Social commerce

1. Define social computing and the Social Web. 2. Describe the Social Web revolution. 3. Describe the essentials of Web 2.0 and social media. 4. Define social commerce and describe its roots and evolution. 5. Describe the content of the social commerce field. 6. Define social media marketing. 7. Describe Enterprise 2.0. 8. Summarize the benefits and limitations of social commerce.9. Understand the process of conducting social commerce. 10. Find research opportunities in social commerce and learn about related resources.

The absence of social aspects and human presence is conceived as being one of the key drawbacks that impede the future development of e-commerce. The development of social commerce may help overcome this weakness. Social commerce is viewed as a subset of e-commerce that integrates both social and commercial activities by utilising social technologies into e-commerce websites. Social commerce participates significantly in re-introducing the social side of purchasing to e-commerce by enhancing the social presence in the online environment. Based on the role of social technologies and Social Presence Theory (SPT), this study describes the nature of the social side in social commerce by proposing a theoretical framework that incorporates a multidimensional conceptualisation of social presence. The impact of this conceptualisation on building trusting beliefs and subsequent intentions to purchase is then explored. The proposed model suggests that trust is a key driver of social commerce....

Social commerce is getting popular all over the world including in the middle eastern countries. The main objective of this work is to identify the factors that influence the purchasing intention and the behavior among the Y generation and millennials in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. For this purpose, a hypothetical conceptual model was developed based on proven theories and well-established literature. To test this model, data were collected from 178 university students using an online questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25. The validity and the reliability of the questionnaire items were determined through factors analysis and Cronbach Alpha. All hypotheses were supported in linear regression analysis, however, the stepwise multiple regression analysis which shows the simultaneous effects of the independent variables, resulted in that out of 11 hypotheses 3 were not supported. Based on the findings a discussion was developed at the end of the paper.

Trust is viewed as a crucial factor in social commerce due to the prominent role and significant amount of peer-generated contents. The current study aims to investigate the relationship between trust in social commerce and customers' purchase intentions by providing a mechanism to describe this relationship. Thus, a proposed model is developed based on three concepts: social presence, social commerce information seeking and familiarity with the platform. The model explains the mechanisms through which social commerce information seeking, familiarity, social presence and trust influence customers' intentions to purchase from social commerce platforms. For the purpose of this study, a survey is designed and distributed to Facebook users. The findings demonstrate that trust in a social networking site has positive influence on purchase intentions. Moreover, trust encourages information seeking, which in turn improves purchase intentions. Furthermore, both social presence and f...

There is a significant rise in the use of visual content by brands to actively engage and impact consumers in social commerce.
However for brands to successfully use visual content to engage consumers in social commerce, there have to be robust guidelines on visual content may be designed and delivered within the context of social commerce. This research study is aimed at identifying such guidelines, in relation to key consumer behaviour, that guide the application of visual content in social commerce. Creating such an understanding paves way for key recommendations on how brands can effectively use visual content to engage consumers in social commerce.
The research was carried through the in-depth review of contemporary literature related to the subject areas as well as through a survey – in form of a questionnaire and interviews – and case study analysis.
The main findings from the study showed that visual storytelling (applying narrative in the design and delivery of visual content) may significantly enhance the ability of brands to communicate with and engage consumers in social commerce.
This is due to the fact visual storytelling has a positive influence on three crucial elements of visual communication – appeal, comprehension and retention. Moreover, while these crucial elements are generally critical factors in the design and application of visual content, there are indications that within the context of social commerce their application ought to be guided by a hierarchy of importance that places a sequence to these elements as follows – Appeal, retention and comprehension.

Social media networks compete with each other, and they make an effort to increase their number of users while at the same time trying to create engagement. That is because a social media brand with high engagement creates high commitment and that leads to satisfying its business partners. This also increases the social commerce through that social media brand. Social commerce is defined as the commercial activities through social media channels, and it is a subdimension of online commerce. The new realities increased the interest towards social commerce through social networks and made it valuable to explore for both practical and academic environments. This study aims to investigate social media engagement regarding social media networks and explore the relationship between social media engagement and social commerce purchase intention. In the light of these objectives, a survey was conducted to collect the data and shared through social media networks. Hypotheses in the research were analyzed by using independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and multiple regressions. Results showed social media networks differ according to consumer brand engagement. Also, consumer brand engagement differs according to age, education level, and income level. Another result proves that consumer brand engagement differs according to social media usage frequency and time spent using social media. Furthermore, social commerce purchase intention differs according to the social media networks. Finally, the study found that there is a positive relationship between consumer brand engagement and social commerce purchase intention.

As successful tourism firms invest heavily in marketing to defend or improve their competitive position, they increasingly need to measure their marketing performance. Previous studies related to tourism have largely focused on financial and operational performance, but the marketing perspective has been largely overlooked. Drawing on an in-depth investigation involving 12 hotel chains, 8 travel agencies and 8 tour operators, this study provides an overview of the state-of-the-art marketing performance measurements among some of the leading tourism firms in Italy. Several issues and unanswered questions are also identified.

