Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Stockholm School of Economics Asia Working Paper Series,
Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm China Economic Research Institute

No 2021-53: Reputational Assets and Social Media Marketing Activeness: Empirical Insights from China

Anders C. Johansson () and Zhen Zhu ()
Additional contact information
Anders C. Johansson: Stockholm China Economic Research Institute, Postal: Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, SE-113 83 Stockholm, Sweden
Zhen Zhu: Kent Business School, University of Kent, Postal: Parkwood Road, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7FS, United Kingdom

Abstract: We explore the linkages between social media marketing activeness and reputational assets on digital platforms with a unique sample of over 8,000 customer-to-customer (C2C) sellers registered on both Taobao, China’s largest C2C online shopping platform, and Sina Weibo, China’s largest microblogging platform. A unique collaborative effort between the two platforms enables us to examine whether C2C sellers are motivated to engage in marketing activities on a separate social media platform. Applying machine learning and natural language processing methods, we first identify whether C2C sellers conduct social media marketing on their microblogs. We then differentiate between earned and owned reputation factors accumulated on both platforms and test their relationships to social media marketing activeness. We find that earned reputation factors on both platforms are significantly associated with social media marketing activeness. However, we identify a conflict of owned reputation factors between the two platforms, which provides a potential explanation for the limited success of the cross-platform collaboration.

Keywords: social media marketing; reputational assets; electronic commerce; China

JEL-codes: L81; M15; M30; M31

36 pages, October 15, 2021

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