Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues (Print ISSN: 1544-0036; Online ISSN: 1544-0044)

Research Article: 2021 Vol: 24 Issue: 6S

The Influence of Social Media Regulations Boundary on Marketing and Commerce of Industries in UAE

Ghaleb A. El Refae, Al Ain University

Mohammed T. Nuseir, Al Ain University

Muhammad Alshurideh, The University of Jordan & University of Sharjah

Abstract

Social media & its regulations are essential elements in today's marketing channel and organizational success and need the attention of researchers and regulators. Thus, the present research analyzes the impact of privacy regulation, copyright regulation and public interest regulation related to social media on social media power and influence. This study also investigates the role of social media power and influence on the commerce & marketing of different industries in the UAE. This article also investigates the mediating role of social media power and influence among the links of privacy regulation, copyright regulation, public interest regulation and commerce and marketing. This article has used survey questionnaires to collect the data and smart PLS to examine the data. The results revealed that privacy regulation and copyright regulation have a positive and significant association with social media power and influence. This research also investigated that social media power and influence have a positive association with commerce and marketing. This article also exposed that social media power and influence positively mediates among the nexus of privacy regulation, copyright regulation and commerce and marketing. This study is meaningful for the new studies and regulators while investigating this area in the future and for developing regulation on social media.

Keywords

Privacy Regulation, Copyright Regulation, Social Media Power and Influence, Commerce & Marketing

Introduction

Today's digital world has promoted commerce through an increase in marketing as it provides a large station to interact with a large number of individuals, groups of people, or organizations. Social media has provided different social plate-forms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, what is an app, and different other apps, websites and pages. These social plate-forms provide several audiences to interact share our views and have expected results from them (Almazrouei et al., 2020; Aljumah et al., 2021; Al-Maroof et al., 2021). Business organizations use social media as a tool to create power on other users and develop an influence on them so that their thinking and their intentions to make business dealings with the concerned organizations (Yahia, Al-Neama & Kerbache, 2018; Alshurideh et al., 2019; Kurdi et al., 2021; Al-Dmour et al., 2021a&b; Alshurideh et al., 2021). This social media power and influence promotes commerce in different ways. The organization, which deals in the trade activities (sell and purchase of goods and services) and aids to trade activities (insurance, banks, transport, communication, mediation, etc.), can interact with a large number of stakeholders through social media plate-forms and they can drive desired consequences from them through social media influence (Alshurideh et al., 2019; Khasawneh et al., 2021a&b; Al Kurdi & Alshurideh, 2021). The representatives of business organizations can interact with the suppliers, share with them their expectations about the quantity and quality of the resources, products, and services with the supplier users and can facilitate trade and aid to trade activities. While on the other hand, they can reach a larger audience and can influence them to convert them into customers (Lin, Li & Wang, 2017; Aljumah et al., 2021; Sways et al., 2021). The connectivity among individuals and organizations is increasing rapidly. To keep pace with the ever-increasing presence on social media, there have been made many rules and regulations regarding the usage of social media platforms. These rules and regulations define limits to which the users must restrict themselves; otherwise, they have to pay for them either physically or financially, and they have to face defame on social media. The adherence to these rules and regulations not only saves the business organizations from legislation but also enhances their social media power and influence (Alshurideh et al., 2016; Alshurideh et al., 2017; Stohl, Etter, Banghart & Woo, 2017; AlShehhi et al., 2020; Alyammahi et al., 2020). Our study aims at analyzing three sorts of social media regulations, such as privacy regulations, copyright regulations, and public interest regulations relating to social media and checks their influence on the social media power and influence. While the business organizations abide by the privacy regulations, copyright regulations, and public interest regulations relating to social media, they earn high goodwill on the social media plate-forms, win the trust of the audience, and their emotional support. Thus, they can better use social media as a powerful tool to influence the audience and raise marketing (Mashaqi et al., 2020; Flew, Martin & Suzor, 2019; Obeidat et al., 2019). The focus of our study is on the influences of abiding by the privacy regulation, copyright regulations, and public interest regulations relating to social media on social media power and influence with their impacts on marketing and commerce of industries in the economy of United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to reports of local and international organizations in 2014, UAE is ranked as one of the most developed countries of the world (Younies & Na, 2020). As per these reports, the citizens of UAE and other residents are contented and happy, and there is increasing growth in many economic fields such as investment, technology, information, and trade, etc. The major portion of the economy of UAE consists of industries, which are 49.8% of the whole economy. The major industries of UAE are petroleum, petrochemicals, fishing, aluminum, textiles, and IT. As UAE is a rich country, organizations in all industries have expanded their businesses on social media. National Media Council (NMC) social media regulatory authority and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) oversee and handle social media issues in UAE. There have been made some social media regulatory laws categorized as privacy regulations, copyright regulations, and public interest regulations. Most of the representatives of the organization in the industrial sector abide by these regulations and use social media power as a tool to influence the audience and raise marketing (Jairoun & Shahwan, 2020). Some statistics related to social media usage are given in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Statistics Related to Social Media Usage

