Factors Affecting Bangladeshi Customers’ Intention to Adopt Social Shopping: A Partial Least Square (PLS) Approach

Abstract

Purpose: This paper aims to examine key factors affecting consumers’ intention to accept social shopping in the context of Bangladesh. Methodology: Structured Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied to verify all constructs' reliability and validity and test all hypotheses. An importanceperformance map analysis was also carried out for identifying the critical factors of the constructs having high importance but low performance. Data were collected from 250 respondents through conducting an online survey. Findings: The results showed that perceived usefulness, e-WOM, website quality, perceived enjoyment, and trust have positive effects on social shopping acceptance. In contrast, perceived risk has a negative impact on social shopping purchase intention. Moreover, IPMA results showed that managers should concentrate more on perceived enjoyment, perceived website design, and innovativeness. Limitations: The study has only considered internet users for the survey; therefore, there is a possibility of biasness of self-selection in sampling. Also, the size of the sample is small in this study. The accurate perception of Bangladeshi consumers toward social shopping requires analysis on a larger sample size. Practical Implications: The study provides a basis for researchers for further studies on variables that influence social shopping- behavior. Practitioners can easily understand the key factors essential to create design and implement those designs related to various products and services to capture market demand. Originality: The study has developed a research model by integrating different prominent theories, i.e., theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behavior, and technology acceptance model. Also, this study considers several contextual constructs such as perceived risks, e-WOM, and innovativeness to examine consumers’ behavioral intention. The proposed model helps to understand the dynamics of online markets and how the user will respond to social shopping.