Technological Forecasting & Social Change 87 (2014) 17–27

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Technological Forecasting & Social Change

The role of social support on relationship quality

and social commerce
M. Nick Hajli
Department of Management, Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Empowered by social media, individuals are active content creators in social networking sites.
Received 29 January 2013 This has brought new changes in business environment, of which social commerce is one
Received in revised form 29 April 2014 of them. Social commerce, a new stream in e-commerce, highlights the role of technological
Accepted 26 May 2014 advancements to develop a new social commerce era. In social commerce era, individuals
Available online 24 June 2014
share their knowledge, experiences, and information about the products and services with
peers, providing a supportive environment in an online context. Drawn from social support
Keywords: theory, relationship quality, and social media concept this research proposes a model to
Social commerce investigate the role of social factors that impact on relationship quality and social commerce
Social support
intention. A survey conducted on Facebook, a popular social networking site, and PLS-SEM
Relationship quality
method was applied to empirically test the proposed model. The results offer a valuable picture
Social media
Online communities of social factors that influence relationship quality and social commerce intention. Towards
Social networking sites these ends, the study highlights a new picture of consumers' behaviour in social commerce era.
PLS-SEM It provides a new theory in the area of research — social commerce. Practical implications of the
research also highlight new technological changes in e-commerce platform and provide new
strategies to firms to adopt these new technological advancements.
© 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The proliferation of the internet has given the opportunity
to consumers to use social media, from email to Twitter and
Facebook, to have social interactions with other users without
meeting them [1]. Consumers are now content generators
on the internet by using new technologies [2], which offer new
opportunities for both businesses and consumers [3]. The use
of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as leading social networking
sites (SNSs) has increased, with their popularity creating
new routes for e-vendors, called social commerce [4]. YouTube
and Facebook are among the most popular SNSs [5], which
increasingly attract individuals to SNSs, mostly because of
individuals' perceived usefulness [6]. In recent years, SNSs and
online communities have been growing quickly [7,8]. SNSs have
different values, such as relationship marketing and relationship
E-mail address: m.hajli@bbk.ac.uk.
quality [9] and these social networks offer a suitable environ-
ment in identifying emerging social behavioural changes [8].
Identifying emerging social behavioural changes is important
due to the fact that development of e-commerce to social
commerce is a behaviour change [10]. The concept behind social
commerce is that social media benefits commercial transactions
of vendors by developing closer relationships with customers,
enriching the quality of the relationship, increasing sales and
encouraging loyalty to the business. To reach these aims, a
business may use a social media tool such as Facebook or
Twitter to gain access to social platforms. Because social media
now influence marketing activities [11], consumers who use
social media communicate with brands [12–14] and generate a
positive effect on brand evaluation [15]. Companies can now
apply social media strategies to influence [16] and increase their
sales [7,17]. Therefore, it is useful to understand how people use
social media for communication to form new forms of social
interaction [1,18] and find out about consumer behaviour in

