What Drives E-Commerce in Social Networking Sites: The Role of Social Network Theory

• Main Authors: Wesley RandallLaVelle, 衛斯立
• Other Authors: Tien Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/36455569328209897657

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 國際經營管理研究所碩士班 === 101 === Social networking sites have created incredible opportunities for marketing and advertising in nearly every part of the world. The biggest social networking site (Facebook) as of December, 2012 claims to have over 1 billion monthly active users. One of the biggest problems for marketers is how to effectively advertise their products and who to effectively target. This study is based on integrating social network theory and an extension of social identity theory in an attempt to predict social networking site users intentions for e-commerce. Respondents from Mainly Taiwan and the Unites States of America were chosen as the sample for this survey. Findings indicated the network characteristics; tie strength and network centrality; were effective in predicting a users’ social identity with the social networking site. In addition, social identity with the social networking site was a successful predictor of social commerce intentions. However, network density was the one social networking characteristic found to not have an effect on social identity with the social networking site. This study fills research gaps in using social networking characteristics in the e-commerce and social networking site context. From these findings, strategies can be formed to target socially advantageous individuals outlined from literature review to more effectively gain market share.