Social support and social commerce purchase intention: The mediating role of social trust

Social commerce (s-commerce) has risen in popularity primarily owing to social media development. We investigated social support as a predictor of s-commerce purchase intention, and the mediating role of social trust in this relationship. Participants comprised 356 undergraduate students at five Chinese public universities. Structural equation modeling results indicate that social support had a direct positive effect on s-commerce purchase intention, and that social trust partially mediated this relationship. Our findings shed light on the relationship of social support and s-commerce purchase intention, and the practical contribution of the findings is that they can assist practitioners to develop better s-commerce strategies.