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Missing in most of the research on selling has been an examination of the process from the point of view of the customer. When satisfaction in selling has been considered, researchers have focused on the satisfaction of the salesperson with his job and/or the impact of this job satisfaction on performance (e.g. Bluen, Barling & Burns, 1990; Churchill, Ford & Walker, 1979; Pruden & Peterson, 1971). To concentrate on salesperson performance while neglecting customers is to ignore the most important half of the relationship between buyers and sellers and entirely disregards the marketing concept and the streams of research in customer satisfaction. This research takes a different approach and examines customers’ satisfaction with salespeople.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of buyer-seller interpersonal interactions on the purchase intention of buyers, incorporating swift guanxi as a mediator.

Based on survey data obtained from 336 Taobao Live users, PLS techniques were used to test hypotheses.

Swift guanxi exists in buyer-seller interactions and matters, as it drives buyers' purchase intention in live stream shopping. Perceived expertise, perceived similarity and perceived likeability are found to be the three essential interpersonal interaction factors promoting the formation of swift guanxi. Perceived familiarity is also found to be significant but to a lesser extent. In addition, all these interpersonal interaction factors are found to significantly affect purchase intention through the mediation of swift guanxi.

Swift guanxi has been less explored in live stream shopping. This study takes the lead in empirically examining the mediating role of swift guanxi in the relationship between interpersonal interaction factors and purchase intention and offers a description of key buyer-seller interpersonal interaction factors (perceived expertise, perceived similarity and perceived likeability), thereby helping to extend the swift guanxi literature in social commerce.

The purpose of the present research is to investigate how consumers’ purchase posting behavior on social media influences their own happiness.

The paper presents three studies. Study 1 was an experiment that manipulated purchase and posting behavior. Studies 2 and 3 utilized surveys which asked participants to report their actual purchases and posting behaviors. Data were examined using regression and bootstrap mediation analysis.

Posting purchases on social media has a positive influence on consumers’ happiness through the mediating roles of perceived impact of purchases on self and interpersonal relationships.

This paper contributes to the research on social media by demonstrating that because of its remarkable characteristics, posting purchases on social media significantly increases consumers’ happiness. It fills the research gap of how word-of-mouth and conspicuous consumption influences the storyteller’s happiness. It is also the first research which suggests that user-generated content of purchases actually can be a new carrier of conspicuous consumption. The findings shed light on the substantial influences of posting purchases on the use/consumption stage of consumer behavior.

Because posting purchases on social media increases consumers’ happiness, marketers can develop strategies to encourage consumers to post about their purchases more.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to demonstrate the positive effect of social media purchase posting on consumers’ happiness and identify the mechanism under which this effect occurs.

Set in an emerging economy context, the purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of green consumers’ purchase behavior on organic food by analyzing the impact of word-of-mouth (WOM) effects (i.e. tie strength, sender’s green expertise, receiver’s green expertise), conformity behaviors (i.e. normative interpersonal influence and informational interpersonal influence) on green purchase intention, and the relationship between green purchase intention and green purchase behavior.

Data were collected by self-administered questionnaire completed by respondents who had purchase experience of organic food in the last six months. The specific context of this study is green consumption for organic food in Taiwan. Data collection was implemented in a convenience sampling method. Among the 578 consumers who had filled the questionnaire, 147 did not have any purchase history of organic food, resulting in a final usable sample of 431 (response rate 74.57 percent) in Taiwan. The data were collected during a five-week period in late 2015.

Through structural equation modeling analysis, data were analyzed and the empirical results indicate that tie strength, sender’s green expertise, and receiver’s green expertise have a positive influence on green consumer’s susceptibility to informational interpersonal influences and normative interpersonal influences, separately. In addition, informational interpersonal influences and normative interpersonal influences both have a positive relationship on green purchase intention, which will further positively influence the green purchase behavior.

This study reminds marketers of the impact of WOM effects as well as interpersonal influences on consumers. It examines the impact of tie strength, senders’ green expertise, and receivers’ green expertise on green purchase intention and green purchase behavior. This study also explores the mediation effects of green consumers’ susceptibility to interpersonal influences. Consumers’ susceptibility to interpersonal influence is discussed in the marketing literature. However, few prior studies have explored its effect in the green setting. Last, few attempts have discussed the relationship between green purchase intention and green purchase behavior. This study contributes to the literature by examine the relationship between green purchase intentions and green purchase behavior.

This article aims to explore the impact of interpersonal relationship stimuli and click-like on purchase intention across different generations of bank customers, with a focus on the moderating effect of online trust.

The sample consists of 435 online bank customers from the Facebook community and the data collection was conducted using an online survey method. The model estimation utilized the partial least squares technique, along with multigroup analysis and importance-performance map analysis.

The empirical evidence supports the hypothesized relationships between interpersonal relationship stimuli, click-like and purchase intention, but varies across different generations and is contingent upon online trust. The analysis reveals commonalities in how Generation Z, Millennials and Generation X respond to interpersonal relationship stimuli while exhibiting distinct responses to click-like.

The empirical evidence confirms the hypothesized relationships between interpersonal relationship stimuli, click-like and purchase intention. However, these relationships exhibit variations across different generations and are contingent upon the level of online trust. The analysis highlights shared responses to interpersonal relationship stimuli among Generation Z, Millennials and Generation X, while also revealing distinct reactions to click-like within these generational groups.

This research investigates the collective impact of interpersonal relationship stimuli and click-like on purchase intention, taking into account the moderating role of online trust within various generational cohorts in the banking sector.

