Title: The COVID-19 pandemic and the adoption of social commerce among Egyptian social media users

Authors: Mayada M. Aref

Addresses: The Department of Socio-Computing, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University-Giza, 12613, Egypt

Abstract: This research empirically examined social commerce intention among Egyptian social network users during COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed model included trust toward social network sites, trust toward social network members, online social support, hedonistic and utilitarian browsing motivation, and the fear of COVID-19. Data, 384 respondents, was collected using an online structured questionnaire. Structural equation modelling was conducted to test the hypotheses and model fit. The role of gender, age, and social media use is studied among different groups. The results confirmed that social network sites' trust and online social support positively influence social commerce intention. Also, there is a significant indirect relationship between social site members trust, hedonistic motivation, and social commerce intention. The online social support, social commerce intention, and the fear of COVID-19 were higher among females than males. The COVID-19 pandemic increased the diffusion of social commerce in developing countries and proved the significance of digital transformation.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; social commerce; online consumer behaviour; online browsing motivations; structural equation modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2026.152203

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2026 Vol.51 No.3, pp.321 - 342

Received: 21 Jul 2021
Accepted: 26 Jun 2022
Published online: 11 Mar 2026 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article