Effects of relational embeddedness on users’ intention to participate in value co-creation of social e-commerce platforms
Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing
ISSN: 2040-7122
Article publication date: 25 August 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Value co-creation (VCC) helps platforms establish competitive advantages. Unlike their traditional counterparts, social attribute is a key concept of social e-commerce platforms. This study integrates VCC and social network theories, introduces relational embeddedness and divides this variable into economic and social relational embeddedness to explore its impact on VCC intention. This study also explores the mediating and moderating roles of customers' psychological ownership (CPO) and regulatory focus, respectively.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey was conducted among users of mainstream social e-commerce platforms in China, and the relationship among the variables was revealed through a structural equation modeling of 464 valid responses.
Findings
The dimensions of relational embeddedness positively affect CPO and VCC intention, with social relational embeddedness exerting the strongest effect. CPO positively affects VCC intention and partially mediates the relationship between relational embeddedness and VCC intention. Promotion and prevention focus positively and negatively moderate the relationship between CPO and VCC intention, respectively.
Originality/value
This study expands the VCC research perspective and links the VCC concepts to social network dynamics. From the relational embeddedness perspective, this study identifies the type and intensity of relational embeddedness that promotes users' VCC intention and contributes to theoretical research on VCC and relational embeddedness. This study also introduces CPO as an intermediary variable, thus opening the black box of this mechanism, and confirms the moderating role of regulatory focus as the key psychological factor motivating users' VCC intention.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
First, we would like to thank the reviewers for their constructive comments. Second, we wish to thank the teachers in Modern Business Research Center for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this work and their help in the research process.
Funding: We appreciate the the National Social Science Fund of China (No. 19BGL098) for funding this study.
Declarations of interest: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and publication of this article.
Citation
Xiao, L., Wang, J. and Wei, X. (2023), "Effects of relational embeddedness on users’ intention to participate in value co-creation of social e-commerce platforms", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-02-2023-0055
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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