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This study analyses “guanxi work processes” – strategic practices that initiate, develop, shape, suspend, manipulate, and terminate guanxi relations – in Chinese banquets. It explores (i) different styles of carrying out guanxi work in banquets and (ii) guanxi work processes that are relatively unsuccessful and/or shaped by contingencies. Both are research gaps in the relevant scholarship. Adopting a robust processual perspective, this study analyses guanxi work processes that occur during the banquet without losing sight of those that occur pre-banquet and post-banquet. It identifies two styles of doing banquet guanxi work: one that emphasises pseudo-kin declaration and ritualistic toasting, and another that stresses non-reciprocal relational gifting and associated social skills. It also clarifies how guanxi work can fail in various ways and yield unexpected guanxi outcomes. Our data were collected from participant observation of fifteen banquets and multiple rounds of interviews with thirty-nine participants of these banquets.

PurposeThe boom in live streaming has intensified competition among streamers for viewers' gifts, which makes it meaningful to study the factors that affect the viewers’ gifting behavior. Given the emotional attachment between streamers and viewers, the authors set out to elucidate a new driver on viewer gifting: expressions of the streamer. This research aims to explore the impact of streamer emotions on the viewer gifting behaviors, including free and paid gifting. The loyalty level of the viewers is also introduced as a moderating factor to investigate the heterogeneous effect of streamer emotions on gifting behavior.Design/methodology/approachThe dataset the authors collected consists of two parts, including 1809.69 h of live streaming videos and 358,002 gift giving records. Combined with deep learning methods and regression analysis, the authors performed empirical tests on the 81,110 valid samples. Several robustness checks were also conducted to ensure the reliability of main results.FindingsThe empirical results show that streamer emotions do have effects on viewers' free and paid gifting behavior. The authors’ findings show that positive streamer expressions, such as happiness and surprise, have a positive influence on viewer gifting behavior. However, some negative expressions, like sadness, can also have a positive impact. Moreover, the authors discovered that higher viewer loyalty amplifies the positive effect of streamer emotions and reduces the negative effect.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the study about streamer emotions and viewers' consumption behavior, which extends the application of emotion as social information model (EASI model) in the live streaming setting. The authors carefully divide the gifting behavior into two types: free and paid, and study how these two types are affected by streamer emotions. Besides, these effects are analyzed within viewers of different loyalty levels. This study offers practical emotion management strategies for streamers and live streaming platforms to gain more economic profits.

PurposeThis study aims to explore the determinants of viewers’ gifting and social sharing behaviours in online streaming from a dual-attachment perspective and to explain how live streaming fosters attachment through a social interaction aspect.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted an online survey with 316 valid responses to test the research model. The structural equation modelling approach was applied to assess both the measurement and structural models.FindingsThe results show that both bond-based and identity-based attachments promote gifting and social sharing behaviours. Participation and cognitive communion motivate viewers to establish bond-based attachment, while group interaction among viewer crowds encourages viewers to create identity-based attachment. In addition, group interaction can moderate the relationship between participation and bond-based attachment.Originality/valueThis study is one of the earliest attempts to highlight the significance of viewer crowd and viewer-viewer interaction in promoting viewers’ behaviours in live streaming context. This study also indicates that viewer-viewer interaction can moderate the impact of viewer–streamer interaction, which is among the first to investigate the interaction effects of viewer-viewer interaction and viewer–streamer interaction.

Purpose This research paper aims to understand how givers characterise and manage their gift giving networks by drawing on attachment theory (AT). This responds to the need to illuminate the givers–receivers’ networks beyond traditional role-based taxonomies and explore their changing dynamics. Design/methodology/approach A multi-method, qualitative approach was used involving 158 gift experiences captured in online diaries and 27 follow-up interviews. Findings Results show that givers organise receivers into gifting networks that are grounded in a contextual understanding of their relationships. The identification of direct, surrogate and mediated bonds reflects three different dimensions that inform gift-giving networks of support, care or belongingness rooted in AT. The relative position of gift receivers in this network influences the nature of support, the type of social influences and relationship stability in the network. Research limitations/implications This study illustrates the complexity of relationships based on the data collected over two specific periods of time; thus, there might be further types of receivers within a giver’s network that the data did not capture. This limitation was minimised by asking about other possible receivers in interviews. Practical implications The findings set a foundation for gift retailers to assist gift givers in finding gifts that match their perceived relations to the receivers by adapting communication messages and offering advice aligned with specific relationship contexts. Originality/value This study illuminates gift-giving networks by proposing a taxonomy of gifting networks underpinned by AT that can be applied to study different relationship contexts from the perspective of the giver. This conceptualisation captures different levels of emotional support, social influences and relationship stability, which have an impact on the receivers’ roles within the giver’s network. Importantly, results reveal that the gift receiver is not always the target of gift-giving. The target can be someone whom the giver wants to please or an acquaintance they share with the receiver with whom they wish to reinforce bonds.

