Social commerce has evolved through the advancement of web 2.0 technologies, the significant rise of smartphone usage, and the increased popularity of social media platform usage such as social networking sites. Social networking sites have unique social sharing capabilities, which enable consumers to research products and services and make informed shopping decisions based on the trust developed in their online community. Brands acknowledge the importance of building and gaining consumer trust, because trust is a significant determinant for successful online transactions. Trust is equally essential to social commerce success, and is established as a positive influence on purchase intention. Considering the impact of trust on the consumer decision-making journey online, how this trust develops and what moderates this trust are of equal significance to brands and academics. Despite the plentiful research conducted in social commerce, the moderating role of culture on trust in social commerce is questioned, and the uncertainties of its impact within an emerging country is evident through insufficient academic research. The research design used in this study was cross-sectional in nature. Quantitative data were collected from a sample of social commerce users though an online survey administered on a branded Facebook page. Adopting an integrative social commerce framework by Kim and Park (2013) and the national cultural framework of Hofstede, the findings demonstrated a positive relationship between trust and purchase intention, and no moderation of culture on trust. Reinforcing previous academic research on the significance of trust in social commerce – further recommendation is given on the exploration of culture on trust and purchase intention.

In recent years, social commerce sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial have achieved great success in attracting new consumers and increasing store traffic for a growing number of businesses. However, it is still unclear how the information flow to reach new consumers is generated. Understanding this information flow is the key to the question of what lead to the success of these companies. In the online context, the key information disseminators can have both a large-scale network and a decisive influence on the nodes that are connected closely to them, indicating an important pattern of consumer purchase process. Here, we argue that one of the prominent advantages of social commerce is the information dissemination process, during which word of mouth (WOM) is generated to boost consumer traffic. In the present study, we conduct a cluster analysis to segment online shoppers according to their information dissemination contribution. Gatekeeping theory was used for conceptualizing consumers who tend to disseminate more commercial information and WOM in social commerce, providing us the theoretical basis for clustering consumers. Our findings suggest that a sizable proportion of consumers constituted the gatekeeper group (approximately 25%). Gatekeepers tend to be highly active in both finding the outside source of information and connecting it with inside social networks. In addition, different aspects of the potential to become gatekeepers divide the rest of the consumers into two groups. To date, the present research is the first to explore online consumer segmentations using the gatekeeping perspective. / text

This research study involves three essays and examines CRQ-driven decision making from the points of view of the common firm, social-commerce platform provider, and social-commerce echo-system. It addresses CRQ's progression from traditional business-to-consumer (B2C) initiatives to social platform-specific antecedents and to environment-driven factors lying outside the direct control of the platform provider, yet influencing social commerce business decisions, such as user-generated content from peers (e.g. family, friends) and expert authority (e.g. specialists, experts, professional organizations). The research method used statistical, data mining and computer science techniques. The results suggest that social platform providers should take a proactive approach to CRQ, fully leverage their online platform to improve CRQ while paying special attention to security as a potential barrier, and consider the analysis of elements of the echo-system such as the electronic word of mouth (eWOM) to further drive CRQ and determine the level of alignment between customers and experts, suppliers and products featured, that may lead to value-added managerial insights such as the prioritization, promotion and optimization of such relationships.

La finalidad de este trabajo de investigación es descubrir la relación del Social Commerce con la Intención de Compra de smartphones, tanto de gama media alta y alta, aplicado en jóvenes Millennials. Esta investigación brindará una visión detallada de los componentes o constructos del Social Commerce en el ámbito de la categoría de smartphones y así descubrir el impacto que realmente poseen las redes sociales entre los usuarios consumidores. A su vez, esta investigación ofrece la contextualización de la dinámica digital en redes sociales durante las etapas de Intención de Compra, lo cual es muy rico para que a partir de esto las marcas de smartphones tomen decisiones importantes y certeras al momento de establecer campañas con un ecosistema digital potente. Esto permitirá no solo inducir a la compra sino también identificar los mejores momentos o situaciones para crear lazos y prosumidores positivos para la marca. / The purpose of this research work is to discover the relationship of Social Commerce with the Purchase Intent of smartphones, both upper-middle and high-end, applied to young Millennials. This research will provide a detailed view of the components or constructs of Social Commerce in the field of the smartphone category and thus discover the impact that social networks really have among consumer users. At the same time, this research offers the contextualization of the digital dynamics in social networks during the stages of Purchase Intent, which is very rich so that from this the smartphone brands make important and accurate decisions when establishing campaigns with a powerful digital ecosystem. This will allow not only to induce the purchase but also to identify the best moments or situations to create positive ties and prosumers for the brand. / Trabajo de investigación

