PurposeThis study aims to examine how the clickbait headlines influence the perceived source credibility, subjective norm, perceived benefit and purchasing intention of customers on social commerce through social media platforms in different interpersonal relationship strength scenarios.Design/methodology/approachA total of three studies were employed online to test the hypotheses. Study 1 used a single-factor, two-condition (clickbait: yes vs no) between-subject design. Both study 2 and study 3 employed a 2 (clickbait: yes vs no) × 2 (relationships: close friend vs stranger) between-subject design. All data were sourced randomly from 729 respondents in China. Data and models were analyzed by using SPSS and Mplus.FindingsStudy 1 illustrated that clickbait has a negative effect on perceived credibility and purchase intention, and the perceived credibility mediated the relationship between clickbait and purchase intention. Study 2 replicated such finding and demonstrated that the interpersonal relationship strength interacts with the influence from clickbait to purchase intention. Study 3 enhanced the mechanism of source credibility found in the above studies and further revealed that perceived benefit and perceived norm had a mediating role in the purchase-making process online.Originality/valueResearch efforts to date concentrate on how to detect and reduce clickbait headlines. This paper adopts a different perspective, considering the consequences of clickbait in the marketing domain. This study reveals the effects of clickbait on purchase intention and the mechanism behind this process under different scenarios.

PurposeLive streaming sales (LSS) is an emerging and flourishing practice in the retail industry. While its implementation has been pervasively attempted, there is a lack of systematic and academic exploration of the practice. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the LSS ecosystem and its development through a literature review and an industry analysis. Moreover, by pinpointing the pitfalls in current practices, this paper presents the practical implications of LSS and provides recommendations and directions for future academic exploration.Design/methodology/approachThe aim of the present study was to investigate the developing trajectory, exclusive elements (such as multi-channel networks (MCNs) and live streamers) and other critical components of the LSS ecosystem using a mixed-methods approach that comprises content analysis of newspaper articles and press releases, literature view and industry analysis.FindingsThe results of the analyses indicate the presence of several nonfungible modular components in the LSS ecosystem, including upstream suppliers, MCNs, live streamers and platforms. It was also found that inequalities and hierarchies are inherent to the LSS ecosystem as it currently exists: low-end participants in the LSS industry and small- and medium-sized enterprise owners, who constitute the majority of LSS practitioners, cannot reach the break-even point via LSS hosted by top-level live streamers or others (low-level live streamers, employees, etc.).Originality/valueThis article discusses the LSS ecosystem based on the nature of the nonfungible modules within it. In addition, it discusses the modules (roles) and relationships among them based on the theory of ecosystem developed by previous studies. Furthermore, drawing from an analysis of the pitfalls in the LSS ecosystem, this article highlights strategies for two critical e-commerce processes: 1) choosing which type of LSS to apply based on the factors of brands, products and consumers and 2) integrating LSS to optimize post-sale service and appeal to the sustainability of development.

PurposeThe objective of this study was to improve understanding of frontline staff's subjective happiness and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic by investigating the roles of employees' busy mindset and leader conscientiousness.Design/methodology/approachThe link between employee anxiety and subjective happiness was also explored, and the cross-level mediating effect of employee anxiety was tested using a multilevel design. A survey of 373 frontline staffers and 74 team leaders in the integrated resorts (IRs) was conducted in three waves: April (Time 1), May (Time 2) and June (Time 3) in 2020. The data were analysed with SPSS and Mplus using a hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) method.FindingsThe results indicated that during the COVID-19 pandemic, a busy mindset increased frontline staff's anxiety and thus decreased their subjective happiness, and leader conscientiousness remedied the effect of anxiety on subjective happiness.Practical implicationsThe findings are relevant to frontline staffers, team leaders in the hospitality industry and corporate service departments. Against the background of COVID-19, conscientious leaders can significantly help employees to overcome their anxiety and insecurity and improve their subjective happiness, answering the urgent call to deal with the challenges of the new work–life environment.Originality/valueThe study differs from previous other studies in two dimensions: First, the authors explored the interactions of the affective events from the cross-level perspectives, i.e. both team level and individual level. Second, the authors conducted this research on the mental issues of the hospitality frontline staffers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which remains a black box to be explored.

Knowledge often requires both experience (implicit knowledge) and exploration (explicit knowledge) (Park and Gabbard, 2018); the knowledge in the e-commerce industry is constantly changing. E-commerce companies must figure out knowledge hiding behaviors inside the organization and eliminate them. Although knowledge management and knowledge sharing implementation have been conducted in organizations academically and practically for many years, employees still share knowledge reluctantly. For instance, in an e-commerce company with multiple online shops, operators are reluctant to share knowledge with colleagues since the techniques and the newest information have huge impacts on the online sales, which will affect the operator’s income and job stability in future (Han, Hampson and Wang, 2021). However, it is detrimental to the overall interests of the company because knowledge can bring competitive advantages to enterprises, and ensure that enterprises are distinguished from other organizations and occupy a favorable position in commercial competition. This paper investigated the antecedents of employees’ knowledge hiding behavior from the knowledge type perspective and explores each path behind the individual type of knowledge: job insecurity path and timeliness path. At the same time, considering the existing fact that companies already have policies that encourage knowledge sharing but still have knowledge hiding behaviors, this paper also explores whether employees’ perception toward corporate knowledge sharing strategies will affect the above two paths. The empirical data was collected from nearly 400 employees (frontline operators and junior managers) from six e-commerce business entities in China. The results verified that employees with a stronger perception of career plateau tend to hide tacit knowledge (derived from their experience) due to job insecurity behind. As to explicit knowledge, the higher the timeliness of the knowledge, the less likely it is that employees would like to hide their knowledge.

Abstract：In this paper, a model of analyzing the broker market is established, the existence of the optimal solution of the model is proved, the specific way of solution is given, and the algorithm of determining the key parameter w k is proposed on the basis of analyzing the degree of similarity of the requirements of buyers and sellers, aiming at the broker income. The demonstrative analysis of second-hand house transactions shows that the algorithm of estimating w k has a fairly good degree of actual differentiation, and the model established is also practical and effective.