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The impact of interpersonal Consumers’

purchase
interaction factors on consumers’ intention

purchase intention in social

commerce: a relationship
quality perspective Received 27 June 2022
Revised 15 October 2022
Accepted 3 November 2022
Wangyue Zhou
School of Information Management and Artificial Intelligence,
Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou, China
Jincai Dong
School of Business Administration, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics,
Hangzhou, China, and
Wenyu Zhang
School of Information Management and Artificial Intelligence,
Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou, China

Abstract
Purpose – Interpersonal interaction can influence consumers’ purchase intention in social commerce (s-
commerce). This paper aims to identify interpersonal interaction factors as well as the mediating effect of
relationship quality between interpersonal interaction factors and consumers’ purchase intention in s-
commerce.
Design/methodology/approach – This study explores new dimensions of interpersonal interaction in
s-commerce by integrating interaction between consumers and online vendors and that between consumers
and online recommenders in s-commerce. An online questionnaire was used to collect the data, and partial least
squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed for data analysis.
Findings – The results indicate that interpersonal interaction factors of both online vendors and online
recommenders positively affect swift guanxi and initial trust between consumers and online vendors. Swift
guanxi and initial trust positively affect consumers’ purchase intention. Initial trust partially mediates between
interpersonal interaction factors and purchase intention while swift guanxi does not mediate between
perceived similarity of online recommenders and purchase intention.
Practical implications – The findings can be used to guide vendors in s-commerce platforms to make good
use of platform features to improve interpersonal interaction. Meanwhile, s-commerce platforms should be
enhanced with efficient interaction tools to help cultivate relationship quality between consumers and online
vendors.
Originality/value – This study combines social exchange theory, trust transfer theory and relationship
quality theory to investigate the factors that influence swift guanxi and initial trust between consumers and
online vendors, which extends the study of interpersonal interaction and enriches the dimensions of
relationship quality in the context of s-commerce.
Keywords Social commerce, Interpersonal interaction, Swift guanxi, Initial trust
Paper type Research paper

This research was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (Project No. 20FGLB067).
Compliance with ethical standards
Ethical standard: The authors state that this research complies with ethical standards. This research does
Industrial Management & Data
not involve either human participants or animals. Systems
Conflicts of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of © Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
this article. DOI 10.1108/IMDS-06-2022-0392
IMDS 1. Introduction
Social commerce (s-commerce) is a new development in electronic commerce (e-commerce)
based on interpersonal relationship, which is frequently used by online vendors to
establish consumer interaction to promote commerce, transforming traditional product-
oriented environment to a customer-driven and social-centered one (Baghdadi, 2016; Chen
et al., 2017; Nadeem et al., 2020). For example, in China, the number of the Internet users
has reached 1.032 billion, with the coverage of 73.0% over the whole population by
December, 2021 (CNNIC, 2022). Compared to traditional e-commerce, s-commerce involves
lots of social interaction. How to use the social features of s-commerce to enhance the
relationship between consumers and vendors, and transform social interaction into
trading activities, has attracted extensive attention in the field of academic study as well
as in practice.
Most of the existing literature studies follow the traditional research path of technical
interaction in e-commerce, focusing on the intermediary variables such as experience,
attitude, trust and perceived value and explore the impact of technical interactivity on
purchase intention in s-commerce (Zhao and Lu, 2012; Chen et al., 2017). Curty and Zhang
(2013) identified a total of 174 technical features to serve for transactional, relational and
social emphases in s-commerce. Huang and Benyoucef (2013) proposed a set of principles for
guiding design features, including the individual, conversation, community and commerce
level. Hajli and Sims (2015) assumed that s-commerce constructs could facilitate online
communication between consumers. Though the mechanism of technical interactivity in s-
commerce was clarified by the above literature, the essence of s-commerce, that is, relational
transaction based on social interaction, was not explored.
With the prevalence of s-commerce, consumers are more and more connected in online
community, sharing and exchanging shopping-related information. Some scholars have
moved towards the research path of social orientation, such as e-word-of-mouth and
interactive communication, and proved that social interaction would improve purchase
intention in s-commerce (Shen et al., 2010; Wang and Yu, 2017; Cui et al., 2022). Prior
studies have mainly focused on interpersonal interaction of online community members,
especially online recommenders, on consumers’ decision-making from the intermediaries
of social influence (Shen et al., 2010), perceived shopping values (Hu et al., 2016) and flow
experience (Liu et al., 2016). For example, Hu et al. (2016) consider interpersonal interaction
factors such as perceived expertise, similarity and benevolence to study consumers’
purchase intention. Fu et al. (2020) found that perceived familiarity, closeness, similarity
and expertise of social media members affected online social shopping intention. However,
most of these studies only discuss the interaction between consumers and online
recommenders, i.e. other consumers who give advice and suggestions, ignoring the
interaction between consumers and online vendors, which is basically a very important
part of s-commerce.
In s-commerce context, online vendors not only just adopt the traditional e-commerce way
of selling products by designing tools to improve the interactivity of website but also interact
with consumers directly via message boxes, videos and other media. Consumers’
interpersonal interaction with online vendors ranges from the machine reply to specific
product and service-related question solutions. However, many studies concerning the
interaction between consumers and online vendors in s-commerce focus on website
interactivity (Zhang et al., 2014; Lin et al., 2019). Some studies try to discuss the interpersonal
interaction between consumers and vendors, focusing on the features of vendors by
expertise, similarity and likeability (Zhang and Gupta, 2018; Chen et al., 2022). All these
interpersonal interaction factors are similar to the studies in social community member
interaction. As the interaction between consumers and vendors focus on immediate sales and
features transactional emphasis while that between consumers and online recommenders
features social emphasis (Curty and Zhang, 2013), the interaction factors should be different, Consumers’
which gives rise to a research gap for this study. As consumers value adequate information purchase
and high-quality service from online vendors in the purchase process (Ahn et al., 2004; Song
and Zinkhan, 2008; Alalwan, 2018), perceived informativeness and perceived responsibility
intention
will be adopted as interpersonal interaction factors between consumers and online vendors in
s-commerce.
Additionally, considering relationship quality (Athanasopoulou, 2009) explains well the
mechanism of social interaction on consumers’ purchase intention, some studies have
regarded trust, satisfaction and commitments as dimensions of relationship quality (Crosby
et al., 1990; Liang et al., 2011; Hajli, 2014) and focus on the long-term relationship quality,
which is always status- and resource-dependent. The other studies focusing on swift guanxi
as the quickly formed relationship between buyers and sellers help promote buyers’ purchase
decision (Ou et al., 2014; Lin et al., 2018). However, few studies have explored the relationship
quality in the initial transaction process in s-commerce.
Given above research gaps and the significance of social interaction, in particular,
relationship quality, in s-commerce, an integrative perspective is explored to study the
different factors of interpersonal interaction and the mechanism that will enhance
consumers’ purchase intention. Social exchange theory can explain interpersonal
interaction between consumers and vendors as well as that between consumers and
online recommenders as it is applicable for both nonmonetary information exchange and
monetary exchange. Meanwhile, trust transfer theory can help explain why trust from
interpersonal interaction between social media members can be transferred to the initial
trust between consumers and vendors in s-commerce. Therefore, interpersonal interaction
factors between consumers and online vendors, perceived informativeness and perceived
responsiveness, and that between consumers and online recommenders, perceived
expertise and perceived similarity, are taken into account in this study. As this study is
conducted in China, a country where guanxi, a close and pervasive interpersonal
relationship, is considered to be a very important element in business transactions, swift
guanxi and initial trust (Ou et al., 2014; Lin et al., 2018) are employed as important
dimensions to measure the relationship quality between consumers and vendors in the
initial transaction process. Further, the mediating effect of relationship quality on the
relationship between interpersonal interaction factors and purchase intention is explored
in this study.
In summary, the purpose of this study is to identify the antecedents of consumers’
purchase intention in s-commerce by integrating interpersonal interaction factors and
relationship quality. Therefore, this study aims to address the following questions:
(1) What are the interpersonal interaction factors that affect the relationship quality
between consumers and vendors in s-commerce?
(2) What is the effect of relationship quality on consumers’ purchase intention?
(3) Do swift guanxi and initial trust mediate between interpersonal interaction factors
and purchase intention?
The contributions of the study are as follows. First, this study explores interpersonal
interaction factors from the aspects of social interaction, which shed light on the importance
of human interaction rather than pure technical interaction. Second, this study gives new
dimensions of interpersonal interaction in s-commerce by integrating interpersonal
interaction factors between consumers and online vendors and that between consumers
and online recommenders. Third, this study explores relationship quality between consumers
and vendors represented by swift guanxi and initial trust, which extends the relationship
IMDS marketing study in s-commerce. Finally, this study explores the mechanism of how
interpersonal interaction factors impact consumers’ purchase intention by integrating social
exchange theory, trust transfer theory and relationship quality theory, which enriches the
current theoretical study in s-commerce.

