Social comm
erc
e communiti
es conn
ect s
ell
ers and buy
ers and allow th
em to s
eek and shar
e product information. Althou
gh th
e extant lit
eratur
e has r
ealiz
ed its
economic valu
e, th
er
e has b
een littl
e r
es
earch on th
e ant
ec
ed
ents of n
etwork closur
e in social comm
erc
e community with lon
gitudinal n
etwork data. Bas
ed on th
e evolvin
g n
etwork data from Taobao.com and n
etwork closur
e th
eory, this r
es
earch analyz
es n
etwork closur
e amon
g s
ell
ers and buy
ers in social comm
erc
e community and w
e find that th
e driv
ers of n
etwork closur
e in social comm
erc
e communiti
es vary across diff
er
ent typ
es of r
elationships. Sp
ecifically, (1) from th
e buy
ers’ p
ersp
ectiv
e, th
ey ar
e mor
e lik
ely to follow oth
er buy
ers and s
ell
ers throu
gh obs
ervational l
earnin
g and conta
gion; (2) from th
e s
ell
ers’ p
ersp
ectiv
e, th
e homophily, r
eciprocity, and structural
equival
enc
e ar
e th
e gen
eral m
echanisms that driv
e th
em followin
g both buy
ers and s
ell
ers; (3) th
e r
esults from th
e robustn
ess ch
ecks show that th
e findin
gs would not b
e aff
ect
ed by th
e sampl
e siz
e or th
e duration of th
e obs
ervations.
This study contributes to the ongoing study of social networks analysis in social shopping and social commerce. Furthermore, the ties studied in this research connect both sellers and buyers, which are different from the ties of friendship in most social network literatures. Findings from this research will also help marketers better understand how social commerce community networks evolve and adjust their relationship management strategies.