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2014.05.012
0040-1625/© 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
18 M.N. Hajli / Technological Forecasting & Social Change 87 (2014) 17–27
an online context. In addition investigating social commerce
intentions and drivers for social commerce may make the
market familiar with the influence of technological advance-
ments, particularly Web 2.0 and its effects on consumer's
behaviour in the social commerce era. Social commerce is
facilitated by technologies such as social media for consumers to
have interactions and to gather contributions by individuals to
gain information about buying a product or service [4]. Social
commerce, social media and Web 2.0 technologies demand
new issues and the development of new theories in this area
and may be one of the most challenging areas of information
systems (IS) and marketing research in the coming decade [4].
Research shows that customers like to share their shopping
experiences with other friends [10]. These experiences are
important for consumers, especially when they receive in-
formation from friends and this influences their shopping
behaviour [19]. It is argued that consumers in an online context
are most influenced by word of mouth (WOM), which is the
high-flying feature on the internet [19] and has ripple effect
[20]. WOM occurs when consumers share their experiences
about a product or leave their views with other consumers [21].
Social interaction and relationship of individuals in the
online context are mostly based on shared interests [22] and
produce information richness in the transaction environment
[23] leading to better customer understanding. Being in a
group and having social interaction with other members are
human needs; these are now facilitated by Web 2.0 applica-
tions such as social media. Online communities such as SNSs
are new web services providing both personal experiences
and information sharing in a business context [7].
In this research, the author proposes a model to investi-
gate the social interaction of consumers on the internet in
social commerce era. In particular, this will investigate social
support to explain the effects of social factors on relationship
quality and social commerce intention. Social support refers
to the social interaction of people in a group and their feelings
about being cared for, being answered to and being supported
[24]. Social support is defined as “The social resources that
persons perceive to be available or that are actually provided
to them by non-professionals in the context of both formal
support groups and informal helping relationships.” [25].
Social support has been thoroughly investigated in psychol-
ogy, sociology and health studies [26]. With the emergence
of Web 2.0 and social relationships in social technologies, it is
now being welcomed into business studies [27]. People share
their knowledge and experiences more freely when they feel that
their participation improves their reputation [28]. Twitter as a
popular SNS is a good example, where members of communities
regularly provide social support for others [1]. Availability of
online social support in SNSs [29] is a factor which may influence
social commerce intentions. There are a number of established
researches based on social support theory in online community
studies [10,30,31]. This research will extend theory to online social
support based on the relationship of individuals on the internet.
Therefore social support in terms of relationship quality, can result
in better understanding of both customer loyalty and adoption.
This has also facilitated the use of information systems and
marketing disciplines in this context.
Although the adoption of information technology and
e-commerce has been studied in depth, there is a need for
new theoretical frameworks to include social interaction of
consumers on the internet and its applications for businesses
and marketing strategies. Accordingly, this research addresses
these questions: (1) Does perceived social support in SNSs
influence a consumer's decision to become involved in social
commerce? (2) Does perceived social support in SNSs influence
relationship quality? (3) Is relationship quality or perceived
social support more important in shaping a consumer's decision
to deal in social commerce?
To answer these questions a survey was conducted with
Facebook users in the UK.
2. Social commerce
Social commerce has emerged from the advancements
in information and communication technologies (ICTs) and
Web 2.0 applications [32], where consumers are empowered
to generate content and also interact with businesses [33].
The social environment of online communities is a suitable
place to share information and knowledge [34] and these
environments are knowledge management platforms [35].
These communities can be an opportunity for businesses
to employ digital marketing [36], produce informational and
emotional supports for consumers [30,37], market commu-
nications [38] or enrich value of co-creation in branding [39].
These advancements have given opportunities to con-
sumers to create their own content, rate and review services
and products and leave their comments on the internet. In fact,
customer involvement is a key strategic factor in marketing
[40]. Therefore, the study of social commerce can be an impor-
tant agenda for marketing discipline.
The basis of social commerce is in commercial activities,
social media technologies and community interactions [4]. To
adopt a social commerce strategy, business can configure it
in two ways. They can keep their current e-commerce website
and use the applications and extensions of SNSs to facilitate
interface on their website for interaction with communities in
SNSs. This community can be a page for instance on Facebook
or Twitter. Alternatively, SNSs such as Facebook add commer-
cial features for advertising or commercial purposes. These
configurations give opportunities to interact with customers to
encourage better understanding of their needs or to develop
their relationship quality with their customers.
3. Theoretical background and literature review
Customers are partners and part of a value creation chain
in a business [39,41]. Therefore, businesses need to under-
stand their customers [42] and building marketing relation-
ships with them is necessary. Relationship quality as an
important factor in relationship marketing literature is
related to different factors; this can influence loyalty towards
a business [42,43]. Relationship quality can be defined in
various categories. However, it is mostly focused on trust,
commitment and relationship satisfaction [42,44]. Relation-
ship quality in an online context can be categorized to
characteristics and behaviour of the vendor [44]. In the online
context, an e-vendor promotes relationship quality in
different ways including investment in the relationship with
customers, customer relationship management, social sup-
port, etc.
 M.N. Hajli / Technological Forecasting & Social Change 87 (2014) 17–27
3.1. Social support in an online context
People hang out on online communities to receive social
support [45]. Social support can be defined as perceived care,
love and support of members of a group [24]. Individuals
receive supportive resources in relationships developed with
friends in their communities [46]. With the rise of social
technologies, the new environment of content delivery has
been made much easier, where users can share information
and knowledge; it is much more user-friendly than before
[34]. These relationships and ties between members provide
emotional aid and information support [22,46]; this is now
available in SNSs [30]. Members of an online community
carry out different individual actions, which contribute to the
group by information sharing about a product or service [47].
In fact, community interaction influences the community
commitment of members [48]. The main reason why people
join online communities is for social support and to exchange
relevant information [45]. Hence, it is important to investi-
gate these SNSs to see how people integrate information and
use communication technologies (ICTs) by employing social
interactions on the internet [1]. Receiving emotional and in-
formative support brings warmth to people in SNSs [10,45].
Users on these platforms provide support to each other.
Moreover, the social interactions of individuals through social
media facilitate and influence their decisions in purchase
process [49]. These two constructs, informational and emo-
