Integrating the social support theory and technology acceptance model of social commerce websites

Abstract

The expansion of social commerce websites has gradually transformed most people’s lives in terms of social interactions during leisure time. Communication has been made easier due to the advancement of information communication technology due to the fact that information sources can efficiently assist in providing the information required. Nevertheless, the possibility struggling to understand online content exists as the information may have inaccuracies and biases. By combining the technology acceptance model (TAM) and social support theory (SST), this study has developed a detailed purchase intention model to analyse relationships related to social commerce websites. Trust has been examined as the mediator in this research. The study has employed an online quantitative approach and has conducted non-probability (convenience) sampling to recruit 392 respondents. The findings demonstrate that different SS forms (emotional and informational) contain significant relationships with the TAM, trust and purchase intention. Nonetheless, perceived usefulness and purchase intention reveal insignificant relationships. Meanwhile, trust significantly mediates the association between SS and TAM constructs in this proposed model. The results also show that the proposed model has achieved a good fit and clearly explains each relationship. Therefore, the integration and extension of constructs may serve as future research paths. The findings could also be applied by marketeers and practitioners when developing social commerce websites.