Social Influence On Shopping: Exploring Social Learning And The Purchase Decision Journey In Commerce

Abstract

The rise of social commerce has altered consumer purchasing behaviour, but little study has been conducted to investigate the aspects that drive it. This study employs Chen, Lu, and Wang's (2017) model, which is based on social learning theory, to examine the influence of consumers' acquisition of knowledge on important features in social commerce components (SCCs) on their cognitive and affective attitudes, as well as their intentions to make purchases. This study discovered that cognitive and affective assessments are markers of purchase intention in a survey of 417 Gen Z social commerce users in Indonesia, with affective evaluations having a stronger effect. Furthermore, affective evaluations are subject to influence from several factors such as the use of forums, communities, ratings and reviews, and social recommendations. Similarly, cognitive evaluations are impacted by ratings, reviews, and social recommendations. The results of this study indicate that social recommendations have a significant impact on both affective and cognitive evaluations. In contrast to prior studies, it has been found that the influence of information acquired from forums and communities on affective judgement is rather minimal, while its impact on cognitive judgement has yet to be substantiated. Keywords: Social Learning; Purchase Decision Process; Commerce; Social Context; Consumer Behavior