2. Literature review and theoretical background

2.1 S-commerce
S-commerce, a new stream in e-commerce, involves the delivery of business and commercial
activities in online social environment (Baghdadi, 2016). Different from conventional
e-commerce, consumers on s-commerce sites bond together in the form of social groups and
make purchase decision based on the social sharing information, recommendations,
comments, ratings, etc (Hajli and Sims, 2015). Social interaction is a vital feature of
s-commerce (Huang and Benyoucef, 2013). Many consumers nowadays interact with group
members on s-commerce sites and seek online recommenders’ opinions and feedbacks of
certain products before making purchase decisions (Chen et al., 2017).
Social factors, such as word of mouth, customer reviews, social support, social media
website characteristics, social interaction, etc. have been emphasized in prior research. Wang
and Yu (2017) reported that electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and observational learning
have a positive effect on consumer purchase intention. Liang et al. (2011) found that social
support from online connections may lead to customers’ active participation in s-commerce
interactions. Lin et al. (2019) pointed out the interactivity, stickiness and word of mouth can
affect consumers’ purchase intention in s-commerce through the mediating effect of three
dimensions in swift guanxi: mutual understanding, reciprocal favors and relationship
harmony. Cheng et al. (2020) contended that familiarity, interpersonal similarity, interactivity
and personal information are four antecedents of swift guanxi between members in s-
commerce communities, which is crucial to promoting social word-of-mouth (sWOM)
adoption behavior.

2.2 Interpersonal interaction

Interpersonal interaction has received much attention in s-commerce for providing
opportunities for consumers to make better purchase decisions (Ng, 2013). Extant studies
have pointed out that interpersonal interaction among members are important factors
affecting members’ WOM behavior and purchase behavior in s-commerce (Liu et al., 2016;
Cheng et al., 2019).
Interpersonal interaction has been discussed widely from dimensions such as perceived
similarity, expertise, familiarity and closeness (Shen et al., 2010; Hu et al., 2016; Cheng et al.,
2019). For example, Shen et al. (2010) demonstrated that perceived similarity, familiarity
and expertise positively impacted an individual’s loyalty toward virtual community.
Naylor et al. (2012) revealed that perceived similarity among Facebook members had a
significant influence on consumers’ brand evaluation as well as purchase intention. Fu
et al. (2019) reported that both external similarity and internal similarity between
consumers affected consumers’ parasocial interaction relationship forming and trust
transfer, which in turn significantly had a significant impact on consumers’ s-commerce
behaviors. Hu et al. (2016) emphasized similarity, expertise and benevolence to be peer
features that would affect consumers’ social shopping intention. These factors provide
cues for online consumers to get valuable information, contributing to the decision-making
(Fu et al., 2018).
However, existing studies in s-commerce have not involved the interpersonal interaction
between consumers and online vendors. As s-commerce involves interaction with both online
vendors and online recommenders, an integrated study of interpersonal interaction factors is Consumers’
necessary. Therefore, this study will integrate both the features of online vendors and that of purchase
online recommenders as interpersonal interaction factors.
intention
2.3 Relationship quality theory
Relationship quality, a symbol of the relationship strength, is the invisible bond between
customers and enterprises (Palmatier et al., 2006; Casidy and Nyadzayo, 2019) and is very
important for attracting, developing and retaining users (Nadeem et al., 2020). Prior studies
have shown that the relationship quality between consumers and companies can lead to
positive market performance, repurchase behavior and customer loyalty (Palmatier et al.,
2006; Athanasopoulou, 2009). Studies in information system research have also proved that
relationship quality had a positive effect on purchase and repurchase intentions in online
shopping (Liang et al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2011; Hajli, 2014).
Relationship quality was mostly conceptualized and operationalized as a
multidimensional construct, consisting of satisfaction, trust and commitment (Crosby
et al., 1990; Hennig-Thurau and Klee, 1997). In traditional market, Sanchez-Franco et al.
(2009) investigated the effect relationship quality between customers and service
providers on loyalty, focusing on trust and commitment. In s-commerce, scholars
explored the impact of social factors on relationship quality, focusing on trust, satisfaction
and commitment (Hajli, 2014; Liang et al., 2011). Relationship quality has mainly been
studied as the mechanism for the relationship of social support and website quality on s-
commerce intention and continuance intention (Liang et al., 2011). Both these traditional
off-line and s-commerce studies regard relationship quality as a long-term relationship for
customer retention.
As online relationship differs from traditional relationship in that it is based on weak
relationship, which is not resource reliable and status-dependent, swift guanxi and trust can
help facilitate the smooth transaction between consumers and vendors (Ou et al., 2014). Lin
et al. (2018) demonstrated that swift guanxi and trust were two key elements of relationship
quality in the context of Chinese s-commerce. Fan et al. (2019) also proved that swift guanxi
and trust had played an important role in repurchase intention and social sharing intention in
s-commerce.
Though relationship quality is of great significance in retaining customers, it is also
important to build relationship with new consumers in the initial transaction. However, the
relationship quality in this stage has not been well studied in the previous research. Hence, the
concept of relationship quality could be extended in the initial transaction in s-commerce, and
the mechanism for interpersonal interaction factors on purchase intention should be further
explored.