Literature Review

Social media is an environment where a large number of individuals, groups of people, or organizations can connect. Social media plate-forms have provided a great opportunity to heighten their marketing level and expand the scope of trade, facilitating commerce activities (Al-Khayyal et al., 2021; Abuhasheshm et al., 2021; Nuseir et al., 2021). The use of social media plate-forms gives power to the users to interact but also to influence their emotions, their thinking and their decisions, as at one hand it provides an opportunity to the organization to collect information from the audience while on the other hand give them a chance to share their beliefs, ideas, products, and services description (Al-Khayyal et al., 2020; Kurdi et al., 2020; Alzoubi et al., 2020). As the connectivity on social media has increased, every user can interact with others easily and accesses their content on social media (Goodyear, 2017). There have been made several rules and regulations relating to the use of social media by lawmakers, like the laws for privacy and public security. As for the breach of these laws, the culprit has to bear heavy penalties or strict physical punishment in the form of imprisonment; they try their best to abide by these rules and regulations. The adherence to these rules and regulations relating to social media allows business organizations to use social media as a powerful tool to influence the audience. These have been conducted several studies like Sarikakis and Winter (2017), on social media regulations and their impact on social media power and influence. Some of these studies have been cited below.

The literary investigation of Mosteller & Poddar (2017) posits that as the active social media presence has increased connectivity among individuals, consumers and organizations, the risk of privacy violence has increased on social media platforms. The lawmakers have tried to handle the issues arising from the fast-increasing presence and connectivity on social media by introducing many privacy rules and regulations. The consumers, general public and business organizations must follow that rules and regulations while using the different social media platforms. The abidance by these rules and regulation keeps privacy of the users, and their stakeholders protected, and make the social media more powerful tool to interact with the stakeholders and influence their intentions (Nuseir et al., 2021; Mohsin, Kamran, Nawaz, Hussain & Dahri, 2021). There are social media laws that anyone on the social media plate-forms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. irritates others by sending immoral messages, somehow get access to others’ accounts and misuse them by uploading any immoral video or pictures there, sending some sexually inducing material to them, the suffered parities can sue the culprit. The sinner must be charged with penalties or physical sentences (Ayaburi & Treku, 2020). Their Organizations that abide by privacy regulations regarding social media have a good image among social media users. Thus, they can interact with the existent customers, reach and interact with the larger audience, and can influence the thinking and intentions make business dealings with the organizations. Similarly, when the organizations follow the privacy rules relating to social media, they do not allow to leak the personal information of customers like names, contact numbers, social media accounts, and location; when the customers feel privacy, they socially and emotionally impressed by the organizations on social media and form buying intentions accordingly (Nawaz et al., 2020). When the representatives of the organizations or digital influencers follow the privacy rules in the case, they make interaction with the job candidates like they keep the personal information collected from the job candidates safe and do not misuse, they win the trust of the candidates and thus, can have efficient human resources (Choi & Sung, 2018). On the above discussion, we can hypothesize

H1: Privacy regulations relating to social media have a positive association with social media power and influence.

Social media is the environment having a chance for small businesses to connect with other users, share diverse content like pictures, videos, text pictures, writing any models, and attract followers or customers. However, as social media has become advanced, hard rules on content ownership have been made. These rules, on the one hand, protect the original creators for their content on social media platforms; while on the other hand, they have made users unable to copy and use other material or concepts. The copyright rules and regulations relating to social media restrict the users to steal the contents from websites or ads on any social media platforms. If they violate those rules, they will be charged with heavy penalties or physical punishments like imprisonment (Zhang & Gupta, 2018). The implication of copyright regulations relating to social media saves the writing material, visual or audible contents of the original creators like artists' or professional's creations. This protects the content ownership, popularity, and, thereon, the earnings of the original creators of social media content. A renowned scholar like Bosher & Ye?ilo?lu (2019) investigates the contribution of copyright regulations relating to social media in the achievement of high social media power and influence. This investigation demonstrates that business organizations can reach a larger audience, contact them and influence their thinking, their decisions, and their intentions to continue to deal with the organization through social media in case they have secured copyrights. When the organizations have secured a copyright for the social media content, they can make due earnings out of the creations. While if the ads or contents are not secured, the other users may take these, and they may earn a reputation or money on others' contents. The literary work out of Whelan (2019) on the social media regulations in an emerging economy exposes that the business organizations which have registered the rights of the copy and use their videos, pictures, writing material, ads have the security of their image on the social media and financial security. Thus, we can hypothesize,