tional supports, have been investigated in this study, although
social support can be viewed as a multidimensional construct.
3.2. Relationship quality
Relationship quality refers to relationship closeness or strength
and it is one of the key determinants of customer loyalty [41].
Relationship quality is a key concept in relationship marketing.
Research shows that relationship quality has mainly three facets;
trust, relationship satisfaction and relationship commitment [50].
Therefore, in this research the author assumes that better
relationship quality is accompanied by these indicators.
Trust is a central issue in most economic and social
transactions, especially in an online context where there
may be lots of uncertainty [51]. Trust also is a central issue
in social commerce [52]. Trust in a business shows that
an e-vendor is honest and benevolent [53]. Benevolence
and credibility are seen as two distinct types of trust [54].
Credibility based trust, which usually is impersonal and relies
on reputation information, refers to the belief that the other
party in a transaction is reliable and honest; benevolence,
however, refers to repeated seller–buyer relationships [54].
Relationship commitment refers to an individual's desire to
continue a relationship with a retailer [50]. Commitment is a
main factor for a long term relationship [55]. This indicator of
relationship quality shows the importance of the relationship
with service provider that maximise the efforts to guarantee
the relationship [56]. Relationship satisfaction, the other
indicator of relationship quality, refers to the affective state
of people from their complete evaluation of the relationship
they have with other people [50]. Investment in a relationship
with consumers has a direct and great impact on intention
to buy in consumers and also in customer retention [57]. The
strength of this relationship or relationship quality is a key
19
concept in relationship marketing [42]. This relationship is
dependent on the vendor service quality and how it builds the
connection with consumers.
3.3. Social commerce intention
Social commerce intention is a measurement of how to
anticipate a possible consumer's actions. This new stream, social
commerce, tries to use the commercial opportunities in SNSs
with the relationships in networks and communities to gain
commercial advantages [58]. These commercial advantages can
lead the business to increase their sales or improve customer
loyalty. ‘Intention to use’ has been thoroughly investigated
before through the introduction of related theories such as
theory of reasoned action, theory of technology acceptance
model and theory of planned behaviour. Consequently, we use
intention to use social commerce for the outcome construct of
the proposed model of this research to see the relationship and
power of social support and relationship quality. A consumer's
attitude to social commerce does not influence his or her
intention to use social commerce, although it may be affected by
the actual behaviour of their activities in a group or community
[59]. In fact, social interaction of members in a group is likely to
be one of the main factors in determining consumer behaviour
[47]. Hence, their peers and associates have great influence on
intention to use in social commerce. The quality and quantity of
information provided by consumers, such as costumer reviews
and ratings, influence social commerce intention [40].
4. The research framework
This study identified three constructs which build up the
research model of this paper: social support, relationship
quality and social commerce intention. The author intends to
test the direct and indirect relationships of these constructs
on social commerce intention.
4.1. Research hypotheses
In order to have a better understanding of our research
framework, the corresponding elements of our research
framework are shown in Fig. 1.
4.1.1. Effect of social support
Members of online social networks have informational and
social supports within the group [22]. Individuals may join SNSs
and online communities as there is social support, both
emotional and informational [45]. Consumer communications
in social media which endorse a brand positively, can affect their
intentional behaviour [15]. They support their friends through
the provision of information, knowledge and experiences as well
as their emotional support. In an online context, these social
supports are the added value for networks and communities.
These values encourage people to be more active and share their
information and support other people. They receive informa-
tional and emotional supports from other members of commu-
nities, which in turn lead them to use the SNSs and other social
platforms when buying a product or service. This type of
information and experiences related by consumers are support-
ive in making purchase decisions as they can present direct or
indirect product or service experience [40]. Socialization and
20 M.N. Hajli / Technological Forecasting & Social Change 87 (2014) 17–27
Commitment
Relaonship quality
Sasfacon
H2
Trust
Emoonal support
Fig. 1. The research model.
social interaction of consumers through social media affect
purchasing decision [60]. Additionally, information provided by a
third party has influence in intention to buy [61]. Accordingly,
this research hypothesizes:
H1. The perception of social support in a SNS is positively
associated with the user's social commerce intention.
In addition, informational and emotional supports generated in
online communities are likely to increase trust, commitment and
satisfaction in consumers. Participation and interaction of con-
sumers in online communities have a positive influence on
consumer commitment, which leads to more trust in the
community itself [62]. Research shows that individuals need to
have social interaction with their network in order to please their
social desires for belonging, which provide them commitment to
their network [63]. By popularity of SNSs many users have a sense
of belonging to their favourite SNS. Information produced through
customer review can be as informant and recommender [40] and
can generate complimentary consequences [61]. The relationship
of individuals in SNSs and the availability of social support offer
trust to the network [64] and satisfaction to consumers [31].
Moreover, social interaction of members influences further
commitment of other members in online communities [48]. It is
also argued that social media activities of companies positively
affect their relation equity [11]. Hence, the author hypothesizes:
H2. The perception of social support in a SNS has a positive
effect on relationship quality between consumers and an
e-vendor's website.
4.1.2. Effect of relationship quality
Members of online communities intend to participate in
group activities and support other members through their
H3 Social commerce
intenon
H1
Social support
Informaonal support
social interactions and communications on the provided
platform [65]. These interactions build trust among members
and satisfy them with the provision of informational and
emotional supports. The support and benefits they gain create
value, which in turn brings satisfaction to them [10]. Therefore
the social support from their social interactions can persuade
them to re-use the system [66] and influence their social
commerce intention. Research shows that relationship quality
positively affects purchase in consumers [67,68]. Therefore, the
research postulates the following hypothesis:
H3. Relationship quality has a positive effect on user's social
commerce intention in SNSs.
5. Research methodology
5.1. Strategy of research
It was assumed that social relationships of users on SNSs
create value. This study takes the positivist paradigm and
employs a survey base strategy. The first part of the research
contains a pilot study on 68 students in the UK, London. The
pilot study is carried out with 68 participants, comprised
of 59% women and 41% men. Participants are recruited
from among postgraduate and undergraduate students of
the University of London. The study was conducted in the
University of London. The pilot study assisted the researcher
to test the questionnaire and the overall quality of survey
before conducting the main research.
5.1.1. Measurement development
All constructs of the proposed model were adopted from
existing literature as shown in Table 1 to increase the reliability
and validity of the research.
 M.N. Hajli / Technological Forecasting & Social Change 87 (2014) 17–27 21