2.4 Social exchange theory

Social exchange theory regards interpersonal interaction as a process in which all
participants exchange valuable resources through some activities. Individuals regard
online interaction as a way to obtain benefits from exchange and sharing (Hsu and Lin,
2008). The adoption of social exchange theory for this s-commerce study is based on the
belief that the roots of marketing are intrinsically found in social exchange theory
(Bagozzi, 1975). S-commerce is based on the social interaction between s-commerce
members, which is considered a process of social exchange. People usually share
information on s-commerce community in exchange for recognition or social support they
expect from their exchange partners (Szymczak et al., 2016) and to form harmonious
relationship between consumers and vendors, which will help with the sustainable
development of s-commerce.
IMDS Previous studies have explored the application of social exchange theory in online
shopping. Chou and Hsu (2016) combined social exchange theory and information systems
(IS) use theory to explore the effect of perceived benefit and investment on consumers’
repurchase intention using shopping habit as the moderator, in which social exchange theory
is characterized by emotional evaluation (i.e. satisfaction with outcome and process quality)
and rational evaluation (i.e. trust and learning). Urbonavicius et al. (2021) reported that
involvement in social media significantly affected consumers’ willingness to disclose
personal data because of reciprocal exchange relations between social media members.
Toth et al. (2022) investigated the role of eWOM in business exchanges through buyers’
signaling of observable and unobservable supplier characteristics on the Alibaba
e-commerce platform and proved that bonding, the development of mutuality as well as
relationship intimacy in buyer–supplier relationships can be formed without in-person
contact. These studies show that social exchange in online shopping can help facilitate
relationship quality between consumers and vendors.
Social exchange theory views exchange as a social behavior that may result in both
economic and social outcomes (Lambe et al., 2001). In this study, two processes of social
exchange exist between consumers and online vendors and consumers and online
recommenders in s-commerce. In terms of the social exchange between consumers and
online vendors, positive exchange interactions to get adequate information and high-quality
service from online vendors can enhance their relationship quality. In exchange for the social
help, consumers reward by economic outcomes, such as buying products from online
vendors. In terms of social exchange between consumers and online recommenders,
consumers will be benefited by the expertise of online recommenders and similar taste they
share. Social outcomes such as trust and social recognition will arise. To reward for the
helpful advice from online recommenders, consumers tend to form good relationship with
recommended vendors and consequently buy products from the online vendors they
recommend.

2.5 Trust transfer theory

According to trust transfer theory, trust transfer occurs when the “the unknown target is
perceived as related to the source of the transferred trust” (Stewart, 2003). Trust transfer
can be achieved through cognitive and communication process (Stewart, 2003). The
cognitive process of trust transfer is based on an understanding of the relationship between
the trustee and the trusted third party. For example, third-party information brokers can
transfer consumer trust to sellers by providing certificates and payment guarantees (Bai
et al., 2015). The communication process of trust transfer shows that trust can be
transferred through communication and interaction (Kuan and Bock, 2007). For example,
trust in a social network community may be transferred from trust among its members
(Ng, 2013).
In s-commerce context, social community members communicate and interact with each other
by sharing information concerning products and related vendors; consumers’ trust in those
members could be transferred to initial trust in relevant vendors. Trust transfer theory can
explain why interpersonal interaction factors of online recommenders can lead to consumers’
initial trust in online sellers and form swift guanxi with online vendors in s-commerce.

3. Research model and hypothesis development

3.1 Research model
This study will take interpersonal interaction factors into consideration and integrate both
the features of online vendors as well as that of online recommenders. The interpersonal
interaction between consumers and online vendors is more market-driven while that Consumers’
between consumers and online vendors is more social-driven. For example, consumers purchase
would interact with online vendors about the products and services they could provide in
order to make purchase decision, while consumers usually interact with online
intention
recommenders to seek advice so as to facilitate their buying. Interpersonal interaction
factors vary because of the different nature of interaction. Inspired by the online features of
Internet shopping malls (Ahn et al., 2004), this study finds that information quality and
service quality to be very important features for user acceptance of online websites, so they
can be regarded as features for online vendors providing products and services for
consumers. To emphasize the consumers’ subjective evaluation of various types of
information presented by online vendors, this study applies the concept of perceived
informativeness (Alalwan, 2018) to refer to the information quality online vendors present
with s-commerce tools when interacting with consumers. Inspired by Song and Zinkhan
(2008)’s social interaction perspective, this study uses the concept of perceived
responsiveness to show the service quality online vendors could provide for consumers,
emphasizing the successful communication between consumers and vendors in online
market. Existing studies have discussed interpersonal interaction factors of social
community members such as perceived expertise, similarity, closeness and familiarity. As
most studies concerning interpersonal interaction factors focus on perceived expertise and
perceived similarity, this study adopts perceived similarity and perceived expertise as the
two interpersonal interaction factors of online recommenders in s-commerce (Shen et al.,
2010; Hu et al., 2016). Therefore, in this study, interpersonal interaction factors in s-
commerce include perceived informativeness and perceived responsiveness of online
vendors, perceived expertise and perceived similarity of online recommenders.
To explore the mechanism of interpersonal interaction factors on purchase intention,
inspired by Ou et al. (2014) and Lin et al. (2018), this study regards swift guanxi and initial
trust as two key dimensions of relationship quality in the context of initial transaction
between consumers and online vendors.
Figure 1 gives the proposed research model. To understand the relationships among
interpersonal interaction factors, relationship quality and purchase intention, this study
proposed and tested several hypotheses.

3.2 Hypothesis development

3.2.1 The effect of relationship quality on purchase intention. Purchase intention in
s-commerce refers to consumers’ willingness to purchase from online vendors. Intention is
the decisive factor for behavior, so it is always considered people’s willingness to conduct
some behaviors (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1977). As vendors and consumers are unfamiliar with
each other, product uncertainty (Dimoka et al., 2012) and transaction risks (Pavlou and Gefen,
2004) are major problems consumers face in online market. No matter in online or offline
shopping, people like to build individual guanxi in the transaction (Ambler et al., 1999; Jiang
et al., 2016). Swift guanxi, a quickly formed guanxi between online consumers and vendors,
plays an important role in diminishing the uncertainty and risks with its three dimensions –
mutual understanding, reciprocal favors and relationship harmony (Ou et al., 2014). Swift
guanxi between consumers and vendors helps with consumers’ purchase intention (Lin et al.,
2018). If consumers can perceive mutual understanding, reciprocal favors and relationship
harmony with online vendors in their first purchase, they tend to make purchase from the
online vendor. Thus, the following hypothesis is developed:
H1. Swift guanxi between consumers and online vendors has a positive effect on
consumers’ purchase intention.
IMDS Interpersonal interaction
with online vendors

Perceived
informativeness
H3a Relationship quality
Perceived
responsiveness H4a
Swift guanxi
H3 H1
b
H4 Purchase
b
Interpersonal interaction a intention
with online H5
6 a
recommenders H H2
Perceived Initial trust
expertise H5b
H6b
Perceived
Figure 1. similarity 1st order constructs
Research model
2nd order construct

