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Previous research on the Chinese notion of guanxi has tended to use descriptive approaches to study its prevalence and influence on business and Chinese consumers. Relatively less research has focused on perceptions of guanxi in other parts of the world. This paper addresses this important research gap through adopting an “outside-in” global perspective using big data. In particular, the study draws on 162 million guanxi-related news articles during 2017–2020 extracted from the Global Database of Events, Language and Tone (GDELT), an open-source, real-time current affairs repository of online news and event metadata. The findings reveal that guanxi is heavily influenced by geopolitical and public health issues. The study also discovered a major contrast in the overall tone between China, being slightly positive, and the US and Germany, being largely negative, with the association varying according to changes in the marketing ecosystem.

This study aims to analyse and clarify why mobile payments have been adopted in China at such a rapid pace. Unlike previous studies which focused on mobile payment functionality and the micro-level reasons for adoption, this study emphasized the macro-level and meso-level reasons with an emphasis on social relationships or guanxi to explain the widespread and rapid adoption in China of mobile payment. Initially mobile payment was widely dispersed by leveraging the trust existing in strong relationship ties (e.g. mobile ‘red packets’). In the second phase of mass adoption there was a shift toward relying on economic exchanges in the context of weak urban ties. Now in the third phase mobile payment seeks to abandon social relations altogether relying on technologies for direct human-to-machine interactions. The three successive phases show how the strong interactions between financial regulatory policy and mobile payment development have affected social relationships.

Although gift giving, a catalyst of guanxi, plays an important role in doing business in China, few studies have examined how to give a proper gift within business-to-business guanxi. Drawing on guanxi and gift-giving literature, this study investigates gift acceptability in the light of gift type and guanxi in two dimensions (relational closeness and relative status) in a hierarchical Chinese business circle. We classify gifts into monetary and nonmonetary gifts. The findings from two scenario-based experiments indicate that a monetary gift versus a nonmonetary gift decreases gift acceptability through the increased level of perceived manipulation (PM) and face threat (FT) and these indirect effects are contingent on different guanxi types. The mediating roles of both PM and FT turn more significant when relational closeness (gift recipient's status relative to giver) increases. These findings help Western businesspeople select the right gift form to give to the right Chinese counterparts in the right way.

PurposeThis study aims to explore how a buyer's perceived buyer-seller (B-S) guanxi facets (i.e. ganqing, renqing and mianzi) and guanxi positions (i.e. zi-ji-ren, shou-ren and sheng-ren) affect the seller's influence effectiveness (SIE) and purchase intention (PI) in social commerce.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted an online survey in three cities of Taiwan and collected a total of 364 data. The structural equation modeling and cluster analysis were used to test research hypotheses.FindingsThe results indicate that (1) each guanxi facet exerts a different and positive impact on SIE, but only one guanxi facet – renqing – helps improve PI, (2) guanxi facets can be used to predict the buyer's perceived guanxi position toward the seller, (3) the effect of guanxi facets on SIE and PI varies across B-S guanxi positions and (4) the SIE positively mediates effects of guanxi facets on the PI.Originality/valueThis study demonstrates the individual effect of each guanxi facet on SIE and PI and affirms the implicit guanxi position features guanxi facets and determines the buyer's perceived SIE and PI as well. To the best of our knowledge, these findings are rarely proposed in previous research and are beneficial for understanding the guanxi mechanism in social commerce.

This study investigates the hitherto largely neglected effects of contract enforcement in interfirm relationship. Based on contract functions, we conceptualize contract enforcement as a two-dimensional construct comprising contractual control enforcement and contractual coordination enforcement. We examine how the effects of these two enforcements differ as the level of interfirm guanxi varies. The findings from a survey of 190 buyers in China suggest that both contractual control enforcement and contractual coordination enforcement mitigate sellers' opportunism. Moreover, contractual coordination enforcement is more effective in reducing opportunism when the interfirm guanxi is strong, whereas contractual control enforcement is more effective in reducing opportunism when the interfirm guanxi is weak. Our research contributes to both theory and practice by revealing the complex and paradoxical moderating role of interfirm guanxi.

This study examined how customer perception of dependence on salesperson (CPDS) and customer–salesperson guanxi determine salesperson influence tactics (SITs) and salesperson influence effectivenes...

