Research On The Influence Of The Strength Of Social Tie On The Adoption Of Social Commerce Recommendations

Along with the increasing penetration of socialized media,social commerce,a newe-commerce based on socialized media,has realized an overwhelming development,and become an industrial hot spot.Social commerce deals with the sales activities of goods or services based on interpersonal network and by using Internet social tools.It is considered as the development trend of Web2.0 and the development direction of future e-commerce,and will become the tripping point of social network.Along with the constant development of social media,the strength of social tie has played an increasingly highlighted role in social commerce.The strength of social tie refers to the closeness of the relationship between two people in social media.Generally,users are more willing to listen to the opinions of their close friends.Therefore,researching the influences of the strength of social tie on the adoption of social commerce recommendations could,on the one hand,enrich the theoretical achievements of the research on social commerce,and on the other hand,provide instructions and suggestions for practitioners of social commerce to give recommendations by makingbetter use of the strength of tie between users.By summarizing and reviewing domestic and overseas relevant researches on the strength of social tie,we have discovered that,at present,the researches on the strength of social tie are mainly about the classification of the strength of social tie,the measurement dimensions of the strength of social tie,the influencing factors of the strength of social tie,and the functions of the strength of social tie.But all these researches have certain defects,what dimensions could be used to scientifically measure the strength of ties between users?What different influences do these dimensions have on users' behaviors?Therefore,based on summarizing and concluding relevant documents on the strength of social tie and social commerce,this paper brings forward the dimensions for measuring the strength of social tie;and based on the Social Relationship Theory and Trust Theory,this paper constructs a model for researching the influence of the strength of social tie on the adoption of social commerce recommendations,and brings forward corresponding hypotheses.In empirical research,we have designed and generated 16 experimental scenes through orthogonal experiment,collected 229 copies of effective questionnaire,and carried out reliability test,validity test,model fitting and path analysis of data by using SPSS22.0 and SmartPLS3.0.The final research results show that:Perceived trust will positively affect information receivers'willingness to adopt;users' interaction frequency,intimacy degree,emotional support,reciprocal services,and voluntary input have obvious positive influences on perceived trust;information receivers' tendency to trust has positive influences on their perceived trust.In addition,information recommendation channel will also produce distinctive differences in information receivers' perceived trust,and further affect their willingness to adopt the recommendation information.According to the conclusions of empirical research,we have brought forward feasible suggestions to practitioners of social commerce.For example,it is necessary to strengthen the relationship between the information recommender and the information receiver,increase the professional ability of the information recommender,and pay attention to the quality of the recommended information content,so as to win the trust of the information receiver and better conduct business activities;the commodity information recommendation channel enhances the purchase conversion rate of the recommendation information.In addition,with the growing social commerce development,social commerce practitioners should also pay attention to self-image and brand reputation,strengthen publicity and promotion,and increase brand awareness and influence.The contributions of this paper rest with that,it summarizes the indicators for measuring the strength of tie between users in social network again;brings forward measuring the strength of tie between users in social network with the eight indexes included in the four dimensions for the first time,namely the time dimension(duration and interaction frequency),structure dimension(social distance,social structure),mental dimension(closeness degree,emotional support)and tool dimension(reciprocal service,voluntary input);constructs a model for researching the influences of the strength of social tie on the adoption of social commerce recommendations in combination with the Social Relationship Theory and Trust Theory;carries out empirical research and obtains some valuable conclusions;and brings forward feasible suggestions for practitioners of social commerce according to research conclusions.