Trust development and transfer in social commerce: prior experience as moderator
| Date | 10 August 2015 |
| Pages | 1182-1203 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-01-2015-0019 |
| Published date | 10 August 2015 |
| Author | Si Shi,Wing S. Chow |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems |
Trust development and transfer
in social commerce: prior
experience as moderator
Si Shi
School of Business Administration,
Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China, and
Wing S. Chow
Department of Finance and Decision Sciences,
Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of social commerce trust, and how it
impacts company trust and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) intention based on trust transfer theory.
The authors also examine how customers’prior transaction experience could impact their social
commerce trust development and the trust transfer process.
Design/methodology/approach –The proposed research model is empirically examined using a
survey method consisting of 375 users of a social commerce web site (SCW). The statistical analysis
applies a method based on variance using partial least squares.
Findings –The results confirm positive impacts of social commerce trust on company trust, and their
subsequent influences on consumers’eWOM intention. Also, consumers’prior experience is found to
moderate the trust transfer process from information-based social commerce trust to company trust.
Originality/value –The present study is one of the first few studies that attempts to explain
trust development and transfer with SCWs with a theoretical foundation as well as examine the role of
consumers’prior experience during trust transfer. It provides practical guidance for the improvement
of trust and eWOM in social commerce.
Keywords Trust, Electronic word of mouth, Social commerce, Social networking sites,
Trust transfer
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Social commerce represents a new form of doing online business which is mediated by
social media. Companies are increasingly exploring the potential of the social commerce
web site (SCW) to transmit their promotional information to customers and improve
brand awareness using electronic word of mouth (eWOM) principles (de Vries et al.,
2012). The social interactions and information exchanging in SCWs are recognized as
rich sources to create eWOM marketing effects ( Jansen et al., 2009). Customers can
make better-informed purchasing decisions by viewing the opinions, experiences, and
product-related information shared by others in SCWs. On the other hand, companies
can also improve business performance by attracting potential customers through
positive recommendations by existing consumers (Stephen and Toubia, 2010). Prior
studies point out that trust in the online environment is a crucial anteceden t of
consumers’intention to spread eWOM (Gummerus et al., 2012). Zheng et al. (2013) also
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 115 No. 7, 2015
pp. 1182-1203
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-01-2015-0019
Received 21 January 2015
Revised 16 April 2015
29 May 2015
13 June 2015
Accepted 13 June 2015
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
The work described in this study was supported by the Education Department of Sichuan
Province “Innovative Research Team for Consumer Behaviour Study”(No. 15TD0045).
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IMDS
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indicate that trust should be enhanced in business-centered social networking
communities in order to encourage more helpful WOM communications.
Extant literature investigating trust in onlinebusiness environments mainly focusses
on consumer trust in e-commerce (e.g. Palvia, 2009). However, with the growing
popularity of social commerce, more attention should be paid on how trust develops in
such a highly interactive online business environment. Unlike e-commerce web sites
which mainly focus on direct online transactions, SCWs emphasize on socialinteractions
which produce business opportunities. In e-commerce, consumer trust has been mainly
measured by the trustworthiness of companies (e.g. integrity, competence, benevolence)
(McKnight et al., 2002). Consumers may evaluate the trustworthiness of companies in
e-commercethrough direct online shopping experiences. However, in the socialcommerce
context, many consumers are in an attempt to gather more product-related information
before they actually buy from the company (Yadav et al., 2013). Specifically, customers
can derive product-related information from the company as well as from other
customers in SCWs. In such cases, trust is important for customers to evaluate the
quality of information from various sources, and serves as a foundation for their sharing
of information with others. Thus, understanding the nature of trust in social commerce
context has significant meanings for understanding consumer information sharing
behaviors and improving online marketing effectiveness. In addition, according to trust
transfer theory (Ng, 2013), it is expected that consumer trust in SCWs would be
transferred to their related sources. In this manner, a customer’strustinacompany’s
SCW could be transferred to their trust in the company. Given that companies using
SCWs are eager to convert online fans into real brand advocates (Kaplan and Haenlein,
2010), it is important to understand how consumer trust developed in social commerce
context may influence their actual trust in companies.
In addition, previous studies argue that particular contextual conditions would
impact how trust operates (Mayer et al., 1995). For example, customers’prior experience
with the company may impact their social commerce trust and also impact how social
commerce trust transfers to company trust. However, in social commerce context, the
understanding of how the trust development and transfer process is affected by
customers’conditions is still limited. As a step toward bridging the above gaps, this
study aims to propose a theory-based model to investigate how consumer trust
develops in the social commerce context, and how such trust impacts consumer trust in
companies and their eWOM intentions. Our model also considers customers’conditions
by examining the moderating effect of their prior experience on the relationship
between social commerce trust and company trust.
The rest of thispaper is organized as follows.First, we review prior literatureon social
commerce and trust. Second, we propose our research model and draw hypotheses.
Next, we describe the research methodology and present the result findings. Finally,
we discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the studies and directions for
future research.
2. Literature review
2.1 The SCW
With the increasinglypopularity of social networkingsites (SNS), businesses are actively
exploring the potentials of such technologies for doing commerce. Social commerce has
emerged as thelatest innovation of doing onlinebusiness by combining the power ofSNS
with e-commerce (Shen, 2012). Traditional e-commerce tends to pay much attention on
improving the effectiveness of online shopping by providing superior features such as
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