Marketing channel members are subject to opportunism, and guanxi (i.e., interpersonal ties) is a useful mechanism to deter it. This article argues that the effect of guanxi on opportunism depends on the institutional environments in which firms are embedded in. Drawing on institutional theory and guanxi literature, we investigated the effects of the “Three pillars” of institutional environments. Specifically, we examined whether legal effectiveness, Confucianism, and organizational culture incongruence moderate the impact of guanxi on exchange partners' opportunism. We collected survey data from both sales managers and salespersons in 268 manufacturing firms and merged the dataset with secondary data that measure institutional factors. The results show that guanxi deters opportunism more effectively when legal effectiveness is high, where Confucianism is more prominent, and when exchange firms' organizational cultures are more incongruent. This study provides implications for marketing channel members on how to use personal ties under different institutional conditions.

Relying on the resource-based view, this study tests the moderating effects of the region’s institutional development and the firm’s IT (information technology) infrastructure capability, and examine how and when interpersonal and government-firm (GF) guanxi influence the distributor’s opportunism and cooperative performance. Using both survey data from 550 industrial manufacturers and secondary data, the study shows that both types of guanxi can mitigate the distributor’s opportunism and facilitate cooperative performance. However, the region’s institutional development strengthens the effects of interpersonal guanxi while weakening the effects of GF guanxi, and the firm’s IT infrastructure capability weakens the effects of interpersonal guanxi while strengthening the effects of GF guanxi. These findings enrich both the literature on guanxi in the emerging economy by distinguishing two types of guanxi and RBV by testing the moderating effects of institutional development and IT infrastructure capability. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Drawing on organizational learning theory and literature on guanxi, this study examines how and why ambidextrous learning balance influences firm innovation capability in Chinese business circles. We propose a U-shaped relation between ambidextrous learning balance and firm innovation capability which is mediated by guanxi inertia and knowledge inertia in different ways. Specifically, ambidextrous learning balance has an inverted U-shaped impact on guanxi inertia and further influences firm innovation capability. Whereas, ambidextrous learning balance has a linear positive influence on innovation capability through a decreased level of knowledge inertia. Based on survey data collected from, The results obtained from a sample of 197 Chinese channel enterprises using SEMs analysis provide strong support for our hypotheses. In addition, the findings based on firms with unbalanced ambidextrous learning indicate that as opposed to exploratory learning, higher level of exploitative learning leads to an increase in guanxi inertia and a decrease in knowledge inertia. These conclusions reveal how ambidextrous learning balance influence innovation capability for a firm with inherent learning preference which is not discussed by the extant research. At the same time, this study fills the gap of ambidextrous learning balance by considering the influence of culture. Our work also informs foreign practitioners of the optimal ways of learning for innovation in China.

Electronic business ventures (EBVs), startups on Internet platforms, have recently attracted research attention. This study attempts to understand the encompassing mechanism for the superior market performance of EBVs entering China's electronic market with a focus on the effects of two important drivers. The first is Guanxi orientation, which is a strategic factor rooted in Chinese culture. The second is the order of entry or the chosen time of entering a market to gain advantages. We test six hypotheses based on data collected from 155 EBVs established over the past 10 years in China. The results show that EBVs' Guanxi orientation positively influences their market performance and that this effect is mediated by political ties built through Guanxi activities. Although the order of entry effect is not evident for EBVs, Guanxi orientation contributes to market performance to a higher degree for late entrant EBVs than for early follower EBVs. The study's findings offer new insights into the implementation of Guanxi orientation in the fast-growing electronic market in China, an emerging country with a culture distinct from that of the West.

Purpose This paper aims to explore the external factors that lead Western firms to fail in the Chinese market, proposing to reveal the main challenges they face in this market, such as culture, guanxi or others. Based on network theory, the authors propose to group failure attributes and actions to predict business failure. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative research based on in-depth interviews is conducted, with a sample of 21 individuals, from former/current managers that did or are currently doing business in China and a person from the Chinese Government. This research resorts to inductive reasoning and to Atlas.ti software to perform the analysis. Findings The findings reveal that it is possible to cluster seven distinct categories of external factors. Additionally, Chinese culture, local partnerships and the “catching-up effect” by Chinese firms are also external factors to be considered. The role of guanxi in China is changing, taking another format, and international companies in the Chinese market must take this into account. Research limitations/implications Several limitations arise in this research, such as information availability and time constraints, sample size and the characteristics of Chinese society (i.e. type of government). This study also proposes further confirmatory research to test the seven clusters proposed. Practical implications Managers can understand patterns of business failures when targeting the Chinese market and use the seven clusters as a tool to address this market appropriately in the future. Originality/value This paper intends to shed light on Western firms’ business failure in the Chinese market. The authors argue that several external factors linked to network surroundings contribute to Western firms failing in this market and that network failure attribution is still an understudied topic.