This study focuses on the first transaction between consumers and online vendors, so initial
trust between consumers and online vendors is explored. In online market, trust will lead to
purchase intention, repurchase intention and actual purchase behavior (Gefen and Straub,
2004; Tajvidi et al., 2020). S-commerce is still in its infancy stage and needs lots of
improvement in its supervision, thus establishing trust between consumers and online
vendors is essential. Initial trust includes ability trust, benevolence trust and integrity trust.
Ability trust refers to consumers’ confidence in the ability of online vendors in presenting
high-quality products and services. Benevolence trust refers to consumers’ perception that
online vendors show concern over their benefits. If consumers believe that online vendors will
try their best to provide them with fit products, their purchase intention will be enhanced.
Integrity trust shows that consumers would choose online vendors who are honest. Once
consumers feel that the online vendors are honest, the risks in online shopping will be
decreased, and they would expect a satisfying transaction. Following earlier findings of a
positive relationship between trust and purchase intention (Doney and Cannon, 1997; Kim
et al., 2008; Stouthuysen et al., 2018), the following hypothesis is developed:
H2. Initial trust between consumers and online vendors has a positive effect on
consumers’ purchase intention.
3.2.2 The effect of interpersonal interaction with online vendors on relationship quality. Factors
of interpersonal interaction with online vendors in s-commerce include perceived
informativeness and perceived responsiveness. Informativeness was first articulated by
Rotzoll and Haefner (1990) as the extent to which a firm can provide adequate information so
as to help customers’ better purchasing decisions. The construct is closely related with the
senders’ ability to rationally attract the customer’s response as it empowers customers to
cognitively assess the adoption of information and messages provided (Lee and Hong, 2016).
In this paper, perceived informativeness of online vendors refers to extent to which online
vendors can provide adequate information for consumers in the interaction so as to help with
consumers’ purchase decision. The most commonly used items for assessing the adequacy of
information are accuracy, currency, completeness, timeliness and understandability, which Consumers’
could increase the intrinsic and extrinsic beliefs of consumers in online shopping (Ahn et al., purchase
2004). The contents for interaction between consumers and vendors range from basic product
information, payment methods and the logistics to consumers’ personalized needs. High-
intention
quality interaction between consumers and online vendors can enhance their relationship
(Ou et al., 2014). Perceived informativeness can form mutual understanding between
consumers and online vendors. Meanwhile, vendors can also provide some discounts or
recommend suitable products to consumers, which in turn stimulates consumers’ purchase
intention or gets positive reviews after the purchase, achieving reciprocity. Perceived
informativeness can also lead to relationship harmony between consumers and vendors.
Perceived informativeness affects consumers’ initial trust towards the vendors as
vendors’ information exchange and social interaction with consumers help with the
formation of trust (Doney and Cannon, 1997). Trust can replace some cooperation mechanism
to reduce uncertainty or opportunistic risks and enhance efficiency in transaction (Gefen and
Straub, 2004). Owing to product homogeneity and low switching cost in online shopping,
consumers can switch from one vendor to another very conveniently. Establishing
consumers’ initial trust is of great importance in s-commerce. When consumers first visit
the online vendor’s website, apart from the existed information on the website, interpersonal
interaction between consumers and vendors is essential for building initial trust. On the one
hand, online vendors can display their knowledge about products by interaction, thus
improve consumers’ trust in their ability. On the other hand, the given information can
overcome the asymmetry of information so that online vendors can get benevolence trust. In
addition, online vendors will give consumers guarantees to show their integrity. Prior
research has shown that interactivity could enhance consumers’ initial trust (Zhang
et al., 2019).
Thus, the following hypotheses are developed:
H3a. Perceived informativeness of online vendors has a positive effect on swift guanxi
between consumers and online vendors.
H3b. Perceived informativeness of online vendors has a positive effect on initial trust
between consumers and online vendors.
Perceived responsiveness of online vendors refers to the immediacy of online vendors’
response to the inquiry of consumers, the quickness in solving consumers’ problems as
well as the improvement of consumers’ efficiency in purchasing. Consumers will perceive
increased interactivity in a medium where vendors can quickly respond to their requests
(Song and Zinkhan, 2008). When consumers perceived the responsiveness from online
vendors, they would sense the equality in social interaction because the time they spent in
the interaction process had been compensated (Zhao and Lu, 2012). The more response
consumers get in the interaction, the better their shopping experience. Therefore,
perceived responsiveness can enhance the strength of social interaction and make
consumers and vendors achieve mutual understanding. At the same time, relationship
harmony can easily arise when vendors show quick response in replying to consumers’
inquiries. Perceived responsiveness can also arouse consumers’ sense of gratitude to
reciprocate vendors by enhancing their purchase behavior or give good comments after
the purchase.
Gupta et al. (2009) pointed out that online interaction between consumers and vendors was
the most important source of initial trust as it could show the efficiency of vendors’ solving
problems. The immediacy of vendors’ response and the polite attitude shown in the process of
quick response will improve consumers’ trust of the vendors’ benevolence. Vendors’ giving
special guarantees about the products will also increase consumers’ trust of the vendors’
IMDS integrity. Morgan and Hunt (1994) have proved that the trustor and trustee’s frequent
interaction would lead to trust between them.
Consequently, the following hypotheses are developed:
H4a. Perceived responsiveness of online vendors has a positive effect on swift guanxi
between consumers and online vendors.
H4b. Perceived responsiveness of online vendors has a positive effect on initial trust
between consumers and online vendors.
3.2.3 The effect of interpersonal interaction with online recommenders on relationship quality.
Interpersonal interaction with online recommenders in s-commerce can be reflected by factors
of perceived expertise and perceived similarity. Perceived expertise of online recommenders
refers to the ability of consumers who give recommendation after purchase according to their
knowledge and experience. Though vendors’ expertise about a certain product has always
been helpful for successful transaction (Leung et al., 2005; Shen et al., 2010), the expertise of
online recommenders can be more persuasive and effective than vendors in that they do not
represent the vendors’ interest and can easily win the trust from other consumers. The
interaction between consumers and online recommenders can help with consumers’
perception of product quality and product fitness, which quickens the process of mutual
understanding between consumers and vendors (Yadav and Pavlou, 2014). Thus, it would be
easier for vendors to build harmonious relationship with consumers and achieve the
reciprocal favors in the social exchange process.
Perceived expertise is also considered the basis for trust (Shen et al., 2010). In online market,
perceived expertise of online recommenders could reduce consumers’ perceived risk and
enhance the trust (Bansal and Voyer, 2000). Zhang et al. (2011) pointed out that perceived
expertise would significantly affect consumers’ trust. According to trust transfer theory, trust
toward a person or an organization could be transferred to some other strangers or
organizations (Shi et al., 2013). In s-commerce platform, people rely on expert sources in the
evaluation of the quality and performance of both products and services (Filieri et al., 2018).
Recommenders’ expertise of product knowledge can easily arouse potential consumers’ trust,
which in turn could be transferred to the ability trust and integrity trust of online vendors they
recommended. Online recommenders’ enthusiasm in sharing the purchase experience to some
extent signifies online vendors’ benevolence for caring much about consumers’ interest.
Previous studies have also demonstrated that the social media influencers’ expertise can lead to
the followers’ relational trust, leading to desirable marketing outcomes (Kim and Kim, 2021).
Thus, the following hypotheses are developed:
H5a. Perceived expertise of online recommenders has a positive effect on swift guanxi
between consumers and online vendors.
H5b. Perceived expertise of online recommenders has a positive effect on initial trust
between consumers and online vendors.
Perceived similarity of online recommenders refers to the similarity between consumers and
online recommenders in demographic or mental characteristics (Smith et al., 2005). The
similarity in demographic can be reflected in age, gender, etc., while that in mental
characteristics is embodied in the life style and personality traits. This study discusses the
similarity between consumers and online recommenders in interest, taste, style, etc.
Similarity between consumers will intensify their affective bonds and strengthen their
relationship tie (Hu et al., 2016). Similarity attraction theory has shown that people would be
attracted by others who are similar to themselves and love to establish relationship with
similar others (Shen et al., 2019). Similarity between consumers intensifies their affective
bonds and helps compensate for the ambiguity of the information sources in a virtual
environment (Smith et al., 2005). A s-commerce survey showed that 73% of shoppers agreed Consumers’
that “people like me” were the most trusted sources for advice seeking (Marsden, 2009), purchase
consumers will also be easy to understand and have smooth interaction with these vendors
whom similar others recommend, leading to the relationship harmony and reciprocal favors
intention
between consumers and vendors.
Perceived similarity also has a significant impact on online trust building process (Cheng
et al., 2019). In virtual community environment, perceived similarity positively influences
trust in other members in the community (Lu et al., 2010). And in online market, similarity is
considered as the recommender-related signal to determine consumers’ affective trust in
vendors (Cheng et al., 2019). As such, consumers’ trust toward online recommenders’ opinions
because of sameness in preference or taste can be shifted to the initial trust toward the
vendors they recommend (Chu and Kim, 2011).
Therefore, the following hypotheses are developed:
H6a. Perceived similarity of online recommenders has a positive effect on swift guanxi
between consumers and online vendors.
H6b. Perceived similarity of online recommenders has a positive effect on initial trust
between consumers and online vendors.

