Artificial Neural Networks and Structural Equation Modeling

The goal of using the SEM approach with ANN is to capture linear and non-compensated relationships. However, there are many shortcomings in understanding the mechanism of application of such techniques. Therefore, this chapter describes the concept of the SEM method and the concept of ANN. Hence, an insight into how to adopt the ANN method with SEM will be provided. Finally, the discussion and conclusion of this chapter will be addressed.

There are many determinants of social commerce that have been touched upon in the literature. Thus, this chapter aims to shed light on the determinants of social trading, such as the theory of social presence, the theory of social support, the theory of innovation barriers, and the elaboration likelihood theory and commitment trust theory. This chapter describes several theories that strengthen consumers’ intentions and confidence in online commerce channels. Finally, discussion and conclusion will be described.

Acceptance of technology is a vital issue that faces many resistances from consumers. Much of the literature adopted the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), the UTAUT2, and the technology acceptance model (TAM) and TAM2. Scientists have expanded such models extensively. Describing the factors of technology acceptance models contributes to shedding light on the most important factors of customer resistance to adopting new payment methods or adopting new electronic channels. This chapter provides insight into the application of technology acceptance models in social commerce and consumer research.

This chapter describes phenomenon of social commerce, customers’ intentions, and related challenges in the context of rural communities. Rural communities confront several socioeconomic issues and social commerce may offer rural communities a viable option to combat socioeconomic issues. Nonetheless, there are significant barriers to engagement in social commerce activities in rural communities across the globe. Rural communities at large lack in suitable technical, social, cultural, and legal context for the adoption of social commerce. Social commerce is such a large and diverse subject that its determinants are of diverse nature. However, one of the key impediments commonly acknowledged is a high level of perceived risk. Furthermore, trust has also been identified as a significant factor in reducing ambiguity and risk in online commercial transactions.

Advances in Web 2.0 technologies have led to the wide adoption of electronic commerce platforms as an innovative shopping method to replace traditional shopping. However, due to pro-technology bias, scholars focus on technology adoption and slightly attention has been paid to the impact of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on customers’ intention to use new online channels. This chapter addresses this gap by examining this intention through exploring the effect of eWOM on customers’ intention. In addition, this chapter will address the role of the positive and negative factors of eWOM such as affective, mishandling, and esthetics factors in social commerce.

Advances in Web 2.0 technologies have led to the wide adoption of electronic commerce platforms as an innovative shopping method to replace traditional shopping. However, due to pro-technology bias, scholars focus on technology adoption and slight attention has been paid to the impact of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on customers’ intention to use new online channels. This study addresses this gap by examining this intention through exploring the effect of eWOM on male and female intentions and identifying the mediation of perceived crowding. This chapter contributes to shedding light on the determinants of customers’ intentions toward social commerce channels based on SEM and ANN methods.

Several barriers such as the usage barrier, value barrier, risk barrier, tradition barrier, image barrier, perceived risk, and so on increase customer skepticism in social commerce. The SEM and ANN literature has attempted to investigate further barriers. Exploring and identifying barriers to social commerce adoption by customers provide practical and theoretical implications for practitioners and academics. This chapter attempts to focus on the barriers to social commerce adoption.

This study demonstrates the role of blockchain adoption in facilitating supply chain operations, as well as contributing to providing security in commercial operations that take place through the supply chain and supporting it in obtaining the necessary information about the exchange and transportation of products in a timely manner, which generally facilitates social trade operations. Providing the best that customers desire in commercial operations, which is the ease of conducting transactions and the speed of their completion, as well as eliminating the most important thing that keeps consumers away from adopting social commerce due to their fear of account penetration, data manipulation, and fraud resulting from the loss of the safety factor in digital accounts.

As we live in the age of the technology revolution as well as COVID-19, the trends toward mobile adoption in commerce increased. Many practitioners and academics consider mobile adoption in commerce as a key vital concept for improving the commerce sector. However, there are many doubts about the adoption of mobile commerce by customers because of the lack of trust in this modern type of trade. Describing the role of the new trend in commerce will assist many researchers to identify the gaps and challenges in the use of such technology. Therefore, this chapter describes the determines and benefits of using mobile commerce based on the structural equation modeling (SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) approach.

In the world of e-commerce, trust and eWOM are crucial. Though previous study has looked into the relationship between trust, eWOM, and purchasing intent, the factors that influence the formation of trust in e-commerce are mainly unknown. E-commerce is heavily influenced by customer trust and eWOM. Customer trust and eWOM are critical to the company’s success. This chapter seeks to provide insight and highlight the influence of trust and eWOM on social commerce by analyzing the impact of trust on social commerce and highlighting the most critical obstacles and issues that contribute to its diminishing performance. Furthermore, the complete analysis of how eWOM influences social commerce in this chapter will aid researchers and academics.

