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Towards an Ethical and Trustworthy Social Commerce Community for Brand Value Co-creation: A trust-Commitment Perspective

Journal of Business Ethics volume 167, pages 137–152 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

Firms have been increasingly using social commerce platforms to engage with customers and support their brand value co-creation. While social commerce is now bringing a variety of benefits to business, it has also challenged marketing ethics surrounding online consumer privacy. Drawing on the trust-commitment theory, we develop a model that aims to create an ethical and trustworthy social commerce community for brand value co-creation by examining the impacts of online consumer privacy concerns (namely privacy risk and privacy control) and social interaction constructs (namely consumer-peer interaction and collaborative norms) on consumers’ psychological reactions. Using an empirical study, we find that: (1) privacy risk, privacy control, and collaborative norms significantly influence consumers’ trust; (2) consumer-peer interaction and collaborative norms are positively related to relationship commitment; and (3) relationship commitment and trust positively affect consumers’ brand value co-creation in the context of social commerce. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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Notes

  1. https://www.socialbakers.com/statistics/facebook/pages/total/brands, accessed In Feb. 2019.

  2. Firms could also engage in deceptive practices on social commerce platforms to manipulate consumers’ perceptions and influence the process of brand value co-creation. We thank one reviewer for pointing this issue out.

  3. Only participants who visited firms’ brand pages regularly were kept for our analysis.

  4. Following Hershatter and Epstein (2010), we selected those who were born after 1980 as younger generations (i.e., digital natives). The recent literature has shown that these digital natives may become differently in digital environment (Liu et al. . 2018).

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Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions that helped develop this paper.

Funding

This study was funded by Murdoch University.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education, Murdoch University, Perth, WA, 6150, Australia

    Xuequn Wang

  2. Newcastle University, 102 Middlesex Street, London, E1 7EZ, UK

    Mina Tajvidi

  3. Department of Computer Information and Decision Management, Paul and Virginia Engler College of Business, West Texas A&M University, 2501 4th Ave, Canyon, TX, 79016, USA

    Xiaolin Lin

  4. School of Management, Swansea University, Swansea, SA1 8EN, Wales, UK

    Nick Hajli

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  1. Xuequn Wang
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Correspondence to Xiaolin Lin.

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Conflict of interest

Xuequn Wang has received research grants from Murdoch University. Mina Tajvidi declares that she has no conflict of interest. Xiaolin Lin declares that he has no conflict of interest. Nick Hajli declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Appendices

Appendix A: Sample demographic Information

Category

Sample (N = 400)

Ethnicity

 

 White

82.40%

 Black or African American

9.29%

 American Indian or Alaska Native

.73%

 Asian

3.67%

 Hispanic

3.42%

 Other

.49%

Education

 

 Less than high school

1.22%

 High school graduate

20.05%

 Some college

27.38%

 2 year degree

12.96%

 4 year degree

30.07%

 Professional degree

7.82%

 Doctorate

.49%

Age

 

 18–19

.24%

 20–29

10.27%

 30–39

15.40%

 40–49

18.83%

 50–59

24.94%

 60 or older

30.32%

Gender (% of female)

63.57%

Years visiting Facebook

5.87 (SD 2.89)

Years visiting Facebook Brand Page

2.81 (SD 2.20)

Appendix B: Measurement

Privacy risk

PR1

It would be risky to post information

PR2

There would be high potential for privacy loss associated with posting information