H2: Copyright regulations relating to social media have a positive association with social media power & influence.

The public interest regulations relating to social media are rules and regulation that must be followed by the social media user organizations, which publish anything on the concerned social media plate-forms like different what's an app, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, websites, and pages, to secure the interest of the audience (Nuseir et al., 2021; Nawaz et al., 2021). Public interest regulations relating to social media state that the use organizations must take care of the privacy of the audience must take care of their health, reputation, emotions, and economic interest when they intend to advertise and market their products and services through social media plate-forms. The organizations that abide by these public interest regulations not only have sustainable connections with the audience, social interaction with them, but they can influence their emotions and, thus, their buying intentions from the particular organizations (Pflughoeft & Schneider, 2020). The content of blogs, posts, and ads shared by the business organization represents their values, behaviors, services and product quality. The business organizations which follow the public interest rules and regulations relating to social media, they give true description about their organizations, business approaches, policies, financial or marketing positions, quality of their services, and the quality of their products, etc. (Sun et al., 2020). They do not make fake additions to the values of their resources, products and services to attract the audience and convert them into customers. They leave it on the audience’s decision whether they want to make a transaction with them or not. The abiding by the public interest regulations, the organizations are in a better position to use social media as a powerful tool to influence the audience as when the audience finds that the quality of goods and services are shown in the post on the social media plate-forms, and the quality of original products and services match they are morally impressed by the organizations and continue to rely on the future posts of the organizations (Barnes, Balnave & Holland, 2018). Some organizations on the social media present extraordinary good quality of their resources, products, and services, they take support of false description and buttering words to attract more customers, but when they have received the price and fail to provide the products and services true to the posts, customers become dissatisfied and never to make dealings with those organizations again (Al Khaja, AlKhaja & Sequeira, 2018). Thus,

H3: Public interest regulations relating to social media have a positive association with social media power and influence.

The capacity of the business organizations to use social media plate-forms as a powerful tool to influence the audience and mold their thinking & intentions according to their policies. This capacity of organizations creates stimulation the commerce. Social media power & influence facilitate trade and aid to trade. In this age of digital media, almost all organizations have turned their businesses on the social media platform. Through social media, power organizations can influence more audiences and convert them into customers. Through social media power, the digital representatives of organizations acquire information about customers' wants & expectations and act accordingly (Gould, Grant Stevens & Nazarian, 2017). Through social media power, they can remove misconceptions of the audience about the brand, products and services. This increases the marketing level, and a fast increase in the sale and purchase of goods determines the great fluency in the commerce activities. The adherence to the privacy regulations, copyright regulations, and public interest regulations relating to social media affect the social media power and influence. When the organizations abide by the privacy regulations and keep the customers' or employees personal information like name, contact number, location, social media account, or any other information safe, also do not irritate them by sending immoral messages, video, pictures, or other obnoxious material, they have greater power and influence on the audience (Safiullah, Pathak, Singh & Anshul, 2017). Similarly, when the organizations follow public interest regulations regarding social media and take care of the health, reputation, emotions, and economic interest, they can influence them in a better way. Moreover, the copyright regulations relating to social media also allow the organization to use social media as a powerful tool to influence the audience and raise marketing (Jacobson, Gruzd & Hernández-García, 2020). Thus,

H4: Social media power and influence have a positive association with commerce and marketing.

H5: Social media power and influence play a mediating role between privacy regulations relating to social media and commerce and marketing.

H6: Social media power and influence play a mediating role between copyright regulations relating to social media and commerce and marketing.

H7: Social media power and influence play a mediating role between public interest regulations relating to social media and commerce and marketing.

