Intention to recommend products in virtual communities: A moderated mediation analysis

Abstract

Users' product recommendations in virtual communities (VCs) play an important role in social commerce, that is, e-commerce activities and transactions made via the social media environment. We proposed a moderated mediation model based on social exchange theory, to explore the role of effects of belonging to VCs, guanxi capital, and trust propensity on users' intention to recommend products in VCs. We tested the model with 317 members of WeChat groups in China. The results show that guanxi capital positively mediated the link between sense of belonging and intention to recommend. Further, the relationships between sense of belonging and guanxi capital, guanxi capital and intention to recommend, and sense of belonging and intention to recommend were all significantly moderated by trust propensity. Our findings provide insight into users' decision-making process when recommending products in VCs, and have implications for social commerce managers promoting products in VCs.