PR3

My information would be inappropriately used by other peers

PR4

Posting information would involve many unexpected problems

Privacy control

PC1

I believe I can control the information posted

PC2

I believe I have control over who can get access to my information posted

PC3

I think I have control over what information is released

PC4

I believe I have control over how my information is used by other peers

Consumer–peer interaction

CPI1

I maintain close social relationships with other users

CPI2

I spend a lot of time interacting with other users

CPI3

I know other users on a personal level

CPI4

I have frequent communication with other users

Collaborative norms

CN1

There is a norm of cooperation

CN2

There is a norm of collaboration

CN3

There is a norm of teamwork

CN4

There is a willingness to value and respond to diversity

CN5

There is a norm of openness to conflicting views

CN6

There is a norm of tolerance of mistakes

CN7

Information sharing is important

CN8

Information sharing is strongly encouraged

Trust

TIF1

The performance of Facebook Brand Page always meets my expectations

TIF2

Facebook brand page can be counted as good features

TIF3

Facebook brand page is reliable

Relationship commitment

RC1

I have an emotional attachment to my favorite Facebook brand page

RC2

I feel a sense of belonging to my favorite Facebook brand page

RC3

I feel a strong connection to my favorite Facebook brand page

RC4

I feel a part of the group in my favorite Facebook brand page

Brand value Co-creation

BVC1

I often share corporate posts (such as products or news) from my favorite Facebook brand page on my own Facebook page

BVC2

I often recommend my favorite Facebook brand page to my Facebook contacts

BVC3

I frequently upload product-related videos, audios, pictures, or images from my favorite Facebook brand page on my own Facebook page

BVC4

I often join events organized through my favorite Facebook brand page

BVC5

I often share my own shopping experiences on my favorite Facebook brand page

Appendix C: Item descriptive statistics

Construct

Item

Mean

SD

Loading

Privacy risk

PR1

3.74

1.62

0.93

PR2

3.91

1.68

0.95

PR3

3.70

1.59

0.92

PR4

3.65

1.69

0.95

Privacy control

PC1

4.55

1.67

0.90

PC2

4.59

1.60

0.93

PC3

4.52

1.57

0.95

PC4

4.40

1.66

0.93

Consumer–peer interaction

CPI1

4.24

1.83

0.95

CPI2

4.00

1.82

0.94

CPI3

4.06

1.98

0.93

CPI4

4.14

1.90

0.97

Collaborative norms

CN1

5.19

1.17

0.88

CN2

5.13

1.19

0.90

CN3

5.01

1.33

0.87

CN4

5.20

1.22

0.89

CN5

4.92

1.28

0.80

CN6

4.83

1.27

0.77

CN7

5.36

1.27

0.86

CN8

5.44

1.22

0.82

Trust

TIF1

5.08

1.25

0.94

TIF2

5.20

1.19

0.95

TIF3

5.16

1.21

0.94

Relationship commitment

RC1

4.04

1.84

0.93

RC2

4.42

1.72

0.97

RC3

4.34

1.72

0.97

RC4

4.55

1.67

0.93

Brand value Co-creation

BVC1

3.99

1.90

0.88

BVC2

3.99

1.88

0.91

BVC3

3.52

1.94

0.84

BVC4

3.41

1.88

0.85

BVC5

3.85

1.96

0.89

Appendix D: Demographic differences of model testing

 

Male (144)

Female (256)

Diff. Sig.?

Young (181)

Old (219)

Diff. Sig.?

H1a: privacy risk → trust

− 0.03

− 0.12*

sd

− 0.07

− 0.09*

sd

H1b: privacy control → trust

0.31***

0.25***

>***

0.22**

0.28***

<***

H2a: collaborative norms → trust

0.57***

0.46***

>***

0.59***

0.45***

>***

H2b: collaborative norms → relationship commitment

0.36***

0.28***

>***

0.26***

0.33***

<***

H3a: Consumer–Peer interaction → relationship commitment

0.46***

0.49***

<***

0.53***

0.47***

>***

H3b: trust → relationship commitment

0.06

0.17**

sd

0.14*

0.11*

>***

H4a: trust → brand value co-creation

0.26***

0.13*

>***

0.18*

0.14*

>***

H4b: relationship commitment → brand value co-creation

0.58***

0.54***

>***

0.55***

0.55***

ns

  1. ns no significant difference; sd structurally different (one path is significant and the other is not); Diff. Sig. different significantly?
  2. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

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Wang, X., Tajvidi, M., Lin, X. et al. Towards an Ethical and Trustworthy Social Commerce Community for Brand Value Co-creation: A trust-Commitment Perspective. J Bus Ethics 167, 137–152 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04182-z

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