Abstract
Purpose - This study investigates how individuals' self-awareness (specifically, private and public self-awareness) and environment-awareness (perceived expertise, similarity and familiarity) shape herd behavior, encompassing discounting one’s information and imitating others. Drawing from latent state-trait theory, this research aims to discern the impact of these factors on purchase intention and behavior. Design/methodology/approach - Longitudinal data from 231 users in Xiaohongshu, China’s leading social commerce platform, were collected to test the proposed model and hypotheses. Findings - The findings from this study show that private self-awareness negatively influences discounting one’s own information and imitating others. Public self-awareness positively affects imitating others, while it does not affect discounting one’s own information. Perceived expertise diminishes discounting one’s own information but does not significantly affect imitating others. Perceived similarity and perceived familiarity are positively related to discounting one’s own information and imitating others. The results confirm different interaction effects between self-awareness and environment-awareness on herd behavior. Originality/value - First, this contributes back to the latent state-trait theory by expanding the applicability of this theory to explain the phenomenon of herd behavior. Second, this study takes an important step toward theoretical advancement in the extant literature by qualifying that both self- and environment-awareness should be considered to trigger additional effects on herd behavior. Third, this study provides a more enlightened understanding of herd behavior by highlighting the significance of considering the interplay between self- and environment-awareness on herd behavior. Finally, this study also empirically confirms the validity of classifying self-awareness into private and public aspects. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 947-980 |
| Number of pages | 34 |
| Journal | Internet Research |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Online published | 26 Dec 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 27 May 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Information for this record is supplemented by the author(s) concerned.Funding
This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72271072, 72071190, and 71801069), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (JZ2023HGPA0294).
Research Keywords
- Environment-awareness
- Herd behavior
- Purchase behavior
- Self-awareness
- Social commerce
Publisher's Copyright Statement
- COPYRIGHT TERMS OF DEPOSITED POSTPRINT FILE: © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited. This AAM is provided for your own personal use only. It may not be used for resale, reprinting, systematic distribution, emailing, or for any other commercial purpose without the permission of the publisher. Chen, X., Chen, R.R., Wei, S. and Davison, R.M. (2023). Herd behavior in social commerce: understanding the interplay between self-awareness and environment-awareness. Internet Research, Advance Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-05-2022-0359