Examining Gifting Through Social Network Services: A Social Exchange Theory Perspective

Abstract

The increasing popularity of social network services (SNS) presents an opportunity to offer gifting services through SNS. For givers, gifting can be an important means to enhance social relationships. On the other hand, for SNS providers, members’ gifting can serve as a major source of revenue. As SNS providers continue to face challenges in generating revenues, understanding how to stimulate gifting through SNS can allow them to profit from members’ relationships. However, there is little understanding of what drives members’ gifting through SNS, with limited prior research on online gifting. Thus motivated, we develop a research model of the antecedents of SNS gifting that builds on social exchange theory and prior gifting literature, and incorporates the unique aspects of such gifting (that we refer to as microgifting, with low-price digital voucher gifts). The theoretical model was validated through a field study, in which both subjective and objective data were collected from an SNS that has been successful in offering such gifting services. Our findings highlight the effects of perceived worth, SNS gifting experience, and the number of SNS friends on the frequency of SNS gifting. The results also show that expected benefits (i.e., reciprocity, pleasure, relationship support, convenience, and immediacy of gift sending) and costs (i.e., impersonality) indirectly impact SNS gifting frequency through the assessment of perceived worth. The study contributes to research by adding to our understanding of this new approach of gifting through SNS, i.e., microgifting. It also lends insights on how SNS providers can offer such services to tap this source of revenue.

Impact of the Price of Gifts From Patients on Physicians’ Service Quality in Online Consultations: Empirical Study Based on Social Exchange Theory

“…Researchers have traditionally explained user behaviors in these communities based on SET, such as the knowledge sharing intention [30], influence factors of providing social support [31], and the motivation of physicians to participate in online health communities [32]. Moreover, gift giving is a form of social exchange, and some researchers have also studied the influencing factors of gift-giving frequency in social network services based on SET [33]. However, less attention has been paid to gift-giving behaviors in online health communities.…”

“…Our study contributes new knowledge in several key ways. First, despite previous research about the impact of online gifts in social networks and live broadcast platforms [33,[52][53][54][55], few scholars have paid attention to the gifts provided in online health communities. Furthermore, research related to gift-giving behaviors in an online health community verified that online gifts from patients could improve the speed of physicians' answers during the consultation [8], but ignored the potential effect of gift price.…”

¿Cómo se usan las tecnologías de la información y comunicación (TIC), y las redes sociales (RRSS) en la micro, pequeña y mediana empresa (MIPYMES)? caso

“…El uso generalizado de las RRSS en la comunicación y construcción de relaciones entre los individuos (Kim et al, 2018)…”

Game Modelling and Strategy Research on Trilateral Evolution for Coal-Mine Operational Safety Production System: A Simulation Approach

“…In short, the level of safety climate of organization plays an important role in the operation of coal-mine safety production, and the improvement level of safety climate depends on the organization's emphasis and the attention degree on safety [16,17]. According to the theory of social exchange [18][19][20], the safety climate level of organization and the behavioral decision of miners are equivalent and reciprocal. At the same time, the supervision of first-line managers also affects the behavioral decision making of miners.…”