“They bought it, therefore I will buy it”: The effects of peer users' conversion as sales performance and entrepreneurial sellers' number of followers as relationship performance in mobile social commerce

Drawing from social learning theory and the mobile advertising literature on key performance indicators (KPIs), two experiments examined the influence of peer users' conversion in mobile social commerce. Experiment 1 (N = 211, between-subjects [high vs. low number of “sold items”]) tested the effects of peer users' conversion, operationalized as the number of “sold items” in the seller's profile, on the seller-and-profile-related outcomes. The main effect of peer users' conversion was found such that high conversion induced greater cognitive and affective appraisals, higher seller credibility, a more positive profile attitude, greater perceived entrepreneurial talent of the seller, and stronger social commerce conversion intentions. The mediating effect of social learning (mainly affective appraisal) was found. Experiment 2 (N = 348, 2 [high vs. low number of “sold items”] x 2 [high vs. low “followers”] between-subjects factorial design) showed the interaction effects of the number of “sold items” (seller's sales performance) and the number of “followers” (seller's relationship performance) on cognitive and affective appraisals, seller credibility, and profile attitude. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that peer users' conversion exerts a positive impact on the outcome variables through cognitive and affective appraisals when the number of followers is high but not when it is low.