Vol.:(0123456789) Service Business https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-020-00427-4 1 3 EMPIRICAL ARTICLE Determinants of social commerce adoption in an emerging economy Tazizur Rahman 1  · Yang Sok Kim 1  · Mijin Noh 1  · Choong Kwon Lee 1 Received: 30 March 2020 / Accepted: 6 October 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract This study determines the infuential factors responsible for social commerce adop- tion in an emerging economy. Our model combines constructs from social com- merce constructs, social presence theory, and fow theory with the factors of trust and perceived risk management. We use structural equation modeling to analyze the data collected via an online survey of 300 participants who are members of social network sites in Bangladesh. The results indicate that social commerce constructs and social presence have signifcant impacts on trust and perceived risk management except for forums and communities, and the trust relationship, which infuences social commerce use intention, thereby infuencing social commerce use behavior. The fndings also reveal that fow has a signifcant impact on intention to use. Keywords Social commerce · Trust · Perceived risk management · Social presence · Flow · Bangladesh 1 Introduction The absence of human and social components has been known as a barrier to the growth of e-commerce (Lu et al. 2016). In addition, customers in online stores make transactions with strangers who may engage in fraudulent activities (Bhattachar- jee and Goel 2005). These problems enhance the perception of risk and negatively afect the trust between buyers and sellers in the online marketplace (Lu et al. 2016). * Yang Sok Kim yangsok.kim@kmu.ac.kr * Choong Kwon Lee cklee@kmu.ac.kr Tazizur Rahman tuhinkj327@gmail.com Mijin Noh mjnoh@kmu.ac.kr 1 Department of Management Information Systems, Keimyung University, Daegu, South Korea