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7 CONTRIBUTIONS AND
FUTURE RESEARCH
This research is among the first to empirically
examine the merging of social networking with E-
commerce technologies for consumer online
purchasing. Theoretically, this research contributes
by extending the Technology Acceptance Model
with factors extracted from social comparison theory
and trust theory. The two additional factors:
tendency to social comparison and trust were
significant in the model in addition to PEOU and
PU. A new scale, tendency to social comparison,
was developed and empirically tested as reliable.
Understanding consumer perceptions and
intentions to use a social shopping website have
direct management implications. A recent study
empirically confirmed the economic value
associated with online user reviews and product
sales through an investigation that used text mining
algorithms (Ghose and Ipeirotis 2009). In the study,
a clear relationship emerged between user-generated
product information and reviews and online product
sales. The combined empirical evidence from their
study with this one, which shows overall favorable
attitudes towards the adoption of web sites that go
beyond consumer reviews and enables consumers to
enjoy the social aspects of shopping online,
demonstrates that the strategic integration of online
products sales with online social networking is very
important.
From a practical perspective, the current research
model suggests that in addition to focusing on ease
of use and usefulness, the site should allow users to
easily compare their shopping experiences and
opinions with others, while also fostering a sense of
trust by protecting privacy with strong data security.
The result can produce a greater likelihood that
consumers will find the site useful, use the site, and
increase product sales. Regarding trust on privacy
and data privacy, firms that experiment with ways to
combine social networking with E-commerce may
face information privacy violations if they are not
transparent in their data collection activities (Steel
2010). Some companies are addressing the privacy
concerns by providing users with more information
and controls on the data that being tracked
(Valentino-Devries 2010). The potential value of the
social shopping website is that users voluntarily
create shopping profiles to aid in their own
shopping. Because the profile data is not personally
identifiable, the relevant value of the content can be
shared and integrated with other users without
violating personal information privacy.
One possible direction for future research is to
examine the type of online shopping tasks that are
most suitable for social shopping websites. Will
users prefer using social shopping sites than
traditional E-commerce site for certain shopping
activities, such as browsing or searching (Hong et al.
2004)? Will they prefer the site when they are more
involved with the product, i.e., when the product is
more relevant to them? Also, will the strength of the
social ties affect users’ trust of such shopping sites,
such as family and friends vs. other online shoppers?
With the growing popularity of social media and E-
commerce technology integration, research in this
area is timely and important.
REFERENCES
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Chellappa, Ramnath K. and Raymond G. Sin. 2005.
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Chen, Lei-da, Mark L. Gillenson and Daniel L. Sherrell.
2004. "Consumer Acceptance of Virtual Stores: A
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Ghose, A. and P. Ipeirotis. 2009. "The EconoMining
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Gibbons, Frederick X. and Bram P. Buunk. 1999.
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Hong, Weiyin, James Y. L. Thong and Kar Yan Tam.
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USER ACCEPTANCE OF SOCIAL SHOPPING SITES - Social Comparison and Trust
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