Conclusion
Over the last decade, social commerce has developed with increasing social and economic impact around the world. The goal of this research has been to provide a systematic literature review based on the analysis results of 407 academic publications on social commerce since 2006. We proposed a systematic method by using a synthesis and a taxonomy of social commerce for this study. In order to understand social commerce, we laid out three research questions: What is social commerce (RQ1)? Which research methods have been used in social commerce (RQ2)? And what are potential areas for social commerce research in future (RQ3)? For RQ1, we used a taxonomy to delineate the different facets of social commerce: definitions, differences, types and technologies, challenges and benefits, models and frameworks. We also defined social commerce with several broad dimensions. For RQ2, we found that quantitative methods have been the prevalent research methods used in social commerce research. They include: surveys, 50.1%; math modeling, 8.6%; experiments, 4.9%; and longitudinal studies, 2.0%. Qualitative methods were less used but still present. They include: conceptual development, 11.8%; reviews, 5.7%; and narrative analysis, 1.2%. Some other methods have also been used including: technology design, 4.7%; case studies, 8.4%; and mixed methods, 2.7%. Finally, for RQ3, on the basis of our systematic review, we proposed a future research agenda on social commerce. We hope this will guide researchers going forward.