Yes / One of the main aspects of the Web 2.0 revolution has been social commerce that has resulted in many people across the world increasingly engaging with commercial activities over social media platforms. However, the academic and research interest in social commerce is still low, and more studies are required to accelerate awareness of the most important issues relating to social commerce, in particular, social trust and value cocreation. Thus, the present study aims to propose a conceptual model that is intended to enable greater understanding of the causal interactions between social commerce constructs, social trust, and customer value cocreation. We collected data using a sample of 300 followers and fans of online Facebook communities, and we analysed them by using a structural equation model. The results show that social commerce constructs positively impact on social trust. Furthermore, we found that social trust positively impacts on the three dimensions of customer value cocreation. We found that social trust mediates the relationship between the social commerce and customer value cocreation dimensions. The paper presents a considerable theoretical contribution for being the first study that links social commerce constructs with social trust. The linkage between social commerce constructs, social trust, and customer value cocreation dimensions will also be beneficial for social media marketing strategists and managers.

Yes / While the importance of s-commerce is implicitly recognized, inconsistencies in extant empirical research pose significant challenges. Based on perspectives from trust, social presence, and socio-technical theories, this study develops an integrated model of the factors that influence intention and use behavior, with particular attention to the role of trust in s-commerce. The model is tested using meta-analytic structural equation modeling techniques on 201 observations from 83 s-commerce studies. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Submitted by William Justo Figueiro (williamjf) on 2015-07-20T19:34:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 52c.pdf: 1845777 bytes, checksum: e583f058d1f5aa1dc679910bff89aa11 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-20T19:34:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 52c.pdf: 1845777 bytes, checksum: e583f058d1f5aa1dc679910bff89aa11 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-07-08 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O presente trabalho propõe-se a realizar uma observação transdisciplinar de inclinação sociológica das relações entre Direito e Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TIC’s). Parte-se da teoria da estruturação, do sociólogo britânico Anthony Giddens, buscando-se, com ela, observar o ciberespaço como espaço relacional na construção de redes sociais virtuais em um cenário de alta modernidade. Observar-se-á a conjugação de processos aparentemente distintos, como globalização, direito e revolução tecnológica, a qual vem delineando uma sociedade planetária unificada, marcada pela indefinição e indeterminação. Nesse sentido, para a teoria da estruturação, tendências globalizantes da alta modernidade são marcadas pela reorganização do tempo e do espaço, por mecanismos de desencaixe e pela reflexividade. Com efeito, isso se intensifica a partir da ação conjunta de máquinas e indivíduos. Assim, desvelar-se-á uma tese sobre máquinas (Lévy/Guattari), que permitirá uma compreensão mais ampla não apenas do contexto de redes, mas do processo de formação e articulação de identidades em um contexto de monitoração reflexiva no ciberespaço. Máquinas e indivíduos tecem-se conjuntamente, em um mundo composto por corpos, culturas, linguagens, significações, dobras e redobras, onde o empírico torna-se transcendental e o transcendental faz advir um mundo empírico, em uma constante interpenetração, criando a mecanosfera, a mega-máquina mundo. É nessa perspectiva que se observará como a criação de redes sociais na Internet vem originando ambientes comunicacionais que merecem, atualmente, a atenção do Direito. Entre eles, destaca-se a necessidade de observação de uma figura híbrida, surgida recentemente no ciberespaço, a partir da interface entre comércio eletrônico (e-commerce) e redes sociais, denominada social commerce (comércio social). Com efeito, o ciberespaço vem ensejando o surgimento de uma cibercultura de consumo, desterritorializada, despersonalizada e em constante desenvolvimento em redes sociais. Nesse novo espaço virtual de compras em rede, podem se apontar, logo, aspectos que interessam ao Direito, sobretudo ao Direito do Consumidor. Entre eles, destacam-se a publicidade e a proteção da privacidade e da intimidade no ciberespaço, salientando-se, entre outros aspectos, os bancos de dados e cadastros dos consumidores. Entende-se que os problemas ora diagnosticados trazem a necessidade de uma reinterpretação e da adaptação da dogmática jurídica do direito do consumidor, a qual pode servir-se de subsídios de um ponto de observação sociológico. Transformações do tempo, a co-modificação do espaço e o estabelecimento de um complexo meio ambiente criado são, assim, fatores que devem ser sopesados em análises jurídicas que dão conta não apenas do plano físico, mas igualmente do virtual. / This paper proposes to carry out a sociological observation transdisciplinary slope of the relationship between Law and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). It starts with the theory of structuration, the British sociologist Anthony Giddens, seeking, with it, see cyberspace as the relational space in the building of virtual social