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Abstract:
The subjective nature of assessments in visual art raises a concern of how to effectively measure achievements in the subject. Quality evaluation of artworks depends on accurate and reliable measurement. This paper describes the construction and evaluation of the reliability and validity of a scoring rubric for grading pre-service art teachers‟ visual communication design products. The validity of the developed rubrics is investigated as well as reliability study carried out. The results of the investigations carried out using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) are reported. Results show that the developed rubric show evidence of high reliability with an inter-rater correlation coefficient of 0.895 and intra-rater correlation coefficient of 0.927 which are within the very reliable range. Conclusions were drawn which have far reaching implications for the development and use of rubrics in assessment bearing in mind that subjectivity in the use of rubrics cannot be totally eliminated

This study highlights the importance of consumer satisfaction in the context of social commerce. This study aims to explore the relationships that affect the phenomenon of consumer satisfaction in relation to social commerce. A survey method has been employed to measure the relationships between variables related to consumer satisfaction to study its role in social commerce. A total of 372 Saudi students studying in Australia and at the UBT University in Saudi Arabia have been surveyed for this purpose. The study used partial least squares (PLS) to test the structural and measurement model and study the interlinkages between variables. The results of this study show that all the dimensions of Trust and Social Influence have a significant association with Consumer Satisfaction. It was also found that Word of Mouth was the variable which impacted both Trust as well as Social Influence most strongly and in context of social commerce, Trust was found to be the dimension which impacted consumer satisfaction most strongly. This research acknowledges that in the field of social commerce, various factors impact consumer satisfaction differently when compared to factors impacting consumer satisfaction in regular, face-to-face buying/selling transactions. It acknowledges that even though social commerce is a facet of e-commerce, the factors which impact consumer satisfaction in social commerce settings, might not be the same as the ones which impact consumer satisfaction in either e-commerce or traditional commerce. Additionally, research is expected to aid businesses in charting their strategies to better match consumer requirements leading to more positive consumer satisfactions, ultimately leading to the growth of social commerce businesses. It is also expected that the findings of this study will add to the existing literature on social commerce and act as an opportunity for researchers to delve more deeply into the various factors which are associated with consumer satisfaction in social commerce. This would result in providing empirical evidence and help both organisations and individuals with a better understanding of the factors that affect consumer satisfaction in social commerce. In addition, this will help to contribute to the social commerce literature through a theoretical framework that explains the consumer satisfaction using SC. JEL Classification: D11

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Abstract:
A growing and energetic agricultural financing with the commercial banks and State Bank of Pakistan is very crucial for economic growth in Pakistan. The main objective of this research paper is to examine the relationship among the agricultural financing, regulatory framework of State Bank and Economic Growth of Pakistan. For this purpose data were collected from existing agriculture clients of Allied Bank Limited2 Sargodha Region in March 2014. Results explain that agriculture financing and regulatory framework of State Bank of Pakistan is much more significant and has a positive relationship with the economic growth of Pakistan. This relationship could be certified by the timely and required level availability of agricultural finance from Allied Bank Limited. In the light of these consequences it is recommended to decrease the mark up rate, crop loan insurance to be the optional, reset the capitalization mark up frequency and to simplify the process for obtaining the agriculture finance. Multiple regression analysis has been carried out for empirical analysis

Social media have provided new opportunities to consumers to engage in social interaction on the internet. Consumers use social media, such as online communities, to generate content and to network with other users. The study of social media can also identify the advantages to be gained by business. A multidisciplinary model, building on the technology acceptance model and relevant literature on trust and social media, has been devised. The model has been validated by SEM-PLS, demonstrating the role of social media in the development of e-commerce into social commerce. The data emerging from a survey show how social media facilitate the social interaction of consumers, leading to increased trust and intention to buy. The results also show that trust has a significant direct effect on intention to buy. The perceived usefulness (PU) of a site is also identified as a contributory factor. At the end of the paper, the author discusses the results, along with implications, limitations and recommended future research directions.

Empowered by social media, individuals are active content creators in social networking sites. This has brought new changes in business environment, of which social commerce is one of them. Social commerce, a new stream in e-commerce, highlights the role of technological advancements to develop a new social commerce era. In social commerce era, individuals share their knowledge, experiences, and information about the products and services with peers, providing a supportive environment in an online context. Drawn from social support theory, relationship quality, and social media concept this research proposes a model to investigate the role of social factors that impact on relationship quality and social commerce intention. A survey conducted on Facebook, a popular social networking site, and PLS-SEM method was applied to empirically test the proposed model. The results offer a valuable picture of social factors that influence relationship quality and social commerce intention. Towards these ends, the study highlights a new picture of consumers' behaviour in social commerce era. It provides a new theory in the area of research-social commerce. Practical implications of the research also highlight new technological changes in e-commerce platform and provide new strategies to firms to adopt these new technological advancements.

The primary purpose of this research is to examine the process of adoption of social media in small businesses and investigate the impact it has on the business network of the owner/entrepreneur.
The intended output of the investigation is to construct a robust social media adoption model specifically designed for small business.
The model will be designed in a manner which will be helpful for practitioners and academics alike.

