BSEM estimation of network effect and customer orientation empowerment on trust in social media and network environment

This paper presents a stochastic model that identifies network effect and customer orientation empowerment as strong antecedents of trustworthiness and trust in social media network environment. As Trust is emerging as a critical influencer of consumer behavior in organizations, social media has become the facilitator or the enabler of this influence. This paper aims to explore and examine the relationships amongst the antecedents of trust in the context of the social media network environment via Bayesian estimation and testing of the structural equation model. In facilitating the estimation of the stochastic model, a survey was conducted on 255 social media users. A series of statistical analyses were conducted prior to the estimation using Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). Results showed that network effect and customer orientation empowerment were significant predictors of trustworthiness and trust. Bayesian MCMC results confirmed that the findings were consistent with the literature.

► A stochastic model was developed to examine the antecedents of trustworthiness and trust in social media network environment. ► The relationship amongst the antecedents of trust is tested using Bayesian estimation and testing of SEM. ► Network effect and customer orientation empowerment were found to be significant predictors of trustworthiness and trust.