Despite the reputation of online marketplaces being distant
and impersonal, through social technologies such as instant messaging, they can
create the sense of personal and social relationships between buyers and
sellers, termed “swift guanxi” in China, to facilitate loyalty, interactivity
and repeat transactions, according to new research by Temple University Fox
School of Business Professor Paul A. Pavlou.
Three researchers – in addition to Pavlou, Tilburg
University’s Carol Xiaojuan Ou and Robert M. Davison of the City University of
Hong Kong – studied data from TaoBao, China’s leading online marketplace, to
examine the efficacy of using computer-mediated-communication (CMC) technology
to build guanxi and turn impersonal one-time shoppers into loyal and committed
long-term customers through personal rapport.