Table 1
Final constructs of the model after pilot study.

Codes Scales Factor loading

Social support
Adapted from Liang, Ho, Li, and Turban [10]

Emotional support
SE1 When faced with difficulties, some people on Facebook are on my side with me. 0.706
SE2 When faced with difficulties, some people on Facebook comforted and encouraged me. 0.845
SE3 When faced with difficulties, some people on Facebook listened to me talk about my private feelings. 0.727
SE4 When faced with difficulties, some people on Facebook expressed interest and concern in my well-being. 0.722

Informational support
SI1 On the Facebook, some people would offer suggestions when I needed help. 0.798
SI2 When I encountered a problem, some people on Facebook would give me information to help me overcome the problem. 0.757
SI3 When faced with difficulties, some people on Facebook would help me discover the cause and provide me with suggestions. 0.814

Relationship quality
Adapted from Liang, Ho, Li, and Turban [10,55]
Commitment
RC1 I am proud to belong to the membership of Facebook. 0.861
RC2 I feel a sense of belonging to Facebook. 0.862
RC3 I care about the long-term success of Facebook. 0.837

Satisfaction
RS1 I am satisfied with using Facebook. 0.797
RS2 I am pleased with using Facebook. 0.892
RS3 I am happy with Facebook. 0.891

Trust
RT1 The performance of Facebook always meets my expectations. 0.707
RT2 Facebook can be counted on as a good social networking site. 0.785
RT3 Facebook is a reliable social networking site. 0.826

Social commerce intention

Adapted from Hajli, M.; Liang, Ho, Li, and Turban [10,69]
IB1 I am very likely to provide the online vendor with the information it needs to better serve my needs. 0.701
IB2 I am willing to provide my experiences and suggestions when my friends on the Facebook want my advice on buying something. 0.700
IB3 I am willing to buy the products recommended by my friends on Facebook. 0.848
IB4 I will consider the shopping experiences of my friends on Facebook when I want to shop. 0.791

