The effects of trust and platform innovation characteristics on consumer behaviors in social commerce: A social influence perspective

Social commerce is a relatively new e-commerce model that has the potential to drive consumption growth and promote flexible social employment. However, despite its potential benefits, studies have shown that customers still tend to more heavily rely on traditional e-commerce platforms than on social commerce. To fully understand why this is the case, it is essential to explore the diffusion mechanism that affects consumer behavior toward social commerce from a variety of different perspectives. Based on the diffusion of innovation (DoI) model and trust theory, our research model was built to reveal the influence of key characteristics (trust and platform innovation characteristics) and social influence on customers’ purchase intentions toward social commerce from different adoption stages. The data include 250 late majority users (using social commerce for less than one year), 340 early majority users (using social commerce for two years), and 417 early adopters (using social commerce for three years or more). The paper utilizes the PLS-SEM method. The results show that subjective norms and critical mass significantly affect social commerce behavior intention in all stages. The platform innovation characteristics (compatibility and relative advantage) positively affect social commerce adoption intention, while complexity has a negative effect in earlier stages. Furthermore, user features (trust) consistently and positively affect behavior intention in all stages. Finally, social influence partially mediates the effect of user characteristics (trust) on use intention at all stages. In conclusion, this paper expands the application of social influence in social commerce, developing the influence of the key characteristics (trust and platform innovation characteristics) of social commerce on behavior through empirical research.