Consumers’ Credibility in Recommendation via SNSs

With the popularity of social network sites, many users have integrated these sites into their daily life. Though hundreds of social network sites are set up for different aims, without doubt, they all provide a platform for people to communicate with each other and share their information. Researchers have proved that social network sites would affect the way people behave. Marketers and merchants have adopted social networking technology in online shopping sites in order to increase their sales volume. Prior research showed that many factors could affect consumers’ behaviors, but source credibility can strongly influence consumers’ intention to purchase products or services. This paper tries to build a research model that explains which factors affect the consumers’ credibility in recommendations on social network sites, and their behavioral intentions toward the recommended products sold in traditional shopping sites and social shopping sites.