Methodology

This research analyzes the impact of privacy regulation, copyright regulation and public interest regulation related to social media on social media power and influence. This study also investigates the role of social media power and influence on the commerce and marketing of different industries and investigates the mediating role of social media power and influence among the links of privacy regulation, copyright regulation, public interest regulation and commerce and marketing in UAE. This article has used quantitative methods for data collection and used survey questionnaires to collect the data. These surveys were distributed to the respondents by employing purposive sampling. The employees that are related to social media are the respondents and sent around 530 questionnaires. After fifteen days, only 300 questionnaires were received, which has about 56.60 percent response rate.

This article also executed the smart PLS to examine the nexus among variables and to test the convergent and discriminant validity. The smart-PLS used because the framework is a very complex and large sample size of the study(Hair Jr, Babin & Krey, 2017; Al-Hamad et al., 2021; Alshurideh et al., 2021). This study has used commerce and marketing as a dependent variable with five items and Social Media Power and Influence (SMPI) as a mediating variable with six items. This article also used the Privacy Regulation (PR) with five items, Copyright Regulation (CRR) with four items and Public Interest Regulation (PIR) with five items as the independent variables. These variables with links are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Theoretical Model

Findings

This study has checked the convergent validity that is about the correlation among the items. The figures have shown that loadings and AVE values are bigger than 0.50 while values of CR and Alpha are higher than 0.70. These values are highlighted the high correlation among items. These values are mentioned in Table 1.

Table 1
Convergent Validity
Constructs Items Loadings Alpha CR AVE
Commerce and Marketing CM1 0.817 0.889 0.918 0.692
CM2 0.812      
CM3 0.859      
CM4 0.807      
CM5 0.863      
Copyright Regulation CRR1 0.956 0.966 0.975 0.908
CRR2 0.945      
CRR3 0.953      
CRR4 0.957      
Public Interest Regulation PIR1 0.869 0.909 0.936 0.785
PIR2 0.883      
PIR3 0.885      
PIR5 0.905      
Privacy Regulation PR1 0.925 0.940 0.954 0.807
PR2 0.825      
PR3 0.908      
PR4 0.906      
PR5 0.923      
Social Media Power and Influence SMPI1 0.935 0.944 0.958 0.820
SMPI2 0.860      
SMPI4 0.932      
SMPI5 0.936      
SMPI6 0.860      

This study has also checked the discriminant validity that is about the correlation among the variables. Firstly, cross-loadings & Fornell Larcker have been used to test the discriminant validity. The figures have shown that the values that show the nexus with the variable itself are larger than the values that show the nexus with other variables. These values are highlighted the low correlation among variables. These values are mentioned in Table 2 and Table 3.

Table 2
Fornell Larcker
  CM CRR PIR PR SMPI
CM 0.832        
CRR 0.407 0.953      
PIR 0.370 0.385 0.886    
PR 0.501 0.467 0.378 0.898  
SMPI 0.502 0.489 0.370 0.834 0.905
Table 3
Cross-Loadings
  CM CRR PIR PR SMPI
CM1 0.809 0.377 0.295 0.461 0.491
CM2 0.815 0.349 0.305 0.456 0.410
CM3 0.856 0.296 0.284 0.363 0.404
CM4 0.815 0.330 0.335 0.395 0.364
CM5 0.864 0.329 0.321 0.393 0.408
CRR1 0.399 0.957 0.339 0.444 0.469
CRR2 0.360 0.944 0.401 0.442 0.454
CRR3 0.390 0.953 0.386 0.445 0.466
CRR4 0.401 0.958 0.343 0.448 0.473
PIR1 0.340 0.322 0.875 0.305 0.300
PIR2 0.339 0.350 0.881 0.337 0.348
PIR3 0.327 0.331 0.887 0.333 0.313
PIR5 0.305 0.359 0.901 0.363 0.348
PR1 0.447 0.391 0.341 0.924 0.745
PR2 0.465 0.434 0.329 0.825 0.789
PR3 0.445 0.445 0.346 0.909 0.726
PR4 0.452 0.440 0.340 0.907 0.732
PR5 0.434 0.381 0.338 0.922 0.742
SMPI1 0.450 0.450 0.316 0.744 0.935
SMPI2 0.463 0.429 0.359 0.768 0.861
SMPI4 0.456 0.452 0.319 0.744 0.932
SMPI5 0.444 0.449 0.317 0.747 0.936
SMPI6 0.459 0.430 0.360 0.766 0.860

Secondly, Heterotrait Monotrait (HTMT) ratios have been used to test the discriminant validity. The figures have shown that the values are not bigger than 0.85. These values are highlighted the low correlation among variables. These values are mentioned in Table 4 & Figure 3.

