Impact of social experience on customer purchase decision in the social commerce context
Journal of Systems and Information Technology
ISSN: 1328-7265
Article publication date: 21 February 2020
Issue publication date: 15 May 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the factor of social experience influencing an individual’s purchase decision in the social commerce (SC) environment by proposing a model developed based on the social impact theory. The proposed model consists of the number, closeness and tie strength of the influencing factor and the receiver.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 288 responses were collected from Indonesian SC users to validate the theoretical model, which consists of perceived herd behavior, peer communication, emotional support, parasocial interaction and subjective norms. This study also explores the moderating effects of gender, age, experiences and occupations on the direct effect of model variables, which affect the individual’s intention to purchase in SC.
Findings
The results of this study showed that parasocial interaction is the strongest determinant of intention to purchase in SC, followed by perceived herd behavior and peer communication. However, the direct effect of subjective norms and emotional support were found insignificant in this study. For moderating effects, only gender and occupation were significant in terms of the immediate effect of peer communication, perceived herd behavior and subjective norms on intention to purchase.
Originality/value
The study contributes to theory in the form of insight on immediate effect and the exploratory investigation of moderating effects. It also contributes to practice by suggesting several practical actions based on the findings designed to achieve the objective of improving customers’ intention to purchase in SC.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express their gratitude for the support from the “Indonesian Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP),” the “Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia,” Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta (UAJY) Indonesia and Assumption University Thailand.
Citation
Handarkho, Y.D. (2020), "Impact of social experience on customer purchase decision in the social commerce context", Journal of Systems and Information Technology, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 47-71. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSIT-05-2019-0088
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited