Abstract:
The communication tools are becoming better day by day with the advancement in technology. The social commerce have brought a total new and innovative stage where the power is being shifted to the buyer from the seller. Social commerce (S-commerce) is a mix of two things; social and commercial activities through which people share their knowledge and experience of shopping and also provide information regarding any service or product to their friends or family. Hence, such interactions result in increasing the capabilities of the electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) communication. The study have been conducted in order to understand the influence of the engagement of electronic word of mouth over the purchase intention of customers in the setting of the social commerce. This study have increased the knowledge of s-commerce industry and its users. It is helpful for managers of the companies to understand the nature of consumer in s-commerce and how to influence them correctly. The analysis have been done in SPSS where a sample of 201 was used. The tests performed on the hypothesis were hayes process, multiple regression and linear regression. The reliability and variability test for items of the questionnaire were conducted which was valid for all the items. The results shows that all the variables i.e. information credibility, social support and innovativeness does have a positive effect on the e-WOM engagement except for information quality and website quality. The information quality and website quality does not have the significant influence on the electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) engagement. On the other hand, e-WOM engagement does have a positive relationship with purchase intention of customers. There are very few studies carried out on the topic of social commerce therefore this study tried to enhance the research on the topic of social commerce. But this study is at the very beginning stage which is mainly focused upon the e-WOM engagement in the s-commerce (social commerce). This study’s results are of much importance for the managers as well as practitioners because it will help them to understand and get insight in regards to how they should encourage their customers for e-WOM engagement. The future research can conduct qualitative research and new samples from other parts of the world to get a much bigger picture of the topic
