IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v112y2020icp170-189.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can buzzing bring business? Social interactions, network centrality and sales performance: An empirical study on business-to-business communities

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Yin
  • Lu, Baozhou
  • Zheng, Haidong

Abstract

Online business-to-business (B2B) help businesspeople to obtain heterogeneous work-related knowledge, develop social ties, and bring in business beyond the constraints of offline local contexts. However, knowledge of whether and how social interactions in B2B communities affect the business performance of community members is limited. The authors used social capital theory and social exchange theory to fill this gap in the research. Based on data from an online B2B community, the authors first examined how the characteristics of members’ social interactions influenced their online sales performance. The results showed that social interaction positively affected sales performance and that this relationship was mediated by the network centrality of the community members. The authors also found that the third-party certification level of the e-vendors represented by the community members positively moderated the influence of the members’ social interactions on their network centrality.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Yin & Lu, Baozhou & Zheng, Haidong, 2020. "Can buzzing bring business? Social interactions, network centrality and sales performance: An empirical study on business-to-business communities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 170-189.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:112:y:2020:i:c:p:170-189
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.02.034
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320301405
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.02.034?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hinds, Pamela J. & Carley, Kathleen M. & Krackhardt, David & Wholey, Doug, 2000. "Choosing Work Group Members: Balancing Similarity, Competence, and Familiarity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 226-251, March.
    2. Balagopal Vissa, 2012. "Agency in Action: Entrepreneurs' Networking Style and Initiation of Economic Exchange," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(2), pages 492-510, April.
    3. Hausman, Angela V. & Siekpe, Jeffrey Sam, 2009. "The effect of web interface features on consumer online purchase intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 5-13, January.
    4. Puneet Manchanda & Grant Packard & Adithya Pattabhiramaiah, 2015. "Social Dollars: The Economic Impact of Customer Participation in a Firm-Sponsored Online Customer Community," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(3), pages 367-387, May.
    5. Charla Mathwick & Caroline Wiertz & Ko de Ruyter, 2008. "Social Capital Production in a Virtual P3 Community," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(6), pages 832-849, November.
    6. Samer Faraj & Steven L. Johnson, 2011. "Network Exchange Patterns in Online Communities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(6), pages 1464-1480, December.
    7. Lakisha L. Simmons & Russell W. Clayton, 2010. "The impact of small business B2B virtual community commitment on brand loyalty," International Journal of Business and Systems Research, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(4), pages 451-468.
    8. Ajay Mehra & Andrea L. Dixon & Daniel J. Brass & Bruce Robertson, 2006. "The Social Network Ties of Group Leaders: Implications for Group Performance and Leader Reputation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(1), pages 64-79, February.
    9. Carol C. Kuhlthau, 1991. "Inside the search process: Information seeking from the user's perspective," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 42(5), pages 361-371, June.
    10. Kunz, Werner & Seshadri, Sukanya, 2015. "From virtual travelers to real friends: Relationship-building insights from an online travel community," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(9), pages 1822-1828.
    11. Paul A. Pavlou & David Gefen, 2004. "Building Effective Online Marketplaces with Institution-Based Trust," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 15(1), pages 37-59, March.
    12. Buvik, Arnt & Reve, Torger, 2001. "Asymmetrical deployment of specific assets and contractual safeguarding in industrial purchasing relationships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 101-113, February.
    13. Paniagua, Jordi & Sapena, Juan, 2014. "Business performance and social media: Love or hate?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 57(6), pages 719-728.
    14. Kim, Kyongseok & Kim, Jooyoung, 2011. "Third-party Privacy Certification as an Online Advertising Strategy: An Investigation of the Factors Affecting the Relationship between Third-party Certification and Initial Trust," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 145-158.
    15. Valter Afonso Vieira & Marcos Inácio Severo Almeida & Raj Agnihotri & Nôga Simões De Arruda Corrêa Silva & S. Arunachalam, 2019. "In pursuit of an effective B2B digital marketing strategy in an emerging market," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(6), pages 1085-1108, November.
    16. Varsha Verma & Dheeraj Sharma & Jagdish Sheth, 2016. "Does relationship marketing matter in online retailing? A meta-analytic approach," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 206-217, March.
    17. Brown, Brian P. & Zablah, Alex R. & Bellenger, Danny N. & Johnston, Wesley J., 2011. "When do B2B brands influence the decision making of organizational buyers? An examination of the relationship between purchase risk and brand sensitivity," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 194-204.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liao, Miyan & Fang, Jiaming & Han, Lintong & Wen, Ling & Zheng, Qiqi & Xia, Guoen, 2023. "Boosting eCommerce sales with livestreaming in B2B marketplace: A perspective on live streamers’ competencies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Kok, Seng Kiong & Shahgholian, Azar, 2023. "The impact of proximity within elite corporate networks on the Shariah governance-firm performance nexus: Evidence from the global Shariah elite," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    3. Cheng, Louis T.W. & Sharma, Piyush & Shen, Jianfu & Ng, Allen C.C., 2021. "Exploring the dark side of third-party certification effect in B2B relationships: A professional financial services perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 123-136.
