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

Pages2033-2054
Date21 October 2019
Published date21 October 2019
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-05-2019-0293
AuthorJun Fan,Wangyue Zhou,Xue Yang,Boying Li,Ying Xiang
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management
Impact of social support and
presence on swift guanxi and
trust in social commerce
Jun Fan
School of Business Administration,
Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China
Wangyue Zhou
School of Business Administration,
Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China and
Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou, China
Xue Yang
Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou, China
Boying Li
Nottingham University Business School China,
University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China, and
Ying Xiang
Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou, China
Abstract
Purpose Swift guanxi and trust can influence consumersdecision 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 customersperception 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 customerspurchase 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.
Keywords Trust, Social commerce, Social support, Repurchase intention, Presence, Swift guanxi,
Social sharing intention
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
With the development of social media and the technology of Web 2.0, social commerce is
gaining increasing popularity nowadays. In China, the number of the internet users has reached
829 million, with the coverage of 59.6 percent over the whole population by December, 2018 Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 119 No. 9, 2019
pp. 2033-2054
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-05-2019-0293
Received 27 May 2019
Revised 9 September 2019
Accepted 11 September 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of Humanities and Social Sciences Research
Planning Project of the Ministry of Education in China (Project No. 19YJA630019).
2033
Swift guanxi
and trust
in social
commerce
(CNNIC, 2019). Social commerce utilizes features that support peoples participation in the
marketing, selling, comparing, curating, buying and sharing of products and services
in online and offline marketplaces (Zhou et al., 2013). It is also an innovative and collaborative
way of doing business. Compared to traditional e-commerce that focuses on solitary purchase,
social commerce is more socially centered and user-driven. In social commerce platforms such
as Facebook, Twitter and WeChat, sellers are able to have close social interactions with their
buyers. Moreover, consumers are also allowed to share products or service information as well
as purchasing experiences with each other (Chen et al., 2016). The growth in social commerce
signals that the online shopping is evolving from primarily transational exchange to a more
relational-based exchange (Kozlenkova et al.,2017).
In China, guanxi plays an important role in the study of relational marketing concerning
firm performance, customer loyalty and relationship performance (Sheng et al., 2011;
Gu et al., 2008; Yen and Abosag, 2016; Davison and Ou, 2008; Barnes et al., 2011). Guanxi is
used mostly in traditional Chinese market focusing on lots of face-to-face communication,
resources and mutual dependence, while in online market there are relatively limited studies.
Ou et al. (2014) put forward swift guanxi, referring to a swiftly formed online interpersonal
relationship based on mutual understanding (MU), reciprocity and relationship harmony
(RH), which can help lubricate successful transaction in both e-commerce and s-commerce.
Swift guanxi and trust are two key factors related closely in the study of Chinese online
market business. While trust has been discussed greatly in e-commerce and s-commerce
concerning transaction intention, knowledge sharing, purchase behavior, commitment, etc.
(Kim and Peterson, 2017; Gefen et al., 2003; Fang et al., 2014; Punj, 2011; Pavlou, 2003; Gefen,
2000; Brown et al., 2019; Wei et al., 2019), swift guanxi is not adequately studied in both
e-commerce and s-commerce. Existing research studies have explored the antecedents and
outcomes of swift guanxi and trust (Ou et al., 2014; Chong et al., 2018; Shi et al., 2018; Lin
et al., 2017; Lin et al., 2019). For example, technological features can facilitate and improve
swift guanxi through interactivity and presence (Ou et al., 2014; Chong et al., 2018). Social
commerce affordances have effects on swift guanxi and purchase attention (Lin et al., 2019).
Service quality is also a factor for building swift guanxi, leading to repurchase intention (RI)
(Shi et al., 2018). Lin et al. (2018) focus on social factors by exploring social support as the
antecedent for swift guanxi and trust, leading to social commerce intention.
Previous researchers have paid little attention to the interplay of technical factors, social
factors that influence swift guanxi and trust. In our study, technical factors refer to presence
perceived by buyers on social commerce platform, which could enhance the sense of
physical proximity and psychological intimacy of customers in their purchasing process
(Ou et al., 2014). Social factors can be studied by social support, which provides the product
and experience related information from members or friends on social commerce platforms.
Our research fills the gap by exploring how customers combine social support they get from
online friends with presence they perceived from both the use of technological tools and
interactions with sellers on social commerce platforms to form swift guanxi and trust.
The research questions are as follows:
RQ1. Do social support and presence exert influence on swift guanxi and trust?
RQ2. What is the effect of swift guanxi and trust on customersRI in social commerce?
RQ3. What is the effect of swift guanxi and trust on social sharing intention?
The contributions of the study are as follows. First, this study enriches the antecedents of
swift guanxi and trust in the context of social commerce. We think social support gives
informational and emotional support (ES) to customers before their purchase, while
presence gives customers warmth and intimacy in the process of purchase. Rational
customers usually would not only consider the suggestions and advice from online friends
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IMDS
119,9

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