Social commerce in the social media age: understanding how interactive commerce enhancements navigate app continuance intention
Abstract
Purpose
By integrating the Uses and Gratifications Theory and Flow Theory, this research seeks to untwine the veiled effects of interactive commerce enhancements (ICEs), specifically haptic imagery and social presence, in promoting user immersion and sustaining social commerce (SC) users' usage intention, considering the moderating role of autotelic personality.
Design/methodology/approach
The research utilized purposive sampling of Malaysian SC app users with recent transactions. A dual-source data collection approach, encompassing offline and online channels, was employed to ensure a broad and diverse respondent pool. Partial least squares–structural equation modeling was chosen for its adeptness in analyzing complex relationships in predictive studies.
Findings
The findings revealed the significant positive effects of haptic imagery and social presence on user immersion and continuance intention within SC apps. Social presence and immersion were found to mediate the proposed paths. Additionally, autotelic personality traits were identified as moderators, influencing the strength of these relationships.
Originality/value
This research makes a unique contribution by addressing critical gaps in SC environments, extending the concept of ICEs, understanding the impacts of underlying mediators and pioneering the examination of autotelic personality traits' moderating effects. It introduces a fresh perspective on how individual differences impact user engagement. This groundbreaking study benefits social media and interactive marketing literature by comprehensively understanding how ICEs elevate SC, fostering innovation and heightened engagement.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their appreciation to the Research Management Centre of Universiti Putra Malaysia (GPB/2021/9696700) for financially supporting this research.
Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Citation
Chong, S.-E., Ng, S.-I., Basha, N.K. and Lim, X.-J. (2024), "Social commerce in the social media age: understanding how interactive commerce enhancements navigate app continuance intention", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-01-2024-0047
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited