The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0959-6119.htm
IJCHM
32,2
706
Received 22 April 2019
Revised 5 July 2019
15 September 2019
4 November 2019
Accepted 22 December 2019
International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality
Management
Vol. 32 No. 2, 2020
pp. 706-729
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0959-6119
DOI 10.1108/IJCHM-04-2019-0380
Hotel guests’ social
commerce intention
The role of social support, social capital and
social identification
GuoQiong Ivanka Huang, Yun Victoria Chen and
IpKin Anthony Wong
School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong, China
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to synthesize a dyadic theoretical model which takes social-oriented
and individual-initiative drivers into account and illustrates a mechanism between social commerce intention
and its antecedents in the hospitality industry. To understand tourist social commerce behaviors, the current
study puts forward a comprehensive model and investigates the impact among social support, social capital,
participant involvement and social identification on tourist propensity to engage in social commerce with
behaviors such as to like, share, post reviews and make purchases.
Design/methodology/approach – The current research draws on social exchange theory and social
penetration theory to study how social-oriented drivers (i.e., social support and social capital) and individual-
initiated drivers (i.e., participant involvement and social identification) could better explain tourists’ social
commerce intentions. Structural equation modeling was performed based on a sample of 569 hotel guests
from 61 hotels in Macau.
Findings – Results reveal that social capital mediates the relationship between social support and social
commerce behavioral intention. This chain of relationship is moderated by social identification in that the
more a hotel guest identifies himself/herself as an in-group member of an online community, the more likely
he/she would engage in social commerce behaviors.
Practical implications – The diffusion velocity of marketing effect is manifested through customers’
social commerce intentions and behaviors, which helps managers to identify the importance in maintaining a
supportive atmosphere to nurture intimate member-to-member and member-to-provider relationships.
Originality/value – The present study enriches the social penetration theory and social exchange theory
by showing how both individual and social perspectives could jointly influence hotel guest propensity to post
likes and comments and to reserve hotel rooms, as means to build more intimate relationships with the
members within a virtual community.
Keywords Social capital, Social media, Electronic commerce, Hotel, Social support,
Social identification
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The popularity and usefulness of social media and virtual communities have attracted
tourists to go online and interact with their acquaintances or strangers on social platforms.
Interactions among consumers penetrate through all purchasing stages and enable them to
acquire more knowledge and power to engage with brands. Information acquired from these
interactions facilitates companies’ building long-term relationships with consumers (Zhang
Funding: Our deepest appreciation goes to the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central
Universities (Grants Nos.18wkzd08, 19wkpy66), and Sun Yat-sen University for funding this study.
and Benyoucef, 2016; Edelman, 2010; Harrigan et al., 2017), a phenomenon which has helped Role of social
e-commerce evolve into social commerce (Zeng et al., 2009; Lin et al., 2017). This new era of support
social commerce is infused by the use of social media, which empowers tourists and
customers alike anywhere around the globe to immerse themselves in the internet and to co-
validate business offerings from social commerce communities (Edwards et al., 2017).
The major configuration of social commerce, also known as social business, lies in its
social media usage, interactions in communities and commercial activities (Liang and
Turban, 2011; Lin et al., 2017). Unlike e-commerce, social commerce places emphasis on the 707
importance of customer social interaction on social media (Lin et al., 2017). In other words,
social commerce is a synthesis between e-commerce and user social media activities in
online social platforms (Dennison et al., 2009; Liang and Turban, 2011). In this study, social
platforms work as an umbrella term including media facilitating social commerce in the
hospitality context, such as online travel agencies (OTA. e.g. C-trip), forums (e.g.
Mafengwo), online chat systems (e.g. WeChat), social networking sites (e.g. Weibo) and hotel
official websites that are supported by hotel operators. Specifically, consumers’ self-
disclosing information, such as ratings, reviews, recommendations and referrals on a
product, have been demonstrated to influence their social commerce use (Hajli, 2015; Wang
et al., 2016). Therefore, social commerce behaviors in the current research refer to hotel
guests’ online activities including “sharing,” “liking,” “commenting” and “purchasing”
actions. These behaviors dictate the speed and frequency of customers’ online self-discourse.
The body of literature has acknowledged that “tweets,” “likes” and “comments,” which
are key aspects in social commerce, are critical sources in understanding customers
(Garrido-Moreno et al., 2018; Choudhury and Harrigan, 2014). In spite of the intense
discussion about social commerce in the field of information systems (Aluri et al., 2015;
Amaro et al., 2016) in recent studies, most research to date emphasizes its definition, trends
and research topics (Lin et al., 2017), as well as its nomological network, which is germane to
social support, trust, commitment, familiarity and social presence from a linear individual
perspective (i.e. linear relationship) (Chen and Shen, 2015; Hajli et al., 2017). Other
researchers focus on the consequence of social commerce such as perceptions of ratings and
reviews, forums and communities and recommendations and referrals (Hajli, 2015). In
addition, personal beliefs and attitudes about user expertise and usage importance
interactions on social commerce are also examined (Chang et al., 2015). Although these prior
studies build the necessary theoretical foundation, they are limited when looking into the
complex interplay (i.e. interactions) between both social and personal aspects, which
motivates the present research.
Based on the gaps identified above, the purpose of this research is to provide answers to
the following research question:

RQ. How do social and personal factors jointly impact hotel guests’ social commerce
intention?
In answering this question, the current study synthesizes two social forces (i.e. social
support and social capital) and two individual forces (i.e. participant involvement and social
identification) to investigate hotel guests’ social commerce intentions (including propensity
to comment, share, like and purchase) within virtual communities via online platforms such
as online travel agencies (OTA), forums, online chat systems and social networking sites
that are supported by hotel operators. In particular, as the purpose of this study is to
understand tourist social commerce behaviors, the current study puts forward a
comprehensive model and investigates the impacts of social support, social capital,
IJCHM participant involvement and social identification on tourist propensity to engage in social
32,2 commerce with behaviors such as to like, share, post reviews and make purchases.
In this study, social support refers to care, love and help that people receive from a group
(Cobb, 1976). And we followed Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) to define social capital as
resources inherited within a network of relationships perceived by an individual member.
Each member is playing a different role in an online community. His/her access frequency of
708 visits to an online community is denoted as the level of customer participant involvement
within the community (Chang and Chuang, 2011). Social identification occurs when a person
identifies as an in-group member of a society or community (Hogg and Abrams, 1988;
Postmes et al., 2005; Chu and Kim, 2011). We argue that guests’ accumulated social support
and capital work as a conduit in enhancing their desire to engage in social commerce. More
importantly, the intensity of this process is moderated by two factors – participant
involvement and social identification – in that the more participants are involved in an
online community and identify themselves as group members; the more intrinsic the support
they will perceive, the more the social capital they will accumulate.
In summary, the contribution of the current study lies in its research design, one that
takes both social support and social capital into account to study hotel guest social
commerce behavior intention (i.e. to comment, share and like). It synthesizes a dyadic
theoretical model that takes social-oriented and individual-initiative drivers into account
and illustrates a mechanism between social commerce intention and its antecedents in the
hospitality industry. Results of the study broaden social exchange theory and social
penetration theory by juxtaposing social capital as an avenue to facilitate self-discourse
through clicking “like” and “share” during interactions and relationship building. While
most social exchange studies have centered on dyadic exchanges and power used in the
exchange process (Zafirovski, 2005; Cook et al., 2013; Adongo et al., 2019), the current study
complements social exchange theory by incorporating social capital as a mediator of the
exchange process. It also contributes to social penetration theory (Altman and Taylor, 1973;
West and Turner, 2013) by introducing social commerce behaviors as an avenue in pursuing
and building better relationships with network members through selective self-presentation
online.

Theoretical background
Research framework
The premise of the proposed framework presented in the current study rests on several
research streams. In particular, the prevalence of social media usage has fostered the ability
of tourists/hotel guests to express their travel opinions and preferences through self-
discourse behaviors such as to “share,” “like,” “comment” and through subsequent purchase
behaviors manifested via virtual (i.e. online)[1] community dialogs and threads (i.e. social
commerce intention). Drawing on the literature from social psychology, such as social
exchange theory (Cropanzano et al., 2017; Adongo et al., 2019) and social penetration
theory[2] (Altman and Taylor, 1973), the present study postulates a process by which social
forces – social support and social capital – could serve as a conduit in cultivating such online
opinions, as we will further elaborate in the following sections in detail. In particular, social
penetration theory posits an onion-like relationship building among community members.
The process works as an evaluation through deeper interactions and self-discourse among
members over time as intimacy grows. Furthermore, this self-revelation process dictates the
speed and frequency of self-discourse and the penetration pattern of an actor (Baack et al.,
2000; Hwang et al., 2015). For example:
 people will unveil items closer to the central core [i.e., high discourse and intimacy] when they Role of social
find others with matching personality traits. Acceptance of others takes place over time, as
individuals gradually disclose aspects of themselves to each other (Baack et al., 2000, p. 41). support
Yet, actors would evaluate the costs and benefits of the relationship-building process
differently depending on the level of their personal involvement.
Driven by the above theoretical underpinnings (e.g. social exchange and penetration), we
argue that the social fabric and, hence, the social capital and commerce intention of a 709
community is strengthened through a greater degree of self-discourse interactions among
members (i.e. actors within the community), as prior studies have acknowledged (Nahapiet
and Ghoshal, 1998; Huang et al., 2009). Such member-to-member interactions are often a
consequence of elevated personal involvement (Filieri and McLeay, 2014) and community
identification (Cheung and Lee, 2010), as supported by social penetration theory.
Accordingly, the present study proposes participant involvement and social identification as
boundary conditions that moderate the relationships among social support, social capital
and social commerce intention.

Social support and social capital within virtual communities

Social support has been found to be a major value driver that attracts users to online
communities (Huang et al., 2010; Obst and Stafurik, 2010). Its major premise centers on the
systematization and diversification of social interaction, rather than the provision of support
(Thoits, 1985; Lakey and Cohen, 2000). Within the social context, identity and meaning are
derived from the roles an actor occupies (Lakey and Cohen, 2000). Rooted in the social
interaction paradigm, roles provide an individual actor a sense of group or organizational
identity. In the present study, an actor (e.g. hotel guest) could play a role either of an
informational and emotional receiver or of a supporter to others within an online
community. Social support received from an online community acts as a means to assist an
actor to create and sustain one’s virtual identity.
Researchers have argued that common functions of social support include four types:
emotional, tangible, informational and companionship (Wills, 1991; Uchino, 2004). Tangible
support is the presence of concrete and direct ways of assistance (Langford et al., 1997),
while companionship support denotes that people are accompanied as participants in shared
activities (Uchino, 2004). In the digital age, as interactions on the internet are virtual in
nature and involve information exchanges, online social support is often intangible and ad
hoc in nature (Huang et al., 2010; Madjar, 2008). Therefore, to further explore social support
that guests receive online, the current study focuses on informational support and emotional
support.
Informational support is a form of intellectual resource, including suggestions, guidance
and cues that can help actors to solve problems or to make decisions (Liang et al., 2011).
Emotional support, on the other hand, is a form of affective resource consisting of empathy,
shared understanding and intimacy that can expedite relationships in an indirect way (Chen
and Shen, 2015). Emotional fulfillment can also nurture a trust climate within the
community (Porter and Donthu, 2008), which would propel actors to further develop long-
term relationships within it (Chen and Shen, 2015).
Online communities that provide social support to distant others are likely to be conjured
as social capital, which activates community members toward purposeful actions (Lin,
2017). This relationship implies a linkage from social support to social capital. In the context
of online platforms, this definition is revised to describe important resources embedded in a
social structure, which is accessed and/or mobilized in deliberate action (Lin, 2011; Kang and
Kim, 2013). Because social capital is a network attribute, it exists within a network structure
IJCHM that is shared among members. Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) have articulated three
32,2 perspectives of social capital: structural, relational and cognitive social capital.
Structural social capital refers to the overall pattern of ties between members and the
extent to which actors are connected with others (Bolino et al., 2002). Relational social capital
stresses the environment where members are identified and build trust among each other
(Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). Cognitive social capital involves resources providing shared
710 interpretations or systematic meaning among members – for example, shared language,
codes or narratives (Chang and Chuang, 2011). The internet is more conducive for the
development of weak ties than strong ties (Bargh and McKenna, 2004). Hence, only rational
and cognitive types of social capital are explored in the current study.
In summary, the linkage from social support to social capital is underpinned by two
research streams: social exchange theory and social penetration theory. First, social capital
resonates closely with reciprocity, which reflects people’s inclination to exchange favors
(Wasko and Faraj, 2005). The principle of reciprocity induces social cognition of
interpersonal indebtedness; that is, online users are likely to interact with others once they
receive support within the community, and they would ensure such an exchange process
continues to thrive (Shumaker and Brownell, 1984). This exchange of social benefits could
further result in favorable relationships between community members and hence improving
intimacy between actors, as social penetration theory contends (Altman and Taylor, 1973;
Hwang et al., 2015).
The second theoretical underpinning rests on communication accommodation theory
(Willemyns et al., 1997), which posits that actors tend to use shared languages and
narratives in interpersonal communications to minimize the discrepancies between
themselves and others. The theory further recognizes that such shared communication
patterns generated from interpersonal interactions can foster shared meaning and stories
and, hence, they create a climate with useful advice and genuine care (i.e. a form of social
support) that nurtures shared understanding among individuals (Wasko and Faraj, 2005).
These theoretical underpinnings match those from social penetration theory, and the two
streams of work (i.e. reciprocity and communication accommodation theory) inform the
following hypothesis:

H1. Social support has a positive influence on social capital.

Social commerce intention, social support and social capital

Social commerce is a subset of e-commerce, and it has evolved into a new research direction
(Hajli, 2014). It proliferates user-generated content and allows users to better engage and
interact in a social network. Such platforms have infused new business models through
customer–customer communications and have encouraged companies to focus more on
customer-oriented propositions. As the social networks continue to expand, social commerce
has promoted online interactions into business transactions that are viable to the
organizational financial bottom line (Liang and Turban, 2011; Zhang and Wang, 2012;
Osatuyi and Qin, 2018).
Social commerce, as Hajli (2015) defines, includes virtual communities, reviews and
recommendations. In particular, social commerce intention entails four key aspects: the
intention to like (thumbs up), share, comment and purchase. In Hajli’s (2015) work,
commenting behaviors, such as ratings and reviews, are a key dimension that shapes social
commerce, as online users can post their product reviews with ease (Chen et al., 2011).
Recommendations, for example, are a powerful catalyst that can induce future purchase
behavior, while online communities can fortify a social environment that facilitates social Role of social
interaction among individuals (Ye et al., 2011; Wang and Yu, 2017). support
“Like” intention is defined as the intention to press the “like” or thumbs-up button (De
Vries et al., 2012; Chang et al., 2015). Researchers have found that consumers “like”
companies for hedonic reasons such as having fun and entertainment (Ostrow, 2010;
Porterfield, 2010). As likes contain positive connotative meaning, they entail an embellished
influential power attached to posted topics (Ha and Lee, 2018). Electronic word of mouth
(eWOM) marketing as social support may create cohesion that affects the diffusion of viral 711
marketing (Ho and Dempsey, 2010; Chang et al., 2015). On the other hand, share intention is
defined as the propensity to forward or share posted topics (De Vries et al., 2012).
Willingness to share information is the quintessence of the growth of member-to-member
support that traverses in the social network, as “sharing means caring”; this phenomenon
explains why message diffusion often goes viral in communities (Chang et al., 2015).
Comment intention refers to the intention to rate product posts or reviews online (Chen
et al., 2011; Hajli, 2015). Feedback from others is an excellent source of information that
provides consumers a reference of costs and benefits associated with commercial products
and services. In fact, research shows that reviews and ratings assist consumers at large to
have a more realistic expectation of a product and a higher level of trust (Porter and Donthu,
2008; Ba and Pavlou, 2002). Finally, purchase intention is the mental stage before a customer
reaches a final decision and makes an actual purchase (Wells et al., 2011). The primary goal
of marketing communication is to evoke consumer intention to purchase a certain product
(Hutter et al., 2013).
To further explore the embedded nature of social commerce, the current study draws on
social exchange/penetration theory (Cropanzano et al., 2017; Altman and Taylor, 1973) to
examine the rationale behind the proposed linkage between social support and commerce
intention. The premise of both theories implies that an individual’s expectations that a
relationship would lead to rewarding outcomes is based on his/her evaluation of the cost and
benefit of the exchange (Emerson, 1981). Through this exchange process, actors gain mutual
feedback and understanding and may eventually influence each other’s behavior (Bandura,
2001). Consequently, such a process is essential in building a long-term relationship, as actors
perceive a moral obligation to reciprocate with others by contributing knowledge and
emotional support to a given community (Wasko and Faraj, 2005). This line of logic rests on the
fact that actors develop favorable beliefs about the resources and care a community or an
organization offers to them. In turn, “[actors] seek a balance in their exchange relationships
with organizations by having attitudes and behaviors commensurate with the degree of [. . .]
commitment to them as individuals” (Wayne et al., 1997, p. 83). Hence, support provided by a
community enhances members’ trust and forms a psychological contract that the community
will fulfill its exchange obligations. Accordingly, actors would express greater devotion to the
community through self-discourse such as commenting, sharing and posting likes on the
virtual place (Tang and Wang, 2012), as intimacy grows. Hence, the following hypothesis was
proposed:

H2. Social support has a positive influence on social commerce intention.

Social capital is defined as all resources embedded within a social network and as the set of
relationships among network members that an individual possesses (Nahapiet and Ghoshal,
1998; Lin, 2011; Kang and Kim, 2013); these resources strongly influence interpersonal
knowledge sharing. Bandura (1989) uses a social constructivism paradigm to argue that
people’s behavior is a product of what they have learned through their social network.
Hence, social capital essentially represents a duality between the individual and group: at
IJCHM the group level, it projects the quality of relationships among members, while on the
32,2 individual level, it reflects one’s access to the network resources and further facilitates his/
her actions (Wasko and Faraj, 2005). As such, people who possess strong network ties (i.e.
they have strong social capital) would seek to maintain close relationships with other
community members and devote more time and effort to updating their status through
comments, likes and shares (Huang et al., 2009). Such increased intensity and depth of self-
712 discourse resonates closely with the social phenomenon articulated in the social penetration
theory, as mentioned above (Altman and Taylor, 1973; Hwang et al., 2015).
In a similar vein, cognitive social capital studies indicate that people who enjoy
disseminating valuable information in a community tend to possess high confidence in
message content and have high share intentions (Huang et al., 2009). Cognitive social capital
research further reports that an online community is imbued with shared languages and codes
that enable members to gain a better understanding of others (Huysman and Wulf, 2006).
These shared properties may trigger members to further engage in self-discourse through
shares, likes and comments within the community. The aforementioned studies resonate with
the work of Coleman (1990) and Seibert et al. (2001), in suggesting that an actor seeks to create
value and helps oneself to improve skills and capabilities within a community through
discourses and interactions among other actors. Thus, social commerce activities are means to
reach such capabilities. Accordingly, the current study posits that social capital has positive
influence on a member’s behavioral intentions within a virtual community.

H3. Social capital has a positive influence on social commerce intention.

The moderating role of participant involvement

According to Solomon (2011), personal involvement affects the extent to which people engage in
problem-solving, in that highly involved individuals would possess a great desire to search
information actively and carefully. Likewise, the more participants are involved in a community,
the more support or intrinsic benefits they perceive (Chang and Chuang, 2011). Chang and
Chuang further suggest that frequent access to an online community increases the level of
participant involvement within the community. Such devotion to a community often alters the
course of how an actor behaves as well as how his/her relationship with others evolves in due
course, as the social penetration theory posits (Baack et al., 2000; Altman and Taylor, 1973).
Communities do not merely engage highly involved members through empowering them
for producer–customer dialogue. More importantly, members’ community involvement can
gain support from lateral social ties within one’s established relationship with other members
(Andersen, 2005). In addition, social interactions with and support from fellow members form a
key value-generating mechanism (Morris and Martin, 2000). Such a mechanism renders
favorable interpersonal relationships as well as improved shared understanding, cooperation
and reciprocity – benefits which resonate closely with those of social capital. Because highly
involved community members are more engaged in building relationships and are more active
in searching and sharing information within a community, they are more likely to reciprocate
with online social support than less involved counterparts.
The above line of logic is further supported by the social penetration theory, in that
relationships developed from shallow to intimate depth require an actor’s continuous
endeavors in self-disclosure and community involvement. Support from community
members would certainly improve member-to-member relationships and hence facilitate
interpersonal intimacy (Altman and Taylor, 1973). Such an intimate relationship, however,
is contingent on whether or not the actor is motivated to engage in building the tie. That is,
highly involved participants would devote greater efforts in building a strong tie with
distant others in a virtual community. As they delve further into the community with Role of social
support from other members, they would reach a greater intimacy level and hence enjoy support
greater benefits from the social network, thus acquiring more social capital (Baack et al.,
2000; DiMaggio et al., 2001). The foregoing associations suggest the following hypothesis:

H4. Participant involvement moderates the relationship between social support and
social capital in that the relationship is stronger when the involvement is high.
713
The moderating role of social identification
Social identification occurs when a person identifies as an in-group member of a society or
organization (Hogg and Abrams, 1988; Postmes et al., 2005; Chu and Kim, 2011). In the
identification process, one’s social identity often influences in-group favoritism (Ellemers
et al., 1999). From a cognitive perspective, social identity is prominent in one’s self-
categorization process. Even when an individual is assigned to a new group without actual
contact among members, in-group favoritism may still persist (Tajfel, 1978). Affective social
identity has been acknowledged to cultivate loyalty and citizenship behavior in
organizations (Meyer et al., 2002), while evaluative social identity leads to group-based self-
esteem (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2002; Chu and Kim, 2011). This kind of self-esteem facilitates
actions that create in-group well-being and welfare (Ellemers et al., 1999).
The logic that social identity moderates the relationship between social capital and social
commerce intention rests on an interplay between social penetration theory (Altman and
Taylor, 1973) and social identification theory (Ashforth and Mael, 1989). The central tenet of
social identity theory is that common understandings among group members arise through
shared language and visions (Postmes et al., 2005). Congruent understandings among members
help nurture group norms and member engagement, which leads to strengthened group
identification through a greater extent of self-categorization, group self-esteem development
and affective involvement (Ellemers et al., 1999; Dholakia et al., 2004). This line of thinking is
commensurate with the theoretical underpinnings of social exchange/penetration theory, which
focuses on favorable exchanges during social discourse and shared understanding among
community members. As such, the impact of social capital on social commerce should be
facilitated if an individual is strongly identified as a member of a given community, because he/
she would be more inclined to follow group norms and engage in intensive interactions within
the community (DiMaggio et al., 2001; Baack et al., 2000). In other words, a person who
categorizes him/herself strongly as a key constituent of a community would further use his/her
social resources to build more intimate relationships among other members of the community,
leading to intensified usage of social commerce through self-discourse (Tang and Wang, 2012;
Bargh and McKenna, 2004). Accordingly, the following hypothesis was postulated. Details
about the proposed model are presented in Figure 1.

H5. Social identification moderates the relationship between social capital and social
commerce intention in that the relationship should be stronger when a member has
a higher level of social identification.

Methodology
Data collection and sample
The sample frame of the present study was Chinese tourists who chose a mid-to-high-end
hotel during their trip, through an online platform. To be qualified, respondents should have
IJCHM had experience using online platforms in the past twelve months, and they must have
32,2 engaged in such social commerce behaviors as likes, making or sharing comments about
accommodations or purchasing hotel accommodations based on online reviews.
Hotels in Macao were chosen as the research context for two main reasons. First, Macau
is the second most popular international city for Chinese tourists; it has a mixture of both
Eastern and Western destination characteristics (Wong et al., 2016), and it receives over 30
714 million tourists per year. Second, Macau has a rich variety of local, regional and
international hotels ranging from stand-alone accommodations to resort-based luxury
complexes. In the present study, the hotels of interest had advertised their businesses on
travel-related online platforms. In Macao, three-star hotels or above often rely their own
websites, social media fan pages and social networking sites to reach customers. Therefore,
these hotel properties and their corresponding guests were considered as the population of
interest.
To reduce sampling bias and to improve representativeness, a two-step sampling method
was adopted in the present study: a quota sampling technique was used to identify quotas
for each hotel, and a systematic sampling technique was used to mitigate response bias. In
particular, we first divided hotels into quota (e.g. small, medium and large hotels) and then
set the minimum sample size of each stratum: 5 for small, 15 for medium and 30 for large
properties. Next, a systematic sampling method was introduced; in that, field investigators
intercepted every other hotel guest to participate in the survey. A screening section was
introduced to include only hotel guests who had stayed in a hotel above three stars and used
online platforms. Upon respondents’ consent, they were asked to recall the hotel booking
process by filling in the questionnaire. The questionnaire was first developed in English.
Then it was translated into simplified Chinese with assistance from three bilinguals. A back-
translation technique was employed to ensure the accuracy and reliability of translations.
To analyze the data collected, two main steps are undertaken in this study (Figure 2).
The data collection was primarily conducted at the exits of participating hotels from
January to February in 2018. A total of 569 complete responses were obtained from 61 out of
a total of 64 hotels above three stars in Macau, which covers almost all available three-star
hotels in Macau at the time data were collected. Of the respondents, 46.7 per cent were male,
52.4 per cent were between 21 and 30 years of age, 62.4 per cent had received a bachelor’s
degree and 38.8 per cent earned an annual income between US$10,000 and 40,000.