Some of the research constructs have multi dimensions.
Relationship quality measured by satisfaction, trust and com-
mitment and finally, social support has two components;
emotional and informational supports. Social commerce inten-
tion, the dependent variable of the research model, measures
the willingness of a consumer to share his or her experience,
gives advice to other members, seeks the information and
advice to buy a product or service and recommends a service
or product to other members in the SNSs.
5.1.2. Instrument development
A questionnaire developed to test the model (Fig. 1) and
the items were measured on a Likert-scale. A seven-point has
been chosen, from 1 ‘strongly disagree’ to 7 ‘strongly agree’.
Although the questionnaire items were adopted from previ-
ous studies, the author developed the instrument in different
phases based on the three stage instrument development
by Moore and Benbasat [70]. In the first step, items of the
questionnaire were created. Some of the items were adopted
from existing literature and some of them from previous
work. Content validity was the object of this step [70].
Content validity; this refers to the instrument measures,
which must strained from all probable measures of the
properties in a study [71]. This is mostly a qualitative assess-
ment [72]. To have a proper content validity, the research
goes through a substantial literature review in the domain of
information systems, marketing, psychology and sociology to
support the theory and related issues for the proposed model.
The author also used expert judge approach [72], by sending
the questionnaire, model, and issue on structural equation
modelling (SEM), to experts in each field to increase the
validity of the research. In addition to this step, a pilot study
of students supported the research and helped the author
to check and balance the research procedures. Finally, the
constructs of the model are from existing literature, which
helped the research to find the tested questionnaire items.
This ensured the content validity of the research.
Scale development; the establishment of a panel of judges
was the second stage of the instrument development. In this
stage, the goal was to assess the construct validity of research
and to ensure the questionnaire items were not ambiguous
[70]. Finally the instrument reached the testing stage in the
pilot study. In this stage, the research had 68 samples, mostly
undergraduate and postgraduate students in the UK. Ques-
tionnaires were distributed over a two month period, May
and June 2012, in a British university. The research also
launched a website to gather the data through e-survey.
From 100 questionnaires, this phase had 68 useable
questionnaires for the pilot test phase. This stage had different
aims. The first was to make sure our previous steps to design
the questionnaire were done properly and to assess the
reliability of the instrument [70]. The reliability of the research
22 M.N. Hajli / Technological Forecasting & Social Change 87 (2014) 17–27

investigated stability across the units of observation [71]. The Table 3

research was also looking for face validity of each item, as this Instrument development results.

was the objective of this testing [72]. Scale Original Reduced Note
The scales were analysed by Cronbach's alpha. As recom- length length
mended, the present research targeted levels of 0.70 to 0.80
Social support 7 7 No changes
ranges for minimum reliability. The reliability of the pilot Relationship quality 9 9 No changes
test is shown in Table 2. The AVE was used to determine the Social commerce intention 5 5 IB3 deleted and new
validity and item loading of each construct. Some candidate item replaced.
responses then had to be deleted from the questionnaire. This
is shown in Table 2.
One of the items that had low item loading was deleted and 50 years old; 56% were female and 44% male. They were
to enhance the Cronbach's alpha and AVE [70]. The total of mostly residents of London. More than 85% of the partici-
dropped items was one and it was IB3, and the new items are pants visit Facebook every day. Demographic information of
replaced in Table 1. However, the overall content validity of this research is shown in Table 4.
research and the domain coverage of constructs were checked In designing the webpage for the questionnaire, the
[70]. As the constructs had enough items, the dropping did author considered different issues to attract participants to
not affect the overall quality of scale. Some other consider- become involved in the research; this included good graphic
ations were those with factor loading less than 0.70. The design, an easy to navigate questionnaire and distribution
remaining items in the questionnaire are shown in Table 3. throughout many forum and online communities, such as
The purpose of analysing responses in the pilot test was Facebook. The goal was to attract a variety of participants in
to increase the reliability and validity of the test. To improve the research. From emails and paper questionnaires distrib-
the reliability of the scale, questionnaire wording, quality uted through different channels, a total of 232 responses were
of the questionnaire and other overall issues were consid- received. A few participants were members of other SNSs or
ered. These steps ensured that the research was ready to be they had a lot of missing data. The total number of 200 usable
conducted. questionnaires was prepared for data analysis, of which 123
were online and 77 paper versions.
5.1.3. Data collection procedures and sample
The present study used paper and e-questionnaire to 5.2. Data analysis approach
maximise the number of samples. Sampling approach is
convenience sampling. As many people are using Facebook in 5.2.1. Structural equation modelling
the UK, convenience sampling was a strategy to collect data The use of structural equation modelling (SEM) in social
from volunteer individuals in the UK. This approach also sciences is growing as it provides researchers with a com-
recommended for a quantitative method. Data for the main plete resource for assessing theoretical models [73,74].
study has been collected in the UK in 2012, asking individuals This is a powerful tool for the development of a theory.
who are member of SNSs to fill out paper questionnaires or Additionally, SEM is good for construct validation [73] as it
inviting them by email to participate in an online version of the has advantages over other traditional approaches such as
questionnaire. The author has excluded pilot study samples multi regressions [75,76]. Hence, this research used SEM to
from the main test. The research only targeted samples from test the proposed model.
Facebook and excluded others. The first question was a filter
question in order to select only members of one SNS. 5.2.2. Partial least square
Therefore, we invited 1000 people. The author excluded A partial least square (PLS) method is one of the popular
samples with a membership in other social networking sites procedures in IS researches [77]. This method is from a family
(only 2%). The reason for this was that most of those who of regression based research methods and was originally
responded were members of Facebook. In addition Facebook developed to deal with complex data in a low-structure
is a popular SNS. The range of participants was between 18 situation [78]. There are a number of reasons for the popularity
of PLS, such as the ability to investigate latent variables under
Table 2
conditions of non-normality as in this research [79]. Latent
Quality criteria for pilot test and field test. variables are those constructs that cannot be measured directly
as a dependent variable can. The other advantage of PLS is
Scale Pilot test (n = 68) Field test (n = 200)
that it is appropriate for handling small to medium sample
AVE Cronbach's AVE Cronbach's sizes [77,79]. PLS is good for both theory confirmation and
alpha alpha exploratory research [79]. Social commerce is an emerging
Relationship quality 0.480 0.858 0.747 0.878
Commitment 0.555 0.709 0.728 0.809
Table 4
Trust 0.548 0.704 0.600 0.701
Demographic information.
Satisfaction 0.757 0.840 0.741 0.820
Social commerce 0.468 0.670 0.543 0.702
Social Gender Country/city Respond Usable
intention
networking of resident received questionnaire
Social support 0.496 0.829 0.837 0.823
site
Emotional support 0.573 0.751 0.536 0.713
Informational support 0.633 0.711 0.624 0.703 Facebook 56% 44% UK — London 232 200
female male
First order constrcuts highlighted.
 M.N. Hajli / Technological Forecasting & Social Change 87 (2014) 17–27 23

