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The purpose of this paper is to describe a cross‐cultural study which examined individualism's moderating effect on the relationship between bonding and commitment between banks and their corporate clients.

Data were collected through surveys completed by corporate customers from 126 Canadian companies and 156 Indian companies. Multiple regression analysis was used to calculate relative effects of structural and social bond on commitment across the two samples. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was used to examine individualism's moderating effect on the bonding‐commitment relationship.

The paper's findings indicate that social and structural bonding are both antecedent to commitment, but that social bonding is given higher importance in the low individualism Indian society, while structural bonding is more important in the high individualism Canadian society. Individualism moderates the relationship between both social and structural bonding and commitment.

Bank relationships are dependent upon specific cultural contexts in which buyers and sellers interact. The type of bonding relationship (e.g. social or structural) determines the strength of commitment. Bank managers must understand the proper emphasis to place on developing social connections versus business transactional relationships with clients in individualistic versus collective cultures.

This paper dramatizes the importance of understanding ways in which bonding relates to commitment, particularly when societal values vary and thus alter the relative importance of forms of bonding that generate commitment. Through empirical analyses, the paper demonstrates the moderating effect of individualism on the social bonding‐commitment and structural bonding‐commitment linkages in the context of an important service sector. To date, these relationships have not been explored in either the Indian or Canadian context.

The purpose of this paper is to show that numerous studies have advanced social capital research over the past decade. Most studies have accepted the theoretical distinction between bonding and bridging social capital networks. Many, however, tend to agglomerate empirical research under the one catch‐all social capital concept, rather than classifying it according to the bonding/bridging distinction. Furthermore, most studies make little distinction on the basis of methodology, between qualitative and quantitative approaches to investigating social capital. These omissions need to be addressed.

This paper reviews definitions and applications of bridging and bonding social capital, classifies empirical studies according to each network type, and produces a further breakdown according to methodological approach.

The result is a four‐part “grid” of social capital research, encompassing bonding and bridging, and quantitative and qualitative aspects. This paper finds that most qualitative research examines non‐excludable and excludable goods and is relevant to bonding social capital, whilst most quantitative analysis looks at civic networks and norms of trust, and relates to bridging social capital.

Results advance the task of clarifying and measuring social capital.

Further development of the bridging/bonding social capital conceptual pair should allow for a more precise measurement of a community, or region.

No review paper to date captures the above empirical and methodological “grid” clearly.

While the sizable body of research focusses on various psychological effects of enterprise social media (ESM), research connecting the link between ESM and cyberslacking is still very sparse. Drawing inspiration from the social bonding theory, the authors have proposed a moderated mediation model to explain how ESM affordances reduce cyberslacking, mediated significantly by workplace social bonding when the perceived co-worker involvement is high.

Utilising a sample of 384 respondents, the study tested the model fit and hypothesised relationships with AMOS and PROCESS MACRO.

The findings show that workplace social bonding mediates the relationship between ESM affordances and cyberslacking. The results are also consistent with the moderated mediation model as the mediation is significant when the perceived co-worker involvement is high, and the mediation is insignificant when the moderator is low/moderate.

Considering the potential behavioural dynamics of ESM artefacts, the authors have introduced self-expression (via microblogging), recognition (from paralinguistic digital affordances) and network externality as ESM affordances. Alongside the existing measures to reduce employee deviance, the proposed model with the above-mentioned affordances can be investigated in detail by the future research community.

In light of the findings, the study demonstrates that ESM can be treated as a mechanism to keep cyberslacking at bay. The results offer significant implications for managers, who lookout for innovative and soft strategies to reduce cyberslacking in the workplace.

Instead of implementing strict policies to kerb cyberslacking, this study proposes an alternative and an interesting model by introducing ESM as a strategic tool in reducing cyberslacking. The paper argues that ESM, being a potential tool for employee engagement and bonding, may offset the employees' tendency to involve in cyberslacking.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how bonding (i.e. tightly knit, emotionally close social relationships) and bridging social capital (i.e. outward looking open social relationships) affect opportunity recognition and innovation implementation in a cultural network of firms, investigating the main benefits of and drawbacks to both bonding and bridging social capital.

