Information Sharing Behavior in Social Commerce Sites: The Differences between Sellers and Non-Sellers

The rise of social media encouraged customers to share information more frequently and to larger extent. Previous work primarily focused on how and why customers share information in online social commerce sites. In the current study, we distinguish between the two types of users: sellers and non-sellers in social commerce sites. Drawing on the goal theory, we empirically examine intrinsic and extrinsic benefits as the key direct antecedents, and explore the moderating role of sellers/non-sellers in the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic benefits and information sharing behavior. Analyzing survey data (n=1170) in the first phase collected from a popular social commerce site, we found that intention to share information among sellers and nonsellers are indeed different. This study can advance the understandings of information sharing literature by revealing the differences between different types of users. The results offer important and interesting insights to IS research and practice.

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