The intercorrelations among risk factors and trust dimensions in S-commerce: An empirical investigation from the user experience

Abstract

With the increase in social media users, businesses are trying to benefit from the popularity and reachability of such platforms by introducing a new channel for promoting and selling their products. This study surveyed 267 social commerce consumers in the UAE to understand the impact of the perceived risks on users' trust, which is known to impact customers' purchase intention. Structural equation modeling and factor analysis were applied. The results highlighted the importance of security risks as statistically significant influencers of the users' trust. On the other hand, financial and time risks were insignificant. The study has both practical and theoretical implications discussed in the paper.