing (Liang and Turban,2011). Ultimately, it is believedto have
a huge potentialin becoming a significant revenuegenerator for businessesin the near future.
According to a recentreport by HnyB (Insights, 2012),the global SC revenue will consistently
grow, and the market isexpected to reach 80 billion US dollars by 2020.
AJIM
75,1
44
This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan, ROC, under
contract Most 110-2410-H-224 -006.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2050-3806.htm
Received 4 December 2020
Revised 30 March 2022
Accepted 23 April 2022
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 75 No. 1, 2023
pp. 44-67
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-12-2020-0387
Consumer senses constitute a key factor in achieving the advantages of purchase
intention through community websites. Meanwhile, purchase intention is also one of the most
important factors in SC, particularly in the expense process. Previous studies have found that
perceived price fairness directly affects consumers’purchase intentions (Kahneman et al.,
1986). It has been empirically proven that SC constructs influence trust, which results in a
significant intention to buy (Nick, 2015). Research has also shown that trust is indeed a
challenging subject in e-commerce (Gefen et al., 2000). In addition, it facilitates the acquisition
of products through supporting users’interactions and contributions (Liang and Turban,
2011). Further, business activities conducted through social media are called SC or social
shopping (Liang et al., 2011). SC is a new expansion of e-commerce (Stephen and Toubia,
2010), and some empirical studies have already compared the relationships between SC and
e-commerce (Huang and Benyoucef, 2013). Research on this important issue has focused on
identifying the effects of affect and cognition (Lazaris et al., 2022), online reviews, food
pictures, perception of trust (Park et al., 2021), return policies, tariff refunds, perceived quality,
perceived risks (Shao et al., 2021), functional value, emotional value (Lin et al., 2020), trust
(Zhao et al., 2020), community experiences, community commitment, brand attitudes
(Wang et al., 2019), perceived value or time pressure (Peng et al., 2019), perceived usefulness,
perceived enjoyment, trust toward community (Fu et al., 2018), performance expectancy,
hedonic motivation, interactivity, informativeness, perceived relevance (Alalwan, 2018),
content gratification, social-relation gratification, self-presentation gratification, customer
resonance (Shang et al., 2017), cognitive appraisals, affective appraisals (Chen et al., 2017),
flow experience (Hu et al., 2016), perceived utilitarian value and perceived social value
(Liu et al., 2016) as shown in Table 1. To date, there has been little research attention paid to
the phenomenon of purchase intention in SC with new social features, such as social media
and social business behaviors. Given the lack of knowledge of these emerging commerce
technologies in social media, it may be presumptuous to apply previous findings concerning
e-commerce to SC. Therefore, additional research efforts are needed to analyze and evaluate
SC theoretically and empirically to advance our understanding of this important and
expanding form of e-commerce.
Social factors like social support, distrust toward promoters and distrust toward the
product confirm the effect of the factors on purchase intention (Bai et al., 2015). According to
the social support theory, in the SC environment, social support can be evaluated based on
three aspects: user support, user-generated content support and platform support. User
support refers to the relationships among users in SC. Previous research has indicated that
the quality of user relationships has a significant influence on product purchase intention
(Liang et al., 2011;Palmatier et al., 2006). Consistent with the current study, Wang et al. (2012)
reported a significant relationship between purchase intention and situational factors.
Furthermore, experiential marketing focuses on customer experiences. While early
consumers focused on a product’s appearance, consumers now value the satisfaction and
experience of consumption. Schmitt and Klaus (2011) also emphasize that people no longer
focus merely on product function and efficiency. Instead, they focus on customer experience
and consumption scenarios. Online experience simulation purchases will make consumers
feel like shopping in a physical store. This kind of online observation is an important concept
in experiential marketing. In addition, the online experience also includes online customer
service through online attendants –an interaction with consumers that helps achieve trust
communication in consumers’online experience. Furthermore, experiences provide sensory,
emotional, cognitive, behavioral and relational values that replace functional values. Hence,
the customer experience is essentially holistic. They are consumed as a series of integrated
activities from pre-purchase to post–purchase. Then, these customer experiences are
converted into a continuous buying belief, which is ultimately converted into consumer trust
in the business so that a series of purchasing processes belong to the marketing experience.
Role of senses
on purchase
intention
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