A meta-analysis of social commerce adoption and the moderating effect of culture

Abstract

Purpose

As a derivative model of e-commerce, social commerce has received increasing attention in recent years. Empirical studies on social commerce have examined the key factors that influence users' attitudes or adoption intentions, but their conclusions are context-based and are not entirely consistent. This study aims to draw a general conclusion by systematically synthesizing the findings of previous studies and examine whether cultural differences play a moderating role in users' social commerce adoption.

Design/methodology/approach

A meta-analysis based on 11,786 independent samples from 39 empirical studies was conducted to integrate their results and develop a comprehensive conceptual model. A moderator analysis was carried out to investigate the moderating effect of culture by dividing the context into subgroups of individualistic and collectivistic cultures.

Findings

The results show that this comprehensive conceptual model can help better understand the adoption of social commerce. Meanwhile, the moderator analysis indicates that cultural differences have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between the determinants and the adoption of social commerce.

Originality/value

The findings of this paper have theoretical implications and make managerial contributions.

Citation

Wang, N., Zhao, Y. and Zhou, R. (2023), "A meta-analysis of social commerce adoption and the moderating effect of culture", Data Technologies and Applications, Vol. 57 No. 4, pp. 537-561. https://doi.org/10.1108/DTA-10-2021-0276