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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 6 March 2023

Qiang Yang, Jiale Huo, Hongxiu Li, Yue Xi and Yong Liu

This study investigates how social interaction-oriented content in broadcasters' live speech affects broadcast viewers' purchasing and gift-giving behaviors and how broadcaster…

5987

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigates how social interaction-oriented content in broadcasters' live speech affects broadcast viewers' purchasing and gift-giving behaviors and how broadcaster popularity moderates social interaction-oriented content's effect on the two different behaviors in live-streaming commerce.

Design/methodology/approach

A research model was proposed and empirically tested using a panel data set collected from 537 live streams via Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), one of the most popular live broadcast platforms in China. A fixed-effects negative binomial regression model was used to examine the proposed research model.

Findings

This study's results show that social interaction-oriented content in broadcasters' live speech has an inverted U-shaped relationship with broadcast viewers' purchasing behavior and shares a positive linear relationship with viewers' gift-giving behavior. Furthermore, broadcaster popularity significantly moderates the effect of social interaction-oriented content on viewers' purchasing and gift-giving behaviors.

Originality/value

This research enriches the literature on live-streaming commerce by investigating how social interaction-oriented content in broadcasters' live speech affects broadcast viewers' product-purchasing and gift-giving behaviors from the perspective of broadcast viewers' attention. Moreover, this study provides some practical guidelines for developing live speech content in the live-streaming commerce context.

Details

Internet Research, vol. 33 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 May 2014

Matteo Corciolani and Daniele Dalli

Through an empirical analysis of a consumption community, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the theories of gift-giving, sharing and commodity exchange should not…

2422

Abstract

Purpose

Through an empirical analysis of a consumption community, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the theories of gift-giving, sharing and commodity exchange should not be kept separated but integrated into a unifying model.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides new evidence about Bookcrossing.com, whose members share and give books as gifts; that is, physical goods rather than digital ones as in most of the communities considered in the literature. This community is analysed with qualitative tools, such as netnography, personal interviews and participant observation.

Findings

The main result of the analysis of Bookcrossing is that gift-giving is not the only process responsible for value creation and distribution in consumption communities: sharing and commodity exchange also play a role. Furthermore, the paper provides new evidence about aspects of gift-giving and sharing that have received limited attention in the literature: collective reciprocity and anonymous sharing.

Research limitations/implications

The limitations are related to the intrinsic properties of the methods employed (netnography, personal interviews and participant observation) and to the paper, which analyses only one community and one product category. The implications refer to the role of gift-giving in consumption communities and its relationships with other processes: consumer gift systems are not only gifting platforms, but they and the elements of sharing and commodity exchange need to be integrated.

Practical implications

The empirical evidence and implications matter for the organisation and management of collaborative consumption platforms and the way in which traditional business models could and should interact with these platforms in an increasing number of businesses.

Originality/value

The paper adds new evidence of and original insights into gift-giving and collective forms of exchange. Moreover, it provides managerial implications of the analysed community for the book publishing industry.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 52 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 April 2016

Ruth Segev and Aviv Shoham

This study aims to explore the dual identity role of joint gift-giving among adolescents. Studying this phenomenon through the lens of impression management theory enabled us to…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore the dual identity role of joint gift-giving among adolescents. Studying this phenomenon through the lens of impression management theory enabled us to analyze private and group motives, drivers of these motives (givers’ public self-consciousness and self-monitoring and group cohesiveness) and the influence of group motives on the joint process. The characteristics of the joint process reflect a mutual social activity that enables adolescents to strengthen social group ties and define and nurture group identity. This research showed how a mutual consumer process, specifically, joint gift-giving, enhances the outcomes of social resources by defining groups’ mutual extended selves.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, quantitative tools were used. Selection of constructs for the study was based on a literature review and existing qualitative research. To test the validity and the reliability of the scales, a convenience sample of 103 adolescents (13 to 16 years old) was used in a pre-test survey. In the main study, a convenience sample of 129 adolescences was used. Self-report questionnaires were distributed to adolescents (aged 13-16 years). The survey included scales covering private and group motives for joint gift-giving, givers’ personality, group cohesiveness and the characteristics of the joint process.

