Title: The role of social commerce in online purchase intention: mediating role of social interactions, trust, and electronic word of mouth

Authors: Amir Reza Konjkav Monfared; Mohammad Ghaffari; Mohammadreza Barootkoob; Milad Mohebali Malmiri

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics, Management and Accounting, Yazd University, Safaeih, Iran ' Faculty of Management and Accounting, College of Farabi, University of Tehran, Tehran, Enghelab Square, Iran ' Electronic Commerce Branch, Yazd University, Safaeih, Iran ' Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics, Management and Accounting, Yazd University, Safaeih, Iran

Abstract: This study aims to investigate the effect of social commerce and social interactions on consumers' trust, electronic word of mouth, and purchase intention. For this purpose, 300 consumers of DigiKala Company were surveyed. Structural equation modelling was used for analysing the research data. For this purpose, both SPSS and SMART-PLS were used. Our findings revealed that ratings and reviews significantly affect social presence, informational support, closeness, and familiarity and do not affect emotional support and purchase intention significantly. Recommendations and referrals affect social presence, informational support, closeness, familiarity, and purchase intention significantly. In addition, social presence, informational support, emotional support, closeness, and familiarity affect trust significantly. Findings showed that emotional support affects trust significantly; trust affects the electronic word of mouth significantly; electronic word of mouth affects purchase intention significantly. The results of this study can be helpful for electronic marketing professionals in terms of consumer online purchase process management.

Keywords: social commerce; social interactions; electronic word of mouth; trust; online purchase intention.

DOI: 10.1504/JIBED.2021.112264

Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, 2021 Vol.13 No.1, pp.22 - 39

Received: 06 Mar 2019
Accepted: 20 Jun 2019
Published online: 06 Jan 2021 *

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