The paper is based on a case study of a cultural network of firms which share the same norms, principles and values. The method adopted is content analysis of qualitative data.

The authors find that in cultural network bridging social capital facilitates experimentation and combination of ideas from distant sources, while bonding social capital, which underpins the need for more conformity, is more effective for supporting innovation implementation. Innovation results from the interplay between the two dimensions of social capital, and each dimension contributes to the final outcome in a distinct and unique way.

There are some limitations which arise from the case study methodology; the limited set of industries analysed affects the generalizability of the findings.

The research has some practical implications for firms that belong to cultural networks. It offers suggestions about how to manage social relationships in different stages of the innovation process.

The authors examine the effects of bonding and bridging social capital on innovation in a cultural network of firms. The authors show that in a cultural network, different moments in the innovation process require different efforts related to the firm’s network relationships.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of relational bonding on intention and loyalty and the mediating role of commitment foci in the service context.

The study used a cross-sectional and quantitative mail survey approach. Bank customers in New Zealand were surveyed, and multiple analytical techniques were used to measure the relationships between consumer bonding, commitment foci and loyalty behavioral intentions and the mediating role of commitment foci in service relationships.

The results confirm that commitment foci or targets of commitment are important mediators in the relationships between bonding and loyalty-related behavioral intentions. The findings provide new theoretical knowledge about the mediating effect of the commitment foci in service relationships and significantly enhance knowledge about consumers’ intention and loyalty.

The research provides several noteworthy insights into the role of social and structural bonding in consumers’ commitment and loyalty in the service context, as well as provides an important implication for segmentation.

The study contributes to the service research on consumers’ intention and loyalty behavior toward the commitment foci. Introducing the role of commitment foci as a mediating mechanism within the context of a service encounter is new in the services marketing literature. This study provides a better understanding of consumers’ perceptions of and behaviors toward the commitment foci, as well as their intention and loyalty.

The use of social networking sites (SNSs) can promote life satisfaction mainly because of their social relationship benefits. Although prior studies examined the roles of different types of social capital (SC), the association between online and offline SC is ignored. This research addresses this gap by uncovering a mechanism of transformation between online and offline SC in terms of bonding and bridging types when linking SNSs usage and life satisfaction.

Categorizing the concept of SC into four sub-types from bonding/bridging and online/offline dimensions, the paper establishes a theoretical framework based on the transformation mechanism among these four kinds of SC. A component-based approach, partial least square method, is chosen for hypothesis testing with a survey-based sample collected from WeChat users.

First, SNSs usage is positively related to life satisfaction and four types of SC (i.e. online/offline and bonding/bridging SC). Second, both online bonding SC and offline bridging SC are positively related to life satisfaction and can mediate the relationship between SNSs usage and life satisfaction. Third, offline bonding SC is positively related to online bonding SC and can mediate the relationship between SNSs usage and online bonding SC; on the contrary, online bridging SC is positively related to offline bridging SC and can mediate the relationship between SNSs usage and offline bridging SC.

In the environment of SNSs, users can take vigorous strategies to better balance online and offline spaces and improve life satisfaction by adapting to the characteristics of SNSs in developing different types of SC. Specifically, it is encouraged for users to transfer online bridging SC into offline space and offline bonding SC into online space.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study exploring the association between online and offline SC when linking SNSs usage and life satisfaction. Instead of the single transformation direction from online to offline in prior Internet research, this research has revealed different transformation directions between online and offline SC in terms of bonding and bridging types in the context of SNSs.

In recent years, the business of container lines has faced severe challenges such as overcapacity and low profitability. To survive in such a competitive market, container lines need to maintain long-term customer relationships by enhancing the satisfaction and loyalty of customers. The purpose of this paper is to adopt a social exchange theory (SET) approach and investigate the impact of relational bonding strategies on the satisfaction and loyalty of customers in container shipping.

