IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/hascer/2021-053.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Reputational Assets and Social Media Marketing Activeness: Empirical Insights from China

Author

Listed:
  • Johansson, Anders C.

    (Stockholm China Economic Research Institute)

  • Zhu, Zhen

    (Kent Business School, University of Kent)

Abstract

We explore the linkages between social media marketing activeness and reputational assets on digital platforms with a unique sample of over 8,000 customer-to-customer (C2C) sellers registered on both Taobao, China’s largest C2C online shopping platform, and Sina Weibo, China’s largest microblogging platform. A unique collaborative effort between the two platforms enables us to examine whether C2C sellers are motivated to engage in marketing activities on a separate social media platform. Applying machine learning and natural language processing methods, we first identify whether C2C sellers conduct social media marketing on their microblogs. We then differentiate between earned and owned reputation factors accumulated on both platforms and test their relationships to social media marketing activeness. We find that earned reputation factors on both platforms are significantly associated with social media marketing activeness. However, we identify a conflict of owned reputation factors between the two platforms, which provides a potential explanation for the limited success of the cross-platform collaboration.

Suggested Citation

  • Johansson, Anders C. & Zhu, Zhen, 2021. "Reputational Assets and Social Media Marketing Activeness: Empirical Insights from China," Stockholm School of Economics Asia Working Paper Series 2021-53, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm China Economic Research Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:hascer:2021-053
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://swopec.hhs.se/hascer/papers/hascer2021-053.1.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruno Godey & Aikaterini Manthiou & Daniele Pederzoli & Joonas Rokka & Gaetano Aiello & Raffaele Donvito & Rahul Singh, 2016. "Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands : Influence on brand equity and consumer behavior," Post-Print hal-02313434, HAL.
    2. Olivier Toubia & Andrew T. Stephen, 2013. "Intrinsic vs. Image-Related Utility in Social Media: Why Do People Contribute Content to Twitter?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(3), pages 368-392, May.
    3. Paul A. Pavlou & Angelika Dimoka, 2006. "The Nature and Role of Feedback Text Comments in Online Marketplaces: Implications for Trust Building, Price Premiums, and Seller Differentiation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 17(4), pages 392-414, December.
    4. Chang, Yu-Ting & Yu, Hueiju & Lu, Hsi-Peng, 2015. "Persuasive messages, popularity cohesion, and message diffusion in social media marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 777-782.
    5. Feng, Xunan & Johansson, Anders C., 2019. "Top executives on social media and information in the capital market: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 824-857.
    6. Dellarocas, Chrysanthos, 2003. "The Digitization of Word-of-mouth: Promise and Challenges of Online Feedback Mechanisms," Working papers 4296-03, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    7. Chrysanthos Dellarocas, 2003. "The Digitization of Word of Mouth: Promise and Challenges of Online Feedback Mechanisms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(10), pages 1407-1424, October.
    8. Kim, Angella J. & Ko, Eunju, 2012. "Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 1480-1486.
    9. Gil Appel & Lauren Grewal & Rhonda Hadi & Andrew T. Stephen, 2020. "The future of social media in marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 79-95, January.
    10. Wang, Xu & Baesens, Bart & Zhu, Zhen, 2019. "On the optimal marketing aggressiveness level of C2C sellers in social media: Evidence from china," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 83-93.
    11. Lena Steinhoff & Denni Arli & Scott Weaven & Irina V. Kozlenkova, 2019. "Online relationship marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 369-393, May.
    12. Bei Qin & David Strömberg & Yanhui Wu, 2017. "Why Does China Allow Freer Social Media? Protests versus Surveillance and Propaganda," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(1), pages 117-140, Winter.
    13. Sindy Liu & Patsy Perry & Gregory Gadzinski, 2019. "The implications of digital marketing on WeChat for luxury fashion brands in China," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(4), pages 395-409, July.
    14. Godey, Bruno & Manthiou, Aikaterini & Pederzoli, Daniele & Rokka, Joonas & Aiello, Gaetano & Donvito, Raffaele & Singh, Rahul, 2016. "Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 5833-5841.
    15. Youngsoo Kim & Ramayya Krishnan, 2015. "On Product-Level Uncertainty and Online Purchase Behavior: An Empirical Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(10), pages 2449-2467, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sheng, Jie, 2019. "Being Active in Online Communications: Firm Responsiveness and Customer Engagement Behaviour," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 40-51.
