AUGMENTING SOCIAL COMMERCE ACCEPTANCE THROUGH AN ALL-INCLUSIVE APPROACH TO SOCIAL COMMERCE DRIVERS. EVIDENCE FROM THE HOTEL INDUSTRY

The study sought to examine the differential effect of social commerce drivers on social commerce acceptance in the hotel industry. The study was driven by the need to elevate the usage of social networks from mere communication tools to business platforms that can be used for trade and commerce. In developing social commerce drivers, the study examined and unified nine previous theories of technology adoption. A positivist, quantitative methodology was adopted in this study. Data was analysed using a structural equation modelling (SEM) procedure. The study confirmed that all the five drivers namely, utility, simplicity, intrinsic, social and infrastructural, were statistically significant in driving social commerce acceptance. The most driving force was the infrastructural driver which entails availability of hardware, software and support systems. The study therefore concluded that the all-inclusive approach to social commerce drivers adopted in this study explains 58% of variance in social commerce acceptance. Thus, the study recommends the enhancement of social commerce acceptance through effective manipulation of the social commerce acceptance drivers.