The study of social commerce in Generation Z context: the role of social support and privacy risk

Purpose The recent proliferation of social media platforms has witnessed a growth in social commerce by using social media to facilitate interactivity between customers and vendors. While emergent studies on social commerce are growing, their focus tends to be on millennials and cross-age groups. Given the growth of digital natives in shaping the online shopping experience of the future, we deemed an application to Generation Z necessary and overdue. Design/methodology/approach We draw on the existing literature and develop a framework to understand social commerce dynamics for digital natives. We employ PLS and CB-SEM to test our proposed model. Findings Our findings demonstrate the importance of social commerce information sharing activities in facilitating social support, a sense of warmth and belongingness, and online trust for Generation Z platform users. We also investigate the roles of online trust and perceived risk on intention to purchase and find support for both relationships. Finally, we discuss the findings in terms of theoretical and managerial contributions and conclude the study with limitations and future research directions. Originality/value This research is unique by using social commerce theory to explore Gen Z platform users. The finding will contribute to information system literature by expanding the social commerce research stream.