PurposeConsidering strategic information sharing (SIS), this paper aims to develop a better understanding of how relation-specific investments (RSIs) influence cooperative innovation performance (CIP) in downstream channel relationships. Also examined was the moderating effect of relational trust in that the indigenous practice ofguanxiis especially critical in China.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through a questionnaire in Chinese high-tech industries, with a valid response from 310 companies. A hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the conceptual model and hypotheses, combining mediation and moderation analysis.FindingsResults show that the influences of specific investments vary according to the specificity dimensions examined. Specifically, human RSI influences CIP and SIS most significantly, and the impact of procedural RSI is, relatively, the weakest. Relational trust’s moderating role is confirmed, and SIS plays a partially mediating role in enhancing vertical cooperative innovation.Practical implicationsManagers should know clearly different roles of RSIs in inter-firm cooperative innovation and prioritize human RSI and brand RSI when investing into channels. More importantly, the findings reveal that strategy-level information sharing should be valued more. It is also recommended that relational ties are vital, especially in Chinese business context.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is among the first few to investigate how the effects of disaggregated RSIs in inter-firm cooperative innovation vary and the importance of SIS in vertical relationships. The results provide insightful guidance for researchers and managers in how to better manage RSIs to improve CIP.

Banned in China between 1998 and 2005, the reemergence of network marketing allows rural young women to distribute a wide range of consumer products across uneven rural–urban landscapes. The rhizomic distribution channels of network marketing long confounded Chinese legal and regulatory governance based on workplaces embedded in particular locations, a problem compounded by the rise of e‐commerce in the last decade. As network marketers and their potential clients maneuvered spatial inequalities, gender hierarchies, and financial exclusion, they confronted the subversion of long‐term mutuality and sociality to short‐term transactional exchanges, a process partially inverted by the move from physical to virtual retail and its digital rating systems. As the Chinese state sought to establish, monitor, and guarantee trust in economic activities by delimiting predatory schemes, its initial targeting of network marketing companies has given way to regulating the sellers themselves. In contrast to contexts where network marketing forges enterprising subjectivities of neoliberalism, however, Chinese salespersons prioritized meeting aspirations of an imagined pastoral state and idealized social relations over business transactions. By championing that earning trust forms the ultimate measure of success, the discourse of network salespersons and their potential customers rings with the ways that e‐commerce platforms and digital bureaucracy attempt to measure, evaluate, and regulate the trustworthiness of Chinese citizens.

PurposeGuanxi is the foundation of business success in Chinese and other Eastern cultures, but little is known about the extent to which guanxi influences brand outcomes in channel relationships. The purpose of this study is to propose a novel theoretical framework of interpersonal and interorganizational guanxi relationships in a sales channel context and how these relationships influence brand outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conceptualize, develop and validate new scales measuring interpersonal and interorganizational guanxi and test the proposed model with a field study to validate the effects of guanxi on brand loyalty. The causal relationships between interpersonal guanxi and brand attitudes and affect are confirmed in a separate field experiment.FindingsFindings show that interpersonal guanxi is antecedent to interorganizational guanxi, and these two constructs have significant and differential direct and indirect effects on brand attitudes, brand affect and brand loyalty.Originality/valueNew multidimensional scales measuring both interpersonal and interorganizational guanxi were developed. Both interpersonal and interorganizational guanxi are conceptualized as second-order reflective constructs measured by the reflective first-order guanxi elements of personal and firm trust, personal and firm long-term orientation, xinyong (integrity), reciprocity, interaction and face.

