
An increasing number of businesses and consumers talk about, invest, and engage in social commerce, which is a form of commerce mediated by social media. Despite the growing recognition and adoption of social commerce, its practice is often driven by fast-paced technological evolutions, hype, and ad-hoc business cases. In parallel, social commerce has been the target of limited scientific inquiries, and it remains ill conceived, which constitutes an obstacle to theory development and cumulative research. This paper addresses this issue by proposing a focus on social commerce networks (SCNs). SCNs refer to the digital network ties created and leveraged by consumers and business entities as they connect and interact among and between each other. Based on this definition, the paper develops a typology of key SCN structures, and it proposes a framework depicting the value that consumers and businesses can gain from creating and exploiting them. We explain how the proposed SCN concept, typology, and framework can guide future conversations on the topic of social commerce, and how they can provide researchers and practitioners with a better understanding of social commerce and its considerable value potential.
Social commerce networks, Consumer value, E-commerce, Social commerce, 300, 1709 Human-Computer Interaction, 1201 Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous), [SHS] Humanities and Social Sciences, 3200 Psychology, Business value, Social media networks
Social commerce networks, Consumer value, E-commerce, Social commerce, 300, 1709 Human-Computer Interaction, 1201 Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous), [SHS] Humanities and Social Sciences, 3200 Psychology, Business value, Social media networks
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 19 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% |