Trust is viewed as a crucial factor in social commerce due to the prominent role and significant amount of peer-generated contents. The current study aims to investigate the relationship between trust in social commerce and customers' purchase intentions by providing a mechanism to describe this relationship. Thus, a proposed model is developed based on three concepts: social presence, social commerce information seeking and familiarity with the platform. The model explains the mechanisms through which social commerce information seeking, familiarity, social presence and trust influence customers' intentions to purchase from social commerce platforms. For the purpose of this study, a survey is designed and distributed to Facebook users. The findings demonstrate that trust in a social networking site has positive influence on purchase intentions. Moreover, trust encourages information seeking, which in turn improves purchase intentions. Furthermore, both social presence and familiarity are found to enhance trust and purchase intentions. According to the findings, several managerial and theoretical implications are highlighted. Particularly, as the first study to investigate the adoption of social commerce among Jordanian customers, this study offers valuable insights and implications for Jordanian firms’ managers and marketers who are targeting direct sales on social networking platforms.

History Objective: Studies show there is a high acceptance of FinTech development in Malaysia. However, the perceived risk factors that hinder a user's intention to use FinTech remains vague. Research on perceived risk is limited, especially the use of FinTech in the context of Malaysia. Therefore, this study aims to narrow the gap in perceived risk factors of FinTech. Methodology: A total of 302 participants participated in the study. Collected data and hypotheses were tested using the method of structural equation modeling. Results: It is found that three of the four dimensions of financial risk, legal risk and operational risk have a significant negative impact on the intention to use FinTech. The findings found that security risks do not have a significant negative effect on the intention to use FinTech. This result is consistent with the finding that Malaysian consumers' perception of e-payment is not significantly related to perceived security. Implication: The results help practitioners better conceptualize and reduce risk barriers in preparing for the disruption of FinTech. Practitioners are also advised to pay attention to FinTech's operational skills and system functional performance in FinTech services.

The twentieth century has seen enormous changes in the field of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and that change will continue into the future, as well. When Web 2.0 tools appeared, people had the opportunity to interact with each other on the internet and helped to create a new stream with different functions. This stream called Social commerce (SC) which is defined as an extension of Business to Customer (B2C) e-commerce where consumers can interact with each other to conduct online shopping activities and discuss their experiences and preferences on products and services. Virtually all of the previous research on SC focus on behavioral and purchase intentions. In addition, there are many theories that can provide a better understanding of the satisfaction in SC. For instance, the theory of social interaction (Liang & Turban 2011) and the theory of social process (Amblee & Bui 2011) can both help in understanding consumer behaviors. In addition, the motivation theory might help in understanding why people use SC as well as how intrinsic and extrinsic motivations carry on in SC (Liang & Turban 2011). Although these studies have reviled promising findings, questions remain concerning what factors affect consumers' satisfaction, which are yet to be answered. Therefore, this study aims to develop a theoretical framework using Trust and Social Influence theories to investigate the influencing factors on customer satisfaction in social commerce. Investigating the theoretical framework of this study would provide theoretical evidence and help businesses and individuals to better understanding the factors that affect consumer satisfaction in SC.

This study aims to identify the main factors influencing consumers’ adoption of social commerce (s-commerce). Based on the socio-technical theory, the study suggests a research model that investigates the key social and technical factors driving consumers’ decision to purchase from social commerce websites. In addition, the research model explores the interactive relationship among these factors.

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Abstract:
In 2011 world vineyards reached a total area surface of 7.58 millions ha, and global grape production reached 69.2 millions t an upwards trend. Turkey‘s acreage of vineyards is 0.46 millions ha that ranks fourth of greatest acreage followed by Spain, Italy, France, and 4.27 millions t grape production that is sixth followed by Italy, Spain, France, US, and China. Turkey, with these values has about 7% of the world area of vineyards, and meet 6.4% of grape production, and about 6% of the world average yield is below. On the other hand Turkey‘s in last 15 years yield have been raised up about 40% that was 6654.3 kg/ha at 1998 and 9248.7 kg/ha at 2012.Turkey after USA is the second important raisin grape producer by cv ‗Sultana‘ by 289952 tons at 2012 production, exporting mainly EU (84%) and different countries, and fifth big table grape producer that also has been exporting different countries, mainly Russian Federation, Germany, Austria, Netherland, and Saudi Arabia.

This research was designed to theoretically address and empirically examine research issues related to customer's satisfaction with social commerce. To investigate these research issues, data were collected using a written survey as part of a free simulation experiment. In this experiment, 136 participants were asked to evaluate two social commerce websites using an instrument designed to measure relationships between s-commerce website quality, customer psychological empowerment and customer satisfaction. A total of 278 usable s-commerce site evaluations were collected and analyzed. The results showed that customer satisfaction with social commerce is correlated with social commerce sites quality and customer psychological empowerment.

By the advances of the Internet, social networking and high-tech production technologies, a new type of fashion designer has been emerging. These designers often sell their own products on the Internet, especially through social media or e-commerce websites. Since this kind of commerce is called as “social commerce”, we can identify these designers as “fashion designers for social commerce” or “s-commerce fashion designers” in a few words. As social commerce is a new emerging field residing in the intersection of social media and e-commerce, s-commerce designers do not only face with different challenges in various fields such as taxing, presenting, commissioning, promoting and so on, but also plenty of opportunities such as combining one’s own hobbies and lifestyle with a profession, flexibility of time usage, embodying one’s own ideas by own methods and so on. 