stream in e-commerce and there is not enough theoretical 6.2. Validity

information for it to date. Moreover, the use of social support
theory in information systems and marketing is a new approach
[10,37]. Overall, the nature of this research is mostly explor-
atory research. PLS is a good method to target this [78].
This study is looking for applications and predictions for
social commerce; Chin et al., [79] suggest PLS is more suitable
to LISREL. In fact, PLS has relative strengths for both application
and prediction [73]. The research uses the resampling method
of SmartPLS software for significance testing. In the present
study, the bootstrapping of 600 re-samples and 200 cases per
sample was carried out in order to assess the path significance.
The estimate of bootstrap provides the basis for confidence
intervals allowing an estimation of factor stability [77].
6. Results
To test the validity of the instrument, the author considered
construct validity. Construct validity refers to stability across
methodology, which needs to be investigated for discriminant
validity and divergent validity [71]. Average variance extracted
(AVE) values, which should be at least 0.50, were the source for
convergent validity [15], indicated in Table 2. All of the
constructs achieved this criterion. Discriminant validity was
assessed by comparing the square of the correlations among
the latent variables with the AVE [75]; this is shown in Table 5.
Finally, the author measured the model by examining
the factor loadings of each indicator, which gave another way
to assess convergent validity and discriminant [80]. Factor
loadings of an indicator should be greater than the construct
of it than on any other factor [75,80]. Sufficient convergent
and discriminant validity are demonstrated in Table 6.

6.1. Reliability
Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability scores are two
tools used to measure the reliability of the research. Cronbach's
alpha is shown in Table 2. The reliability of pilot and field test
is illustrated in Table 2. and shows how steps in the post pilot
test improved the reliability and validity of the test. In addition,
composite reliability is indicated in Table 5. By measuring
internal consistency scores; both exceed 0.70. These results
ensure the research has sufficient reliability [15].
6.3. Structural model
The results from PLS using SmartPLS software [81] are
shown in Fig. 2. According to the graph, all the paths in the
proposed model are positively significant at the 0.05 level. By
looking at how the model fits, R2s show that almost 36% of
the variance in the social commerce intention was accounted
for by social support and relationship quality. This means that
social commerce intention was affected by social support and

Table 5
Square of correlation between latent variables.

Social
Emotional Informational Relationship Social
Commitment commerce Satisfaction Trust
support support quality Support
intention

Commitment 0.853

Emotional
0.345 0.732
support

Informational
0.443 0.676 0.790
support

Social
commerce 0.516 0.433 0.526 0.737
intention

Relationship
0.834 0.394 0.497 0.517 0.864
quality

Satisfaction 0.589 0.327 0.436 0.418 0.898 0.861

Social
0.430 0.922 0.908 0.523 0.486 0.415 0.915
support

Trust 0.557 0.351 0.406 0.402 0.860 0.715 0.414 0.774

AVE 0.728 0.536 0.624 0.543 0.747 0.741 0.837 0.600

Composite
0.889 0.820 0.833 0.823 0.899 0.895 0.911 0.818
reliability

Notes: Numbers on the diagonal (in boldface) are the average variance extracted. Other numbers are the square of correlation.
24 M.N. Hajli / Technological Forecasting & Social Change 87 (2014) 17–27

Table 6
Cross loadings.

