Title: The impact of social media characteristics on e-commerce use behaviour among youth in developing countries

Authors: Anjum Safia; Junwu Chai; Adasa Nkrumah Kofi Frimpong; Umair Akram

Addresses: School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology China, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan China ' School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology China, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan China ' School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology China, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan China ' Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, No. 5, Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China

Abstract: Social media has influenced the e-commerce buying behaviours because of its capability to enhance customer's experiences. Social media can help in conveying ideas, shaping perceptions and modifying buying intentions of the targeted audience. This paper investigates the impact of social media on trust and willingness to buy through e-commerce context in developing nation's youth. We identified seven characteristics of social media which influence consumer's behaviour and motivate consumers to buy online. Convenience sampling technique was used to collect data from international students of Chinese universities. The respondents were from 34 developing countries. The findings showed that social media can serve as excellent tool to enhance trust for e-commerce use and increase the willingness to buy online in developing countries. Hierarchical multiple regression showed significant variance among the predictors. This study contributes to theoretical and managerial understanding of social media for building trust and willingness to buy online. The study includes a broad spectrum of social media characteristics and their influence on e-commerce.

Keywords: social media; e-commerce; buying willingness; social media characteristics; developing nations.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISCM.2019.104629

International Journal of Information Systems and Change Management, 2019 Vol.11 No.2, pp.188 - 207

Received: 14 Jan 2019
Accepted: 04 Sep 2019
Published online: 24 Jan 2020 *

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