Investigating the determinants of individual’s intention to use social commerce: a stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) approach

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the intention to use social commerce platforms. It adopts the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework to examine the relationships among interactivity, visual appeal, perceived anthropomorphism, motivation, satisfaction, trust, perceived ease of use (PEOU), flow, perceived risk and social commerce usage intention. Design/methodology/approach This study used a survey-based approach to collect data from 300 social media users in Malaysia. The participants were individuals who had not previously made direct purchases through social commerce platforms. The collected data were analyzed using the partial least squares (PLS) approach. Findings The findings indicate that interactivity is positively related to motivation and perceived ease of use. Visual appeal is associated with satisfaction, trust and flow, while perceived anthropomorphism significantly affects trust and perceived risk. Additionally, the results demonstrate that motivation, satisfaction, trust, perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived risk directly influence the intention to use social commerce. However, interactivity and flow did not significantly impact the intention to use social commerce. Originality/value This study enhances the theoretical understanding of SC platform adoption by confirming the importance of variables such as interactivity, visual appeal, motivation and perceived anthropomorphism within the S-O-R framework. It addresses a research gap by providing empirical evidence on these variables’ interrelationships and their impact on user behavior.