The role of swift guanxi and empathy in co-creation behavior: a cultural analysis of influencer marketing in China

Value co-creation between influencers and users requires closer attention to market and cultural factors. This study explores the co-creation process between influencers and consumers through swift guanxi and empathy, using PLS-SEM and ANN methods. It examines differences associated with regional cultural tightness in value co-creation behaviour. Based on guanxi theory and social capital theory, the study examines the relationships among wishful identification, presence, interactivity, swift guanxi and empathy, and further assesses how swift guanxi and empathy relate to value co-creation behaviour. The results indicate that consumers in regions with lower cultural tightness are more significantly influenced by empathy in value co-creation behaviour compared to those in regions with higher cultural tightness, and that the association between wishful identification and swift guanxi was stronger among male than female respondents in our sample. This study adds empirical evidence on how regional cultural tightness may condition the relationship between empathy and value co-creation in Chinese influencer marketing. The findings offer context-specific insights into consumer behaviour in short-video commerce and should be interpreted within the limits of the cross-sectional, self-report design.