Hu Shangui, Zhu Zhen
College of Business Administration, Ningbo University of Finance and Economics, Ningbo, China.
School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China.
Front Psychol. 2022 May 11;13:837752. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.837752. eCollection 2022.
Social commerce has produced enormous economic benefits as well as challenges for organizations, individuals, and industries. However, social media usage does not necessarily generate users' intention to purchase on social commerce websites. How social media usage influences users' purchase intention on social commerce websites still deserves more scholarly attention and this seems particularly important when social commerce transcends borders and countries. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, the current study adopted a survey research method and identified the roles of social media usage in arousing users' purchase intention on social commerce websites in a culturally diversified environment. The data was collected from 2,058 international students coming from 135 countries and was analyzed using MPLUS based structural equation modeling. The research unveils the pathway whereby social media usage serves to generate users' purchase intention on social commerce websites. Importantly, users' cultural intelligence has been found to play a significant role mediating the effects of social media usage on users' intention. Further, cultural distance was found to attenuate the effects of social media usage on cultural intelligence. Based on the research findings, the study suggests that social commerce practitioners should be fully aware of the enabling roles of social media and cultural intelligence as well as the deterring role of cultural distance when arousing customers' purchasing intention in cross-cultural business operations. Any measures facilitated by social media usage to improve international consumers' cultural intelligence and mitigate the negative effects of cultural distance are supposed to be effective to enhance their purchasing intention. Accordingly, the study confirms the mutually melt and integrative relationships between information technology advancement and business prosperity in cross-cultural environment, which eventually contribute to sustainable development of society.
社交商务为组织、个人和行业带来了巨大的经济效益，但也带来了挑战。然而，社交媒体的使用并不一定会产生用户在社交商务网站上的购买意愿。社交媒体的使用如何影响用户在社交商务网站上的购买意愿仍值得学术界更多关注，当社交商务超越国界和国家时，这一点似乎尤为重要。本研究从跨学科的角度出发，采用调查研究方法，确定了在文化多元化环境中社交媒体使用在激发用户在社交商务网站上的购买意愿方面所起的作用。数据收集自来自135个国家的2058名国际学生，并使用基于MPLUS的结构方程模型进行分析。该研究揭示了社交媒体使用促使在社交商务网站上产生用户购买意愿的途径。重要的是，发现用户的文化智力在介导社交媒体使用对用户意愿的影响方面发挥了重要作用。此外，发现文化距离会减弱社交媒体使用对文化智力的影响。基于研究结果，该研究建议社交商务从业者在跨文化商业运营中激发客户购买意愿时，应充分意识到社交媒体和文化智力的促进作用以及文化距离的阻碍作用。社交媒体使用所促成的任何提高国际消费者文化智力和减轻文化距离负面影响的措施都应该能有效增强他们的购买意愿。因此，该研究证实了跨文化环境中信息技术进步与商业繁荣之间相互融合的关系，这最终有助于社会的可持续发展。