Social
Emotional Informational
Indicators Commitment commerce Satisfaction Trust
support support
intention

RC1 0.861 0.353 0.455 0.491 0.576 0.532

RC2 0.862 0.293 0.347 0.471 0.472 0.445

RC3 0.837 0.230 0.322 0.351 0.453 0.442

SE1 0.246 0.706 0.401 0.178 0.150 0.217

SE2 0.320 0.845 0.645 0.422 0.329 0.319

SE3 0.303 0.727 0.430 0.358 0.188 0.212

SE4 0.134 0.722 0.468 0.274 0.263 0.268

SI1 0.330 0.540 0.798 0.410 0.369 0.259

SI2 0.231 0.549 0.757 0.378 0.290 0.285

SI3 0.485 0.512 0.814 0.459 0.373 0.418

IB1 0.394 0.313 0.364 0.701 0.188 0.243

IB2 0.268 0.358 0.394 0.7000 0.228 0.206

IB3 0.431 0.356 0.410 0.848 0.398 0.390

IB4 0.414 0.252 0.384 0.791 0.386 0.320

RS1 0.408 0.227 0.339 0.309 0.797 0.458

RS2 0.607 0.242 0.380 0.382 0.892 0.663

RS3 0.490 0.371 0.404 0.381 0.891 0.701

RT1 0.488 0.232 0.362 0.358 0.577 0.707

RT2 0.390 0.329 0.236 0.335 0.554 0.785

RT3 0.410 0.255 0.342 0.237 0.526 0.826

Note: IB = social commerce intention; RC = commitment; RS = satisfaction; RT = trust; SE = emotional support; SI = informational support.
Notes: Numbers on the diagonal (in boldface) are the factor loading of each item.