Findings

Givers’ public self-consciousness and self-monitoring were positively related to the motivation to engage in joint gift-giving to facilitate the development of desired private identities. High public self-consciousness and self-monitoring givers were motivated to enhance their private role in the group task and managed their impression among multiple audiences. We found that high-cohesiveness groups were motivated to nurture and strengthen social resources through joint gift-giving. Engaging in joint gift-giving is motivated not only by functional motives (e.g. saving money) but also by social motives that strengthen a group’s extended-self and social resources that all members enjoy.

Research limitations/implications

Although gift-giving is a three-stage process per gestation presentation and reformulation stage, the current study explored joint gift-giving behavior only in the gestation stage. Future research should include the other two stages. Also the current research concentrated on adolescents. Exploring joint gift-giving among adults is recommended as well. Comparing the two age groups should allow a better understanding of the special characteristics of adolescents and adults. Additionally, other personality characteristics could affect givers private identity in the group task and other group characteristics such as group size gender of members and group context in the workplace could affect identity.

Practical implications

This research can provide marketers with a deeper understanding of the joint gift-giving process. For example, marketers should recognize that joint gift-giving involves adolescent groups’ time-consuming activities in the joint process, i.e. gift selection effort, making handmade gifts and putting special efforts in gift appearance that enable them to define and nurture their group identity.

Social implications

Parents and educators should recognize the importance of social identity dual role in participating in joint gift-giving. Hence, we recommend them to encourage adolescents to participate in this joint consuming process to enable them to protect and define their identity.

Originality/value

Adolescents are an important market segment with unique cognitive, social and personality processes. While these processes have been explored in several consumer behavior studies, adolescents’ gift-giving has been largely ignored in the literature. This study contributes to an understanding of the drivers of private and group joint gift-giving motives, how sense of belonging and group identity are reflected in the social dynamics of joint gift-giving and how adolescents manage group and private impressions in the eyes of a single receiver and in the eyes of multiple peers participating in the group task.

Details

Young Consumers, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-3616

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 July 2013

Ruth Segev, Aviv Shoham and Ayalla Ruvio

Previous research on impression management explored motives, the use of impression management tactics and the influence of personality characteristics on the tendency to engage in…

2608

Abstract

Purpose

Previous research on impression management explored motives, the use of impression management tactics and the influence of personality characteristics on the tendency to engage in impression management. The purposes of this research are to examine gift‐giving behavior among adolescents based on the building blocks of impression management theory, the ways that personality characteristics motivate gift‐givers to engage in active and defensive impression management and how the use of impression management tactics (i.e. similarity‐conformity and target‐enhancement) are reflected in their gift‐giving behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

A convenience sample of 141 adolescences was used in a quantitative study. Self‐report questionnaires were distributed to adolescents of different ages (13‐16), with students from diverse social strata. Students were asked to recall a recent peer gift‐giving experience and to refer to it when answering the questions which covered motives for gift‐giving, personality characteristics, and the characteristics of the gift.

Findings

The authors' study shows that personality characteristics such as public self‐consciousness, self‐monitoring, and self‐esteem are positively related with gift‐giving motives. Additionally, gift‐giving motives are positively related with the use of similarity‐conformity and target‐enhancement tactics. Finally, the use of impression management tactics reflects adolescents' special characteristics, such as their tendency towards conformism, important role of peers in their lives, and their high need to protect and nurture these social resources.

Originality/value

This research explored the instrumental role of gift‐giving among adolescents and contributes to the existing literatures on gift‐giving, impression management, and adolescents' consumer behavior.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 30 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2003

Clare D’Souza

This paper attempts to provide an understanding of gift‐giving for a more systematic assessment of relationship building to succeed in an Asian realm. This study proposes to…

3783

Abstract

This paper attempts to provide an understanding of gift‐giving for a more systematic assessment of relationship building to succeed in an Asian realm. This study proposes to examine the underlying linkage between the intensity of gift‐giving and constructing relationships. The goal is to provide both researchers and businesses an insight into how to successfully manage profitable relationships in a culture‐rich environment that is growing ever more demanding and complicated. Gift‐giving is seen as an act of reciprocity, and often misconstrued as bribery by Westerners, yet it appears to be an important constituent of the Asian culture and can be seen as a form of relationship investment, that if cultivated well, can uplift interactions between businesses.

