When it comes to Satisfaction … It depends: An empirical examination of social commerce users

Although reports on the success of social commerce indicate an astronomical growth in the next decade, understanding the complexities of the antecedents of its continuous use by consumers is limited. This study attempts to bridge this gap by using a mature IS continuance model in the social commerce context. The study also significantly extends this continuance model by theorizing and testing non-linear effects. The IS continuance model argues that all the links among confirmation, perceived usefulness, satisfaction, and continuance in the model are positive and linear. However, there is a strong theoretical basis to suggest that some relationships in the model are complex and non-linear, especially the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction. Perceived usefulness is modeled as a second order construct of social, hedonic, and utility benefits to more richly account for contexts relevant to making continuous use decisions for social commerce. Data from 531 current social commerce users provide support to our assertions. The results revealed quadratic relationships between perceived usefulness and satisfaction and between satisfaction and continuance use intentions. Perceived usefulness has a positive relationship with satisfaction for females and experienced social commerce users but an inverse-U relationship for males and inexperienced users. Satisfaction in turn has a positive relationship with continuance use intentions for females but an inverse-U relationship for males.