Impacts of user interactions on trust development in C2C social commerce: The central role of reciprocity
ISSN: 1066-2243
Article publication date: 14 August 2019
Issue publication date: 3 February 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of two types of reciprocity (restricted reciprocity and generalized reciprocity) on customers’ trust in social commerce (s-commerce) and trust performance (purchase intention and word-of-mouth intention). Furthermore, this study examines how individual and contextual moderators (personal shopping experience and community shared language) could impact the trust development process.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a survey method and obtained data from 287 users in a customer-to-customer (C2C) s-commerce platform. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the research hypotheses.
Findings
The results demonstrate that two types of reciprocity positively affect trust in s-commerce. Customers’ trust performance is significantly affected by trust in s-commerce. Additionally, shopping experience in s-commerce is found to positively moderate the relationship between restricted reciprocity and trust in s-commerce.
Research limitations/implications
The findings help to understand the nature and role of reciprocity in influencing trust and trust-related behaviors in the context of C2C s-commerce. The research also helps to explore the individual and contextual moderators that impact the effect of reciprocity on trust development.
Practical implications
The results offer a comprehensive view of trust building strategies for s-commerce practitioners, including shoppers, vendors and managers of s-commerce platforms.
Originality/value
This study is among the first few research studies that offers a theory-based conceptualization of reciprocity in C2C s-commerce and provides empirical support for the impact of reciprocity on customers’ trust in C2C s-commerce. In addition, this study devises a broader view of reciprocity based on restricted and generalized exchange principle to represent the interaction of vendor–shopper and shopper–shopper, respectively.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper is © Emerald Publishing. This paper is based on research presented at The 24th Cross Strait Conference of Information Management Development and Strategy (CSIM), 2018 (https://www.fbe.hku.hk/conference/csim2018/assets/files/CSIM%20Proceedings%20_%20final.pdf). Emerald does not grant permission for this paper to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Publishing Limited. This research was substantially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 71502140 and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China under Grant No. JBK2002016.
Citation
Leung, W.K.S., Shi, S. and Chow, W.S. (2020), "Impacts of user interactions on trust development in C2C social commerce: The central role of reciprocity", Internet Research, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 335-356. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-09-2018-0413
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited