PurposeEntrepreneurs and individual sellers heavily leverage their social ties embedded in social media, expressive or instrumental, to penetrate the market and achieve business success. However, the extant social commerce literature offers limited understanding on how different forms of buyer−seller social ties embedded in social media affect buyers' purchase behaviors. The study draws on the theoretical lens of social ties and proposes an integrative theoretical framework to understand the direct and indirect influences of expressive and instrumental ties (ExTSM and InTSM) between buyers and sellers on buyers' purchase intention (PI) in social commerce.Design/methodology/approachThe authors first validated the measures of ExTSM and InTSM with survey data from 166 Weibo commerce buyers. They then tested their theoretical framework and hypotheses with survey data from 246 buyer−seller dyads in WeChat commerce.FindingsWith a buyer-centric view, (1) ExTSM and InTSM, respectively, had a direct negative and a positive influence on PI; (2) both trust and perceived product value displayed inconsistent mediation effects on the negative relationship between ExTSM and PI; and (3) only perceived product value mediated the positive influence of InTSM on PI. From sellers' viewpoint, (1) their ExTSM and InTSM with buyers were mixed up, and (2) the mingled social ties negatively impacted buyers' purchase intention.Originality/valueThe findings of the study advance the theoretical understanding of social commerce and offer practical guidance for small and medium-sized enterprises to effectively utilize social media for business purposes.
PurposeWhile spontaneous and voluntary knowledge contribution in online communities promotes value co-creation, dysfunctional knowledge behaviors hamper the effectiveness and development of such communities. The study conceptualizes physicians' proactive knowledge sharing and knowledge withholding behaviors in physician-driven online health communities (OHCs) and integrates the theories of role identity as well as communal and exchange relationships to understand the root causes and motivations behind these two types of knowledge behaviors.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected survey data from 166 users from one of the largest physician-driven OHCs in China and applied the covariance-based structural equation modeling approach to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe findings suggest that (1) physicians' professional role identity had a positive indirect effect on proactive knowledge sharing behaviors through communal motivation, and work pressure weakened this indirect effect; and (2) professional role identity had a negative indirect impact on knowledge withholding behaviors through exchange motivation.Originality/valueThis study extends proactive knowledge sharing and knowledge withholding behaviors from the organizational management domain to the online environment, exploring the underlying causes and motivations behind both behaviors in the unique context of physician-driven OHCs. The findings offer practical suggestions for the effective management of OHC platforms, as well as policy implications that respond to the workforce shortage of healthcare providers, a crisis that is unfolding globally.
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