The intentions to use social commerce from social, technology, and personal trait perspectives : analysis of direct, indirect, and moderating effects

Purpose: This study aims to propose a theoretical model to determine factors affecting an individual’s intentions to use social commerce (SC) in generating and sharing information on a vendor’s products and services. This, however, involves the application of three fundamental aspects including social interaction, social technology and personal trait used in constructing SC to propose these factors. Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional time approach of the quantitative field study was used with the data collected from 874 users of SC in Indonesia using questionnaires. Findings: The results showed social technology to be the dominant aspect influencing users’ intention to use SC followed by social experience and personality traits while, in detail, perceived enjoyment was discovered to have the most influence and this is in line with the findings of previous studies. Moreover, new results were also identified based on direct, indirect and moderating effects of gender, age and experience. Originality/value: This research is different from previous ones because of its proposal of an extensive model that combines three main perspectives used in constructing SC and its emphasis on the theoretical and practical importance of studying not only the direct but also the indirect and moderating effects.