The role of mutual trust in building members' loyalty to a C2C platform provider

Jin Chen, Cheng Zhang, Yunjie Xu

Research output: Journal PublicationArticlepeer-review

176 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Active interactions and relationships among members are crucial to the success of consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce. Prior studies have rarely articulated the relationship between the social interactions among members and their loyalty to the C2C platform provider. This paper differentiates two types of trust in C2C e-commerce-mutual trust among members and members' trust in the platform provider-and then proposes that trust in the platform provider mediates the relation between mutual trust and loyalty to the platform provider. A study using a sample from Chinese C2C Web sites shows that information interaction and emotional interaction both boost mutual trust among members, which in turn boosts their trust in and loyalty to the platform provider. For platform providers, the findings suggest a strategic route to building members' loyalty in a competitive market.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)147-171
Number of pages25
JournalInternational Journal of Electronic Commerce
Volume14
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • C2C e-commerce
  • Loyalty
  • Mutual trust
  • Platform providers
  • Social interaction
  • Trust
  • Trust in e-commerce

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Business and International Management
  • Economics and Econometrics

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