Local social network structure and promotion effectiveness in social commerce

Abstract

PurposeDrawing on social network and information diffusion theories, the authors study the impact of the structural characteristics of a seller’s local social network on her promotion effectiveness in social commerce.Design/methodology/approachThe authors define a local social network as one formed by a focal seller, her directly connected users and all links among these users. Using data from a large social commerce website in China, the authors build econometric models to investigate how the density, grouping and centralization of local social networks affect the number of likes received by products posted by sellers.FindingsLocal social networks with low density, grouping and centralization are associated with more likes on sellers’ posted products. The negative effects of grouping and centralization are reduced when density is high.Originality/valueThe paper deepens the understanding of the determinants of social commerce success from a network structure perspective. In particular, it draws attention to the role of sellers’ local social networks, forming a foundation for future research on social commerce.

Digital marketing tactics used in the profile of a political candidate: The case of the Costa Rica 2022 elections

“…(Naeem 2019) highlights the increased use of social networks as part of the digital strategy, since it concentrates a large amount of customer data for analysis. (Xu et al 2023) indicate that social networks are the second source of data search associated with online brands, the first source being Internet search engines. This is why the research was developed taking Facebook as a source of information.…”