4. Research methodology
4.1 Measurement development
With the data collected, this study used the partial least squares structural equation modeling
(PLS 3.0) to test the proposed research model. PLS is a component-based structural equation
modeling technique, which is suitable for estimating complex casual models and addressing
statistical identification and convergence problems with formative constructs (Ringle et al.,
2012). As this study concerns formative second-order constructs swift guanxi and initial
trust, PLS is a good choice (Ou et al., 2014). In this study, Smart PLS 3.0 was used to perform
the analysis, and the results are reported in the following section. The measurements for each
construct were adopted from prior studies but were modified for the context of this study. For
all measurements, a seven-point Likert-type scale was employed, ranging from “strongly
disagree” to “strongly agree.”

4.2 Data collection

The questionnaire adopts the random sampling technique, which can provide every
s-commerce consumer with the same probability in participating in the survey so as to
improve the generalizability of the findings. Our questionnaire is based on a pretest.
Consumers who have bought products from the s-commerce platforms were investigated,
including traditional e-commerce websites with social interaction tools such as Taobao,
Tianmao, JD and s-commerce platforms, like Wechat, Xiao Hongshu, etc. Data were collected
based on consumers’ recalling their interaction experience with online vendors and
recommenders in their first purchase from a new vendor and the measurement items were
shown in Appendix. Wenjuanxing [1], a very popular and professional online data collection
website in China, was used to collect the data. The questionnaire was collected from
December 8 to December 27, 2021, and a total of 482 responses were collected; of which, 39
responses were invalid, and 443 responses were valid.

4.3 Respondents’ demographic characteristics

Respondents’ demographic characteristics are shown in Table 1. A total of 443 valid
responses were collected. Male respondents represented 39.30%, and female accounted for
IMDS
Sample characteristics Category Count Percentage

Gender Male 174 39.30

Female 269 60.70
Age 18–25 160 36.10
26–30 100 22.60
31–40 131 29.60
41 and above 52 8.60
Education High school or below 31 7.00
University or college 331 74.70
Graduate school or higher 81 18.30
Duration of using s-commerce platforms <1 year 20 4.50
Table 1. 1–2 years 44 9.90
Demographic 2–3 years 59 13.30
characteristics 3–4 years 70 15.80
(N 5 443) >4 years 250 56.40

60.70% of the total samples. The majority of the respondents was 18–40 years old (91.40%).
With respect to their education, 93% of them were above college. In terms of duration of using
s-commerce platforms, the majority of them used s-commerce for shopping for more than
four years (56.40%), and almost all of the respondents had experience in using s-commerce
platforms for more than one year (91.10%). The sample distribution is consistent with the
data from the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC, 2022).

4.4 The measurement model

To ensure that the measurements in this study are valid and reliable, the confirmatory factor
analysis is given, following the recommendations of Hair et al. (2014) and Wu and Chuang
(2010). First, the indicator reliability of the data was assessed by checking indicators’ factor
loadings (Hair et al., 2014). Table 2 shows that all factor loadings exceed the required value

Constructs Items Factor loading Cronbach’s α AVE CR

Perceived informativeness (PI) PI1 0.773 0.834 0.601 0.883

PI2 0.785
PI3 0.762
PI4 0.783
PI5 0.772
Perceived responsiveness (PR) PR1 0.813 0.83 0.663 0.887
PR2 0.812
PR3 0.843
PR4 0.788
Perceived expertise (PE) PE1 0.807 0.804 0.629 0.871
PE2 0.79
PE3 0.787
PE4 0.788
Perceived similarity (PS) PS1 0.874 0.81 0.725 0.888
PS2 0.834
Table 2. PS3 0.845
Results of Purchase intention (PUI) PUI1 0.846 0.798 0.712 0.881
confirmatory factor PUI2 0.848
analysis PUI3 0.837
0.7. The Cronbach’s alpha for each factor ranged from 0.798 to 0.834, far exceeding the Consumers’
required value 0.7 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The values of composite reliability ranged purchase
from 0.871 to 0.888, which exceed 0.7, indicating high reliability of the data. The average
value extracted (AVE) values of all constructs, ranging from 0.601 to 0.725, exceeded 0.5 and
intention
confirmed the convergent validity (Wu and Chuang, 2010).
Table 3 shows that a construct’s correlations with other constructs are all smaller than the
construct’s AVE square root (Fornell and Larcker, 1981), confirming the discriminant
validity.

4.5 Common method bias

As the data are self-reported, there is possibility of common method bias (Chin et al., 2012).
Several methods have been proposed for testing common method bias (Harman, 1976;
Podsakoff et al., 2003). Two methods were used to test common method bias in this study.
First, Harman’s single-factor test was used on the complete dataset (Harman, 1976). The
results confirmed that no single factor was able to emerge alongside the single factor
accounting for 41.77% of the variance, which was below the 50% threshold as recommended
by Podsakoff et al. (2003). Second, the method by Liang et al. (2007) was adopted. A common
method factor with the indicators of all principal constructs was added in the partial least
squares model, which calculated every indicator’s variance explained by the substantive
constructs and the method factor. The results in Table 4 showed that the majority of the
method factor loadings were insignificant. The indicators’ substantive variances were
greater than that of the method variances. Thus, common method bias in this study is
acceptable.

