The Impact Of It Affordance And Social Ties On Social Commerce Purchase Intention

The development of information technology makes the electronic commerce socialization.Social media(such as Facebook,Twitter,WeChat,etc)and the popularity of mobile terminals gather a large number of potential users for social commerce,as well as provide a huge development space and business platform for the society.As thus,social business is regarded as a new business model,which is boosting the development of economy.According to the "Social Commerce Strategy and Outlook" research report,the global socialized business income has been increasing steadily.This figure is expected to reach 80 billion US dollars in 2020.Social commerce is also leading the consumer's new consumption pattern and this has appealed extensive attention from practice and academic.It is of great significance to conduct research on social commerce.The existing research about social commerce is still in the primary stage,mainly focused on the discussion on the concept and influencing factors of the model.Existing work mainly considered the influence factors and research model on electronic commerce,so the results are scattered,and did not form a complete and systemic research.Research on social commerce itself characteristic factors is not rich and perfect,but also lacks to reveal the specific mechanism of users' social commerce behavior,which limits the development of the theory of social commerce,to some extent,also restricts the exploration to prospective problems in the field.So it is necessary for researchers to further explore these issues.This study takes full account of the characteristics of social commerce,technology features and user social tie;based on theory of affordance,social capital,and social tie,combining the perspective of design scientific research paradigm and behavioral scientific research paradigm,we explore the factors that influencing the social commerce process,and the potential influencing relationship among the factors.We construct a theoretical model on user social commerce purchase behavior,and attempt to reveal the inherent mechanism of user's social purchase behavior,and try to make contributions in theory and practice.First,based on the existing literature,this study defines the concept of social commerce,defines the research boundary,summarizes the characteristics and operation mode of social commerce,and expounds the main body and the value creation process of social commerce.Through theoretical analysis,we determine to apply the affordance theory,social capital and social tie theory as the main theoretical basis;we analyze the key factors that influencing the development of social commerce;this lays a theoretical foundation for furtherresearch on the process of purchase behavior of by construccting a theoretical model.Secondly,based on the theory of affordance,this research extends the applicable boundary of the theory,develops the concept of affordance in social commerce and defines it.Then based on the qualitative research program as well as the development of social commerce in practice,we use the research design by combining analysis of interview and literature review,refine its six dimensions of IT affordance in social commerce,they are: visibility,metavoicing,triggerd attending,guidance shopping,social connecting and trading.After deeply analyzing the concept,we found that the lack of a valid measurement for IT affordance is the main reason that rarely work on the existing research conducting empirical research.Therefore,based on the strict procedure for scale development by adopting qualitative and quantitative research method,we develop the scale of IT affordance;through the procudere including item generation,item revision,item evaluation and item determination;finally,according to the result of reliability and validity analysis,26 items are established,which provides a measuring tool for further research.Finally,this study conducts empirical research by using questionnaires to collect data.Considering that technology and social tie are two important factors in the development of social comerce,and that technology also provides a supporting guide for the development of social commerce.Therefore,this study makes the technology effect on social commerce as the main logic line,and subsequently constructs a social commerce purchase influences model from multi-perspective.Based on the affordance theory,this paper first explores the influence of IT affordance onsocial commerce purchase,as well as explores the impact mechanism of satisfaction and loyalty,and explores the two constructs' mediating effect on the relationship between IT affordance and social commerce purchase intention.We then explore the relationship between IT affordance and the formation of social tie,and construct the research model that how IT affordance help facilitate the formation of buyer-seller social tie in social commerce context;we also consider th emediating effect of intermediary,and consider the moderating effect of perceived effectiveness of institutional mechanism.Finally,based on the S-O-R framework,we construct the research model how IT affordance and social tie influence users' social purchase intention through information diagnosoty and information serendipity from the combined perspectice of IT and social tie.Through three rounds of large-scale data collection,this paper uses SPSS18.0,based on partial least squares method in structural equation modeling,we use SmartPLS3.0 software to conduct empirical tests on the model.Theresearch results reveal the mechanism of social commerce process.Results show that:(1)the newly development concept of IT affordance is reasonable,we effectively identify its six dimensions,create the measurement scales.All the analysis results show that the scale is valid and the concept of IT affordance in social commerce can be regarded as a good explanatory construct to explain the social commerce phenomenon;(2)IT affordance positively associated with social commerce purchase intention;(3)satisfaction and loyalty partially mediate the relationship between IT affordance and social commerce purchase intention;(4)IT affordance can crete the new buyer-seller social tie through interacticity;(5)and the construct of perceived effectiveness of institutional mechanism play a moderating role in this relationship;(6)IT affordance and social tie positively influence the social commerce purchase intention through information diagnosity and information serendipity.This thesis has a certain significance to boost the research on social commerce;it is helpful to fully understand the connotation and characteristics of social commerce in theory,and helpful to explore the influencing factors of social commerce and the specific relationship among the influencing factors.This study provides a complete theoretical framework for further research.The results of the thesis will help to uncover the "black box" that why user participate in social commerce purchasing,enrich and improve the research on IT affordance,social capital,social tie and other related theory,also this thesis can provide strategies and suggestions for practitioners to better participate in social commerce.