Why customers participate in social commerce activities? - A laddering analysis

Abstract: A new phenomenon emerging within virtual communities is a blurring between the social and commercial activities and motivations of participants. This paper explores motivations for participating in social commerce at a micro-business level between members of a virtual community of Malay lifestyle bloggers. The selected community was observed in order to understand the community and 21 participants were interviewed. We used laddering techniques to explore community attributes, the perceived consequences, and their links to the values of participants. We found that virtual community relationship was the main influential factor, and virtual community relationship contributed to the sense of social support as well as customers' trust in social commerce.