The Drivers of Social Commerce: A Broad View of the Factors That Predict Intention to Buy

Abstract

Continuing advances in technology have made social commerce (SC) an emerging trend in electronic commerce. SC may be described as a combination of electronic commerce and social interaction that occurs on SC platforms. This study used the theory of planned behaviour as the basis of its theoretical model to explore the factors that influence consumers’ intentions to buy on SC platforms. The study provides a broad understanding of consumer behaviour in SC from multiple perspectives. Specifically, the factors proposed in this study were classified under three broad categories: individual, social and governmental. This research followed the pragmatic philosophical paradigm, which encourages researchers to use diverse methods as required to answer the study questions. Quantitative methods were employed to explore the factors that impact consumers’ intentions, and qualitative methods were used to clarify some unexplained findings from the quantitative stage. The results show that consumers’ intentions to buy are affected by several factors, with a consumer’s attitude being the most impactful . In addition, there are some insignificant relationships in the study's model that were investigated qualitatively. This research concludes by describing several theoretical and practical contributions of the research and discussing the limitations encountered while conducting the study.