Using mobile payment technology improves many tasks. Mobile payment technology has a high value due to the perceived benefit of such a technology. Adopting mobile payment technology increases purchasing convenience, improves customer satisfaction, and increases efficiency at checkout. However, the SEM and ANN literature has explored many of the determinants of mobile payment technology adoption such as mobile usefulness, price savings, and referent network size. This chapter contributes to describing the determinants of mobile payment and provides practitioners with insight into how to motivate customers to adopt mobile payment technology.

This chapter presents a comprehensive overview of the two important and relevant concepts in digital marketing, i.e., online advertising and purchase intentions. We know that the world is digital, and many businesses are transforming from traditional to digital or online mode. In this scenario, it is important question that how businesses influence the purchase intention by using the latest information technology tools? Online advertising provides answer to this question. This chapter revolves around the various related concepts including online advertising, purchase intention, and social commerce. The chapter is divided into seven sections. In second section, a comprehensive argument has been presented on online advertising, and in section three and four concepts of purchase intention and social commerce have been elaborated. Discussion has been made in section six, whereas section seven concludes the chapter.

Today, the whole world has entered into a process of change with globalization. With globalization, it has become a very important situation to gain technological developments, sectoral competition and strategic superiority. It has become very important for businesses to be able to maintain their position in the sector and develop their businesses, as competition increases day by day. Businesses require active use of technology in order to gain an advantage over their competitors and to gain competitive advantage. With this new era, businesses will not only gain a strategic advantage over their competitors by using technological developments and knowledge capital, but will also be able to improve customer relations. Intention to use social media technology among customers is important for understanding customers’ perceptions of online commerce products and services. Social media technology includes entertainment, personalization, direction, interaction and word of mouth. Customer interaction on social media platforms aims to facilitate communication and provide emotional and informational support. If social media technologies are used actively, it positively affects customers’ perceptions of the managements. Managements use social media technologies to build customer presence and loyalty. The power of social media technologies in the field of online commerce cannot be underestimated in this era. Social media, which is frequently used by the consumer group we call the Z generation, directs the purchasing preferences of young people. In addition, consumers of different ages and cultures use social networks in their purchasing preferences. This chapter attempts to provide more theoretical contributions that expand the literature on such a topic. This chapter composes of some subtitles such as social media technologies, challenges and issues, customer relations for online commerce and customer intentions on social media. Hence, at the end of the chapter, the discussion and conclusion are described.

Barriers to using mobile payment technology are a significant impediment to users adopting new technologies. Barriers can be defined as the consumer’s opposition to any innovation. The barriers to using mobile payment technology will, therefore, be described in this chapter. Several theories that influence the adoption of mobile payment technology such as innovation resistance theory and the theory of planned behavior will be addressed.

This chapter aims to describe the role of green communication, openness, and altruism on customers’ intentions to purchase gen products. The theory of planned behavior and value-attitude-behavior cognitive hierarchy will be described in this chapter. In addition, many challenges and issues associated with green practices in social commerce will be addressed.

This chapter described the role of social responsibility in marketing activities. Social responsibility in marketing provides products and services that help the community environmentally, socially, and economically. Social trading companies must adhere to the concept of social responsibility by engaging in activities that provide benefits to society. Additionally, discussing and describing the role of social responsibility in marketing is an important issue that needs to be investigated. The definitions of corporate social responsibility and marketing, corporate social responsibility types, CSR in marketing, and CSR implementation in marketing are critical factors described in this chapter. Additionally, the Maignan model steps are to be followed to execute corporate social responsibility from a marketing standpoint as well properly.

Social trading companies must adhere to the concept of social responsibility by engaging in activities that provide benefits to society. Social responsibility in marketing is through providing products and services that help the community environmentally, socially, and economically. Several literatures have discussed the role of social responsibility in customer intentions toward social trading channels. Discussing and describing the role of social responsibility in marketing is an important issue that needs to be investigated. This chapter describes the role of social responsibility in marketing activities. Promotions that raise awareness of societal issues and problems, recyclable packaging, and direct portions of profits toward charitable efforts are critical factors that will be described in this chapter as well. The majority of business companies, however, are still unable to fulfill the finest CSR principles in their marketing activities. Therefore, the focus of this chapter is on the requirements for CSR as well as the deficiencies in corporate organizations’ marketing operations. Considering the important of social media for communicating CSR is address at the point, where corporations use social media effectively for delivering their CSR goals and initiatives. This chapter is followed by two main questions: how can corporate social responsibility be delivered in marketing? And why do we need to study CSR?

Much of the literature has focused on marketing such as social commerce and customer intentions. We performed a literature survey and identified 73 articles that dealt with the application of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with Artificial Neural Network (ANN) method. However, there is a gap in the literature that needs to be addressed. In this context, this research contributes to potential future work by extending the application of the mentioned techniques to more vital applied topics, such as entrepreneurship, family business, organization studies, and the health sector. This chapter describes the potential future work of SEM and ANN by highlighting issues that need to be further explored based on linear and nonlinear relations.