Details

Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, vol. 15 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-5855

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 February 2021

Reo Song, Risto Moisio and Moon Young Kang

Virtual gifts have emerged as a common feature of online communities, social gaming and social networks. This paper aims to examine how network-related variables and gift-seeding…

Abstract

Purpose

Virtual gifts have emerged as a common feature of online communities, social gaming and social networks. This paper aims to examine how network-related variables and gift-seeding impact virtual gift sales. The network variables include gift-giver centrality and gift-giving dispersion, capturing, respectively, the relative importance of gift-givers in a network and their tendency to give gifts to a greater or lesser number of network peers. Gift-seeding tactics capture social network firms’ attempts to stimulate virtual gift purchases by awarding virtual gifts to network members.

Design/methodology/approach

This study develops and estimates a fixed-effects panel data regression model to analyze virtual gift purchase data for a large social network service.

Findings

Gift-giver centrality, gift-giving dispersion and gift-seeding increase virtual gift purchases. Increases in consumers’ receipt of seed gifts from social network firms (“direct seeding”) and from other consumers (“indirect seeding”) increases virtual gift purchases. However, the extent to which consumers give seed gifts to their friends in the social network (“seed mediation”) does not affect sales. Greater gift-giver centrality amplifies (attenuates) the positive effects of direct (indirect) seeding. At greater levels of gift-giving dispersion, the effects of indirect seeding and seed mediation become negative. Furthermore, gift-seeding has spillover effects on virtual good (non-gift) purchases.

Research limitations/implications

This study’s data, drawn from a South Korean social network service, offer unique and valuable social network information on actual virtual gift purchases and their seeding. Future research should replicate the results of the study outside the South Korean context.

Practical implications

Given the effects reported in this study, social network firms can facilitate the purchases of virtual gifts by improving the targeting of consumers in social networks and gift-seeding tactics.

Originality/value

This study uniquely examines the individual and interactive effects of network-related variables and gift-seeding on virtual gift sales. The study is seminal in its examination of how gift-seeding can be used as a marketing tactic to increase virtual gift purchases.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 55 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 January 2017

May Aung, Xiying Zhang and Lefa Teng

The purpose of this study is to offer a better understanding of contemporary consumer behaviour. This study relates to the complex and value-laden phenomenon of “gift-giving” from…

1341

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to offer a better understanding of contemporary consumer behaviour. This study relates to the complex and value-laden phenomenon of “gift-giving” from the perspective of bicultural consumers. The focus was on the gift-giving practices of Chinese immigrants in Canada within both their current and their past residencies (Canada and China, respectively).

Design/methodology/approach

Conceptual guidelines for this study embodied the gift-giving conceptual framework of Sherry (1983) and Chinese cultural values on gift giving (Yau et al., 1999). A qualitative research study was implemented. Specifically, in-depth interviews with Chinese immigrant women mainly from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Ontario, Canada, offered empirical evidence relating to the gestation stage of gift giving.

Findings

The findings indicate the complexity of acculturation in gift-giving practices. In terms of gift-giving occasions, Chinese immigrants in Canada, for the most part, adopted the Canadian gift-giving occasions. However, the important role of ethnicity in decision-making is found through their strong sense of differentiation between Chinese and Canadian gift receivers. The results also indicate some Chinese cultural values such as relationship, reciprocity and group orientation as being still important in shaping gift-giving practices, even after immigration to a new country quite distant from the homeland. One cautionary note is that some cultural values such as relationship can be common to both Chinese and Canadian cultural groups.

Research limitations/implications

This research was conducted mainly in the GTA in Ontario, Canada. Future studies could address other large Canadian cities with significant bicultural Chinese populations such as Vancouver in British Columbia and Motreal in Quebec.

Practical implications

This research extends the knowledge of bicultural consumers by examining the evolving gift-giving practices of Chinese immigrants living in Canada. A good understanding of the cultural values important to bicultural consumers will help marketers to efficiently and effectively allocate their marketing resources in attracting these niche consumers.

Social implications

This study has contributed to the broader field of marketing research. Specifically, the current study offers the importance of understanding values transference of bicultural consumers and their behaviours in integrating into the mainstream gift-giving cultural context.

