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

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.