In Turkey, most of s-commerce fashion designers create their own names, so-called brands, trying to gain recognition among a limited number of followers. Some of these designers work for commercial small or medium-scale fashion and textile firms and some others are still art or design students. This study focuses on a Turkish s-commerce designer’s project, “Mü Design,” which is founded by Müge Barış. The designer graduated from a fashion design program in Turkey eight years ago and worked in several fashion and textile firms. In this process, she started to design printed t-shirts, bags, cups, and purses personally and promoted them via social media. By time, she has gained recognition among a limited number of followers in a short time period and her project Mü Design has gained increasing popularity. This study aims to concentrate on opportunities and challenges s-commerce designers face in light of the Mü Design case.

E-Commerce is one of the recent inventions and innovative ideas that enable firms to compete with larger market players. Moreover, e-commerce has sufficient potential and productivity. It became the centre of attraction of the many firms in various countries in the different parts of the world. The impact of e-commerce is enormous as it provides platforms for consumers and suppliers to make it a common platform for transactions of goods and services. Suppliers of goods and services considered it a very convenient platform to distribute goods and services. Consumers also considered it one of the best platforms for buying commodities as they can order the product from the online platform from anywhere, they want. Consumers can also compare the goods and services based on their quality, quantity, and price. Even these platforms provide a manifesto to sell their/consumers commodities to the third party.

Road accident is ‘a global tragedy’ with ever-rising trend. The goal of this article includes review of the causes and nature of accidents, statistical data regarding road accidents and the economic impact. 1.17 million Deaths occur each year worldwide due to road accidents 70 % of which occur in developing countries. 65% of deaths involve pedestrians, 35 % of which are children. Estimates suggest that 23-34 million people are injured worldwide every year in road crashes – a value almost twice that previously estimated. It is estimated that more than 200 U.S. citizens die each year due to road accidents abroad. Every year in Europe, more than 50,000 peoples are killed in road accidents, and more than 150,000 remain disabled. It is a sad fact that the total number of road accidents in Malaysia exceeded 223,000 in 1999. On the average, 16 persons died from these road accidents, every single day in 1999. Lack of attention, reckless driving, lack of proper protection, speeding, bad personal habits, social and behavioral misconduct and inconsiderate drivers of larger vehicles are some of the problems that cause accidents. In Malaysia, motorcycle fatal accidents (60%) warrant a high degree of concern. Young children and senior citizens are found to be in the vulnerable age group. In Malaysia, in 1999 alone, general insurers paid RM1.67 billion or an average of RM4.6 million a day on motor claims. It is now recognized that road traffic accidents represent a major public health problem, because of the high number of victims involved and because of the seriousness of the consequences for themselves and for their families.

Empowered by social media, individuals are active content creators in social networking sites. This has brought new changes in business environment, of which social commerce is one of them. Social commerce, a new stream in e-commerce, highlights the role of technological advancements to develop a new social commerce era. In social commerce era, individuals share their knowledge, experiences, and information about the products and services with peers, providing a supportive environment in an online context. Drawn from social support theory, relationship quality, and social media concept this research proposes a model to investigate the role of social factors that impact on relationship quality and social commerce intention. A survey conducted on Facebook, a popular social networking site, and PLS-SEM method was applied to empirically test the proposed model. The results offer a valuable picture of social factors that influence relationship quality and social commerce intention. Towards these ends, the study highlights a new picture of consumers' behaviour in social commerce era. It provides a new theory in the area of researchsocial commerce. Practical implications of the research also highlight new technological changes in e-commerce platform and provide new strategies to firms to adopt these new technological advancements.

Changes in consumer behavior enabled by social networking technologies is leading to a transformation in e-commerce. Consumers’ use of social media sites and relevant technologies for different aspects of shopping has become an issue of utmost concern to retailers and related businesses. Adopting a uses and gratifications theory (UGT) perspective, the article aims to demonstrate motives of users utilizing
social media in their purchase decisions. Drawing from digital marketing and e-commerce literature, relevant uses and gratifications for social commerce (s-commerce) were chosen as information access, escape, entertainment, passing time, cool and new trends, and socialization. The proposed model was analyzed and tested via OLS regression and ANOVA analysis using the data collected from a survey study on 361 subjects in Turkey. Information access, relaxing entertainment, and socialization motives emerged as significant antecedents of s-commerce intentions. No significant effect of demographics on social commerce intentions were observed in the analysis.

Social commerce is a new trend in online shopping, which is different from e-commerce. Nowadays, social commerce is widely used because it complements the benefits of using traditional e-commerce with social interaction. Based on this condition, research on the adoption of social commerce has become the interest of new research increasingly being explored. Research on social commerce is novel and largely fragmented. It is theoretically important to evaluate what has been learned and gain meaningful insights through structured literature reviews. This study conducted a systematic literature review on the adoption of social commerce, analyzed based on the context, theories, and influencing factors. We identified 30 studies most relevant to the application of social commerce. The results of this systematic literature review have mapped the potential and direction of research related to the area of interest. Directions for further research will be discussed at the end of the paper.