Originality/value

This study has contributed by offering evidence of how a minority consumer group formed complex acculturation realities within a gift-giving consumption context. This contribution can be counted as a step towards theoretical advancement in the field of acculturation and of understanding bicultural consumers.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 34 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 July 2007

Wang Qian, Mohammed Abdur Razzaque and Kau Ah Keng

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study undertaken to investigate the gift‐giving behavior of consumers in the People's Republic of China (PRC) during the…

15090

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study undertaken to investigate the gift‐giving behavior of consumers in the People's Republic of China (PRC) during the Chinese New Year and the influence exerted by Chinese cultural values on such behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a survey among a large sample of people in the city of Tianjin, gift‐giving behavior was measured by the importance accorded to gift‐giving, the amount given, the effort spent on gift selection and brand orientation when selecting gifts. The cultural values examined were renqing (human obligations), guanxi (relationship), yuan (destiny or fate), reciprocity, family orientation and Mianzi (face). Factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data.

Findings

Results indicated that Chinese cultural values as a whole as well as most of its components investigated in this research had positive effects on the various gift‐giving behaviors. The “face” component was, however, found to affect only the importance attached to gift‐giving, the amount given and the choice of brand.

Research limitations/implications

Research results should be interpreted with caution as the study was limited to Tianjin – one of the several major cities in the PRC. Also the Chinese New Year may not be representative of other occasions when gifts are exchanged.

Practical implications

The results of this investigation would benefit practitioners involved in the marketing of “gift items” in the PRC by providing them with a clear understanding of the general consumption patterns of the PRC urban consumers, insights into the various antecedents of gift‐giving and linking them with various aspects of Chinese cultural values. The research findings would also benefit researchers, academics and others interested in the PRC market by making them familiar with some of the salient aspects that characterize Chinese consumers.

Originality/value

This study develops a new model describing the relationships among values (Chinese cultural value and personal value), motivation for gift‐giving and gift‐giving behavior. It also develops new scales for measuring the constructs such as Chinese cultural values, motivation for gift‐giving and gift‐giving behavior.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 September 2020

Joëlle Vanhamme, Adam Lindgreen and Michael Beverland

This study aims to explore surprising gifts received and given by close relations to identify the variables involved in creating surprising gifts. The analysis of the viewpoints…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore surprising gifts received and given by close relations to identify the variables involved in creating surprising gifts. The analysis of the viewpoints of the giver and the recipient, reflecting their profiles, leads to recommendations for retailers.

Design/methodology/approach

An exploratory, small-scale, open-ended questionnaire (48 respondents) produces 43 (38) accounts of surprising gifts given (received), informed further by in-depth interviews (eight informants, both givers and recipients of surprising gifts).

Findings

This study identifies and elaborates on the variables (why, when, what, where, who and how, and their combinations) that define surprising gift giving, from both giver and recipient perspectives. The findings indicate a paradox: even if givers or recipients prefer a surprising gift, they might give or wish for an unsurprising gift to avoid disappointment.

Research limitations/implications

Further research should confirm the findings using representative samples. Moreover, gender differences in surprising gift giving should be investigated further. Finally, the exact characteristics and properties that make common objects potential candidates for successful surprising gifts should be studied further.

Practical implications

The discussion has relevant implications for manufacturers and retailers. For example, if recipients are surprised, happy and satisfied, they likely exhibit higher brand recall. The recipient’s (happy versus not happy) emotions also have spillover effects on the giver’s. Thus, retailers should provide assistance in the store and advertise their salespeople as experts who can offer advice about selecting appropriate gifts. The exact characteristics and properties that make common objects potential candidates for successful surprising gifts should be studied further.

Originality/value

The systematic account of all six variables, not previously analyzed in the literature, provides rich insights into surprising gift giving. The discussion of the study of givers and recipients supplements these insights.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 55 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 1994

Wiboon Arunthanes, Patriya Tansuhaj and David J. Lemak

Offers a parsimonious conceptual framework to provide a more systematicassessment of cross‐cultural business gift practices. Uses the high andlow context classification of…

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Abstract

Offers a parsimonious conceptual framework to provide a more systematic assessment of cross‐cultural business gift practices. Uses the high and low context classification of cultures to compare gift giving and to provide factors explaining possible differences. Then offers research propositions to guide future research and to assist international business managers when making gift‐giving decisions. Also provides a manager′s checklist to guide cross‐cultural gift‐giving decisions.

Details

International Marketing Review, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-1335

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 1000