Does involvement matter in S-Commerce? The integrated role of emotion to explain satisfaction and loyalty in S-commerce for low vs high involvement products

Abstract

This paper investigates satisfaction and loyalty in social commerce by integrating the role of emotion as a mediating variable and level of involvement as a moderating variable. Based on cognitive appraisal theory, to explain satisfaction and loyalty, the author has identified four antecedent variables from both cognitive and affective parts of shoppers: trust, social commerce construct, perceived usefulness, and emotion. Using the mentioned constructs, this paper successfully proposes a new validated model to explain satisfaction and loyalty in social commerce. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) has been applied to test research hypotheses. The author found the differences in factors affecting shoppers’ satisfaction and loyalty for high versus low involvement shoppers. The theoretical contributions and managerial implications of the study have been discussed.