Shopping on a Social Planet: The Mediating Role of Trust

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence social commerce (s-commerce) shopping intention employing the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The determinants such social influence, electronic word of mouth (eWOM), and trust on the intention, and social influence and eWOM on trust, as well as the role of trust as a mediator, are examined.
Design/Methodology/Approach – This study makes use of a dataset containing 233 responses from an online survey, selected through non-probability sampling. The partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4.0 was employed to analyze the data and confirm the hypotheses proposed.
Findings and implications – The findings demonstrated empirically that social influence and eWOM significantly contribute to enhancing s-commerce shopping intention. Social influence and eWOM were also found to significantly influence trust. Also, trust was revealed to successfully mediate the association between social influence and intention, as well as between eWOM and intention.
Limitation – The study focuses on shopping intentions in s-commerce but lacks an assessment of actual purchasing behavior, suggesting future research should explore the correlation between these intentions and actual shopping behavior.
Originality – The study substantiated the extension of the TPB framework by enhancing its predictive power in predicting consumer shopping intentions in s-commerce.