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World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies

WorldCIST 2020: Trends and Innovations in Information Systems and Technologies pp 672–678Cite as

The Impact of Homophily and Herd Size on Decision Confidence in the Social Commerce Context

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Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 1160))

Abstract

Online shopping creates uncertainty in consumers, negatively impacting their decision confidence. Social commerce is a new variant of e-commerce, fitted with social media technologies that allow users to observe how others are behaving in the online shopping space. These observations may drive herd behaviour, a tendency of people to imitate others in an effort to reduce uncertainty. Various characteristics of a herd can result in the propagation of herd behaviour. This work-in-progress paper hones in on how homophily and herd size, as characteristics of a herd, can drive herd behaviour and ultimately impact a consumer’s decision confidence in the social commerce context. A research model is proposed and an experimental methodology is outlined. Potential contributions to both theory and practice are discussed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Mariam Munawar, Khaled Hassanein & Milena Head

Authors
  1. Mariam Munawar
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  2. Khaled Hassanein
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  3. Milena Head
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Khaled Hassanein .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Engenharia Informática, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Álvaro Rocha

  2. College of Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Hojjat Adeli

  3. FEUP, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Luís Paulo Reis

  4. DIMES, Università della Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy

    Sandra Costanzo

  5. Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Montenegro, Podgorica, Montenegro

    Irena Orovic

  6. Universidade Portucalense, Porto, Portugal

    Fernando Moreira

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Munawar, M., Hassanein, K., Head, M. (2020). The Impact of Homophily and Herd Size on Decision Confidence in the Social Commerce Context. In: Rocha, Á., Adeli, H., Reis, L., Costanzo, S., Orovic, I., Moreira, F. (eds) Trends and Innovations in Information Systems and Technologies. WorldCIST 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1160. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45691-7_63

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