    2. Khan, Imran, 2022. "Do brands’ social media marketing activities matter? A moderation analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Ana Babić Rosario & Kristine Valck & Francesca Sotgiu, 2020. "Conceptualizing the electronic word-of-mouth process: What we know and need to know about eWOM creation, exposure, and evaluation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 422-448, May.
    4. Amel Pintol & Nereida Hadziahmetovic, 2023. "The Mediating Role of Brand Trust in Social Media Marketing Activities and Brand Equity Relationship: Case of Bottled Water Brands in the Market of Bosnia and Herzegovina," European Journal of Business Science and Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Business and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 5-20.
    5. Saeed Tajdini, 2023. "The effects of internet search intensity for products on companies’ stock returns: a competitive intelligence perspective," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(3), pages 352-365, September.
    6. Shakeel ul Rehman & Rafia Gulzar & Wajeeha Aslam, 2022. "Developing the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) through Social Media (SM): The Modern Marketing Communication Approach," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, May.
    7. Kuo, Ying-Feng & Chen, Fei-Lung, 2023. "The effect of interactivity of brands’ marketing activities on Facebook fan pages on continuous participation intentions: An S–O-R framework study," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    8. Abdulla H. Fetais & Raed S. Algharabat & Abdullah Aljafari & Nripendra P. Rana, 2023. "Do Social Media Marketing Activities Improve Brand Loyalty? An Empirical Study on Luxury Fashion Brands," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 795-817, April.
    9. Grover, Purva & Kar, Arpan Kumar, 2020. "User engagement for mobile payment service providers – introducing the social media engagement model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    10. Cho, Daegon & Hwang, Youngdeok & Park, Jongwon, 2018. "More buzz, more vibes: Impact of social media on concert distribution," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 103-113.
    11. Judy E. Scott & Dawn G. Gregg & Jae Hoon Choi, 2015. "Lemon complaints: When online auctions go sour," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 177-191, February.
    12. Khim-Yong Goh & Cheng-Suang Heng & Zhijie Lin, 2013. "Social Media Brand Community and Consumer Behavior: Quantifying the Relative Impact of User- and Marketer-Generated Content," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 88-107, March.
    13. Zhang, Chu-Bing & Zhang, Zhuo-Ping & Chang, Ying & Li, Tian-Ge & Hou, Ru-Jing, 2022. "Effect of WeChat interaction on brand evaluation: A moderated mediation model of para-social interaction and affiliative tendency," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    14. Choi, Dayeon & Seo, Yuri & Septianto, Felix & Ko, Eunju, 2022. "Luxury customization and self-authenticity: Implications for consumer wellbeing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 243-252.
    15. Hu, Miao & Chen, Jie & Chen, Qimei & He, Wei, 2020. "It pays off to be authentic: An examination of direct versus indirect brand mentions on social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 19-28.
    16. Dominik Gutt & Jürgen Neumann & Steffen Zimmermann & Dennis Kundisch & Jianqing Chen, 2018. "Design of Review Systems - A Strategic Instrument to shape Online Review Behavior and Economic Outcomes," Working Papers Dissertations 42, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    17. Guha Majumder, Madhumita & Dutta Gupta, Sangita & Paul, Justin, 2022. "Perceived usefulness of online customer reviews: A review mining approach using machine learning & exploratory data analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 147-164.
    18. Syed Zeeshan Zahoor & A. M. Shah, 2024. "Impact of Social Media on Users’ Complex Buying Behaviour: Analysing the Mediating Effect of Perception and Moderating Effect of Extended Social Media Usage," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 49(1), pages 119-148, February.
    19. Blend Ibrahim & Ahmad Aljarah & Dima Sawaftah, 2021. "Linking Social Media Marketing Activities to Revisit Intention through Brand Trust and Brand Loyalty on the Coffee Shop Facebook Pages: Exploring Sequential Mediation Mechanism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-15, February.
    20. Heng Tang & Xiaowan Lin, 2019. "Curbing shopping cart abandonment in C2C markets — an uncertainty reduction approach," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 29(3), pages 533-552, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    social media marketing; reputational assets; electronic commerce; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce
    • M15 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - IT Management
    • M30 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - General
    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:hascer:2021-053. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: NanHee Lee (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cehhsse.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.