Abstract:

Social commerce has become one of the preferred methods of online purchase. Its simple features with direct interactions between buyer-seller and also among the ‘brand community’ have attracted many, especially among the younger generations. However, there are risks using this method, which include financial, product and time risk. Studies have concluded perceived risks are associated with less intention in pursuing for an action. Therefore, it is the interest of the researchers to investigate if perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived risks measured as perceived financial risk, perceived product risk and perceive time risk have any influence to social commerce usage intention among youths. Driven by the positivist approach and based on the technology acceptance model, data was collected from 125 participants in the youth category. Findings from the structural equation modeling using AMOS reveal perceived usefulness and perceived ease of using are the predictors for youths’ intention in using social commerce for their online purchase. However, interestingly, the perceived risk factors are not significantly related to the intention. We discuss this finding may signify the nature of personality of youths as risks takers, but there are potential dangers. Implications and future research suggestions are provided.