Measures
The instruments used in the current study were adapted from the extant literature as
detailed below. A pilot test, which was conducted in January 2018 at the popular attractions

Individual-Initiated Drivers

Participation Social
Involvement Identification

Figure 1. H5
Social-Oriented H
H4
Conceptual Drivers Social Capital
Cap
a ital
framework: a socio-
personal perspective H
H1 H3
on customer social Social Support
Sup
u port Social Commerce
commerce behavior H
H2 Intention
 Role of social
Research design
support

(DUO\'HVLJQ
6WDJH
Questionnaire Design and Translations Research Context Consideration

715
 Hotel Selection Respondent Selection Respondent Screening
6DPSOLQJ Quota sampling: N = 5 for Tourists, stayed in 3 – 5
DQG Systematic sampling: skip star hotels, utilized online
small, N = 15 for medium,
3URFHGXUH interview = 3 platforms to book hotel
N = 30 for large hotels rooms


Data diagnostic

Normality diagnostic Confirmatory Factor Analysis Auxiliary Test

1. validity check;
Skewness and kurtosis 1. common method bias;
 reliability check;
 model fit. 2. multicollinearity.


Test Hypotheses

Mediating effect test:

Model 1: social support  social capital; social capital  social commerce intention; social support  social commerce

Moderating effect test:

Model 2: involvementsocial capital; involvement
social support social capital
Model 3: identificationsocial commerce; identification
social capital  social commerce intention

Figure 2.
Graphical illustration for moderation: Analytical steps are
Simple slope method undertaken in the
study

in Macao, was performed with twenty experts including tourism professors and graduate
students to improve the consistency and ease of understanding of the translated version of
the questionnaire. With the suggestions from experts, minor modifications of the sequences
and wordings of items were made. A seven-item scale was adapted from Liang et al. (2011)
to measure guests’ perceived social support including informational support and emotional
support aspects from online communities. The scale was evaluated based on a seven-point
Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). A six-item scale
adapted from Chang and Chuang (2011) was used to measure guests’ participant
involvement in an online community. The scale was evaluated by using a nine-point Likert
scale anchor (1 = strongly disagree and 9 = strongly agree). A five-item scale adapted from
Chiu et al. (2006) was used to measure social capital that guests acquired in online
communities, including relational and cognitive social capital dimensions. Guests were
IJCHM asked their opinions of each item using a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly
32,2 disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). A three-item scale was adapted from Malhotra and Galletta
(1999) to evaluate social identification, which is the extent to which respondents identified
themselves as in-group members of a community, using a nine-point bipolar rating from 1
(least likely) to 9 (most likely). Social commerce intention included a four-item scale with like,
share, comment and purchase intention adapted from Chang et al. (2015) and Liang et al.
716 (2011). Each of the scale statements was rated on a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1
(strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

Normality, validity and reliability diagnostics

To ensure the appropriateness of each scale of interest, we conducted a normality check for each
item. Results indicated univariate normality for all observed items (skewness # |1.0| and
kurtosis # |1.0|) (Bulmer, 1979), and the inferred population did not deviate from normality
(zskewness and zkurtosis of each scale were below 3.29, p < 0.05) (Field, 2005). Composite reliability
and Cronbach’s alpha were between 0.82 and 0.95, greater than the 0.70 thresholds (Table I).
Construct validity, which assesses the extent to which a scale truly examines a construct of
interest, was assessed through convergent and discriminant validity. Results indicate that all of
the scales of interest showed acceptable convergent validity, with factor loadings that ranged
from 0.60 to 0.82 and AVE values that were larger than 0.50. All the square roots of AVE values
were greater than their corresponding inter-construct correlations, indicating satisfactory
discriminant validity (Table II). Furthermore, confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the
fit between the proposed measurement model and the data. Results reveal that the overall
measurement model had adequate fit: normed chi-square (x 2/df) = 2.84, goodness-of-fit index
(GFI) = 0.91, normed fit index (NFI) = 0.95, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.96 and root mean
square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.06.

Auxiliary test
We followed Podsakoff et al. (2003) to diagnose the common method variance both by using
Harman single-factor analysis and by introducing a three-item customer reactance scale
based on Liu et al. (2011) as a marker variable. Results show that the single-factor method
produced results that exceed the threshold of x 2/df = 2.0 ( x 2(135) = 2,930, p < 0.05, x 2/df =
21.70). Partialing out the effect of the marker variable does not have significant impact on
the proposed framework, as the results remain consistent with or without including the
variable. These evidences suggest that common method bias is not problematic in this
study. In order to detect whether multi-collinearity existed, we calculated the variance
inflation factor (VIF) and tolerances. All the tolerances were significantly above the
minimum value of 0.10, and the VIFs (#1.36) were significantly less than the maximum
value of 10. Therefore, multi-collinearity was not a concern in the present study.

Findings
LISREL 8.8 was used to test the proposed model and relationships. The framework
presented in Figure 1 posits the mediating role of social capital between social support and
social commerce intention, while participant involvement and social identification are
postulated as moderators of the relationship leading from social support to commerce
intention through social capital. As Model 1 shows, this relationship is partially mediated by
social capital ( b support ! capital = 0.48, p < 0.001 and b capital ! commerce = 0.42, p < 0.001;
b support ! commerce = 0.25, p < 0.001), in support of H1, H2 and H3 (Table III).
We examined the moderating effects of participant involvement and social identification in
multiple models and presented the results in Models 2 and 3 (Table III). Results from Model 2
No. Scale item Factor loading Cronbach’s a CR AVE

I. Social support
When faced with difficulties, some people in _______ comforted and
SS1 encouraged me. 0.87
When faced with difficulties, some people in _______ listened to me talk about
SS2 my private feelings. 0.95
When faced with difficulties, some people in _______ expressed interest and
SS3 concern in my well-being. 0.82 0.91 0.91 0.78
SS4 In _______, some people would offer suggestions when I needed help. 0.90
When I encountered a problem, some people in _______ would give me
SS5 information to help me overcome the problem. 0.93
When faced with difficulties, some people in _______ would help me discover
SS6 the cause and provide me with suggestions. 0.89 0.93 0.93 0.82
II. Participant involvement
PI1 I am interested in participating in _______. 0.90
PI2 It is pleasurable and enjoyable for me to participate in _______. 0.92
PI3 It is important for me to participate in _______. 0.74 0.89 0.89 0.73
III. Social capital
Members in _______ use understandable narrative forms to post messages or
SC1 articles. 0.85
SC2 I maintain close social relationships with some members in _______. 0.91 0.89 0.89 0.78
SC3 I spend a lot of time interacting with some members in _______. 0.84
SC4 I know some members in _______ on a personal level. 0.92
SC5 I have frequent communication with some members in _______. 0.81 0.89 0.89 0.74
IV. Social identification
SI1 I feel a sense of personal ownership about the use of _______. 0.82
SI2 I talk up the use of _______ to my colleagues as a great use. 0.75
SI3 I am proud about using _______. 0.76 0.82 0.82 0.60
(continued)
Role of social

717

analysis
Results of factor
Table I.
support
 32,2

718

Table I.
IJCHM

No. Scale item Factor loading Cronbach’s a CR AVE

V. Social commerce intention

I intend to press like on other members’ comment on accommodation products
SCI1 within the _______. 0.82
SCI2 I intend to comment on accommodation products within the _______. 0.84
I intend to share other members’ comment on accommodation products within
SCI3 the _______ in the future. 0.83
Other members’ comments on accommodation products within the _______
SCI4 make me have intention to purchase them. 0.65 0.87 0.87 0.62
Note: Blank represents the online platform respondents used for hotel booking
reveal a non-significant moderating effect of involvement on the social support – social capital Role of social
relationship (b = 0.01, p > 0.05) and a significant moderation of social identification on the social support
capital–social commerce intention relationship (b = 0.08, p < 0.01), in support of H5, but the
results fail to support H4. The results also indicate that participant involvement and social
identification are directly related to social capital and social commerce intention. Results from
Model 2 (b support ! capital = 0.39, p < 0.001 and b capital ! commerce = 0.31, p < 0.01;
b support ! commerce = 0.05, p > 0.05) and Model 3 (b support ! capital = 0.39, p < 0.001 and
b capital ! commerce = 0.31, p < 0.01; b support ! commerce = 0.13, p > 0.05) further suggest that these 719
results fail to support H2, meaning the direct effect from social support to social commerce
behavior is diminished after controlling for social platform types (1 = OTA/forum/hotel website,
2 = social networking site/real-time online chat system). Thus, the effect of social support is fully
mediated by social capital. Also, results from Models 1-3 (b platform types ! commerce = 0.03, 0.42,
0.22, p > 0.05) show insignificant effects of platform type as a control variable emanating on
social commerce intention.

