Revisiting the social commerce paradigm: the social commerce (SC) framework and a research agenda
Lai-Ying Leonga, Teck-Soon Hewb, Keng‐Boon Ooic, Nick Hajlid, Garry Wei‐Han Tanc
- aDepartment of Commerce and Accountancy, Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Perak, Malaysia
- bDepartment of Operations and Management Information Systems, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- cUCSI Graduate Business School, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- dSchool of Management, Swansea University, Swansea, UK
Papers open inside SciRah from the original publisher or repository; SciRah never hosts them.
Abstract
Purpose Social commerce (SC) is a new genre in electronic commerce (e-commerce) that has great potential. This study proposes a new research framework to address deficiencies in existing social commerce research frameworks (e.g. the information model). Design/methodology/approach In the era of Industrial Revolution 4.0 technologies and new social commerce (s-commerce) models, the authors believe that there is an immediate need for a new research framework. The authors analysed the progress of the s-commerce paradigm between 2003 and 2023 by applying longitudinal science mapping. The authors then developed a research framework based on the themes in the strategic diagrams and evolution map. Findings From 2003 to 2010, studies on s-commerce mainly focused on social networking sites, virtual communities, social shopping and analytic approaches. From 2011 to 2015, it shifted to s-commerce, consumer behaviour, Web 2.0, artificial intelligence, social technologies, online shopping, user studies, data gathering methods, applications, service-based social commerce constructs, e-commerce and cognitive factors. Social commerce remained the primary research paradigm from 2017 to 2023. Practical implications The SC framework may be analogous to popular research frameworks such as technology-organisation-environment (T-O-E) and stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R). Based on this SC framework, researchers may gain a better understanding by determining the factors of the social, commercial, technological and behavioural dimensions. Originality/value The authors redefined s-commerce and developed an SC framework. Practical guidelines for the SC framework and an exemplary research model are presented. Overall, this study offers a new research agenda for the extant understanding of s-commerce, with the SC framework as the next frontier of the theoretical advancements and applications of s-commerce.
TL;DRThis study proposes a new research framework to address deficiencies in existing social commerce research frameworks, and redefined s-commerce and developed an SC framework, which may be analogous to popular research frameworks such as technology-organisation-environment (T-O-E) and stimulus-organism-response (S- O-R). (Semantic Scholar)