Impact of social support and presence on swift guanxi and trust in social commerce

2019 ◽  
Vol 119 (9) ◽  
pp. 2033-2054
Author(s):  
Jun Fan ◽  
Wangyue Zhou ◽  
Xue Yang ◽  
Boying Li ◽  
Ying Xiang

Purpose Swift guanxi and trust can influence consumers’ decision making in social commerce. What factors will influence the formation of swift guanxi and trust between buyers and sellers in social commerce has not been clearly investigated. The purpose of this paper is to identify antecedents and impacts of swift guanxi and trust in social commerce. Design/methodology/approach An online questionnaire was used to collect the data, and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling was employed for data analysis. Social support and presence are introduced as the antecedents for swift guanxi and trust, leading to the repurchase intention (RI) and social sharing intention of customers. Findings The results indicate that social support and presence can influence swift guanxi and trust. Social support and presence are positively associated with swift guanxi and trust which further lead to RI and social sharing intention. Practical implications The findings can be used to guide sellers in social commerce platforms to improve their services and make good use of platform features to improve customers’ perception of presence. To attract new customers and retain old customers, sellers should also build swift guanxi and trust through the recommendation and experience sharing of previous buyers on social media. Originality/value This study combines social support theory and presence theory to investigate the factors that influence customers’ purchase decision and social sharing intention in the context of social commerce in China. The integration of social support theory and presence theory explains both the social and technical factors that influence swift guanxi and trust in social commerce.

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 456-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saleh Bazi ◽  
Alireza Hajli ◽  
Nick Hajli ◽  
Mohana Shanmugam ◽  
Xiaolin Lin

Purpose Under the sunlight of social commerce, few concepts have blossomed like value co-creation. But when blurred strategies are implemented, the opportunity to wilt a brand is high. To avoid the miscues and the controversies, an ascendant step is to engage consumers with social commerce sites. The purpose of this paper is to propose three antecedents to engage consumers with social commerce sites, namely, social support, social commerce value and social commerce information sharing, and the effect of brand engagement on the intention of brand co-creation. Design/methodology/approach This study used survey data from 234 Iranians with experience using social commerce sites. Variance-based structural equation modeling using the partial least squares path modeling approach was adopted to analyze the structural model. Findings The authors found that social support, social commerce value and social commerce information sharing positively foster brand engagement. The study also revealed that brand engagement is a significant predictor of brand co-creation intention. Originality/value The study is the first study that considers and explains brand engagement from social support theory, social commerce value theory and social commerce information exchange. Also, the study shows how consumers can be an integral part of a brand. Unlike other studies which were done in industrialized countries, this study was employed in Iran.


2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (4/5) ◽  
pp. 385-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willemijn van Dolen ◽  
Charles B. Weinberg

Purpose The authors investigate how employee social support impacts children’s perceptions of service quality of a child helpline chat service and the chatters’ immediate well-being. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to examine how action-facilitating support, nurturant support and emotional reflections influence the children and to test whether this impact varies depending upon the controllability of the issues discussed. Design/methodology/approach The authors develop hypotheses about the influence of social support and controllability on children’s perceived service quality and well-being. Chat conversations are coded on the social support given by the employee and the controllability of the issue. Questionnaires are collected to measure children’s service quality and well-being. Using structural equation modeling, hypotheses are tested with a sample of 662 children and chat conversations of a child helpline. Findings The study reveals that for children chatting about controllable issues, nurturant support and negative emotional reflections negatively influence the immediate well-being of these children. Positive emotional reflections positively influence immediate well-being. For children chatting about uncontrollable issues, nurturant support and negative emotional responses positively influence the perceived service quality. Originality/value This study contributes to the services marketing literature by broadening the current understanding of the impact of social support on children’s service quality perceptions and well-being, and by showing how this impact is moderated by the level of controllability of the issue discussed.


