Antecedents of Social Network Trust in SNS Usage: The Moderating Role of Offline Familiarity

Abstract

With the rapid development of social networks, there is a focus on marketing strategies and business models that are based on social media. In the academic world, scholars believe that online trust is a key factor contributing to online purchasing behavior. This article explored several factors in social media trust and verified the moderating role of offline familiarity by using relevant research on online trust in conjunction with a structure equation model. The results show that independent variables such as reputation, SNS interaction, information quality, reciprocity, satisfaction and shared values have a positive influence on trust, whereas perceived similarity does not, and information quality is the most important factor. In addition, offline familiarity significantly moderates the relations between information quality, reciprocity, reputation, shared values and social media trust. This information is important to assist companies in developing an effective social network marketing strategy.