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.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate e-commerce as a new means to ensure that the urban demand for food can be met during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Because a number of COVID-19 e-commerce models have emerged, this paper discusses whether and (if so) why and how e-commerce can ensure the food supply for urban residents if social distancing becomes a norm and the transport and logistics systems are hindered.Design/methodology/approachThis study used qualitative research methods following the lack of empirical data. The authors referred to relevant literature, statistical data and official reports and comprehensively described the importance of e-commerce in ensuring the safety of food supply to Chinese urban residents under the impact of the epidemic. Corresponding to the traditional case study, this study presented a Chinese case on ensuring food supply through e-commerce during an epidemic.FindingsThe authors found that three e-commerce models played a substantial role in preventing the spread of the epidemic and ensuring the food supply for urban residents. The nationwide e-commerce platforms under market leadership played their roles by relying on the sound infrastructure of large cities and its logistics system was vulnerable to the epidemic. In the worst-affected areas, particularly in closed and isolated communities, the local e-commerce model was the primary model, supplemented by the unofficial e-commerce model based on social relations. Through online booking, centralized procurement and community distribution, the risk of cross infection could be effectively reduced and the food demand could be effectively satisfied. The theoretical explanation further verifies that, apart from e-commerce, a governance system that integrates the government, e-commerce platform, community streets and the unofficial guanxi also impels the success of these models.Originality/valueLessons from China are drawn for other countries struggling to deliver food to those in need under COVID-19. The study not only provides a solution that will ensure constant food supply to urban residents under the COVID-19 epidemic but also provides some reference for the maintenance of the food system of urban residents under the impact of a globalization-related crisis in future.

Conventional wisdom posits that a long-term orientation with important partners such as key suppliers and clients is essential for superior performance. This study critically examines this business tenet by studying the relationship between duration of partnerships with major suppliers and clients and company performance. Based on a dataset comprising over 10,000 Chinese manufacturing firms obtained through a probability sampling procedure, results show that relationship duration with major clients not only has a direct, negative effect on total income (sales), but also has a negative moderating effect on the association between research & development (R&D) and total income. However, relationship duration with major suppliers has a positive moderating effect on the association between R&D and total profits. Furthermore, relationship with government has a positive effect on total income, and it also has a negative moderating effect on the R&D-performance chain. Managerial and research implications are also discussed.

This paper identifies interpersonal guanxi between boundary spanners as an individual-level antecedent of partner firms' extra-role behavior (ERB) in interfirm relationships. Drawing on interfirm governance and the guanxi literature, we propose that guanxi between boundary spanners at the operational level may promote partner firms' ERB through two governance strategies: interfirm trust and relationship-specific investment. We analyze 268 pairs of sales managers and salespeople in a variety of industries in China, and we find that guanxi between boundary spanners positively affects partner firms' ERB and that this positive relationship is strengthened by interfirm ownership homogeneity. Moreover, the relationship is mediated by interfirm trust and relationship-specific investment, and the mediation effect of interfirm trust is stronger than that of relationship-specific investment. These findings provide new insights into the relationship marketing and guanxi literature by highlighting the effects of guanxi between operational-level boundary spanners on partner firms' ERB.

With the growing importance of strategic alliances and supply chains as competitive units, academics and practitioners are interested in understanding the techniques used by firms to leverage interfirm relationships to gain a competitive advantage. Studies conducted in the Western context underline the role of relational governance (i.e., the modern Western way), whereas works in the Chinese context highlight the importance of guanxi (i.e., the traditional Chinese way). Today’s Chinese economy operates as a hybrid of the Western modern business model and traditional Chinese patterns with the coexistence of Western relational governance and guanxi. Therefore, this study addresses two issues: (1) whether these two types of governance interact as substitutes or complements in leveraging interfirm relationships and (2) whether and how foreign firms differ from their Chinese domestic counterparts in the use of these two types of governance to improve performance. Drawing on data collected from 132 third-party logistics providers in China, this study shows that Western relational governance and guanxi function as substitutes in improving performance. Moreover, while guanxi contributes to performance in a similar manner in Chinese domestic firms and foreign firms, Western relational governance is more effective for foreign firms than for Chinese domestic firms. Furthermore, the joint role (i.e., interaction effect) of Western relational governance and guanxi in improving performance also differs: these two forms of governance function as substitutes in foreign firms, whereas they have no significant interaction in Chinese domestic firms.

Purpose In recent years, more and more e-retailers have adopted live streaming services to attract customers. Although the extant literature has mostly examined the motivations for live streaming usage, it remains unclear how to enhance customers’ purchase behaviour. Based on the social exchange theory, in the context of live streaming platforms (LSP), this study aims to investigate the impact of information quality and interaction quality on swift guanxi and customers’ purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted an online survey to conduct two rounds of data collection and analyses the data using SPSS and SmartPLS softwares. Findings The results show that information quality (believability, usefulness and vividness) and interaction quality (responsiveness, real-time interaction and empathy) are positively related to swift guanxi, which may influence customers’ online purchase intention on LSP. Originality/value Prior service quality studies tend to focus on traditional physical stores and e-commerce websites context. This study offers the description of key dimensions of service quality on emerging LSP context. The study also confirms the importance of swift guanxi in an online marketplace.

