The effects of trust and platform innovation characteristics on consumer behaviors in social commerce: A social influence perspective

•This study explored the diffusion mechanism that affects the behavior intention of social commerce from key characteristics (trust and platform innovation characteristics) and social influence in different stages.•Findings show that social influence (subjective norms and critical mass) significantly positively affect social commerce behavior intention in all stages.•The innovation characteristics of the platform have significant effects on the use intention of social commerce in earlier stages, and user characteristic (trust) consistently positively affects behavior intention in all stages.•User feature (trust) partially mediates the use intention for social commerce through social influence at all stages.