Mean SD Items 1 2 3 4 5

1 Social support 4.70 1.34 6 0.89

2 Participant involvement 6.13 1.79 3 0.38*** 0.85
3 Social capital 4.99 1.30 5 0.63*** 0.45*** 0.87
4 Social identification 6.21 1.59 3 0.43*** 0.56*** 0.49*** 0.77
Table II.
5 Social commerce intention 3.81 1.56 4 0.37*** 0.31*** 0.36*** 0.30*** 0.79 Means, standard
deviation and
Notes: ***p < .001; The diagonal values are the square root of the average variance extracted correlations

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

Social Social commerce Social Social commerce Social Social commerce
capital intention capital intention capital intention

Control variable
Social platform types —— 0.03 —— 0.42 —— 0.22

Main effect
Social support 0.48*** 0.25*** 0.39*** 0.05 0.39*** 0.13
Social capital —— 0.42*** —— 0.31** —— 0.31**

Moderating effect
Participant involvement —— —— 0.15** —— —— 0.15**
Social identification —— —— —— —— —— 0.22**
Social support 
participant involvement —— —— 0.01 —— 0.01 ——
Social capital 
identification —— —— —— —— —— 0.08**
R2 0.33 0.17 0.41 0.21 0.41 0.22
CFI 0.98 0.97 0.97 Table III.
RMSEA 0.08 0.08 0.07 Results of structural
SRMR 0.08 0.07 0.07
equation path
Notes: ***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; Paths estimates are standardized estimations
IJCHM Further, we verified the results by using Hayes’s (2017) PROCESS through bootstrapping
32,2 with a sample of 5,000. We used Model 4 to test the mediating effect of social capital, and
Model 21 to test the moderating effect of both involvement and social identification in
PROCESS. The results further warranted those presented in Table III. In particular, the
bootstrapping results indicated that social capital was partially mediating the relationship
between social support and social commerce intention (indirect effect: 0.27, 95 per cent CI =
720 0.15 to 0.39, p < 0.001; direct effect: 0.15, 95 per cent CI = 0.07 to 0.24, p < 0.001). Thus, H1 to
H3 were supported. H4 assumes that involvement moderates a relationship between social
support and social capital; however, the interaction term failed to detect a significant
moderation effect ( b = 0.01, 95 per cent CI = 0.03 to 0.03, p > 0.05). H5 predicts a
moderation effect of social identification on the relationship between social capital and social
commerce behavior; and results showed that moderation is significant ( b = 0.07, 95 per
cent CI = 0.03 to 0.11, p < 0.01). The moderated mediation effect (i.e. the mediation of social
capital is moderated by social identification) is also significant ( b = 0.08, 95 per cent CI =
0.03 to 0.13, p < 0.01). Thus, H1, 2, 3 and H5 were supported, but H4 was rejected.
To interpret the moderating effect graphically, we redefined the moderator as high and low
levels of social identification, measured as plus and minus one standard deviation from the mean,
following Preacher et al. (2007). The results indicate that the social capital  identification
interaction is positive, as postulated. As Figure 3 depicts, the effect of social capital on social
commerce intention is stronger for a higher level of social identification. In sum, Model 3 had
adequate model fit: CFI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.08, SRMR = 0.07. The models also explained the
criterion variables fairly well, with R2social capital = 0.41 and R2social commerce intention = 0.21.

Discussion
This investigation is among the first in the tourism/hospitality literature to examine the
relationship among social support, social capital and social commerce intention in online
communities. It contributes to the existing literature by theoretically identifying and
empirically testing the moderating role of social identification between the link from social
capital to social commerce intention. The findings support the proposed model postulated in
Figure 1, in that social capital mediates the relationship between social support and social
commerce intention. Findings also indicate that social identification moderates the
relationship linking social capital to social commerce intention: the more hotel guests
identify themselves as an in-group member of a community, the more likely they will engage
in social commerce activities. However, H4 is not supported, which indicates that tourists’
high level of participant involvement in a social platform does not necessarily moderate the

4.5
Social Commerce Intention

3.5
Low Identification
3
High Identification
2.5

2
Figure 3. 1.5
Moderating effect of
social identification 1
Low Social Capital High Social Capital
relationship between social support they receive and social capital they build within the Role of social
social platform. The reason may be embedded in the nature of social support. From the support
psychological perspective, the receipt of social support may have cost information overload.
This line of logic may echo Bolger et al. (2000) who note that making use of one’s social
support network can be associated with increased rather than reduced stress, thereby
increasing emotional costs to recipients. The following section will present the theoretical
and practical implications.
721
Theoretical implications
Meaningful communication plays as an essential role in any given social exchange
regardless of the social context, and it requires meaningful sharing of information among
actors (Boisot, 1995). Although face-to-face interactions may still play an important role in
influencing consumer decisions, the prevalence of virtual (online) communities has rendered
a huge opportunity for hospitality providers, such as hotel operators, to embark on building
intimate relationships by embracing such communities (Sigala, 2018). To this end, social
support and its derived social capital engendered from virtual community members become
value drivers that are co-created with distant others. Such a mechanism is investigated in
the current study. By taking a step beyond the conventional approach in assessing outcomes
of online social interactions, such as purchase intentions and e-WOM (Filieri and McLeay,
2014; Hajli, 2015), this study delves further into the social commerce research stream by
taking into consideration other criteria such as likes and shares. Thus, the first contribution
of the study rests on its early usage of social commerce intention measured in the hospitality
research domain. Although this novelty may seem subtle, the study nevertheless sets a new
research agenda by moving beyond e-commerce to open up a new direction of research into
the social commerce domain. This approach further heeds the call from the literature (Ha
and Lee, 2018; Sigala, 2018) and extends the social networking research to suggest that the
traditional one-to-many unilateral communication model (i.e. one business transmitting well-
designed and standardized content to customers) is becoming obsolete and is gradually
being replaced by a co-created many-to-many communication model (i.e. companies and
customers exchanging authentic and customized information with each other).
Second, Zhang and Benyoucef (2016) summarize four main streams of work and aim to
better understand online consumer behaviors by focusing on the social aspects. Yet, most
prior hospitality research (Sashi et al., 2019; Lin et al., 2018) has only paid cursory attention
to the social side of the online community in engendering business opportunities. The
present study addresses this research limitation by developing a relatively more
comprehensive framework that draws upon an interplay between social penetration theory,
social identification theory and the elaboration likelihood model to determine how social-
oriented drivers (i.e. social support and social capital) and individual-initiated drivers (i.e.
participant involvement and social identification) could better explain tourists’/guests’ social
commerce intentions (Liang et al., 2011). More importantly, this symbiotic view of socio-
individual drivers enriches the social exchange/penetration theory (Hwang et al., 2015;
Adongo et al., 2019) by showing how both individual and social perspectives could jointly
influence tourist/hotel guest propensity to post likes and comments and to reserve hotel
rooms, as means to build more intimate relationships with members of a virtual community.
In a similar vein, the present study sheds light on the how the social capital mediation is
moderated by social identification. It is understandable that transferring supportive
information as valuable suggestions or genuine care among members helps to build close
relationships and enhance one’s social capital, which may further induce members to
conduct social commerce behavior collectively. While exchanging supportive information
IJCHM can improve one’s social capital, it also induces an actor to further engage in social
32,2 commerce. He/she would be more inclined to share and recommend commercial information,
as the reciprocal process posits.
Third, prior research in the field of information systems has laid a foundation on social
commerce. As discussed above, the body of literature has placed emphasis on defining social
commerce as well as assessing its nomological network relating to social support, trust,
722 commitment, familiarity, social presence, website quality and relational quality. Yet by
modeling these constructs as direct or mediating factors (Chen and Shen, 2015; Hajli et al.,
2017; Liang et al., 2011), most research to date has failed to evaluate how personal attributes
such as personal involvement and social identification could moderate the role of social-
oriented factors (e.g. social support and social capital). In fact, prior hospitality research has
not fully considered the boundary condition of social identification. As the current study
takes this moderating mechanism into consideration, its contribution rests on its ability to
assess the interaction effect between social capital and social identification on customers’
social commerce behaviors beyond the information systems discipline.

