Social Capital in the Chinese Virtual Community: Impacts on the Social Shopping Model for Social Media

摘要

QQ, the largest virtual community in China, generates relational social capital that facilitates social shopping behaviours across channels. Based on social capital theory, this study assesses how social identification and knowledge creation influence social shopping behaviours; and how purchase motivation and intention from one channel transfer to another. Analysis of data collected from 216 QQ users supports the positive impacts of social identification and knowledge creation on purchase intention for virtual products within a channel, and positive cross-channel relationships between purchase motivations and intentions. This study provides an empirical social shopping model by facilitating the notion of social capital.