Kybernetes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Shen ◽  
Yuhong Zhu ◽  
Chenglong Li ◽  
Syed Hamad Hassan Shah

PurposeThe paper aims to explore how perceived prosumer content quality (PPCQ) and perceived interaction quality (PIQ) improve users' co-creation experiences and subsequently influence their co-creation intentions in the future. In addition, the paper examines users' prosumer ability into consideration.Design/methodology/approachThe research model based on stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) paradigm is developed to observe users' participation in value co-creation activities. In total, 318 valid responses were collected from a survey. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the model and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) PROCESS macro (Model 58) by Hayes was applied to investigate the moderating effect of prosumer ability in mediation paths.FindingsIt is observed that co-creation intention is determined by user-learning value, social-integrative value and hedonic value, which are influenced by PPCQ and PIQ. Besides, uses' prosumer ability moderates the indirect effects of PPCQ and PIQ on co-creation intentions through co-creation experiences.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper provides a prosumption perspective to explain users' co-creation intentions in social commerce and proposes the importance of user-learning, social-integrative and hedonic values in determining co-creation intentions.Practical implicationsSocial commerce platforms can encourage prosumption activities and cultivate multi-level prosumers to achieve a win–win situation.Originality/valueLittle prior research has explicitly examined how and why users participate in value co-creation activities in social commerce from prosumption perspective. The current paper seeks to fill this gap and open new avenues for other value co-creation researchers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1731-1762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abaid Ullah Zafar ◽  
Jiangnan Qiu ◽  
Mohsin Shahzad

PurposeGrowing evidence asserts that individuals are inclined to buy impulsively in the social commerce environment due to interactive elements. However, extant literature does not reveal the influence of emerging digital celebrities and their communities on impulse buying, although users may encounter them synchronously. Hence, this study explores the impact of parasocial relationships and social climate on impulse buying following the stimulus–organism–response framework with the incorporation of the urge to buy. Besides, this research investigates the role of hedonic and utility gratification-seeking behavior in parasocial relationships following uses and gratifications theory (UGT).Design/methodology/approachAn empirical research study was conducted on Facebook, and data were collected from Pakistani users who followed digital celebrities. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was employed to analyze the valid data of 231 respondents.FindingsThe results indicate that integrated constructs significantly influence impulse buying with complementary partial mediation of urge to buy. Besides, social climate significantly interacts the relationship of parasocial relationships and impulse buying. Further, passing time, enjoyment and information seeking has a significant impact on parasocial relationships, except for self-presentation.Originality/valueThis research provides key knowledge to comprehend the overall phenomenon of emerging digital celebrities through the integration of their parasocial relationships and the social climate of their communities, with potential intervening and interaction effects. This study also unveils the role of gratifications in building digital celebrities' parasocial relationships.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina Herrando ◽  
Julio Jimenez-Martinez ◽  
M. Jose Martin De Hoyos

Purpose Social commerce websites entail a completely new scenario for sharing experiences and opinions due to its richness in terms of social interactions. Nowadays, users can interact with the company and with other users; hence, it seems important to study how social stimuli affect users. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response framework and flow theory, the purpose of this paper is to propose that the social stimulus (named social passion (sPassion)) has a positive effect on the organism (state of flow), which leads to a users’ positive response (via social word of mouth (sWOM)). Design/methodology/approach The data were collected through an online survey in 2015. The sample consists of 771 users of social commerce websites, of which 51 percent are male and 49 percent female, aged between 16 and 80 years old. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data with the statistical software SPSS version 22 and EQS 6. Findings The empirical results confirm that passionate users are prone to experience a state of flow and, as a consequence, share positive sWOM. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on customers’ online participation, and the findings are hoped to help companies in developing social commerce websites that boost users’ exchange of information.


Kybernetes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (10) ◽  
pp. 2349-2363
Author(s):  
Tao Zhou

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of flow experience on users’ social commerce intention. Design/methodology/approach Based on the 287 valid responses collected from a survey, structural equation modeling was used to examine the research model. Findings The results indicated that social interaction, which includes human–computer interaction and human–human interaction, has a significant effect on the flow experience, which in turn affects social purchase and social sharing intention. Research limitations/implications The results imply that companies need to facilitate social interaction to improve users’ experience and promote their social commerce intention. Originality/value Although prior research has examined social commerce user behaviour from multiple perspectives such as trust, perceived value and technological perceptions, it has focused on the effect of cognitive beliefs and neglected the effect of affective beliefs such as flow experience. This research tries to fill the gap.