This study investigates the influence of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and swift Guanxi (three dimensions: mutual understanding, reciprocal favor and relationship harmony) on perceived value of suppliers and market performance of e-commerce enterprises, and the moderating effect of collectivistic orientation on the relationship between EO and swift Guanxi. The results obtained from a sample of 153 Chinese e-commerce enterprises using SEM-PLS analysis show that market performance of this kind of businesses is favorably influenced by their EO, but not by their swift Guanxi with suppliers. The findings confirm EO’s direct effect on swift Guanxi and its indirect effects on perceived value of suppliers, mediated through reciprocal favor and relationship harmony. In addition, the findings verify the negative moderating effect of collectivistic orientation on the EO-mutual understanding link. The study's implications and future research directions are discussed.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to enhance the comprehensive understanding of the roles of resource investments, explicit contracts and three components ofguanxi(i.e.renqing,ganqingandmianzi) in asymmetric research and development (R&D) partnerships. Treating dependence asymmetry as a multidimensional construct, this study examines the moderating effects of these elements on the relationships between resources and information asymmetry and opportunism.Design/methodology/approachThe study was executed by issuing questionnaires to R&D managers participating in R&D projects and collaborations in the Shanghai and Jiangsu provinces via e-mail and face to face surveys. A multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe empirical test generally supported the conceptual model and produced the following findings: first, resources and information asymmetry significantly and positively affect opportunism. Second, the partner’s resource investments can weaken the effect of resources and information asymmetry on the partner’s opportunism. Third, explicit contracts can reduce the impact of information asymmetry on the partner’s opportunism. Fourth,renqingandganqingbut notmianzican weaken the influence of information asymmetry on the partner’s opportunism.Originality/valueThis study provides a comprehensive and clear understanding of how opportunism can be curbed by jointly considering resource investments, explicit contracts andguanxiin asymmetric R&D cooperative relationships. Moreover, dependence asymmetry andguanxiare measured as a multidimensional construct and reveal their underlying structure, which expands previous understandings of risk management in R&D collaborations.

This study aims to explore the underlying impact of customer’s perceived dependence on salesperson (CPDS), customer–salesperson guanxi (C-S guanxi), and the customer’s preference of the salesperson...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to unveil negative outcomes associated with an absence of guanxi in a buyer–supplier relationship in Chinese logistics industry. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a case study methodology using 16 semi-structured interviews with managers engaged in the process of buying and selling logistics services in China. Findings Based on the qualitative interviews, managers experience lack of trust, lack of communication flow and reduced business volume when guanxi is absent in a buyer–supplier relationship in the Chinese logistics industry. Research limitations/implications This study has some limitations. First, the results of this study are not generalizable to a broader population. Second, this study explores behavioral patterns with respect to Chinese business culture only. Practical implications Firms can use the findings from this study to understand the consequence they can face when guanxi is absent in a buyer–supplier relationship. Originality/value This study attempts to offer a balanced perspective on the role of guanxi in a buyer–supplier relationship, particularly in the Chinese logistics industry, by considering how an absence of guanxi generates negative outcomes for firms.

The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the flagship program of China’s ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative, created to boost economic cooperation between China and Pakistan. The aims of economic efficiency and enhancement of national interests are widely acknowledged in the literature. Yet, critical issues of developing the capabilities of cross-cultural management in general, and cross-cultural adjustment through cross-cultural understanding and network building in particular, have been largely overlooked. The current research investigates the challenges confronting cross-cultural adjustment among the Chinese and Pakistani employees participating in the CPEC projects. Through a rigorous analysis, we highlight the importance of acculturation experience, cross-cultural networking (i.e. heterophilic), networking behaviour (i.e. guanxi vs. hawala), and factors influencing cross-cultural adjustment, which would enhance the overall performance of the CPEC projects. Our aim is to contribute to the understanding of contextual and condition-driven networking behaviour for cross-cultural adjustment, particularly the need for cross-cultural networking. We contend that organisations in cross-cultural/cross-border projects should encourage cross-cultural mentoring and facilitate cross-national networks to increase the efficacy of such collaborative projects. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This paper analyses how cultural differences across China, India, and Singapore influence team exploration, exploitation, and innovativeness. Previous cross-cultural and innovation literature mainly focused on Western cultures or East-West comparisons. In this research, we investigate innovation related cultural specifics that differentiate team behavior in China, India, and Singapore (e.g., guanxi, jugaad, and kiasu), and investigate differences in team exploration, exploitation, and innovativeness across those three cultures. We test our model in a survey study with matched answers of team members and their supervisors in innovation teams across China, India, and Singapore. In line with our theorizing, our findings suggest comparably high levels of team exploration in India, and comparably high levels of team exploitation in China. Additionally, we find team exploration, more than team exploitation, relates to team innovativeness in China, India, and Singapore.