Practical implications
Researchers studying the differences between virtual communities on online platforms have
provided a basis for mangers to make decisions on when and how to embark on online
marketing. e-WOM cohesion affects the diffusion velocity of viral marketing (Ho and
Dempsey, 2010), as manifested through customers’ social commerce intentions and
behaviors (comments, shares, likes and purchases). Further, consumers associate rich
informational support with product popularity (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Filieri and
McLeay, 2014), in that the volume of reviews is used not only to gauge popularity of
commercial goods but also as a product performance indicator (Denizci Guillet et al., 2016).
For any given hotel brand, customers’ sharing and liking can increase its visibility and
popularity (Ha and Lee, 2018). As social media has the capacity to assess customer
knowledge, building a social online community of hotel fan pages may be a good way to
identify customer preferences and so to improve customer service (Garrido-Moreno et al.,
2018). Instead of focusing on the sales of hotel rooms, knowing hotel guests’ social commerce
behaviors can benefit hotels in the long run by helping them build long-term customer–
provider relationships. Social commerce is accentuated with the support from a large and
intense network of online peers to share ideas and assist product marketing (Zhang and
Wang, 2012; Chen and Shen, 2015). It can help hoteliers to easily understand customers’
information adoption process by detecting their self-disclosure behavior. Further, it is poised
to generate significant revenue for companies in the future (Chen and Shen, 2015). In
addition, social commerce behaviors can help create bonds with potential customers,
identify potential opportunities, increase attention to products/companies and help brand
development (Michaelidou et al., 2011).
Although information and communication technologies combined with traditional
customer relation management can minimize the loss of intangible knowledge assets due to
reducing staff turnover and providing a way of accessing/sharing organizational knowledge
amongst hotel properties (Sigala, 2005), social media-facilitated interactions between
hoteliers and customers have provided an additional avenue for the traditional customer-
relations management to generate value to firms (Sigala, 2018). In addition, hotel
performance may still rely merely on sales transactions (Sigala, 2005). With the proliferation
of social media usage, a more comprehensive and detailed performance system should be
launched to measure customers’ intention to like, share, comment and purchase and to
further understand the benefit social media brings to hotels in terms of gaining popularity,
publicity, presentation and performance. For instance, rather than merely running Role of social
advertisements in OTA or their website, some newly opened hotels are now asking potential support
guests to share their posters in exchange for a free trial to stay in their properties. In essence,
hoteliers are recruiting free advertisement agents, ambassadors who are strongly identified
with a specific hotel brand, to better promote the focal property through social media and
hence mitigating heavy reliance on OTA. Besides, hotels such as the Ritz Carlton or Marriott
can be booked directly through WeChat, while discounts may be offered through this media
channel. These social media initiatives have been aiding the hoteliers to not only attract 723
guests to their site but also compete with Airbnb.
Going beyond user-generated content in the hotel domain, consumers are now requesting
more freedom in expressing their needs and wants by taking control over information they
receive and produce. Insights gleaned from comments, likes and shares can then serve as
useful tools to fulfill unmet needs. Through consumer self-disclosure, operators are gaining
business knowledge and intelligence to further develop and deliver highly customized
marketing propositions to guests. This process is particularly important for operators in
accommodating guests from relatively conservative countries such as China, as they
normally would not tend to share their thoughts or feedback to hoteliers through the
conventional survey approach, for example. Hence, using results from the hotel industry in
Macao provides an excellent reference to international hoteliers to better gauge their social
media marketing efforts.
Prior research acknowledges that social support and effective response are interrelated,
and they are embedded in the relationship within social communities (Nahapiet and
Ghoshal, 1998). In other words, when other members show care and provide useful
information, it is rather obligatory for an actor to acquire and share valuable information
with them (Crocker and Canevello, 2008; Casalo and Romero, 2019). This fact suggests that
members perceive support from others as social capital, which in turn serves as a significant
mediator between social support and social commerce intention in the current investigation.
It is important for hotel websites and e-commerce sites such as OTA to improve their
influences on customers through added social media features. These include options for
customers to share their profiles, to encourage online customer-to-customer interactions and
to build cyberspace friendship (Yang and Wong, 2019). Sites can develop online forums to
nurture greater social capital on behalf of the hotel brand and recruit brand ambassadors to
answer customer queries and to fortify the brand’s identity. Meanwhile, major social
platforms such as Weibo and WeChat have gradually launched new hotel-related products,
which allow customers to book hotel rooms directly through these channels. For example,
customers can follow the homepage about a hotel on WeChat and book rooms directly
through the app. Even more, customers can tell whether their cyber friends liked, shared or
commented on a hotel listed on Weibo. With some hotels, customers can open the hotel room
directly from WeChat just by turning on their Bluetooth devices. These platforms have
cultivated a large loyalty base of customers who value how well the social media have
integrated resources from their social cycle to help them make better travel decisions and
bookings. In essence, these platforms render an important conduit in building more
affordable and efficient “travel careers” (Pearce and Lee, 2005) for millions of tourists
through such an integrated system. Also, social support in the form of customer reviews has
a significant positive impact on sales, as an increase in customer review ratings improves
online bookings. Such a supportive environment nurtures intimate relationships; as care and
love spreads through a network, more intense interactions can be encouraged via social
commerce (Liang et al., 2011). Without a supportive climate, such exchange behaviors in the
public domain would be stagnant and perhaps gradually vanish. There is great importance
IJCHM in maintaining such a supportive atmosphere in order to nurture intimate member-to-
32,2 member and member-to-provider relationships. It is pivotal for virtual communities to
embrace such an environment when incorporating hotel booking systems into their
platforms (Liang et al., 2011).

Research limitations and future study directions

724 Despite rigorous procedures being applied in the present study, several limitations exist.
First, as a cross-sectional study was used, the proposed influences emanating from the
independent and moderating variables of interest should be interpreted with caution.
Although a longitudinal study is recommended, it may not be feasible to collect such data.
Hence, we encourage future research to test the proposed relationships through experiments.
Second, data were collected from hotels in Macau, and this choice may pose a limitation on
the generalizability of the findings. Future research is encouraged to extend this
investigation to other destinations. One area of future investigation could assess the
multilevel nature of the influence of hotel platforms (brand image and quality) on individual
guest behaviors. Such an inquiry could remedy the literature gap, where there is a lack of
consideration of the influence of tourists’/hotel guests’ travel experiences on their social
commerce intention. Travel experience may act as a direct or a moderating factor on
customers’ behavioral intention, while hotel-level branding attributes could work as another
moderating condition. Finally, we encourage testing the model in different hotel settings, as
well as comparing differences among different virtual communities such as forums or real-
time online chat systems, as these various contexts may yield greater insights.

Notes
1. In accordance with prior studies, we use online community and virtual community
interchangeably in this article.
2. The underlying assumption of social penetration rests on intensive social exchanges among
members as well as cost/benefits received. These underpinnings align closely with that of social
exchange theory. Hence for simplicity, we use the term “social exchange/social penetration” to
refer to the exchanges of actors to build intimate relationships and “social exchange/social
penetration theory” to refer to both theoretical streams.

