Understanding Customer Motivation to Share Information in Social Commerce

The gradual emergence of social commerce is enhancing the development of businesses. The opinions exchanged and information shared by each consumer in the community affects consumers’ purchasing decisions and participation behaviors. This study established a consumer information sharing model in social commerce based on the theories of social exchange and communication ecology. Data were collected from 204 respondents and PLS technique was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that reciprocity and community participation exhibited a significantly positive effect on information sharing. Reciprocity and community participation also had partial mediation effects on the consumer–community and consumer–platform relationships.