networks in a scenario of high modernity. Notice will be a combination of seemingly disparate processes such as globalization, law and technological revolution, which has been outlining a unified planetary society, marked by uncertainty and indeterminacy. In this sense, the theory of structuration, globalizing trends of high modernity is marked by the reorganization of time and space, mechanisms for undocking and reflexivity. Indeed, it intensifies from the joint action of individuals and machines. Thus, it will unveil a thesis about machines (Levy / Guattari), which will allow a broader understanding not only the context of networks, but the process of formation and articulation of identities in a context of reflexive monitoring in cyberspace. Machinery and individuals weave themselves together in a world consisting of bodies, cultures, languages, meanings, folds and pleats, where it becomes the empirical and the transcendental transcendental result is an empirical world in a constant interpenetration, creating mecanosphere the mega-machine world. From this perspective, it is observed that the creation of social networking sites is leading communication environments they deserve, now, the attention of law. Among them, there is the need for observation of a hybrid figure, which appeared recently in cyberspace, from the interface between electronic commerce (e-commerce) and social networks, called social commerce (trade office). Indeed, cyberspace has lead to the emergence of a consumer cyberculture, deterritorialized, depersonalized and constantly evolving social network. In this new virtual space in shopping network, can be pointed out, so issues of interest to the law, particularly the right of the consumer. Among these is the publicity and protection of privacy and intimacy in cyberspace, stressing, among other things, the databases and records of consumers. It is understood that the problems now diagnosed bring the need for a reinterpretation and adaptation of legal dogmatics of consumer law, which can make use of subsidies for a sociological viewpoint. Transformations of time, the co-modification of the space and the establishment of a complex environment created are thus factors to be weighed in legal analysis that account not only the physical but also virtual.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att analysera hur interaktion med och bekräftelse av opinion leaders påverkar konsumenters impulshandlande genom företags marknadsföring via s-commerce. Denna studie genomfördes således för att tydliggöra om influencers genom olika faktorer kan påverka impulsköp online.  Metod: Metoden som användes för att genomföra denna studie var en kvantitativ studie genom webbaserade enkätundersökningar. Resultatet från denna analyserades sedan i programmet SPSS för att få fram en tydlig bild av hur faktorerna påverkar impulsköp. Populationen innehåller män och kvinnor från åldern 16 år och uppåt som följer en influencer på sociala medier. Urvalet är sedan de som är medlemmar i Facebookgruppen "Fredagspoddens vänner" samt de som följer Jessica Lagergren och Elin Lindqvist på Instagram.  Resultat och slutsats: Resultatet visade att påverkan från influencers inte var speciellt stor och att konsumenter tenderar att impulshandla till en större grad om dessa inte var inblandade. Trots att påverkan var liten tydliggjordes det att bekräftelse från influencers var den faktor som påverkade respondenterna mest.  Examensarbetets bidrag: Denna studie bidrar till ökad förståelse för hur företag ska använda sig av influencers i sin marknadsföring för att generera impulsköp online och bygger vidare på det gap som tidigare forskning har observerat.  Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Till fortsatt forskning hade det varit intressant att se hur många impulsköp ett samarbete mellan företag och influencers i snitt genererar. En annan sak att undersöka är vilket socialt medie som genererar flest impulsköp. / Aim: The purpose of this study is to analyze how interaction with and confirmation from opinion leaders affect consumers' impulse buying through companies marketing via social commerce. This study was thus accomplished to clarify whether influencers, through different factors, can influence impulse purchases online. Method: The method that was used in this study was a quantitative study through web-based surveys. The results from these was then analyzed in the program SPSS to get a clear picture of how the factors affect impulse purchases. The population contains men and women from the age of 16 years and upwards that are following an influencer on social media. The selection group is then those who are members of the Facebook group "Fredagspoddens vänner" as well as those following Jessica Lagergren and Elin Lindqvist at Instagram. Result and conclusions: The result showed that the influence of influencers was not particularly great, and consumers tend to impulse buy to a greater extent if they were not involved. Although the impact was small, it was clear that the confirmation from influencers was the factor that affected the respondents the most.  Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes to increased understanding of how businesses should use influencers in their marketing to generate impulse purchases online as well as it is built on the gap that previous research has observed. Suggestions for future research: For further research, it would be interesting to see how many impulse purchases that on average are generated by collaborations between companies and influencers. Another thing to investegate is what social media that generates the most impulse purchases.

