Developing Guanxi Through Social Media : User Archetypes and Influencing Factors

Existing studies have suggested that enterprise social media (ESM) may be especially appropriate in facilitating the initial formation of guanxi, while public social media (PSM) is more suited to driving guanxi development past the initial stage. However, the different patterns of social media use in the context of guanxi development, and the antecedent factors that give rise to those patterns are two salient issues that remain understudied. We conducted a case study with the aim of exploring these issues, which revealed six user archetypes representing the different ways that the use of ESM and PSM can be combined for guanxi development. In addition, we identify a range of antecedent factors that influence how ESM and PSM are used. The user archetypes identified not only constitute a conceptual innovation, but also advance the sophistication of the current perspective of social media use in the context of guanxi development.