relationship quality. The R2 for relationship quality means
that almost 24% of the variance in relationship quality was
accounted for by social support. Hence, the results indicate
that the model has the satisfactory level of explanation power.
According to the results of path coefficients (p-value),
relationship quality (0.337) and social support (0.319) both
have significant effects on social commerce. Hence, H1 and
H3 are supported. They have almost the same effect on social
commerce intention although relationship quality is slightly
stronger. Social support also has a significant effect on rela-
tionship quality (0.486) and this effect is strong. Therefore,
H2 is supported. Fig. 2 shows the p-value of constructs.
7. Discussions and conclusion
Social relationships of consumers on the internet, through
the popularity of social media, have seen the emergence of
a new concept entitled social commerce. Drawing on social
 M.N. Hajli / Technological Forecasting & Social Change 87 (2014) 17–27
Commitment
0.833*** Relaonship quality
R2
Sasfacon 0.235
0.899*** Path Coefficient
0.861***
0.486***
Path Coefficient
Trust
0.899***
Emoonal support
Fig. 2. Results of the PLS analysis. ** p b .01; ***p b .001.
support theory from social psychology discipline, relation-
ship quality form marketing track, and social media per-
spective from information systems, a research has been
developed to investigate consumer behaviour in this era of
social commerce. The goal is to find the commercial values
offered by Web 2.0 technologies for both businesses and
consumers. The proposed model reports on social constructs and
the ability to increase relationship quality in business, leading to an
impact on an individual's social commerce intention.
Consumers use social media to share their knowledge,
information and experiences with other peers in their groups
and communities. These advancements make consumers part of
a value creation process for business through the social support
they provide on the internet. The research reveals that their
social support contains informational and emotional supports. It
has been empirically tested and results show that social support
has a positive effect on relationship quality. These supports also
significantly affect relationship quality.
This finding indicates that the social interactions of
consumers have different advantages for business. Consumers
join online communities or use social media and generate
textual information about a product or service. This information
can increase relation quality in a business, leading to increased
loyalty. Therefore, the valuable information created on the
internet has many advantages, relationship quality being one
of them. The co-creation environment engages consumers in a
value creation process for a business.
Another valuable result of the research concerns the posi-
tive effect of relationship quality on social commerce intention.
Relationship quality, measured by commitment, trust and
satisfaction, has the potential to enhance social commerce
intention. Relationship quality is seen as a foundation in
marketing literature and is important for shaping customer
loyalty; this is influenced by social support. In fact, social
25
R2
Social commerce
0.337** 0.351 intenon
Path Coefficient
0.319**
Social support
0.909***
Informaonal support
support can increase commitment, trust and satisfaction,
leading to improved customer loyalty. This is a key finding
for businesses to adopt social media strategies to establish an
environment for their consumers to develop social support,
which in turn can enhance customer loyalty through relation-
ship quality. Firms in social commerce era are facing huge
challenges by technological advancements on the market.
Researching and investigating these kinds of issues may
shift these challenges to opportunities for firms to adjust their
business strategies. The results of this study highlight the
importance of online communities and social networking sites,
which offer a supportive climate for consumers. This supportive
environment has different values, of which this research investi-
gates the relationship quality. Improving relationship quality
through trust, commitment, and satisfaction influences social
commerce intention and makes social networking sites a valuable
place for businesses. Forecasting consumer's behaviour in social
commerce era, therefore, is a contribution for this research.
The findings of the research have some key points for
marketing and information systems disciplines. Firstly, the
research highlights the role of social interaction of consumers
on the internet. In the current era, where social media has
an increasing popularity among individuals, social relation-
ships among consumers encourage them to participate in
online activities, including commerce. Social support with
emotional and informational dimensions as tested in this
research is now being created in SNSs as a new concept called
online social support. This factor is a key construct in the
development of e-commerce to social commerce. It is mostly
because supportive interactions among consumers in SNSs
produce stronger relationships, making them feel closer to
peers. It is one of the main reasons for individuals joining
SNSs; they feel comfortable with their peers and receive both
emotional and informational supports. Hence, it is a valuable
26 M.N. Hajli / Technological Forecasting & Social Change 87 (2014) 17–27
tool to use this supportive environment for relationship
quality. This environment empowers and encourages users
to share their knowledge, information and experiences of
products or services. Moreover, this supportive environment
encourages consumers to come back to the website of a
company, leading to better relationship quality and loyalty.
Therefore, these interactions can shape different values, from
better customer relationship management to customer loyalty
for a business.
Overall, the aim of this research is to investigate the social
interactions of individuals on SNSs, which produce social
support, leading to relationship quality and social commerce
intention. The contribution of the research is to apply social
support theory and integrate it with relationship quality
from marketing discipline to gain a better understanding of
what drives social commerce and what are the commercial
values of social media for business marketing strategies. In
fact, the model has the potential to determine the role of
social factors in e-commerce and marketing strategies. This
has been shown in the model through social support and
relationship marketing. The other contribution of the research
is to highlight the role of IS theories in marketing studies.
Proposing social support in the online environment in the
model and examining its influence on relationship quality,
show that theories from both information systems and
marketing need to be investigated with a view to application
in social media.
In conclusion, the research intent is to show the significant
role of social interaction of consumers in social platforms
provided by Web 2.0 in social commerce era. These social
interactions produce different values for business, which in
turn encourages companies to apply social media strategies,
for instance, to adjust their business plans to meet the present
social environment. It also highlights the role of active
consumers and how they can help business to have a better
understanding of customers' needs. Finally, this study looks at
the future of e-commerce and predicts consumer's behaviour
in social commerce era. Forecasting consumer's behaviour
in social commerce may provide a foundation for firms to
develop their social media strategies and adopt new techno-
logical advancements.
The finding suggests to organizations that they should
develop online communities and not only focus on the
content of their communities, but also establish social
support and friendship within the community. Individuals
join online communities and use SNSs to get information
and receive social support, which can produce trust, lead to
satisfaction and enhance commitment. For businesses that
are looking to build up a web presence, it is important to
know why people join online communities. These commu-
nities can also help them to have better customer relation-
ships. It is also an important area to conduct more research
as what happened in marketing and IS disciplines, where
efforts have been made to try to understand consumer
behaviour. Therefore, developing social media strategies
to attract more customers to these platforms is essential in
the current environment where consumers are connected
through SNSs.
This research, as in other studies, has some limitations.
Firstly, the results are based on attitudes from Facebook users
and might be different in other SNSs. Secondly, the research
used student samples in the pilot study, which might be
different from other participants in this case. However, the field
test has investigated ordinary users. Future research should
develop the model by collecting data from other samples in
other SNSs.
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M. Nick Hajli is an associate lecturer at the University of London and
adjunct assistant professor at Richmond University. His research is in social
commerce, social media and online communities. He has been published in
refereed journals such as Journal of Business Ethics, International Journal of
Market Research and International Journal of Innovation Management.