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Full-Text Articles in Business
B2b Ewom On Alibaba: Signaling Through Online Reviews In Platform-Based Social Exchange, Zsófia Tóth, Mona Mrad, Omar S. Itani, Jun Luo, Martin J. Liu
B2b Ewom On Alibaba: Signaling Through Online Reviews In Platform-Based Social Exchange, Zsófia Tóth, Mona Mrad, Omar S. Itani, Jun Luo, Martin J. Liu
Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations
Highlights
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The study explores buyers' signaling of observable and unobservable supplier characteristics on the Alibaba e-platform.
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Key B2B eWOM themes that the study identifies are: product/service quality, human touch, responsiveness, and resilience.
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Findings demonstrate that human touch is vital in B2B e-platform environments too, not only in physical reality.
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Buyers' signals aim at suppliers as well as at prospective buyers and implicitly buyers send signals about themselves too.
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Signaling Theory is applied to address the signaling process, while Social Exchange Theory informs relevant cost-benefit assessments.
Abstract
This study investigates the contemporary role of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in business exchanges through …