Dijital teknolojiler, başta kuruluşlar olmak üzere tüm piyasa katılımcılarını önemli ölçüde etkilemektedir. Dijital dönüşüm, piyasada rekabet edebilme zorunluluğu nedeniyle kuruluşlar için bir zorunluluk olup, kuruluşlara önemli yapısal değişiklikler sunmaktadır. İnternet, son yirmi yılda alışverişin doğasını değiştirmesine, e-ticaret sitelerinin çoğalmasına ve her yerde insani bir ihtiyaç haline gelmesine neden olmaktadır. Sosyal ticaret, e-ticaret ve sosyal medya arasında önemli bir iletişim sağlamakta olup, bireylerin bir çevrimiçi platformlarda alışveriş yapabilmelerinde birçok avantaj sağlamaktadır. İnternet aracılığıyla tek bir tuşla ihtiyaç duyulan ürün çeşitliliğine kolaylıkla ulaşım sağlanabilmekte ve aynı ürün için farklı ücretlendirmelere kolaylıkla ulaşılabilmektedir. Dijital dünyaya entegre biçimde sürdürülebilir bir şekilde bu faaliyetlerini yerine getiren işletmeler gelecekte de ticari faaliyetlerini kolaylıkla yürütebileceklerdir. Abstract Digital technologies significantly affect all market participants, especially organizations. Digital transformation is a necessity for organizations due to the obligation to compete in the market, and offers significant structural changes to organizations. The internet has changed the nature of shopping in the last two decades, causing e-commerce sites to proliferate and become a humanitarian need everywhere. It provides an important communication between social commerce, e-commerce and social media, and provides many advantages for individuals to shop on an online platform. Via the Internet, a variety of products needed can be easily accessed with a single click, and different pricing for the same product can be easily accessed. Businesses that carry out these activities in a sustainable manner integrated with the digital world will be able to easily carry out their commercial activities in the future. Giriş 20. yüzyılın sonlarında başlayan 2000'li yıllarda hızlanan dijitalleştirme ve sayısallaştırma sürecinin hemen her alandaki kurumsal yapılarda ve iş yapma biçimlerinde köklü değişiklikleri ortaya çıkardığı gözlemlenmektedir. Dijital teknolojilerin ürünü; e-ticaret, akıllı sistemler, robotlar, sosyal medya, mobil iletişim, e-devlet gibi uygulamalarla; imalat sektörü yanında iletişim, sağlık kurumları, bankacılık gibi hizmet sektörünün farklı alanlarında büyük bir değişim yaşanmaktadır. Bu değişim ve dönüşümün temelinde; teknolojinin sağladığı işleri daha hızlı, etkili ve ucuz yapabilme olanakları yanında, bilginin anında kaydedilmesi, çok hızlı işlenmesi, iletilmesi ve karar süreçlerinde kullanılması yatmaktadır (Yankın, 2019: 14). İçinde yaşadığımız dünya sürekli bir değişim içinde bulunmaktadır.

Since the internet revolution, internet usage in business environment (e-commerce) has changed the way of doing business in SMEs. It is well known that e-commerce is essential for SMEs in enhancing their competitiveness, productivity, enlarge market and cost reduction. However, Jordan is facing slow adoption of e-commerce by SMEs. This paper reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the major models and theories relevant to technology adoption: technology acceptance model, theory of reasoned action, technology-organisation environment, diffusion of innovation and Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Also, the literature review shows the most common sequences in level of e-commerce adoption in SMEs: Rao model; Daniel model; Rayport and Jaworski model; Lefebvrea et al. model and leadership typologies. On the bases of these theories and models, a conceptual framework for SMEs' e-commerce adoption level in Jordan is suggested. This conceptual framework can be tested empirically for SMEs in Jordan as well as other Arab countries. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Alrousan, M.K. and Jones, E. (2016) 'A conceptual model of factors affecting e-commerce adoption by SME owner/managers in Jordan', Int.

The efficient implementation of reverse logistics requires an appropriate communication platform. Social commerce enables creating multiple channels of discourse with customers to eliminate confusion and enhance service experience. It offers a platform connecting consumers and companies for e-business, customer relationship management, technology support, and information systems. Given the enormous effect of returned items on the company’s bottom line and social commerce´s popularity, an increasing number of firms have made efforts to streamline their reverse logistics process in social commerce platforms. Reverse logistics initiatives with social commerce not only provide opportunities for firms to create new sources of revenue but also demonstrate their corporate social responsibility via social, green, and environmental activities.

This research aims to identify the factors affecting the adoption of Facebook commerce, in specific the adopted Facebook advertisements for both small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and how this contributes to enhancing such SMEs’ organizational performances. Specifically, ease of use, demographic targeting, interaction, and brand awareness are regarded as the key factors that can influence Facebook’s advertisements adoption. However, three organizational performance dimensions (efficiency, flexibility, and responsiveness) are considered to be the most significant areas of focus in this research. In this study, both the quantitative research approach and the descriptive research design were employed. Data were collected from different SMEs in Muscat and Dhofar in Oman, and the total valid questionnaires suitable for analysis reached 342. The participants were primarily from those who publicize their services through Facebook. Many statistical techniques including exploratory, confirm...