Drawing on SET, a theoretical model that specifies the relationships between relational bonding strategies, customer satisfaction and loyalty was proposed. Survey data were collected from 175 freight forwarders. The obtained data were analyzed using structural equation modelling.

The results indicate that financial bonding strategies have the most significant direct effects on customer satisfaction, while social bonding strategies have the strongest direct impact on customer loyalty. Financial bonding strategies, on the other hand, have the strongest total effects on customer loyalty. Intermodal and basic operations are found to have the equal total effects on customer loyalty.

By identifying the most effective relational bonding strategies for enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty, this study’s findings allow container lines to better allocate their resources and implement effective relational marketing policies to satisfy and retain their customers.

This research analyses and validates the determinants of customer satisfaction and loyalty from a relational lens and empirically contributes to the field of relational marketing in the container shipping industry.

In this study, we drew on the theories of social exchange and social learning and hypothesized that the online social capital (SC) and offline SC of social networking affect the online self-disclosure (OSD) of individuals through social self-efficacy (SSE).

After retrieving 514 valid questionnaires, we used structural equation modeling to analyze the data.

The results indicated that the users’ SSE affected their OSD, and that both online and offline bridging and bonding SC increased their SSE. However, online bonding SC directly affected their OSD, whereas online bridging SC did not considerably affect their OSD. Given these findings, we presented both theoretical and practical implications to elucidate SSE and OSD behavior from the perspective of online and offline bridging and bonding SC.

In this study, we drew on theories of social exchange and social learning to examine the effects of online and offline bridging and bonding SC on users’ SSE and OSD on SNSs. Given the importance of SC and SSE in social relationships and the effects of OSD on SNSs, our goal was to provide SNS marketers with a thorough understanding of how to facilitate SSE and OSD from the perspective of online and offline bridging and bonding SC.

Using social capital theory as the theoretical framework, the purpose of this study is to examine if shared value, the norm of reciprocity and social bonding within a small fashion brand's Instagram page transfers to the overall perception and purchase intention toward the brand. Further, the authors test perceived benefit (i.e. perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment) as anteceding variables along with the social capital variables. More specifically, this study investigates (1) the influence of shared value and norm of reciprocity on social bonding on the Instagram page, (2) the influence of perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment on social bonding on the Instagram page, (3) the mediating effect of brand trust and brand identification on the relationship between social bonding and purchase intention and (4) and the moderating role of the generational cohort on the hypothesized relationships.

Through an online survey, 599 usable data were collected to test the proposed research framework using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The results identify significant influences of shared value, norm of reciprocity and perceived enjoyment on social bonding. Brand identification and brand trust both have significant mediating effects between social bonding and purchase intention. Further, the results show that the mediating effect of brand trust is significantly higher for Generation Y, while the mediating effect of brand identification is significantly higher for Generation Z.

The study findings provide important implications for small fashion brands operating in a social media realm.

Research on how social bonding between boundary spanners influences relationship outcomes in business-to-business (B2B) settings is sparse and controversial. This longitudinal study aims to close this gap and assess the impact of social bonding on the share of wallet and actual cross-buying behaviour.

B2B relationships between a manufacturer of light commercial vehicles and its customers were investigated. A random sample of fleet managers answered two telephone surveys.

Social bonding was found to affect both investigated relationship outcomes, share of wallet and cross-buying, through the generation of trust over and above the customer’s perceptions of value.

Only one product category was investigated in this study, and further research should explore boundary conditions for the relevance of social bonding in B2B.

Social bonding represents one lever (next to value perceptions) for building a competitive advantage in a B2B context. Relationship marketing activities that are intended to strengthen the development of social bonds between customers and account managers should be encouraged.

The authors provide clear evidence regarding the disputed impact of social bonding between boundary spanners on relationship outcomes in B2B relationships by testing its impact on real purchase behaviour and not only purchase intentions, as is the case in most published studies to date.