Networks

Drawing on the theory of information social influence, Fu et al. (2020) developed a model to underpin how consumers process and make sense of information in the context of online shopping. In particular, this recent study particularly reflects on the affordances of social media platforms in facilitating the sociality and information exchanges among customers.  The researchers underpin how consumers make sense of opinions and recommendations on social media in informing their decisions. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) from a sample of 503 consumers on Facebook, the study finds that social influences have a greater impact on the consumer’s social shopping intention than perceived information quality. The researchers found that social interactional factors (perceived similarity, familiarity, and expertise) have a positive effect on social shopping intention via the mediation of informational, normative social influence and perceive information quality.

In particular, the study highlights that informational social influence occurs when an individual ignores their own private information and engages in the same or similar actions of others. Such findings contrast the theory that rational individuals will act in accordance with their private information (Easley & Kleinberg, 2010). The cascading effect is especially salient when the information implicit in the predecessor’s actions looks certain to others (Bikhchandani, Hirshleifer, & Welch, 1992). It is interesting to reflect on how the networked publics on social media platforms (boyd, 2010) re-mediate information processing by affording discursive spaces through which consumers can exert social influences through self-making on the platform.