The increasing popularity of social networking sites (SNS) in recent years paved the way for the emergence of social commerce. As a subset of e-commerce, s-commerce establishes the communication between companies and consumers through SNS and allows online shopping. However, online shopping through s-commerce varies substantially between different regions. The differences observed in consumer behaviour stem from the different cultural background every society has. This study analyses the effects of Hofstede's cultural dimensions; uncertainty avoidance (UAI), power distance (PDI) and indulgence (ING), on s-commerce expenditure. With this purpose, the total amount of online expenditure for 53 countries chosen from different regions, their total number of internet and Facebook users, and data related to their cultural dimensions have been collected. In an effort to better understand the current state of s-commerce, annual average expenditure of per Facebook user in each country has been calculated through total online expenditure. Correlation and regression analysis have also been performed together with cultural dimensions. Following these findings, it has been concluded while UAI and PDI reduce s-commerce expenditure, ING increases it. Consequently, the findings demonstrate while consumer willingness to do online shopping decreases in the context of uncertainty and risk; increases when safety is provided.

With the aim of enhancing their online reputation, several hospitality businesses have started soliciting their guests to write online reviews. Available studies have not yet evaluated the effects of this strategy. To fill this knowledge gap, this study draws on the Theory of Psychological Reactance and investigates guests' attitudinal and behavioral reactions to received solicitations. Evidence collected from a sample of Italian travelers indicates that soliciting reviews has both benefits and drawbacks: it increases the number of reviews for the business, but it also irritates a significant share of guests. Particularly high levels of irritation arise when a business explicitly asks its guests to write positive reviews. The implications of these findings for the reputation management strategy of hospitality businesses are discussed.

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Objective: To investigate factors influencing College choice among undergraduate students in the University of Eldoret.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study design. The study site was University of Eldoret with its target population being undergraduate students. Multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select respondents for study from each hostel and final sample size chosen using convenience sampling.

The growing adoption of social web technologies such as social software (SSW) in online configuration environments has enabled the possibility of supporting configurator users in interacting digitally with real people while they are shopping for customized products. Previous research has identified that online sales configurators (OSCs) are currently connected to SSW with different modalities to provide configurator users with a variety of options to digitally interact with real people. Enriching the configuration environment with social-interaction tools has engendered the phenomenon of social-product customization. Recent studies considered the social product-customization by investigating the impact that community feedback and social comparisons has on configurator user. However, the OSCs users' need to interact with different referents during their configuration process, and whether the SSW-OSCs connections respond to this need are still unsearched. To address this gap, the present study explores (a) whether users experience the need to interact with different referents while shopping via OSCs and (b) which interaction modalities users are looking for. By considering 943 configuration experiences from 189 users of 378 OSCs for various consumer goods, the present study finds that the need for social interaction by OSC users is highly relevant. Moreover, OSC users perceive the need to interact with different referents during different stages of the configuration process, and, depending on the referent with whom they wish to interact, they are interested in different interaction modalities in terms of how and where those interactions take place. These findings imply that mass customizers may leverage their customers' need to interact with real people while shopping online via OSCs in order to better engage their actual and potential customers.

Behavioral intention toward social commerce has been explained mainly by consumers’ pursuit of utilitarian and
economic value. However, in this paper, we show that consumers can be drawn to social commerce primarily for
the pursuit of social value. Based on quantitative data from 193 university students, we found the pursuit of
socialization, not usefulness or value, was the main driver for consumers’ behavioral intention toward social
commerce services. The results of this study demonstrate social commerce as a vehicle for social value in the
form of social capital gains and social engagement. This presents a new use of social commerce and shifts away
from understanding it solely as a vehicle for functional or economic value.

This research aims to identify the factors affecting the adoption of Facebook commerce, in specific the adopted Facebook advertisements for both small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and how this contributes to enhancing such SMEs’ organizational performances. Specifically, ease of use, demographic targeting, interaction, and brand awareness are regarded as the key factors that can influence Facebook’s advertisements adoption. However, three organizational performance dimensions (efficiency, flexibility, and responsiveness) are considered to be the most significant areas of focus in this research. In this study, both the quantitative research approach and the descriptive research design were employed. Data were collected from different SMEs in Muscat and Dhofar in Oman, and the total valid questionnaires suitable for analysis reached 342. The participants were primarily from those who publicize their …

The Customer trust, satisfaction and loyalty with regard to the provision of e-commerce services is expected to be critical factors for the assessment of the success of online businesses. Service quality and high-quality product settings are closely linked to these factors. However, despite the rapid advancement of e-commerce applications, especially in the context of business to consumer (B2C), prior research has confirmed that e-retailers face difficulties when it comes to maintaining customer loyalty. Several e-service quality frameworks have been employed to boost service quality by targeting customer loyalty. Among these prominent frameworks is the scale of online etail quality (eTailQ). This scale has been under criticism as it was developed before the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies. Consequently, this paper aims to fill this gap by offering empirically-tested and conceptually-derived measurement model specifications for an extended eTailQ scale. In addition, it investigates the potential effects of the extended scale on e-trust and e-satisfaction, and subsequently e-loyalty. The practical and theoretical implications are highlighted to help businesses to design effective business strategies based on quality in order to achieve enhanced customer loyalty, and to direct future research in the field of e-commerce.

Purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between element of technology acceptance model and perceived risk on social commerce behavior intention to use among youth in Shah Alam. This study gathered views of 121 individual as the youth around Shah Alam. Convenience sampling method was used for during exploratory phase and perhaps it is the best way of getting basic information quickly and efficiently. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis was used to analyze the data. This study indicates that a statistically significant positive relationship exist between each variable in the technology acceptance model with perceived risk as the extended variable. The study amply highlights the intention to use social commerce by adding perceived risk as one of the variable. The researcher hoped that the result from this study can identify the intention to use among the youth toward the acceptance of social commerce

Resumo O aumento de popularidade das redes sociais tem propiciado oportunidades para novos modelos de negócio voltados para o Comércio Eletrônico, sendo recentemente referido como social commerce. No entanto, sua fundamentação teórica, bem como sua utilização pelas organizações, ainda é percebida de forma distinta entre acadêmicos e praticantes. Neste sentido, buscou-se mapear o estado da arte sobre essa temática, através da realização de uma pesquisa bibliográfica na biblioteca de periódicos da CAPES. O estudo identificou os principais objetivos dessas pesquisas, os conceitos chave associados ao comércio social, as mídias e redes sociais mencionadas e as variáveis e constructos utilizados nos estudos.

Interconnectivity and social relationships of customers on social platforms offered by Web 2.0 technologies drive value for business. Customers are using social technologies to share their information and gain access to others' information and advice, which helps them to know better the products and services or support businesses in innovation process. This research proposes a social commerce adoption model based on the relationships of customers on the internet and social platforms to investigate customer behaviour in New Product Development. The study gathers survey data and applies structural equation modelling to analyze the data. The result shows forums and communities and perceived usefulness (PU) positively affect users' trust, leading to more intention to buy among consumers. The discussions, implications, and conclusion are discussed at the end of the paper.

Social commerce has recently emerged as a new area to explore for practitioners and researchers.It suggests the potential impacts of social media and social networking technologies and services in commercial channels on and off the internet. Social commerce is a new form of electronic commerce which involves using social media, online media that includes social interaction and also user contributions so as to assist in the online buying and selling of products and services. It also takes care of providing the customized products and services according to need of customer online. In coming years S-Commerce will increase exponentially in the emerging markets like that of India. A significant role is played by mouth publicity and other electronic references to promote s-commerce in such markets.

This dissertation deals with Instagram as an emerging and growing social networking site’s contributes to fashion and strategies that can be utilized by fashion entrepreneurs as a way to build and grow a company economically through Brand Equity and Sales. The paper looks at brand equity, engagement, social media, social media strategies, E- commerce, and social commerce in a fashion context geared toward millennials and urban contemporary brands. Academic research is significantly lacking on Instagram, a popular and widely adopted social media platform in the fashion industry, specifically in the realms of brand equity and as an e-commerce platform. Industry research is also lacking, as many claim to be social media experts, but there is little evidence of solid research and knowledge. The economic impact on the fashion industry, popularity among millennials, and recent changes to the platform, as well as relevant studies on other social media in similar areas, lead the researcher to a Snapshot investigation of Instagram and its effect on brand equity and sales revenue through a focus on urban contemporary middle market range brands.
The researcher used a deductive approach through a mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods such as case studies, interviews with experts and consumers, and a survey. This mixed method approach works to create a more complete picture and go deeper into the subject matter than a single method approach would have. Surveys were used to get cognitive, emotional, and behavioural feedback from Instagram using millennials, where semi-structured interviews were used to examine Instagram strategies and key measures and drivers of consumer engagement through talking with social media experts and consumers. Case studies were used to help further inform the study and get a better idea of the complex context Instagram used as a strategic tool for urban contemporary brands geared toward millennials exists in.
This study discusses findings and themes from the data collection and analysis process which point to the importance of a brand community, emphasizing social over sales through content, and encouraging visualization by consumer to increase sales and build brand equity through Instagram acting as a social commerce platform. It also highlights future research areas in regards to Instagram as a brand equity and sales channel and managerial implications of the research.

Social commerce is a new business model of e-commerce, which utilizes of Web 2.0 technologies and social media to support social-related exchange activities. While its popularity, being a subset of e-commerce, has been increasing tremendously since its introduction in 2005, there exists a general paucity of research on its framework and its applications' effectiveness, especially in areas beyond the common social commerce practices. This study develops a comprehensive social commerce framework that has four key components: customer, merchant, platform and context. Then the study applies the cross-case synthesis technique to analyze the usability and generalizability of the framework by applying it to social commerce of two (one small and the other global) successful companies. We use the negative case analysis approach to assess the importance of the new component context by comparing a social commerce failure case with the two successful companies. Finally, we introduce a set of metrics for social commerce design. The proposed framework and its metrics are used to guide the design and evaluation of social commerce. This study makes a contribution to the social commerce literature in proposing a new design framework and to practice in providing insights for effective strategies of the online social business.