4.6 Multicollinearity
High collinearity between constructs should be avoided for it may lead to an exaggerated
estimation of path coefficients (Henseler et al., 2016). The variance inflation factor (VIF)
values between the constructs are used to measure the level of collinearity. To verify the
validity of the formative second-order constructs, the VIF value of all formative constructs
was examined, which ranged from 1.616 to 2.485, all below 3.3, showing that it was unlikely to
have the issue of collinearity (Hair et al., 2014). All weights for formative measures are
significant at the p < 0.05 level (Table 5).

4.7 Assessment of the structural model

After the measurement model was examined, Smart PLS 3.0 was used to test the structural
model. The significance and relevance of structural model relationships and the variance
explained were assessed. Figure 2 shows the assessment results of research model. From
Figure 2, it was found that swift guanxi (β 5 0.199, p < 0.05) and initial trust (β 5 0.312,
p < 0.01) significantly affected purchase intention, explaining 0.583 of its variance; thus, H1
and H2 are supported. Furthermore, interpersonal interaction factors of online vendors and
online recommenders could not be neglected in the s-commerce transaction. As predicted,
perceived informativeness (β 5 0.316; p < 0.001), perceived responsiveness (β 5 0.242;
p < 0.001), perceived expertise (β 5 0.201; p < 0.01) and perceived similarity (β 5 0.189;
p < 0.001) significantly enhanced swift guanxi, with a total of variance explained of 0.550.
Thus, H3a, H4a, H5a and H6a are supported. Initial trust was predicted by perceived
informativeness (β 5 0.333; p < 0.001), perceived responsiveness (β 5 0.251; p < 0.001),
perceived expertise (β 5 0.142; p < 0.01) and perceived similarity (β 5 0.161; p < 0.001), with a
total of variance explained of 0.593. Thus, H3b, H4b, H5b and H6b are supported. Table 6
summarizes the results of hypothesis testing.
 IMDS

Table 3.
Results on
discriminant validity
Constructs PI PR PE PS SG MU RF RH IT AT BT INT PUI
Perceived informativeness (PI) 0.775
Perceived responsiveness (PR) 0.665 0.814
Perceived expertise (PE) 0.531 0.464 0.793
Perceived similarity (PS) 0.571 0.522 0.617 0.848
Swift guanxi (SG) 0.664 0.619 0.565 0.58 *
Mutual understanding (MU) 0.652 0.606 0.523 0.523 0.931 0.789
Reciprocal Favors (RF) 0.437 0.417 0.559 0.447 0.807 0.61 0.795
Relationship harmony (RH) 0.582 0.539 0.405 0.481 0.835 0.717 0.503 0.819
Initial trust (IT) 0.692 0.643 0.578 0.599 0.831 0.799 0.628 0.719 *
Ability trust (AT) 0.68 0.594 0.531 0.555 0.723 0.713 0.495 0.638 0.892 0.814
Benevolence trust (BT) 0.481 0.509 0.505 0.466 0.714 0.66 0.618 0.555 0.824 0.589 0.841
Integrity trust (INT) 0.615 0.592 0.499 0.519 0.782 0.741 0.575 0.695 0.929 0.738 0.684 0.84
Purchase intention (PUI) 0.633 0.604 0.505 0.569 0.692 0.64 0.535 0.608 0.719 0.657 0.586 0.658 0.844
Note(s): * marks the second-order constructs, and the second-order construct’s corresponding first-order constructs are shaded in grey
Construct Items Substantive factor loading (R1) R12 Method factor loading (R2) R22
Consumers’
purchase
PI PI1 0.775*** 0.601 0.052 0.003 intention
PI2 0.783*** 0.613 0.001 0
PI3 0.758*** 0.575 0.078 0.006
PI4 0.786*** 0.618 0.071 0.005
PI5 0.772*** 0.596 0.046 0.002
PR PR1 0.802*** 0.643 0.124** 0.015
PR2 0.818*** 0.669 0.058 0.003
PR3 0.849*** 0.721 0.116** 0.013
PR4 0.787*** 0.619 0.052 0.003
PE PE1 0.805*** 0.648 0.002 0
PE2 0.8*** 0.64 0.082 0.007
PE3 0.777*** 0.604 0.107* 0.011
PE4 0.79*** 0.624 0.024 0.001
PS PS1 0.874*** 0.764 0.012 0
PS2 0.829*** 0.687 0.068 0.005
PS3 0.85*** 0.723 0.055 0.003
SG MU 0.91*** 0.828 0.156*** 0.024
RF 0.805*** 0.648 0.191*** 0.036
RH 0.865*** 0.748 0.01 0
IT AT 0.882*** 0.778 0.176*** 0.031
BT 0.85*** 0.723 0.179*** 0.032
INT 0.918*** 0.843 0.01 0
PUI PUI1 0.835*** 0.697 0.142*** 0.02
PUI2 0.853*** 0.728 0.066 0.004
PUI3 0.843*** 0.711 0.076 0.006 Table 4.
Average value 0.691 0.008 Common method
Note(s): *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001 analysis with PLS

Second-order construct First-order construct VIF T value Outer weights

Swift guanxi (SG) MU 2.485 8.467 0.546

RF 1.616 4.584 0.257
RH 2.088 5.044 0.337
Initial trust (IT) AT 2.264 9.405 0.542 Table 5.
BT 1.935 4.558 0.238 VIF, T value and outer
INT 2.777 5.036 0.339 weights of formative
Note(s): p < 0.05 constructs

4.8 Assessment of mediating effects

Following Baron and Kenney (1986), the mediation effect of swift guanxi and initial trust was
tested. In addition, the values of the variance accounted for (VAF) introduced by Shrout and
Bolger (2002) was calculated to determine whether the mediation was full, partial or none.
The results are shown in Table 7. First, swift guanxi significantly mediated the
relationship between perceived informativeness of online vendors, perceived responsiveness
of online vendors, perceived expertise of online recommenders and purchase intention
(partial mediation: the direct and total effects were significant; VAF 5 0.326, VAF 5 0.259
and VAF 5 0.642, respectively). The effect of perceived similarity on swift guanxi appeared
to be insignificant (the indirect effect was insignificant; p > 0.05), and VAF value was lower
than 0.2 (VAF 5 0.195). Therefore, swift guanxi did not mediate between perceived similarity
IMDS Interpersonal interaction
with online vendors

Perceived
informativeness

Relationship quality
Perceived
responsiveness Swift guanxi
(R 2 = 0.550)

Purchase
intention
Interpersonal interaction (R 2 = 0.583)
with online
recommenders Initial trust
(R 2 = 0.593)
Perceived
expertise
Figure 2. 1st order constructs
Results of Perceived
research model similarity 2nd order constructs

Hypothesis Path coefficient Results

H1: Swift guanxi → purchase intention 0.199*** Supported

H2: Initial trust → purchase intention 0.312*** Supported
H3a: Perceived informativeness → swift guanxi 0.316*** Supported
H3b: Perceived informativeness → initial trust 0.333*** Supported
H4a: Perceived responsiveness → swift guanxi 0.242*** Supported
H4b: Perceived responsiveness → initial trust 0.251*** Supported
H5a: Perceived expertise → swift guanxi 0.201*** Supported
H5b: Perceived expertise → initial trust 0.189*** Supported
Table 6. H6a: Perceived similarity → swift guanxi 0.142** Supported
Results of hypothesis H6b: Perceived similarity → initial trust 0.161*** Supported
testing Note(s): ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01 and *p < 0.05