Table 4
Heterotrait Monotrait Ratio
  CM CRR PIR PR SMPI
CM          
CRR 0.436        
PIR 0.411 0.411      
PR 0.543 0.489 0.408    
SMPI 0.544 0.511 0.398 0.783  

Figure 3: Measurement Model Assessment

The results revealed that privacy regulation and copyright regulation have a positive and significant association with social media power and influence and accept H1 and H2. However, the results revealed that public interest regulation has an insignificant association with social media power, influences, and rejects H3. This research also investigated that social media power and influence have a positive association with commerce and marketing and accept H4. This article also exposed that social media power and influence positively mediates among the nexus of privacy regulation, copyright regulation and commerce and marketing and accept H5, H6. However, this article also exposed that social media power and influence insignificantly mediates among the nexus of public interest regulation and commerce & marketing and rejects H7. These links are shown in Table 5.

Table 5
A Path Analysis
Relationships Beta S.D. T Statistics P Values L.L. U.L.
CRR -> SMPI 0.118 0.034 3.461 0.000 0.061 0.172
PIR -> SMPI 0.035 0.036 0.972 0.167 -0.028 0.095
PR -> SMPI 0.766 0.031 24.810 0.000 0.702 0.807
SMPI -> CM 0.504 0.046 11.063 0.000 0.433 0.579
CRR -> SMPI -> CM 0.059 0.019 3.113 0.001 0.032 0.093
PIR -> SMPI -> CM 0.018 0.019 0.943 0.174 -0.013 0.051
PR -> SMPI -> CM 0.386 0.035 11.040 0.000 0.332 0.450

Figure 4: Structural Model Assessment

Discussions & Implications

The study results have indicated that privacy regulations for social media have a positive association with social media power and influence. The study implies that the effective privacy rule and regulations for social media enhance the social media power and influence on the users, whether they are individual users or business organizations. These results are in line with the past study of Abokhodair, Abbar, Vieweg, and Mejova (2017). This study gives a detailed description of the terms, rules, and regulations regarding privacy on social media platforms. This study posits that the privacy rules and regulations protect the identity, images, photos, videos shared on the concerned plate-forms. These regulations assure you that your accounts at social media platforms would be saved, the contents, the conversations would be protected from the third parties as agreed. The privacy rules and regulations enhance the influence of social media as having great privacy; the user organizations can interact with the customers and influence their decisions. These results are also in line with the past study of Watson and Rodrigues (2018), in which different national laws are imposed on the users if they post or share some defaming material like sexually explicit videos or photos, or cheap conversations, to someone without their consent. Under these laws, if some organizations on social media breach regulations, they will have to bear heavy penalties or physical sentences. The study results have also indicated that copyright regulations regarding social media have a positive association with social media power and influence. The study represents that the copyright regulation regarding social media protects the original writing, visual, or audible material of the artists or any professional against theft. This protects the popularity and earnings of original creators. These results are in line with the past study of Vetulani-C?giel and Meyer (2020), which shows that the enterprise can reach a greater audience, interact with them and influence them through social media and avail more benefits in case, it has secured copyrights. When the ad materials or contents are secured, the creator enterprises can earn to the extent to which these ads or contents have popularity among the audience. These results are also in line with the previous study of Lund, Cohen, and Scarles (2018), which indicates that the organizations which have registered the copyrights for the use of their ads, videos, pictures, or writing material have both image security and financial security as if someone else tries to copy that material from the social media plate-forms, he would be declared a thief and has to bear heavy fines or physical whose extent is dependent on the popularity of material on the social media.

The provision of copyright security enhances the social media power and influence on the original creator, individuals, and organizations. The study results have indicated that public interest regulations regarding social media have an insignificant relationship with social media power and influence. The study suggests that the business organizations, which abide by the public interest regulations relating to social media, cannot influence their decision to deal with them. These results are also supported by the past study of McGregor (2019), which shows that many rules and regulations have been introduced by the social plate forms which do not protect the public interests like goodwill, financial, and health security, assuring the reliability of the ad material (pictures, writing, videos) by the employer organizations or trade or industrial organizations. These regulations provide security to public users who share their data like cell numbers, names, addresses, or locations. Thus, they save their privacy & enhance social media power and influence. These results are also supported by the past study of Appel, Grewal, Hadi & Stephen (2020), which shows that the business organizations which have high goodwill shows great responsibility towards public interest and follow the rules and regulations regarding the public interest while sharing information about their products and services on the social media plate-forms. When the companies follow these regulations, they influence their intentions and decisions through interaction with social media platforms. The study results have also shown that social media power and influence play a mediating role between privacy regulations regarding social media and commerce & marketing. These results are in line with the past study of Felix, Rauschnabel & Hinsch (2017), which shows that when the privacy regulations regarding social media are followed honestly, interaction can be made with a large audience and can be influenced through social media. This interaction and influence help promote commerce and marketing. These results are also in line with the literary investigation of Tafesse & Wien (2018), which shows that the enhanced social media power and influence as a result of the effective implementation of privacy regulations regarding social media helps promote commerce and marketing.

