How behaviors on social network sites and online social capital influence social commerce intentions

Abstract

Following the fast growth of social network sites (SNSs) such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook in the cyber world, social commerce has become an important emerging issue in these SNS. The study aims to comprehend the antecedents for SNS users’ social commerce intentions (SCI). This study applied SNS behavior and social capital theory to investigate how these factors influence SCI. Each of the three constructs was further decomposed into two first-order constructs, participating and browsing for SNS behavior, bonding and bridging social capital for social capital, and giving and receiving for SCI. The results, which were based on 970 effective samples of Facebook users, supported several findings. Both SNS behavior and social capital affect SCI, while the relationship between SNS behavior and SCI is partially mediated by the bonding and bridging social capital. In addition, browsing and participating behaviors have significantly positive relationships with bonding and bridging social capitals, respectively. All of the relationships between first-order constructs tested significant, with the single exception that browsing of SNS behavior did not lead to the giving of SCI. This study also applied post hoc analysis for better understanding SCI on SNSs. The results showed that browsing of SNS behavior has a stronger impact than participating of SNS behavior on either bonding or bridging social capital. In addition, bridging social capital has a stronger influence than bonding social capital on the giving intention of social commerce. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are also discussed to provide several future research directions and suggestions for scholars and SNS operators, respectively.