    4. Ruz-Mendoza, Miguel Á. & Trifu, Andreea & Cambra-Fierro, Jesús & Melero-Polo, Iguácel, 2021. "Standardized vs. customized firm-initiated interactions: Their effect on customer gratitude and performance in a B2B context," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 341-353.
    5. Good, Megan C. & Schwepker, Charles H., 2022. "Business-to-business salespeople and political skill: Relationship building, deviance, and performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 32-43.
    6. Pyper, Keith & Marie Doherty, Anne & Gounaris, Spiros & Wilson, Alan, 2022. "A contingency-based approach to the nexus between international strategic brand management and export performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 472-488.
    7. Zhao, Chunkai & Li, Xing, 2022. "Living under the shadow: Adverse childhood experiences and entrepreneurial behaviors in Chinese adults," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 239-255.
    8. Wirawan ED Radianto & Baswara Yua Kristama & Ika Raharja Salim, 2021. "Exploring the Relationship Between Locus of Control and Financial Behavior of Accounting Student from The Social Construction Theory Approach," Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Richtmann Publishing Ltd, vol. 10, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Ying-Hueih & Hsu, I-Chieh & Lin, Chia-Chen, 2010. "Website attributes that increase consumer purchase intention: A conjoint analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(9-10), pages 1007-1014, September.
    2. Shu He & Jing Peng & Jianbin Li & Liping Xu, 2020. "Impact of Platform Owner’s Entry on Third-Party Stores," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 1467-1484, December.
    3. Hee Mok Park & Puneet Manchanda, 2015. "When Harry Bet with Sally: An Empirical Analysis of Multiple Peer Effects in Casino Gambling Behavior," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(2), pages 179-194, March.
    4. Julian Löbbers & Sebastian Lins & Theresa Kromat & Alexander Benlian & Ali Sunyaev, 2022. "A multi-perspective lens on web assurance seals: contrasting vendors’ intended and consumers’ perceived effects," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1573-1615, December.
    5. Alisa Frik & Luigi Mittone, 2016. "Factors Influencing the Perceived Websites' Privacy Trustworthiness and Users' Purchase Intentions," CEEL Working Papers 1609, Cognitive and Experimental Economics Laboratory, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    6. Qiang Zhang & Ji Wu & J. Leon ZHAO & Liang Liang, 2024. "The antecedents and consequences of social interactions in firm-sponsored community: a social network perspective," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 1967-1995, September.
    7. Huan-Ming Chuang & Chen-Chia Chuang, 2023. "The Effects of Experienced Utility and PEEIM on the Purchase Intention of Cross-Border E-Commerce," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-19, November.
    8. Pedeliento, Giuseppe & Andreini, Daniela & Veloutsou, Cleopatra, 2020. "Brand community integration, participation and commitment: A comparison between consumer-run and company-managed communities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 481-494.
    9. Kah Yi Leong & Jessica Sze Yin Ho & Shehnaz Tehseen & Eiad Yafi & Tat-Huei Cham, 2024. "The intangible values of live streaming and their effect on audience engagement," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(4), pages 990-1005, December.
    10. Dorai, Sriram & Balasubramanian, Nataraj & Sivakumaran, Bharadhwaj, 2021. "Enhancing relationships in e-tail: Role of relationship quality and duration," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    11. Ilenia Confente & Wioleta Kucharska, 2021. "Company versus consumer performance: does brand community identification foster brand loyalty and the consumer’s personal brand?," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(1), pages 8-31, January.
    12. Pace, Stefano & Buzzanca, Stefano & Fratocchi, Luciano, 2016. "The structure of conversations on social networks: Between dialogic and dialectic threads," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1144-1151.
    13. Eiteneyer, Nils & Bendig, David & Brettel, Malte, 2019. "Social capital and the digital crowd: Involving backers to promote new product innovativeness," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(8), pages 1-1.
    14. Chan, Kimmy Wa & Li, Stella Yiyan & Zhu, John Jianjun, 2015. "Fostering Customer Ideation in Crowdsourcing Community: The Role of Peer-to-peer and Peer-to-firm Interactions," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 42-62.
    15. Jason Chan & Probal Mojumder & Anindya Ghose, 2019. "The Digital Sin City: An Empirical Study of Craigslist’s Impact on Prostitution Trends," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(1), pages 219-238, March.
    16. Abosag, Ibrahim & Ramadan, Zahy B. & Baker, Tom & Jin, Zhongqi, 2020. "Customers' need for uniqueness theory versus brand congruence theory: The impact on satisfaction with social network sites," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 862-872.
    17. Gong, Yingli & Wang, Hongwei & Xia, Qiangwei & Zheng, Lijuan & Shi, Yunxiang, 2021. "Factors that determine a Patient's willingness to physician selection in online healthcare communities: A trust theory perspective," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    18. Pyper, Keith & Marie Doherty, Anne & Gounaris, Spiros & Wilson, Alan, 2022. "A contingency-based approach to the nexus between international strategic brand management and export performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 472-488.
    19. Wong, Amy & Lee, Marcus, 2022. "Building engagement in online brand communities: The effects of socially beneficial initiatives on collective social capital," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    20. Chan, Kimmy Wa & Li, Stella Yiyan, 2010. "Understanding consumer-to-consumer interactions in virtual communities: The salience of reciprocity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(9-10), pages 1033-1040, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:112:y:2020:i:c:p:170-189. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.