Author(s)

Yi Zhang¹, Yanan Wang¹, Wenxi Guo², Haiquan Chen^2*

¹Guangdong University of Finance, Guangzhou, China.
²Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.

This paper aims to analyze the impact mechanism of consumers’ social presence on network effect and cross-channel hitchhiking on online shopping platform. In this study, 424 consumers of online shopping platforms were surveyed by questionnaire, and the collected data were analyzed by reliability and validity, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis to examine the research hypothesis. The result showed that: first, the stronger consumers’ sense of social presence on the online shopping platform, the more likely they will be able to cross-channel free-riding transferring from one retailer’s offline channel to online channel; Second, the stronger consumers’ sense of social presence, the more likely they will be able to increase the number of consumers and businesses, and got the same-side network effect and cross-side network effect; Third, the exertion of same-side network effect and cross-side effect on the online shopping platform were beneficial for improving the probability of cross-channel free ride for consumers; Fourth, the same-side network effect and cross-border network effect played a mediating role in social presence and cross-channel free riding. This research further enriched the theoretical research on consumer channel choice and mechanism of action of online retail platforms from the perspective of platform network effect.

Online Shopping Platform, Network Effect, Opportunism, Social Presence, Cross-Channel Free-Riding, Platform Users

Zhang, Y., Wang, Y. N., Guo, W. X., & Chen, H. Q. (2020) Social Presence, Network Effect, Cross-Channel Free Riding. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 10, 1454-1472. doi: 10.4236/ajibm.2020.108095.