We know and [when convenient] share it all the role of informational social support in online shopping experiences
This study explores the role of informational social support in online shopping experiences. In fact, it is an attempt to investigate the relative importance of informational social support to consumers in e commerce sites. For such, two different product categories were tested in a 2 (presence of informational social support vs. absence of informational social support) X 2 (consumer electronics vs. small appliances) factorial design. In contrast to many earlier studies in this area that have taken trust as the most critical factor for online shopping, we adopt the informational social support perspective as the key variable capable of influencing consumer expectations, perceived satisfaction, purchase intention and post purchase information sharing. To address this challenge, we draw upon a multi theory approach consisting of several underlying concepts such as social commerce, informational social support, information quality, expectations, satisfaction, purchase intention, and engagement in information sharing to investigate the effects of informational social support. An empirical survey on social media platforms with 357 participants was conducted and the results indicate that social support is indeed responsible for strengthening levels of expectation, perceived satisfaction and purchase intention; however, interestingly enough, it does not influence the willingness to share post purchase information