Total effects Direct effects Indirect effects VAF value Mediation effect
β t β t β t

PI→SG→PUI 0.292*** 4.668 0.128* 1.967 0.062* 2.448 0.326 Partial mediation
PI→IT→PUI 0.292*** 4.668 0.128* 1.967 0.102*** 4.026 0.438 Partial mediation
PR→SG→PUI 0.258*** 4.63 0.136* 2.493 0.047* 1.964 0.259 Partial mediation
PR→IT→PUI 0.258*** 4.63 0.136* 2.493 0.075** 2.825 0.356 Partial mediation
PE→SG→PUI 0.117* 2.477 0.022 ns 0.438 0.039* 2.329 0.642 Partial mediation
PE→IT→PUI 0.117* 2.477 0.022 ns 0.438 0.057** 2.945 0.72 Partial mediation
PS→SG→PUI 0.192*** 3.992 0.115* 2.405 0.028 ns 1.817 0.195 No mediation
PS→IT→PUI 0.192*** 3.992 0.115* 2.405 0.048** 2.921 0.296 Partial mediation
Note(s): PI stands for perceived informativeness; PR stands for perceived responsiveness; PE stands for
perceived expertise; PS stands for perceived similarity; SG stands for swift guanxi; IT stands for initial trust
and PUI stands for purchase intention. VAF > 0.8 indicates full mediation, 0.2 ≤ VAF ≤ 0.8 indicates partial
Table 7. mediation and VAF < 0.2 indicates no mediation
Mediation effect test *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001; “ns” indicates “not significant”
of online recommenders and purchase intention. Second, initial trust significantly mediated Consumers’
the relationship between perceived informativeness of online vendors, perceived purchase
responsiveness of online vendors, perceived expertise of online recommenders, perceived
similarity of online recommenders and purchase intention (partial mediation: the direct and
intention
total effects were significant; VAF 5 0.438, VAF 5 0.356, VAF 5 0.72 and VAF 5 0.296,
respectively).

5. Discussions
This study examined the impact of interpersonal interaction factors on swift guanxi and
initial trust and consequently the influence on consumers’ purchase intention in the context of
s-commerce. The findings answer the research questions raised at the beginning of the paper.
First, this study shows that perceived informativeness and responsiveness of online
vendors are positively associated with swift guanxi between consumers and vendors. The
more appropriate and adequate information consumers get from online vendors, the easier
consumers form swift guanxi with them. Meanwhile, perceived responsiveness of online
vendors has a positive effect on swift guanxi. Perceived responsiveness can provide
consumers with a sense of presence and shorten the distance from online vendors, leading to
mutual understanding, reciprocal favors and harmonious relationship between consumers
and vendors.
Second, perceived expertise and perceived similarity of online recommenders have a
significant and positive effect on swift guanxi. On the one hand, the expertise shown by
online recommenders will improve consumers’ knowledge of the products sold by the
recommended vendors, and this will be shifted to consumers’ willingness to interact with
those vendors. The interaction makes consumers understand the recommended vendors
easily and achieve mutual understanding and harmonious relationship with them. When
consumers intend to buy from the recommended vendors, reciprocity can always be achieved.
This finding is in accordance with the study of Zhang et al. (2011). On the other hand,
consumers tend to believe those recommenders who show similarity in interest and taste.
They tend to build swift guanxi with the vendors recommended by similar others so that they
can perceive less uncertainty in their shopping process.
Third, perceived informativeness and responsiveness of online vendors are
positively associated with initial trust between consumers and vendors. When
consumers first interact with new online vendors, rich and adequate information
provided by the online vendors can capture the function aspect and the value of
experience to customers; thus, consumers’ initial trust is formed towards the vendors.
Meanwhile, vendors’ prompt response will lead to consumers’ perception of vendors’
ability, benevolence and integrity.
Fourth, perceived expertise and perceived similarity of online recommenders have a
significant and positive effect on initial trust between consumers and online vendors. This
result is partially similar to Lin et al. (2018), which also shows that trust between consumers
and vendors will enhance consumers’ purchase intention. Different from Lin et al.’s study, the
current study examines initial transaction experience of consumers on online vendor’s
website; thus, initial trust can give insights on how it attracts new customers.
Finally, swift guanxi partially mediates between perceived informativeness, perceived
responsiveness, perceived expertise and purchase intention. Swift guanxi does not mediate
between perceived similarity of online recommenders and purchase intention. This means
that similarity between consumers and online recommenders will not affect consumers’ swift
guanxi with online vendors significantly. Initial trust partially mediates all interpersonal
interaction factors and purchase intention. This implies that initial trust is a very important
construct in determining consumers’ purchase intention.
IMDS 6. Theoretical and practical implications
6.1 Implications for theory
This study explores interpersonal interaction factors in s-commerce adopting social
exchange theory, trust transfer theory and relationship quality theory. To be specific, this
research has some contributions for theories.
First, this study extends interpersonal interaction factors in s-commerce from both the
online vendors’ and online recommenders’ perspective. Prior studies have highlighted
interpersonal interaction factors among members in social community that lead to purchase
intention (Shen et al., 2010; Liu et al., 2016). This study offered a new avenue by integrating
interpersonal interaction factors of both online vendors and online recommenders on the
relationship quality between consumers and vendors, leading to consumers’ purchase
intention.
Second, this study sheds new light on the concept of relationship quality in s-commerce,
dividing it into swift guanxi and initial trust in the context of consumers’ first transaction
with online vendors. Previous studies of relationship quality mostly focus on satisfaction,
trust and commitment, which might be very useful in customer relationship management,
requiring a longer time to build and more efforts to maintain. This study adopts the concept of
swift guanxi, which focuses on the rapidly formed relationships. This study fills the literature
gap on how relationship quality represented by swift guanxi and initial trust could be
enhanced by perceived interactivity of both online vendors and online recommenders on s-
commerce platform.
Third, this study enriches the understanding of the mechanism of interpersonal
interaction factors on purchase intention by combining relationship quality, social exchange
and trust transfer theory. Social exchange theory and trust transfer theory help to explain
how consumers make purchase decision in s-commerce sites by improving the relationship
quality with online vendors in a direct and indirect way. This study extends prior studies by
examining different roles swift guanxi and initial trust play in the relationship between
interpersonal interaction factors and purchase intention. The results show that both swift
guanxi and initial trust play an important role in the relationship between interpersonal
interaction factors of online vendors and purchase intention. Swift guanxi does not mediate
between perceived similarity of online recommenders and purchase intention. This means
that through consumers’ interaction with online recommenders, transaction is easier to be
successful when online vendors could win consumers’ initial trust.