Author(s):  
Nada Hammad ◽  
Syed Zamberi Ahmad ◽  
Avraam Papastathopoulos

Purpose This paper aims to investigate residents’ perceptions of tourism’s impact on their support for tourism development in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Design/methodology/approach Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires from Abu Dhabi residents (n = 407), who represented 30 nationalities residing in the emirate. Based on social exchange theory, structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses. Findings Results suggest that Abu Dhabi residents perceive the impacts of tourism positively and are more sensitive to the environmental and economic influences of tourism than the social and cultural influences. Research limitations/implications This study was limited to Abu Dhabi residents; findings cannot be generalized to other emirates in the UAE, or other countries. Originality/value This study adds value to extant tourism literature by investigating residents’ perceptions of the influence of tourism in one of the richest cities worldwide, which aspires to be one of the fastest growing tourism destinations in the Middle East.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mazzini Muda ◽  
Muhammad Iskandar Hamzah

PurposeIn spite of the increasing organic and interactive marketing activities over social media, a general understanding of the source credibility of voluntary user-generated content (UGC) is still limited. In line with the social identity theory, this paper examines the effects of consumers' perceived source credibility of UGC in YouTube videos on their attitudes and behavioral intentions. Additionally, source homophily theory is included to predict the antecedent of source credibility.Design/methodology/approachThree hundred and seventy two Generation Y respondents were interviewed using snowball sampling. Data were analyzed with component-based structural equation modeling technique of partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsFindings confirmed that perceived source credibility indirectly affects purchase intention (PI) and electronic word-of-mouth via attitude toward UGC. Besides, perceived source credibility mediates the effect of perceived source homophily on attitude toward UGC.Practical implicationsSince today's consumers have begun to trust and rely more on UGC than company-generated content on social media when making purchase decisions, companies may reconsider democratizing certain aspects of their branding strategies. Firms may fine-tune their marketing communication budgets – not only just by sponsoring public figures and celebrities but also by nurturing coproductive engagements with independent content creators who are ordinary consumers. Endowed with their imposing credibility, these micro-influencers and prosumers have high potentials to be uplifted to brand ambassadors.Originality/valueWhile consumers' purchase outcome can be measured easily using metrics and analytics, the roles of source homophily in stages leading up to the purchase is still elusive. Drawing on the rich theoretical basis of source homophily may help researchers to understand not only how credibility and attitude are related to PI but also how this nexus generates positive word of mouth among UGC followers within the social media circles.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cong Yin ◽  
Yujing Zhou ◽  
Peiyu He ◽  
Meng Tu

PurposeThis research takes the transfer behavior of users from Tencent QQ to WeChat as an example to discuss the wider transfer behavior of social media users on the Internet.Design/methodology/approachThis paper collects data through a combination of offline interviews and online questionnaire surveys, and utilizes data analysis tools to construct structural equation modeling (SEM). Using Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) Statistics 22.0 and Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) 22.0 software with SEM, this study was carried out to provide reasonable statistical support for relevant proposed hypotheses based on 368 effective samples acquired through the questionnaire.FindingsThe findings of this study show that subjective norm, transfer experience, social communication, and knowledge acquisition all have significant associations with transfer intention and switching behavior. To be specific, transfer intention exerts a positive association on switching behavior; function setting, privacy protection and personal innovation have a favorable association with transfer intention; transfer cost has a significantly negative relationship with transfer intention and switching behavior; function setting has no important relationship on switching behavior.Originality/valueThe research results provide a reference for improving the viscosity and loyalty of social media users in the new era and resolving the problem of user churn.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Rafael Contreras-Lozano ◽  
Maria Virginia Flores-Ortiz ◽  
Ma. Del Carmen Alcalá-Álvarez

PurposeThe authors identify the theoretical constructions measuring the intentions to pursue succession as well as the socioemotional wealth theoretical framework, and the authors propose an objective of testing the relationships existing between them so as their importance giving evidence of their relevance.Design/methodology/approachIt is a research with a positivist philosophical position measuring in a quantitative way with a deductive and structured approach applied to 98 CEO owners of Mexican companies, using nonparametric methodologies the authors simulated subsamples with structural equation modeling in SmartPLS 3.3.2, the metrics on the model are described as a functionalist paradigm.FindingsDirectors' attitudes paired up with the intentions of succession are significantly related to the socioemotional aspect of the family business; although the theory proposes three aspects to measure these intentions, the social norm in this research has not been strong enough to be a predictor as an influence on the company's socioemotional wealth.Originality/valueThe authors found this a valuable paper for the complement of theory focused on purely manifesting aspects in family companies, because they identified theoretical and empirical relationships opening up guidelines for new research in socioemotional aspects in accordance with the entrepreneurs attitudes to achieve succession, the differentiation lies in measuring psychological aspects of the director's behavior toward succession and not to the succession per se as done in most research; also, the methodology of data analysis facilitates the reader to easily recognize the relationships between the proposed theoretical constructions, showing the detailed metrics development by researchers in the family business field.


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