Effects of collectivism on actual s-commerce use and the moderating effect of price consciousness

Social media has become increasingly popular over the past few years and is continuing to flourish throughout the world. Its rise in popularity and use is propelling user-generated content on commercial websites facilitating the online buying of goods and services referred to as social commerce (s-commerce).This study examines the effects of collectivism and price consciousness on consumers' intention to use s-commerce using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as the theoretical framework. We test and analyze the research model and related hypotheses using structural equation modeling. The results from a survey of 375 s-commerce users indicate that preference, reliance, norm acceptance, and goal priority (dimensions of collectivism) had significant effects on the perceived usefulness of s-commerce and that price consciousness had significant moderating effects on the relationships between perceived usefulness/perceived ease of use and individuals' intention to use s-commerce. A discussion of the research findings and implications for practitioners and researchers is included.