ONLINE SOCIAL COMMERCE USERS BEHAVIORS: THREE STUDIES

Abstract

Social commerce has emerged as a new platform that enables users to conduct shopping assisted by inputs from other members and to publicly comment on transactions or products. It therefore adds a social aspect to traditional online commerce environments. Nevertheless, the role of the social facet embedded in such transactions in influencing user behaviors is not fully understood. In this dissertation, I develop three empirical studies to better understand social commerce user behaviors and to specifically consider the biasing factors that exist in these social platforms and can skew user rational decision-making. The results of these studies highlight the importance of social context in influencing users’ behaviors. The first study’s results show the role of interactions among social commerce users in affecting users’ decisions. The second study shows that like most of social networking sites; the use of social commerce platforms are prone to become habitual. Furthermore, this study shows how the developed habit among users can influence their rational purchasing decision. Finally, the third study explores the role of group identification and it shows that social identity that will be developed among members can cause some bias and skew the rational behaviors of users.