The operations and viability of microfinance institutions (MFIs), crucial for socioeconomic development and poverty reduction, heavily rely on the multilevel relationships among borrowers, loan officers and MFIs. This study examines the relationship between interpersonal and firm-level relationship quality (RQ) and their simultaneous impact on customer loyalty (CL) in microfinance. Additionally, it investigates the mediating effect of firm-level RQ between CL and interpersonal RQ.

In this study, correlational research methods were employed. Completed questionnaires were received from 498 MFI borrowers in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza cities. Regression techniques and structural equation modeling were utilized to analyze the data. Before hypothesis testing, the validity and reliability of the measurements were confirmed.

Interpersonal-level and firm-level RQs are significantly related. Interpersonal-level RQ and its dimensions are significantly linked to CL, whereas firm-level RQ and its dimensions are insignificantly related to CL, except for commitment. Interpersonal-level relationships have a stronger impact on CL than firm-level relationships. Among all the dimensions of RQ, commitment has the greatest influence on CL at both levels. Firm-level RQ negatively and insignificantly mediates the relation between interpersonal-level RQ and CL.

The study findings only apply to Tanzania's microfinance industry, because the interactions between and the relative effects of firm and interpersonal ties may vary across various contexts and cultures. Future research may consider replicating this study in other contexts and cultures to confirm these findings.

This study advances the understanding of how multilevel relationships affect CL within the microfinance industry. This insight will assist MFIs and policymakers in identifying alternative and more efficient relational strategies to enhance CL, a critical element for the sustainability of MFIs. In turn, the sustainability of MFIs in low-income countries like Tanzania holds paramount importance for stimulating socioeconomic development and, hence, achieving the goal of poverty eradication.

While previous studies on multilevel relationships concentrated on a single relational dimension (trust) and were conducted within the realms of retail, airline and industrial manufacturing, the current study employs the three most popular relational dimensions: trust, commitment and satisfaction, within the microfinance context. Additionally, this study investigates the mediation effect of firm-level RQ between interpersonal-level RQ and CL, a previously unexplored area in research.

Although recent years have shown increasing popularity of e-commerce worldwide, there is still a lack of studies comprehensively exploring trust issue in e-commerce. Based on trust transfer theory and signaling theory, the purpose of this paper is to present an integrated research model to test the relationships between trust dimensions and e-loyalty, interactions among trust dimensions, as well as antecedents of different trust dimensions.

Data were collected through a web-based survey in Chinese markets and structural equation modeling with partial least squares was used to analyze the data.

The results identified that three trust dimensions all have significant impacts on e-loyalty, and relationships existed in different trust dimensions. Moreover, information quality and security protection are important factors determining institutional trust while store reputation is the most salient factor determining interpersonal trust.

This research contributes to the body of knowledge on trust by exploring the nature of trust with a multidimensional scale. Another theoretical contribution is the provision of a comprehensive understanding of the trust antecedents in e-commerce. Furthermore, this research benefits the companies doing e-businesses by allowing them to better understand how to improve consumers’ trust in the online environment and thus to retain and attract more loyal customers and succeed in online businesses.

Trust is an important facilitator of successful B2B relationships. The purpose of this study is to investigate affect-based antecedents of both interpersonal and interorganizational trust, and their impact on the performance of buyer–supplier relationships. The authors ask two research questions: (1) What are affect-based dimensions of interpersonal and interorganizational trust? (2) How do interpersonal and interorganizational trust influence buyers’ operational performance?

The authors use data from an original survey of 156 buyer–supplier relationships between multinational enterprise subsidiaries and local suppliers in the Thai manufacturing sector to develop a structural model in which the authors test the hypotheses.

Consistent with social exchange theory and social psychology, the empirical analysis shows that affect-based dimensions at the individual level, namely, likeability, similarity and frequent social contact, and at the organizational level, namely, supplier firm willingness to customize and institutionalization of cooperation, are important for establishing trust. In addition, interpersonal trust enhances buyers’ operational performance indirectly via interorganizational trust.

Buying and selling firms may develop organizational trust by developing processes that enhance organizational trust. Individuals with purchasing or sales responsibilities may enhance trust in their personal relationship. However, such interpersonal trust needs to be translated to the organizational level to benefit organizational performance.

The findings contribute to the literature on affect-based antecedents and outcomes of trust. Specifically, the authors offer theory and empirical evidence regarding the contribution of salespersons toward affect-based dimensions of trust and its impact on buyer’s operational performance.

This paper aims to explore the moderating impact of four moderators, namely, retailer brand strength, customer’s perceived purchase regularity, gender and purchase channel (online and offline) on the relationship between relationship marketing investments (RMIs) and customer gratitude, and customer gratitude and customer loyalty. The context of research is the purchase of a high-involvement product by Indian customers.

This study adapts Huang RMIs-Gratitude-Loyalty model and empirically validates the associated hypotheses using structural equation modeling. Data is collected through the survey method.

The study (N = 385) results suggest a significant impact of preferential treatment and interpersonal communication investments on customer’s feeling of gratitude toward the retailer and, consequently, on loyalty. Purchase channel, gender and, to a lesser extent, customer perceived regularity each moderates the relationships between marketing investment and gratitude, and that between gratitude and loyalty; surprisingly, retailer brand is not a significant moderator.

Future research can factor in the impact of loyalty program on the proposed relationships.

This research offers helpful guidelines for retailers, especially for those who currently have a multichannel presence and invest or plan to invest in relationship marketing to obtain benefits from customer loyalty.

This investigation explores not only the relevance of RMIs–gratitude–loyalty model in the Indian retail context but also the influence of moderating variables on the retailers’ efforts of gaining consumer loyalty.