I takt med att sociala medier har växt sig större har konsumenters shoppingbeteende förändrats. Inköp av produkter sker numera i allt större utsträckning på sociala medier. Den senaste plattformen TikTok har påskyndat förändringen av informationssökning med sitt korta videoformat som låter användare dela information om produkter samtidigt som de har roligt. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur TikTok som plattform används vid informationssökning och hur konsumenterna påverkar varandra vid användandet av TikTok. Kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts för att samla in material för att besvara studiens syfte. Fem teman kring konsumenters upplevelse av TikTok har identifierats genom en tematisk analys. Teorierna electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) och flow har använts för att analysera de fem temana. Resultatet visar att TikTok är en källa till inspiration som kan leda till konsumtion och nöje. På TikTok skapas en ny form av communities som är löst sammansatta till skillnad från communities som har varit slutna på andra sociala plattformar. Flow är en betydande del av den underhållande upplevelsen och engagemanget på TikTok men studien visar också att flow kan leda till negativa effekter. Studien har ett begränsat omfång på grund av urval av respondenter men kan användas som grund för vidare forskningen kring flow och communities på TikTok då den visar att detta påverkar konsumenters informationssökning. / As social media has grown in popularity, consumers’ shopping behaviour has changed. The purchase of products is now increasingly done on social media. The latest platform TikTok has accelerated the change in information seeking with its short video format that allows users to share information about products while having fun. The purpose of the study is to investigate how TikTok as a platform is used when searching for information and how consumers influence each other when using TikTok. Qualitative semi-structured interviews have been conducted to collect material to answer the study's purpose. Five themes surrounding consumers' experience of TikTok have been identified through a thematic analysis. The theories electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and flow have been used to analyse the five themes. The result shows that TikTok is a source of inspiration that can lead to consumption and enjoyment. TikTok has formed a new form of communities that are loosely composed, unlike closed communities on other social platforms. Flow is a significant part of the joyful experience and engagement on TikTok, but the study also shows that flow can lead to negative effects. The study has a limited scope due to the selection of respondents, but can be used as a basis for further research on flow and communities on TikTok as it shows that this affects consumers' information search. This study will be written in swedish.

Social commerce has raised with increased interactions between businesses and consumers on social media. Social commerce is the new phenomena which is a subset of e-commerce and lets customers engage in marketing activities led by businesses. Businesses have started to use social media to interact with new and potential customers and customer engagement is a key factor to success in social commerce. Social media lets the companies promote new products and sales campaigns which benefits them as social media creates exposure to many consumers. To get a better understanding on the subject, this study has examined what drives customers to engage in social commerce and which type of content on Facebook creates customer engagement. The research has been conducted by focus group discussions and content analysis on Facebook brand pages. Companies within the home interior branch has been studied in the content analysis. The results showed that customers engage in social commerce to get information, stay updated on news and offers, but also engage themselves with the content on social media by sharing brand content to their friends on the platform. Other findings showed that a higher level of customer engagement was created in posts that contained information infused with entertainment. Contests on Facebook brand pages also created a high level of customer engagement.