6.2 Implications for practice

This study gives practical implication for s-commerce vendors as well as s-commerce
platforms.
S-commerce vendors should make good use of platform features to improve interpersonal
interaction. To improve perceived informativeness, online vendors should provide varieties
of information for consumers. To improve responsiveness, vendors should give immediate
response to consumers’ inquiry so as to improve their service. This could be solved in two
ways: one is to update the answers to frequently asked questions so as to answer consumers’
questions more efficiently. The other is to improve customer service by solving customers’
personalized questions. S-commerce vendors should give their staff adequate training to form
good communication skills so as to provide good service to customers.
There are also some suggestions for s-commerce platforms. First, s-commerce platforms
should design more rich tools for the display of products so that online vendors could provide
information of high quality on the website and improve consumers’ shopping experience.
Tools to amuse the consumers could be designed to show friendliness when online vendors
could not give consumers immediate response so that they would not leave immediately from
the website. Second, s-commerce platforms should design some tools for online vendors to Consumers’
select customers’ reviews with expertise easily. S-commerce platforms should also set up purchase
some online communities or help online vendors to build online communities in order to
attract customers with similar interest, which helps a lot with the promotion of products.
intention
Third, s-commerce platform should provide more interaction tools for online vendors to reach
consumers easily so that vendors could build relationship with consumers in their first
purchase easily. Tools to detect whether consumers have joined the online communities or
not could be provided so that online vendors may know how to communicate efficiently and
effectively with consumers.

7. Conclusions, limitations and future directions

This study adopts social exchange theory, trust transfer theory and relationship quality
theory to propose a theoretical model to investigate the effect of interpersonal interaction
factors of both online vendors and online recommenders in s-commerce sites on consumers’
swift guanxi and initial trust with online vendors, thus contributing to consumers’ purchase
intention. The mediation effects of swift guanxi and initial trust are explored to show the
mechanism in affecting consumers’ purchase intention. The results indicate that perceived
informativeness and responsiveness of online vendors and perceived expertise and similarity
of online recommenders have positive effects on swift guanxi and initial trust in consumers’
first interaction with a new online vendor and consequently lead to consumers’ purchase
intention. This study broadens our understanding of interpersonal interaction factors in s-
commerce context and shows that swift guanxi and initial trust are crucial for the success of
s-commerce vendors to attract new customers.
However, this study has some limitations, based on which future research can be
extended. First, this is one of the exploratory studies to combine interpersonal interaction
factors of both online vendors and online recommenders as the antecedents of relationship
quality in the s-commerce platform. Further studies are needed to confirm the validity and
generality of our findings. Second, the study examines the mediation of swift guanxi and
initial trust between interpersonal interaction factors and purchase intention without
considering other mediators. Further study can explore whether there exist other different
mediations. Third, this study uses self-reported data to explore users’ behavior on
s-commerce. Although the statistics have passed the recommended thresholds, the common
method bias is a bit high, which needs to be paid great attention to in later research. Other
research methods such as experiments or data mining can be applied in later research.
Finally, there might exist cultural differences in different context as the questionnaire comes
from the mainland of China. As guanxi is a typical Chinese concept, the study is adaptable in
Chinese culture but not always applicable in other cultures. Further study should explore
whether the mediation effects of swift guanxi could be different in other cultures.

Note
1. https://www.wjx.cn

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Appendix

Measurement items

Perceived informativeness (PI) of online vendors: adapted from Ahn et al. (2004) and Alalwan
(2018)
PI1 This s-commerce vendor provided the information that is rich in words, pictures, videos, etc.
PI2 This s-commerce vendor provided me with sufficient information which I expect to find
PI3 This s-commerce vendor provided me with information which is relevant to my requirement
PI4 This s-commerce vendor provided information which is easy to understand
PI5 This s-commerce vendor provided complete and detailed information
Perceived responsiveness (PR) of online vendors: adapted from Song and Zinkhan (2008)
PR1 This s-commerce vendor responded promptly to my questions and suggestions in time
PR2 This s-commerce vendor gave me response to my request
PR3 This s-commerce vendor gave me response which is closely related to my questions
PR4 This s-commerce vendor was ready to communicate with me
Perceived expertise (PE) of online recommenders: adapted from Shen et al. (2010) and Hu et al.
(2016)
PE1 Recommenders on this s-commerce site are very knowledgeable about some products
PE2 Recommenders on this s-commerce site are experts on some products
PE3 Recommenders on this s-commerce site are highly experienced about some products

(continued )
Measurement items
Consumers’
purchase
PE4 Recommenders provide lots of information and knowledge regarding some products intention
Perceived similarity (PS) of online recommenders: adapted from Shen et al. (2010) and Hu et al.
(2016)
PS1 Considering styles about some products, I am similar with recommenders on this s-commerce site
PS2 Considering tastes about some products, I am similar with recommenders on this s-commerce site
PS3 Considering likes and dislikes about some products, I am similar with recommenders on this s-
commerce site
Initial trust: formative measure formed by ability trust (AT), benevolence trust (BT) and integrity
trust (INT)
Ability trust (AT): adapted from Morgan and Hunt (1994) and Ou et al. (2014)
AT1 This s-commerce vendor is competent and effective in selling his/her products online
AT2 This s-commerce vendor performs its role of selling his/her products online very well
AT3 Overall, this s-commerce vendor is a capable and proficient Internet seller
AT4 In general, this s-commerce vendor is very knowledgeable about selling his/her products
Benevolence trust (BT): adapted from Morgan and Hunt (1994) and Ou et al. (2014)
BT1 I believe that this s-commerce vendor would act in my best interests
BT2 If I required help, this s-commerce vendor would do its best to help me
BT3 This s-commerce vendor is interested in my well-being, not just its own
Integrity trust (INT): adapted from Morgan and Hunt (1994) and Ou et al. (2014)
INT1 This s-commerce vendor is truthful in its dealing with me
INT2 I would characterize this s-commerce vendor as honest
INT3 This s-commerce vendor would keep its commitments
INT4 This s-commerce vendor is sincere and genuine
Swift guanxi (SG): formative measure formed by mutual understanding (MU), reciprocal favors
(RF) and relationship harmony (RH)
Mutual understanding (MU): adapted from Ou et al. (2014)
MU1 This s-commerce vendor and I can understand each other’s needs
MU2 This s-commerce vendor and I can understand the point of view of each other
MU3 This s-commerce vendor and I can make ourselves heard
MU4 This s-commerce vendor and I can follow the flow of conversation
MU5 This s-commerce vendor and I show interest in each other’s opinions
Reciprocal favors (RF): adapted from Ou et al. (2014)
RF1 If I buy from this vendor, he/she would provide a discount to me
RF2 This s-commerce vendor and I provide a positive rating or comment to each other
RF3 This s-commerce vendor and I help each other
RF4 This s-commerce vendor and I proved to be friends by doing a favor for each other
Relationship harmony (RH): adapted from Ou et al. (2014)
RH1 This s-commerce vendor and I maintain harmony
RH2 This s-commerce vendor and I avoid conflict
RH3 This s-commerce vendor and I respect each other
Purchase intention (PUI): adapted from Pavlou and Fygenson (2006)
PUI1 I intend to purchase products or service from this s-commerce vendor
PUI2 I will probably recommend family members or friends to buy from this s-commerce vendor
PUI3 I am likely to purchase from this s-commerce vendor in the future

Corresponding author
Jincai Dong can be contacted at: djc@zufe.edu.cn

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