Explaining the Dimensions of Social Media Literacy and Its Impact on the Willingness to Accept Social Commerce

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Instructor, Department of Information Technology Management, Faculty of Engineering, Sayyed Jamaleddine Asadabadi University, Hamedan, Iran.

10.22059/mmr.2025.380764.1099

Abstract

Objective
The purpose of this study is to explore the concepts and dimensions of social media literacy and examine its impact on users' acceptance of social commerce. Social commerce, as a technology-based innovation in the field of e-commerce business models, is a type of online commerce equipped with social constructs, and the development of this new paradigm requires examining the factors affecting its acceptance and use by customers. Over the past two decades, more than 100 factors affecting the acceptance of social commerce have been examined and confirmed. The most commonly used of these factors include trust, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, emotional support, informational support, attitude, mental norms, perceived behavioral control, beliefs, expected performance, expected effort, social influence, facilitating conditions, mutual understanding, motivation, expectations, interaction, social presence, user satisfaction, normative expectations, sociability skills, and social relationships. One of the factors that can affect the willingness to accept social commerce is the level of users' social media literacy, which has not been examined in previous studies. In this study, the effect of the social media literacy factor in the statistical population of Iranian users is examined.
Research Methodology
The present research method is based on positivism and inductive approach, and has a developmental-applied orientation. This research is a quantitative and field research conducted in a survey format and aims to explain and predict the effect of social media literacy on the intention and use of social commerce. In this research, first, the deep and comprehensive concepts of social media literacy are discussed, and then a comprehensive analysis of the concepts and models related to social media literacy, including the integrated multidimensional model, the SDT autonomy model, the skill-based and process-oriented model, the CSML and PSML models, the SoMeLit model, and the SMILE model, is conducted. The purpose of examining these models is to identify the dimensions of social media literacy. Based on the research objective, the effect of social media literacy on the willingness to accept social commerce was investigated with the four social, informational, technical, and privacy dimensions of the PSML model. The statistical population studied is the users of 7 widely used social media in Iran, including Instagram, Rubika, Telegram, WhatsApp, Eitaa, Bale, and iGap, who can be potential customers of social commerce. The collected survey data were analyzed based on structural equation modeling-partial least squares.
Findings
Based on the results obtained, the effect of the three technical, social and privacy dimensions of social media literacy on the willingness to accept social commerce in the statistical population of Iranian users was confirmed. Considering the application of structural equation modeling-partial least squares, the validity and reliability of the measurement model was examined with VIF, Cronbach's alpha, rho_A, CR, factor loadings, AVE and reliability of explicit variables, cross-sectional loadings, Fornell-Larker criterion, AVE criterion, HTMT criterion and all the indices were confirmed. On the other hand, the structural model was evaluated using the criteria of variance inflation factor (VIF), coefficient of determination (R2), and path coefficients.
Discussion & Conclusion
The results of this study confirm the effect of social media literacy on the acceptance of social commerce by Iranian users. Based on the literature study, the research model was created as a constitutive-reflective model. Four factors of the technical dimension of social media literacy, the information dimension of social media literacy, the privacy dimension of social media literacy, and the social dimension of social media literacy were created as components of the willingness to accept social commerce. On the other hand, the willingness to accept social commerce was modeled with some reflective factors. Based on the survey conducted in the target statistical population, the effect of the three factors of the social dimension, the technical dimension, and the privacy dimension of social media literacy on the willingness to accept social commerce was confirmed, and a determination coefficient of 0.728 was obtained for the dependent factor. One of the important limitations of this study was the novelty of the subject of social media literacy and the limited models for its investigation and measurement. In addition, the subject of social media literacy as a factor affecting the acceptance of social commerce had not been investigated in any similar study. In this study, the Tamplin model was used to measure social media literacy. It is recommended that other models of social media literacy be used in future research. In addition, the issue of social media literacy as a cornerstone of the correct use of social media can also be examined as an influential factor in research related to the use of various social media.
 

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Main Subjects

References

 
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Media Management Review
Volume 3, Issue 4
2024
Pages 3-36

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