References
Adongo, R., Kim, S.S. and Elliot, S. (2019), “Give and take”: a social exchange perspective on festival
stakeholder relations”, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 75, pp. 42-57.
Altman, I. and Taylor, D.A. (1973), Social Penetration: The Development of Interpersonal Relationships,
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, NY.
Aluri, A., Slevitch, L. and Larzelere, R. (2015), “The effectiveness of embedded social media on hotel
websites and the importance of social interactions and return on engagement”, International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 670-689.
Amaro, S., Duarte, P. and Henriques, C. (2016), “Travelers’ use of social media: a clustering approach”,
Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 59, pp. 1-15.
Andersen, P.H. (2005), “Relationship marketing and Brand involvement of professionals through web-enhanced
Brand communities: the case of coloplast”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 34 No. 3, pp. 285-297.
Ashforth, B.E. and Mael, F. (1989), “Social identity theory and the organization”, Academy of
Management Review, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 20-39.
Ba, S. and Pavlou, P.A. (2002), “Evidence of the effect of trust building technology in electronic markets: Role of social
Price premiums and buyer behavior”, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 243-268.
support
Baack, D., Fogliasso, C. and Harris, J. (2000), “The personal impact of ethical decisions: a social
penetration theory”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 39-49.
Bagozzi, R.P. and Dholakia, U.M. (2002), “Intentional social action in virtual communities”, Journal of
Interactive Marketing, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 2-21.
Bandura, A. (1989), “Human agency in social cognitive theory”, American Psychologist, Vol. 44 No. 9, 725
pp. 1175-1184.
Bandura, A. (2001), “Social cognitive theory: an agentic perspective”, Annual Review of Psychology,
Vol. 52 No. 1, pp. 1-26.
Bargh, J.A. and McKenna, K.Y.A. (2004), “The internet and social life”, Annual Review of Psychology,
Vol. 55 No. 1, pp. 573-590.
Boisot, M.H. (1995), “Is your firm a creative destroyer? Competitive learning and knowledge flows in the
technological strategies of firms”, Research Policy, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 489-506.
Bolger, N., Zuckerman, A. and Kessler, R.C. (2000), “Invisible support and adjustment to stress”, Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 79 No. 6, pp. 953-961.
Bolino, M.C., Turnley, W.H. and Bloodgood, J.M. (2002), “Citizenship behavior and the creation of social
Capital in organizations”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 505-522.
Bulmer, M.G. (1979), Principles of Statistics, Dover Publications, Mineola, New York, NY.
Casalo, L.V. and Romero, J. (2019), “Social media promotions and travelers’ value-creating behaviors:
the role of perceived support”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,
Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 633-650.
Chang, H.H. and Chuang, S.-S. (2011), “Social capital and individual motivations on knowledge
sharing: participant involvement as a moderator”, Information and Management, Vol. 48
No. 1, pp. 9-18.
Chang, Y.-T., Yu, H. and Lu, H.-P. (2015), “Persuasive messages, popularity cohesion, and message
diffusion in social media marketing”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 68 No. 4, pp. 777-782.
Chen, J. and Shen, X.-L. (2015), “Consumers’ decisions in social commerce context: an empirical
investigation”, Decision Support Systems, Vol. 79, pp. 55-64.
Chen, J., Xu, H. and Whinston, A.B. (2011), “Moderated online communities and quality of user-
generated content”, Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 237-268.
Cheung, C.M. and Lee, M.K. (2010), “A theoretical model of intentional social action in online social
networks”, Decision Support Systems, Vol. 49 No. 1, pp. 24-30.
Chevalier, J.A. and Mayzlin, D. (2006), “The effect of word of mouth on sales: online book reviews”,
Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 43 No. 3, pp. 345-354.
Chiu, C.-M., Hsu, M.-H. and Wang, E.T. (2006), “Understanding knowledge sharing in virtual
communities: an integration of social capital and social cognitive theories”, Decision Support
Systems, Vol. 42 No. 3, pp. 1872-1888.
Choudhury, M.M. and Harrigan, P. (2014), “CRM to social CRM: the integration of new technologies into
customer relationship management”, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 149-176.
Chu, S.-C. and Kim, Y. (2011), “Determinants of consumer engagement in electronic word-of-mouth
(eWOM) in social networking sites”, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 47-75.
Cobb, S. (1976), “Social support as a moderator of life stress”, Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol. 38 No. 5,
pp. 300-314.
Coleman, J. (1990), Foundations of Social Theory, Belknap, Cambridge, MA.
Cook, K.S., Cheshire, C., Rice, E.R., et al. (2013), “Social exchange theory”, in DeLamater, J. (Ed.)
Handbook of Social Psychology, Springer, pp. 61-88.
IJCHM Crocker, J. and Canevello, A. (2008), “Creating and undermining social support in communal
relationships: the role of compassionate and self-image goals”, Journal of Personality and Social
32,2 Psychology, Vol. 95 No. 3, pp. 555-575.
Cropanzano, R., Anthony, E.L., Daniels, S.R., et al. (2017), “Social exchange theory: a critical review ith
theoretical remedies”, Academy of Management Annals, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 479-516.
De Vries, L., Gensler, S. and Leeflang, P.S. (2012), “Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: an
investigation of the effects of social media marketing”, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 26
726 No. 2, pp. 83-91.
Denizci Guillet, B., Kucukusta, D. and Liu, L. (2016), “An examination of social media marketing in
China: how do the top 133 hotel brands perform on the top four Chinese social media sites?”,
Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, Vol. 33 No. 6, pp. 783-805.
Dennison, G., Bourdage-Braun, S. and Chetuparambil, M. (2009), “Social commerce defined”, White
paper. Research Triangle Park, NC.
Dholakia, U.M., Bagozzi, R.P. and Pearo, L.K. (2004), “A social influence model of consumer
participation in network-and small-group-based virtual communities”, International Journal of
Research in Marketing, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 241-263.
DiMaggio, P., Hargittai, E., Neuman, W.R. and Robinson, J.P., (2001), “Social implications of the
internet”, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 307-336.
Edelman, D.C. (2010), “Branding in the digital age”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 88 No. 12, pp. 62-69.
Edwards, D., Cheng, M., Wong, I.A., Zhang, J. and Wu, Q., (2017), “Ambassadors of knowledge sharing:
co-produced travel information through tourist-local social media exchange”, International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 29 No. 2, pp. 690-708.
Ellemers, N., Kortekaas, P. and Ouwerkerk, J.W. (1999), “Self-categorisation, commitment to the group
and group self-esteem as related but distinct aspects of social identity”, European Journal of
Social Psychology, Vol. 29 Nos 2/3, pp. 371-389.
Emerson, R.M. (1981), “Social exchange theory”, in Rosenberg, M. and Turner, R.H. (Eds) Social
Psychology: Sociological Perspectives, Basic Books, Inc, New York, NY.
Field, A. (2005), Discovering Statistics Using SPSS for Windows, SAGE Publications, London.
Filieri, R. and McLeay, F. (2014), “E-WOM and accommodation: an analysis of the factors that influence
travelers’ adoption of information from online reviews”, Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 53
No. 1, pp. 44-57.
Garrido-Moreno, A., Garcia-Morales, V.J., Lockett, N. and King, S. (2018), “The missing link: creating
value with social media use in hotels”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 75,
pp. 94-104.
Ha, E.Y. and Lee, H. (2018), “Projecting service quality: the effects of social media reviews on service
perception”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 69, pp. 132-141.
Hajli, M.N. (2014), “The role of social support on relationship quality and social commerce”,
Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. 87, pp. 17-27.
Hajli, N. (2015), “Social commerce constructs and consumer’s intention to buy”, International Journal of
Information Management, Vol. 35 No. 2, pp. 183-191.
Hajli, N., Sims, J., Zadeh, A.H. and Richard, M.O., (2017), “A social commerce investigation of the role of trust
in a social networking site on purchase intentions”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 71, pp. 133-141.
Harrigan, P., Evers, U., Miles, M. and Daly, T., (2017), “Customer engagement with tourism social media
brands”, Tourism Management, Vol. 59, pp. 597-609.
Hayes, A.F. (2017), Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A
Regression-Based Approach, Guilford Publications.
Ho, J.Y. and Dempsey, M. (2010), “Viral marketing: motivations to forward online content”, Journal of
Business Research, Vol. 63 Nos 9/10, pp. 1000-1006.
Hogg, M.A. and Abrams, D. (1988), Social Identifications: A Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations Role of social
and Group Processes, Taylor and Frances/Routledge.
support
Huang, C.-C., Lin, T.-C. and Lin, K.-J. (2009), “Factors affecting pass-along email intentions (PAEIs):
integrating the social Capital and social cognition theories”, Electronic Commerce Research and
Applications, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 160-169.
Huang, K.-Y., Nambisan, P. and Uzuner, Ö. (2010), “Informational support or emotional support:
Preliminary study of an automated approach to analyze online support community contents”,
International Conference on Information Systems, pp. 1-11. 727
Hutter, K., Hautz, J., Dennhardt, S. and Füller, J., (2013), “The impact of user interactions in social media
on Brand awareness and purchase intention: the case of MINI on Facebook”, Journal of Product
and Brand Management , Vol. 22 Nos 5/6, pp. 342-351.
Huysman, M. and Wulf, V. (2006), “IT to support knowledge sharing in communities, towards a social
Capital analysis”, Journal of Information Technology, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 40-51.
Hwang, J., Han, H. and Kim, S. (2015), “How can employees engage customers? Application of social
penetration theory to the full-service restaurant industry by gender”, International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 27 No. 6, pp. 1117-1134.
Kang, M. and Kim, B. (2013), “Embedded resources and knowledge transfer among R&D employees”,
Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 17 No. 5, pp. 709-723.
Lakey, B. and Cohen, S. (2000), “Social support and theory”, in Cohen, S., Underwood, L.G. and H.G.B.
(Eds), Social Support Measurement and Intervention: A Guide for Health and Social Scientists,
Oxford University Press, London, pp. 29-52.
Langford, C.P.H., Bowsher, J., Maloney, J.P. and Lillis, P.P. (1997), “Social support: a conceptual
analysis”, Journal of Advanced Nursing, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 95-100.
Liang, T.-P., Ho, Y.-T., Li, Y.-W. and Turban, E. (2011), “What drives social commerce: the role of social
support and relationship quality”, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 16 No. 2,
pp. 69-90.
Liang, T.-P. and Turban, E. (2011), “Introduction to the special issue social commerce: a research
framework for social commerce”, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 16 No. 2,
pp. 5-14.
Lin, C.-P. (2011), “Assessing the mediating role of online social capital between social support and
instant messaging usage”, Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, Vol. 10 No. 1,
pp. 105-114.
Lin, N. (2017), “Building a network theory of social Capital”, Social Capital, Routledge, pp. 3-28.
Lin, S., Yang, S., Ma, M. and Turban, E. (2018), “Value co-creation on social media: examining the relationship
between brand engagement and display advertising effectiveness for Chinese hotels”, International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 2153-2174.
Lin, X., Li, Y. and Wang, X. (2017), “Social commerce research: definition, research themes and the
trends”, International Journal of Information Management, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 190-201.
Liu, J., Smeesters, D. and Vohs, K.D. (2011), “Retracted: reminders of money elicit feelings of threat and
reactance in response to social influence”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 38 No. 6,
pp. 1030-1046.
Madjar, N. (2008), “Emotional and informational support from different sources and employee
creativity”, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 81 No. 1, pp. 83-100.
Malhotra, Y. and Galletta, D.F. (1999), “Extending the technology acceptance model to account for
social influence: Theoretical bases and empirical validation”, Proceedings of the 32nd annual HI
international conference on system sciences. IEEE, HI, pp. 1-14.
Meyer, J.P., Stanley, D.J., Herscovitch, L. and Topolnytsky, L., (2002), “Affective, continuance, and
normative commitment to the organization: a Meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates, and
consequences”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 61 No. 1, pp. 20-52.
IJCHM Michaelidou, N., Siamagka, N.T. and Christodoulides, G. (2011), “Usage, barriers and measurement of
social media marketing: an exploratory investigation of small and medium B2B brands”,
32,2 Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 40 No. 7, pp. 1153-1159.
Morris, R.J. and Martin, C.L. (2000), “Beanie babies: a case study in the engineering of a high-involvement/
relationship-prone Brand”, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 78-98.
Nahapiet, J. and Ghoshal, S. (1998), “Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational
advantage”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 242-266.
728 Obst, P. and Stafurik, J. (2010), “Online we are all able bodied: online psychological sense of community
and social support found through membership of disability-specific websites promotes well-
being for people living with a physical disability”, Journal of Community and Applied Social
Psychology, Vol. 20 No. 6, pp. 525-531.
Osatuyi, B. and Qin, H. (2018), “How vital is the role of affect on post-adoption behaviors? An examination of
social commerce users”, International Journal of Information Management, Vol. 40, pp. 175-185.
Ostrow, A. (2010), “Social networking dominates our time spent online”, available at: https://mashable.
com/2010/08/02/stats-time-spent-online/#y5aTPv7b5kqG
Pearce, P.L. and Lee, U.-I. (2005), “Developing the travel career approach to tourist motivation”, Journal
of Travel Research, Vol. 43 No. 3, pp. 226-237.
Podsakoff, P.M., MacKenzie, S.B., Lee, J.-Y. and Podsakoff, N.P. (2003), “Common method biases in
behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies”, Journal of
Applied Psychology, Vol. 88 No. 5, pp. 879-903.
Porter, C.E. and Donthu, N. (2008), “Cultivating trust and harvesting value in virtual communities”,
Management Science, Vol. 54 No. 1, pp. 113-128.
Porterfield, A. (2010), “Study reveals why consumers fan Facebook pages”, available at: www.
socialmediaexaminer.com/study-reveals-why-consumers-fan-facebook-pages/
Postmes, T., Haslam, S.A. and Swaab, R.I. (2005), “Social influence in small groups: an interactive
model of social identity formation”, European Review of Social Psychology, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 1-42.
Preacher, K.J., Rucker, D.D. and Hayes, A.F. (2007), “Addressing moderated mediation hypotheses: theory,
methods, and prescriptions”, Multivariate Behavioral Research, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 185-227.
Sashi, C.M., Brynildsen, G. and Bilgihan, A. (2019), “Social media, customer engagement and advocacy:
an empirical investigation using twitter data for quick service restaurants”, International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 1247-1272.
Seibert, S.E., Kraimer, M.L. and Liden, R.C. (2001), “A social capital theory of career success”, Academy
of Management Journal, Vol. 44 No. 2, pp. 219-237.
Shumaker, S.A. and Brownell, A. (1984), “Toward a theory of social support: closing conceptual gaps”,
Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 40 No. 4, pp. 11-36.
Sigala, M. (2005), “Integrating customer relationship management in hotel operations: managerial and
operational implications”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 391-413.
Sigala, M. (2018), “Implementing social customer relationship management: a process framework and
implications in tourism and hospitality”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management, Vol. 30 No. 7, pp. 2698-2726.
Solomon, M.R. (2011), Consumer Behavior: Buying Having, and Being, Pearson Prentice-Hall Inc, NJ, NJ.
Tajfel, H. (1978), “Social categorization, social identity, and social comparison”, in Tajfel H. (ed)
Differentiation between Social Groups: Studies in the Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations,
Academic Press, London, pp. 61-76.
Tang, J.-H. and Wang, C.-C. (2012), “Self-disclosure among bloggers: re-examination of social penetration
theory”, CyberPsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, Vol. 15 No. 5, pp. 245-250.
Thoits, P.A. (1985), “Social support and psychological well-being: theoretical possibilities”, in Sarason,
I.G. and Sarason, B. (Eds), Social Support: Theory, Research and Applications. The Hague,
Martinus Nijhoff, Netherlands, pp. 51-72.
Uchino, B.N. (2004), Social Support and Physical Health: Understanding the Health Consequences of Role of social
Relationships, Yale University Press.
support
Wang, Y., Hsiao, S.-H., Yang, Z., et al. (2016), “The impact of sellers’ social influence on the co-creation
of innovation with customers and brand awareness in online communities”, Industrial
Marketing Management, Vol. 54, pp. 56-70.
Wang, Y. and Yu, C. (2017), “Social interaction-based consumer decision-making model in social
commerce: the role of word of mouth and observational learning”, International Journal of
Information Management, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 179-189. 729
Wasko, M.M. and Faraj, S. (2005), “Why should I share? Examining social capital and knowledge
contribution in electronic networks of practice”, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 35-57.
Wayne, S.J., Shore, L.M. and Liden, R.C. (1997), “Perceived organizational support and leader-member
exchange: a social exchange perspective”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 40 No. 1,
pp. 82-111.
Wells, J.D., Valacich, J.S. and Hess, T.J. (2011), “What signal are you sending? How website quality influences
perceptions of product quality and purchase intentions”, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 35 No. 2, pp. 373-396.
West, R. and Turner, L.H. (2013), Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application,
McGraw-Hill.
Willemyns, M., Gallois, C., Callan, V.J. and Pittam, J. (1997), “Accent accommodation in the job
interview: impact of interviewer accent and gender”, Journal of Language and Social Psychology,
Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 3-22.
Wills, T.A. (1991), “Social support and interpersonal relationships”, in Clark, M.S. (Ed.), Review of
Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 12. Prosocial Behavior, Sage Publications, Thousand
Oaks, CA, pp. 265-289.
Wong, I.A., McKercher, B. and Li, X. (2016), “East meets west: tourist interest in hybrid culture at
postcolonial destinations”, Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 55 No. 5, pp. 628-642.
Yang, F.X. and Wong, I.A. (2019), “How do cyberspace friendships transition to favorable workplace
outcomes? the self-team joint influence”, International Journal of Hospitality Management.,
Ye, Q., Law, R., Gu, B. and Chen, W. (2011), “The influence of user-generated content on traveler
behavior: an empirical investigation on the effects of e-word-of-mouth to hotel online bookings”,
Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 634-639.
Zafirovski, M. (2005), “Social exchange theory under scrutiny: a positive critique of its economic-
behaviorist formulations”, Electronic Journal of Sociology, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 1-40.
Zeng, F., Huang, L. and Dou, W. (2009), “Social factors in user perceptions and responses to advertising
in online social networking communities”, Journal of Interactive Advertising, Vol. 10 No. 1,
pp. 1-13.
Zhang, K.Z. and Benyoucef, M. (2016), “Consumer behavior in social commerce: a literature review”,
Decision Support Systems, Vol. 86, pp. 95-108.
Zhang, P. and Wang, C. (2012), “The evolution of social commerce: an examination from the people,
business, technology, and information perspective”, Communications of the AIS, Vol. 31 No. 5,
pp. 105-127.

Corresponding author
IpKin Anthony Wong can be contacted at: wongipk@mail.sysu.edu.cn

For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:
www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm
Or contact us for further details: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further
reproduction prohibited without permission.