•Gift givers prefer to give gift cards to luxury stores.•Gift recipients prefer to receive non-luxury gift cards as gifts.•Resellers demand and buyers pay lower prices for luxury gift cards.•Valuation of gift cards is mediated by their perceived utility as gifts. Gift cards account for a $200 billion market in the US, yet little is known about consumers’ preferences and valuations of different gift cards. We examine how average US consumers feel about exchanging luxury brand gift cards (LGCs) versus non-luxury brand gift cards (NLGCs). Using secondary data analyses, surveys, and experiments, we demonstrate two asymmetries: between valuations of LGCs versus NLGCs and between valuations of gift cards by givers versus recipients. We show that LGCs are valued less than NLGCs with identical price tags. LGCs are more likely to be swapped or sold. Resellers demand and buyers pay lower prices for LGCs. These effects are mediated by the perceived utility of the gift cards as gifts and moderated by a person’s role in the gifting process. Gift givers value and prefer to give LGCs more, whereas recipients prefer and value NLGCs more.

This article adds to conceptualisations of philanthropy. Applying an ontological approach within an evolutionary perspective, it advances an analogous African narrative of pro-social transactions of gift-giving, or gifting, associated with Marcel Mauss. Originating on the continent, this relational behaviour is subject to indeterminate complex processes which co-determine any society's institutional design. Analysing gifting's sociopolitical influence on the continent pays attention to the (non-)agonistic as well as the 'vertical' and 'horizontal' features of gifting across pre- to post-colonial eras, examining their role in establishing patrimonial systems of governance. When gifting is set against (institutionalised) philanthropy's dominant discourse, issues for its critique are identified. Suggestions for further inquiry and implications for improving development on the continent are provided.

Purpose Social network services (SNS) gifting is a new business model, but many SNS providers continue to face challenges as they explore ways to increase their revenues from gifting. The purpose of this paper is to examine the key factors involved in gift giving via SNS platforms. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a mixed methods approach through qualitative and quantitative research. In the first stage (qualitative study), the authors extract factors from interviews with users of SNS gifting services. In the second stage (quantitative study), the authors interpret decisional factors explored in the first stage on the basis of customer value theory, develop a research model and empirically test it. Findings The results show that five factors – convenience of SNS gifting, symbolic representation of SNS gifting, relationship support of SNS gifting, pleasure of SNS gifting, and an SNS gifting norm – directly or indirectly affect SNS gifting decisions. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to electronic commerce research by extending the customer value theory and adding to the literature on SNS gifting and gift giving in general. Practical implications The study informs SNS providers regarding the promotion of SNS gifting services for revenue generation. Originality/value This study is among the first to comprehensively examine decision-making in SNS gifting through the lens of customer value theory.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the patterns and factors associated with cigarette sharing and gifting, and to explore whether smoking can be predicted by these social practices. A cross-sectional survey using a multi-stage sampling design was conducted online from 30 April to 30 July 2020 in China. A sample of 982 household heads from Guangdong Province and 530 household heads from Shaanxi province were involved in the data analysis. Demographic characteristics, social participation, beliefs and behaviors related to cigarette sharing and gifting were assessed. Chi-squared analysis and multiple logistic regression analysis were used to explore the key factors associated with cigarette sharing and gifting, and to identify their relationship with smoking. The shared and gift cigarettes were both mainly offered to friends, and receiving gift cigarettes mostly occurred during the holidays. Gender and province were associated with cigarette sharing, and marital status and social participation were associated with cigarette gifting. Cigarette gifting beliefs and smoking status were prominent predictors for both sharing and gifting cigarettes. Cigarette gifting beliefs were significantly higher among smokers than non-smokers, and people with high cigarette gifting beliefs were 1.68 (adjusted odds ratio, AOR=19.17; 95% CI: 13.31-27.61) times more likely to be a smoker. Offering shared cigarettes has been found to significantly predict tobacco use (AOR=19.17; 95% CI: 13.31-27.61), while people who received shared and gift cigarettes were 1.50 (95% CI: 1.08-2.09) and 2.58 (95% CI: 1.66-4.00) times more likely to be a current smoker than those who did not receive cigarettes, respectively. Cigarette sharing and gifting were especially pervasive among male smokers and married people in Shaanxi Province. Offering shared cigarettes and receiving shared/gift cigarettes might facilitate cigarette use. This study provides evidence-based data to support the design and implementation of tobacco control programs for the denormalization of gifting and sharing cigarettes.

This study builds on the emergence of new gifting practices using e-hongbaos which are monetary gifts transferred between individuals made possible by digital communication platforms. This is an exploratory study on the impact of these innovations on intra-organizational relationships. Three types of intra-organizational relationships are considered: the employee's relationship with the organization, with the team, and with the manager. The findings of the study indicate positive impacts of e-hongbao at all organizational levels. The authors also identify the varying effects of e-hongbao on intra-organizational relationship outcomes depending on the occasion of gifting, as well as the mode, direction, and measure. Specifically, ‘group' e-hongbao, a gamified group-gift enabled by the digitalization of gifting, has the strongest influence on intra-organizational relationships. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for theory and practice in the workplace and also offer future research directions.

This study develops our understanding of consumption in China in a gift-giving context and highlights the boundary conditions under which country of origin effects impact wine gift-giving behavior. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as the core premise and borrowing from the embeddedness literature within network theory, we gauge unique insights into Chinese gift-giving behavior. Using survey results from 617 Chinese consumers, product image and gift packaging had significant moderating effects on relationships that were previously assumed to be robust. Results also suggested that country-of-origin effects (China) and ethnocentrism significantly impacted the formation of purchase behavior toward wine as a gift.