Social media element for persuasive b2c e-commerce

Abstract

Persuasive communication is a form of communication that encourages or changes consumer behaviour towards a certain product or service. Several researches have been conducted to understand the efficiency and effectiveness of persuasive communication. Among these researches is the development of the persuasive system design model that guides the development of e-commerce websites with persuasive features. However, the persuasive system design model does not take into consideration the effect of social media as it was developed when the social media world is coming into being. Considerations were not given to the social media element in the model development. Hence the need to incorporate the social media features that will extend the persuasive system design model to become all-encompassing and comprehensive. The aim of this study is to extend the persuasive system design model in business to consumer (B2C) e-Commerce. We employed a systematic literature review to identify the factors that will extend the persuasive system design model in a comprehensive manner. This study develops measurement items that will lead to the examination of the proposed model. These items were investigated for their reliability and validity using 30 respondents in Malaysia. The results showed that the items are a good representation of the constructs and hence can be used to assess the proposed model. This study will help in changing business trends that will lead to a successful implementation of persuasive communication in B2C e-commerce in Malaysia.