Due to the uniqueness of Chinese culture, relationship marketing cannot be interpreted directly from the extant theories developed in Western society. Using qualitative research, the study construc...

Social capital plays an essential role in the early stage of rural tourism development. Taking the family as the research unit, this study applied social capital theory to examine how guanxi serves residents' interests in negotiations during housing demolition. Nonparticipant observations and in-depth interviews were conducted to identify the utility and essence of guanxi during housing demolition for rural tourism development in a Chinese village. The results show that guanxi, as a kind of social capital, plays an important role in rural tourism development, and that the internal mechanism through which guanxi exerts its utility is ‘guanxi - power - interest.’ The study offers important theoretical and practical implications for both governments and tourism developers which benefits the destination management.

International audience; Based on social exchange theory, this research explores if informal interorganizational business relationships in China (guanxi), South Korea (yongo), and Egypt/Jordan (wasta) affect customer loyalty in a business to business context. A conceptual model hypothesizes interrelationships among three underlying dimensions of informal relationships, reciprocity, affect, and trustworthiness, and with customer loyalty. The hypotheses were tested using survey data gathered from manufacturing companies in China, South Korea, Jordan, and Egypt. Structural equation modeling shows that guanxi, yongo, and wasta are positively related to customer loyalty across all four countries. However, there are some differences in the relationships among the three dimensions. Although reciprocity is positively related to affect in guanxi and yongo, this relationship is not statistically significant in wasta. Further, the items measuring the dimensions of trustworthiness and reciprocity are the same in guanxi and yongo, but these differ from wasta. Thus, managers need to be aware of subtle differences in how informal interorganizational relationships are developed and used in international business to business relationships.

Purpose Swift guanxi and trust can influence consumers’ decision making in social commerce. What factors will influence the formation of swift guanxi and trust between buyers and sellers in social commerce has not been clearly investigated. The purpose of this paper is to identify antecedents and impacts of swift guanxi and trust in social commerce. Design/methodology/approach An online questionnaire was used to collect the data, and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling was employed for data analysis. Social support and presence are introduced as the antecedents for swift guanxi and trust, leading to the repurchase intention (RI) and social sharing intention of customers. Findings The results indicate that social support and presence can influence swift guanxi and trust. Social support and presence are positively associated with swift guanxi and trust which further lead to RI and social sharing intention. Practical implications The findings can be used to guide sellers in social commerce platforms to improve their services and make good use of platform features to improve customers’ perception of presence. To attract new customers and retain old customers, sellers should also build swift guanxi and trust through the recommendation and experience sharing of previous buyers on social media. Originality/value This study combines social support theory and presence theory to investigate the factors that influence customers’ purchase decision and social sharing intention in the context of social commerce in China. The integration of social support theory and presence theory explains both the social and technical factors that influence swift guanxi and trust in social commerce.

The continued growth of logistics outsourcing and dependence on third-party logistics (3PL) providers highlights the need for firms to strategically consider their dependence on their supply chain. We draw on resource dependency theory to propose guanxi (a cultural tradition in China of interpersonal connections that facilitate a mutual exchange of favors) as a dependency-coping strategy. Integrating transaction cost economics, we propose the effectiveness of guanxi as a dependence coping strategy is contingent on the level of exchange hazards (i.e., uncertainty and asset specificity) in logistics outsourcing. Based on data collected from 149 3PL users in China, we found that guanxi is a more potent strategy in highly uncertain environments and less relevant when extensive relationship-specific assets are involved. Implications and directions of future research are discussed.