Purpose of the paper: Social couponing campaigns are becoming increasingly popular among hotels. However, while their short-term impacts have been assessed, their medium and long-term benefits for the hotels' reputation have not been measured yet. The purpose of this study is to provide evidence of the potential of social couponing to stimulate positive electronic word‐of‐mouth (eWOM) and online referrals to hotels. In addition, this research intends to identify the factors related to the design and management of the couponing campaign, which influence the couponers' willingness to engage in positive eWOM and referrals. Methodology: The study is based on the content analysis of 564 TripAdvisor reviews posted by guests that have stayed at 76 Italian hotels using a Groupon's coupon. Both frequency and co-occurrence analysis are performed. Findings: The results show that social couponing stimulates intense positive eWOM and referrals. The analysis also highlights the most important coupon-related factors, which are able to influence the valence (positive vs. negative) of the eWOM. Research limits: The small sample of hotels, considered in this research and the specific features of the Italian hotel industry suggest caution in generalizing the results to other settings. Practical Implications: Hotel managers should design and manage their couponing campaigns carefully considering several factors, identified by this study, which directly stimulate positive eWOM. The findings of this research also suggest that hotel managers could use couponing campaigns as effective tools for their online reputation management strategies. Originality of the paper: This paper provides empirical evidence of the eWOM and referral effects of social couponing. Hence, it complements previous studies, which have mostly considered the short-term effects of social couponing related to sales increase.

Purpose of the paper:  In recent years, an increasing number of small service providers (e.g., restaurants, spas) have decided to run social-couponing campaigns to enhance brand awareness, attract new customers and increase sales. However, few studies have been conducted to investigate merchants’ satisfaction with social couponing. More importantly, the results available are generally based on data collected from merchants that have run their social-couponing campaigns through the largest global daily-deals sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial. Nonetheless, in the past several years, new local white-label-deals sites have entered the market. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether merchants’ satisfaction with social-couponing campaigns is different when using a local daily-deals site instead of a global site.
Methodology: This study is based on a cross-sectional design. Data were collected through two surveys conducted in the Italian context: the first among 157 Italian merchants that had used Groupon; the second among 106 merchants that sold their coupons through Kauppa, a local daily-deals site operating in six Italian provinces.
Findings: The results demonstrate similar levels of overall satisfaction for the two samples. However, significant differences between merchants using Groupon and Kauppa emerged in relation to the drivers of their satisfaction.
Research limits: it should be noted that this paper is based on the comparison of merchants’ perceptions from two daily-deals sites: Kauppa and Groupon.
Practical implications: merchants may decide to use either a global or the local daily-deals site depending on the specific objectives they intend to achieve through the couponing campaign.
Originality of the paper: The few studies about social couponing are based on data collected among merchants that have run their social-couponing campaigns through the largest, global daily deals sites. To the authors’ knowledge this is the first research involving a local daily deal site.

In the last years an increasing number of hotels have decided to run social coupon campaigns through Groupon and other daily deal sites. Available evidence suggests that several hotel managers have overlooked the “social” component of social couponing. In fact they have mainly considered the short-term effects (i.e. increased sales) of this marketing tool, underestimating its potential benefits in terms of e-word-of mouth (eWOM) and referrals.
The aim of this study is therefore to shed light on the potential of social couponing to stimulate positive eWOM and referrals. For this purpose, the paper presents the results of a content analysis of 564 TripAdvisor reviews posted by guests that have stayed at 76 Italian hotels using a Groupon’s coupon. In addition, this study identifies the most important coupon-related factors which are able to explain the positive vs. negative eWOM.
Beyond enriching theoretical knowledge on social couponing, this paper highlights that the decision of guests to engage in either positive or negative eWOM about the hotel is influenced by some coupon-related factors which can be managed by the hotels.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of social couponing campaigns for hotels. In particular, the perceived effectiveness related to four specific objectives is explored (acquiring and retaining new customers, building brand awareness, balancing seasonality and stimulating demand among existing customers).

Design/methodology/approach
– A questionnaire-based survey was conducted that involved 108 hotels, each of which has run at least one social couponing campaign through Groupon in Italy. The importance-performance approach was applied to analyze the data.

Findings
– Overall, the perceived effectiveness of social couponing for hotels is quite low. Social couponing is useful to increase brand awareness but does not encourage customer behavioral loyalty. Larger hotels can successfully use this marketing tool to balance demand seasonality.

Research limitations/implications
– The sample size is limited but includes approximately one-fourth of all Italian hotels that have run social coupon campaigns through Groupon. Only social couponing campaigns run through one daily deal site (Groupon) in one country (Italy) were considered.

Practical implications
– Social couponing is not perceived as equally effective for all hotels. This study provides hotel managers with suggestions for deciding whether to allocate a share of their marketing resources to social couponing.

Originality/value
– To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to present field data to complement the available theoretical knowledge on social couponing for hotels.