Abstract
Online group buying is increasingly recognized as an important model of online commerce; however, research examining the antecedents of group buying remains limited. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response framework and the social exchange theory, this study proposes an integrated model to explore the impact of user similarity on social exchange and group buying behavior in the social commerce context. Using a survey of 233 respondents with group buying experience, we empirically validate the proposed model. The results largely support the proposed hypotheses, and the findings indicate that user similarity (i.e., internal and external similarity) is positively associated with social exchange (i.e., reciprocity, reputation, and trust), which in turn affects consumer group buying behavior. The three social exchange constructs are found to fully mediate the impact of user similarity on group buying behavior. The present study advances theoretical understanding of online consumer collaborative shopping from the perspective of user characteristics and provides some practical implications for vendors, consumers, and platform operators.
Highlights
The continued growth of social media and collaborative shopping websites has transformed online group buying (GB) into one of the most popular online business models in the emerging market
Given that online GB occurs with shared needs or goals and represents collective action, we propose that user similarity is an important factor affecting GB behavior that has not been suggested or explored in prior studies
Bailenson et al [28] explored the impact of facial features on physiological responses: the results showed that people may prefer those who have similar facial features, and there is an positive correlation between interest similarity and perceived trust [29]
Summary
The continued growth of social media and collaborative shopping websites has transformed online group buying (GB) into one of the most popular online business models in the emerging market. GB is an online business model that uses social media to drive the sale of products or services [1]. GB represents a ‘‘win-win’’ model that allows consumers to leverage their collective bargaining power to lower prices, while enabling suppliers to create leverage to reduce the cost of recruiting customers [2]. According to a report issued by iiMedia Research [3], the number of GB users in China reached 332 million in 2018, and is expected to reach 419 million in 2019, representing an increase of 26.2 percent. With the increasing popularity of mobile technologies in China, the potential GB market is huge
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