How Culture and Friends Affect Acceptance of Social Media Commerce and Purchase Intentions: A Comparative Study of Consumers in the U.S. and China

Abstract

Several attempts have been made to leverage social media as a way to encourage business transactions. What has been lacking, however, is an academic effort to shed light on culture's role in influencing consumer's perspectives toward social media commerce—a hybrid of social media and e-commerce. This study examines how culture plays a role in the evaluation and acceptance of social media commerce, by comparing the responses of consumers in the U.S. (a representative of western culture) and China (a representative of eastern culture). More precisely, the aim of this study is to address the following important questions: (a) how different culture influence social media users’ psychological mechanism to perceive social media commerce (e.g., enjoyment, sense of community), (b) whether there are cultural differences in perceiving social media commerce between the U.S. and China, and (c) whether friends factor affects consumers’ perceptions and attitudes toward social media commerce. This study discovered that culture has significant influence on consumers’ perception of social media commerce and their intention to use social media commerce. Further findings and limitations are discussed.