Optimal user experience in social commercethe role of emotions, flow and user-generated information

Resumen

This doctoral dissertation aims to understand how to optimize online customer experience in the highly interactive environment of social commerce. In an attempt to go beyond online commercial transactions and to support a consumer-centered and social-oriented perspective, social commerce offers users the necessary tools (e.g., recommendations, referrals, ratings and forums) for fostering social interactions during the online purchasing process. User-generated content, the fruit of these social interactions, can affect and help users in their decision-making process. Hence, the main objective of this dissertation aims to understand online consumer behavior to optimize the customer experience in social commerce. This doctoral dissertation is organized into four studies. Study 1 aims to investigate the customer engagement behavior literature in depth, analyzing the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of the engagement generation process in social commerce and the role of emotions within that process. This study proposes a model of the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of the engagement generation process. The model analyzes how interactivity, social presence and enjoyment affect sPassion and result in positive sWOM. The results confirm empirically that cognitive experience and emotional feelings derived from the process boost user participation. At the core of the process, sPassion positively affects the spread of sWOM. Study 2 has the objective of reaching a wider understanding of optimal user experience in social commerce and its mediating effect between emotions and behavior. Accordingly, the study is divided into two parts: first, to analyze the dimensionality, structure and measurement of the state of flow; and second, to test how websites can improve user experience to boost positive sWOM while avoiding negative sWOM. The empirical results confirm the three-dimensional nature of the concept and support its second-order reflective structure, thereby helping to establish the basis for measuring state of flow, its structure and factors; and it confirms that passionate users are likely to experience a state of flow and, as a consequence, to share positive sWOM. Study 3 investigates how user-generated versus company-generated information contributes to trust in the social commerce site, at the same time analyzing how user-generational cohorts behave (Generations X, Y and Z). Social commerce websites offer content created by the company itself and by its users, and this content is accessible without time and space constraints; therefore, everyone, regardless of age, can access social commerce information. The mission of social commerce is to boost tradeoffs while offering users the chance to share their own experiences and to obtain information from the experiences of others. Hence, trust transferred in this part of the purchasing decision process will be influenced by trust in the type of information available. Thus, Study 3 analyzes how user-generated and company-generated information contribute to trust in social commerce. The younger the generation, the more trust in social commerce is transferred from trust in user-generated information; the older the generation, the more trust in social commerce is transferred from trust in company-generated information. Study 3 confirms that users cannot be considered as a single group and must be segmented into generational cohorts. Study 4 investigates user experience across cultures, analyzing the effect of hedonic and utilitarian antecedents on optimal user experience and its consequences on user intention. Taking into account the salience of emotions within experiences of digital technologies, this study has a twofold purpose. First, it analyzes how emotions such as sPassion compared with flow state affected by usability, resulting in a positive impact on emotional and behavioral loyalty. Second, as the main focus of the study, cultural background is tested as a moderating effect. This dissertation allows us to draw a number of main conclusions regarding the study of online consumer experience in social commerce. First, on the basis of the importance of emotion in customer experience, this dissertation supports the primary role of emotions in shaping optimal user experience in social commerce. Second, once users are engaged and have reached an optimal experience (state of flow), this situation drives positive changes in their behavior, positively affecting their decision-making process. Third, it is necessary to take into account the fact that generational cohorts behave differently, since they trust information in different ways. Last, but not least, despite the fact that culture influences decision-making processes, the internationalization of markets and multiculturalism is making users more and more similar.