The study results have shown that social media power and influence is a mediator between copyright regulations regarding social media and the promotion of commerce & marketing. These results are supported by the past study of Arora & Sanni (2019), which shows that when companies effectively follow the copyright regulations not only to protect their rights but also take care of others copyrights, their image on social media improves, and they can use social media as a powerful instrument to influence the audience. This enhances commerce and marketing. These results are also in line with the past study of Misirlis & Vlachopoulou (2018), which shows that the social media power and influence is enhanced and brings stimulation in commerce and marketing activities when the copyright regulations are followed by the concerned organizations honestly. The study results have also indicated that social media power and influence do not play a mediating role between public interest regulations relating to social media and commerce & marketing. These results are supported by the past study of (Gesualdi, 2019), which shows that when the public interest regulations regarding social media are followed properly, the social media power and influence improves and enhances marketing and commerce.

Both the theoretical and empirical implication is carried by the present literary investigation. The current study is very significant as it contributes to the literature on social media. However, the past study has addressed the regulations regarding social media and its effects on social media performance. However, the conduct of the current study is a distinction as it divides these regulations into three categories, such as privacy regulations relating to social media, copyrights regulations and public interest regulations regarding social media, and analyzes their effects on the social media power and influence on users separately. In the past literature, the studies have given little attention to the social media power and influence as a mediator between privacy regulations, copyright regulations, and public interest regulations and commerce & trade, although many of the past studies have discussed the effects of social media power and influence on commerce and marketing. This study initiates to address social media power and influence as the mediator between privacy regulations, copyright regulations, and public interest relating to social media and commerce & marketing. Besides, the current study is very significant in practical life in the economies UAE. This study is meaningful for the new studies and regulators while investigating this area in the future and for developing regulation on social media. It provides a guideline on how to accelerate the stimulation in commerce and marketing. It suggests that by following the privacy regulations, copyrights regulations, and public interest relating to social media, business organizations can use social media as a powerful tool to influence the audience, which assists promote commerce and marketing.

Conclusion & Limitations

This study examines the commerce and marketing in different industries in the developed economy of the UAE. In this context, the study throws light on social media's power and influence because of the privacy regulations, copyright regulations, and public interest relating to social media. This study states that the privacy regulations relating to social media improve social media power and influence. The privacy rules and regulations relating to social media protect the identity and contents shared by the users and protect the user name from misuse. When the organizations follow all the rules to keep the user stakeholders' privacy safe, they can use social media plate-forms as a powerful tool to influence the intentions of the stakeholders. The study states that the organizations' abiding by the copyright rules enhances the social media power and influences on the stakeholders. The organizations can get reach a wider audience, interact and influence them through social media and can have more benefits in case they have secured copyrights. Similarly, when the organizations take care of copyright rules and regulations to keep away from others' contents on social media, they have a good image on social media and can influence their stakeholders' opinions. The study elaborates that when business organizations show great responsibility towards public interest and follow the rules and regulations in this regard while sharing information about their products and services on social media platforms. When the companies abide by these regulations, they influence their intentions and decisions through interaction with social media platforms. Moreover, the study suggests that the organizations can use the social media plate-forms as a powerful tool to influence the stakeholders abiding by the privacy regulations, copyrights regulations, and public interest relating to social media, which enhances commerce and marketing.

There are several limitations that this study has, despite its theoretical and empirical implications. The authors must remove these limitations in the future while extending or replicating this study. To examine the social media power & influence and commerce, this study uses only social media regulations such as privacy regulations, copyright regulations, and public interest regulations. Many other managerial and economic factors also affect social media power and commerce & marketing, which have been neglected by this study. For a more comprehensive study, the author in the future must expand the number of factors. The data in support of this study has been collected from the issuance of questionnaires among social media users. The use of a single source for the collection of data makes the study limited. For a comprehensive study, the author must collect data from multiple sources.

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