【正文】 ses from individual buying to social buying. Emerce has been ing of age for 20 years and has experienced two phases in its development [Brodie et al. 2007]. While the first phase was all about individual choices and better value for consumers, the second phase of Internet merce is being redefined by the social media revolution of the last decade [Barwise amp。 Meehan 2010。 Edelman 2010]. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blogs, political group website, brand munities, and other social networking websites provide ample opportunity for consumers to municate and share experiences, opinions, knowledge and attitudes towards products and services [Kozinets et al. 2010]. Indeed, we would argue that marketers can be more successful when leveraging social media and benefiting from free contributions of time and effort by consumers and nonconsumers alike [Cook 2008]. Through the Internet, consumers seek products that are liked by other people in their social networks, provide reviews on products and services to help their fellow users in making decisions, share product use knowledge with new users, and express support for preferred brands. Not only do people share preferences, they also like to evaluate products with their friends and in the case of IGP even purchase products together.Since potential Internet customers possess different amounts of information and use different criteria for making purchase decisions [Kim amp。 Gupta 2009], the consumer decision process has dramatically changed, even over the relatively short period of time the Internet has been with us [Edelman 2010]. Online consumers have been observed to go through four distinct stages in making decision: the first stage is to select a brand, followed by a stage for evaluating the brand via seeking reviews from others。 if they are convinced by the reviews and information, they will next go on to purchase the product or service。 and in the fourth stage, if they are satisfied with the product or service, they will advocate for it and form a bond。 they may even join the brand munity. With the advent of this new consumer decision process, it is very likely that Internet vendors should adopt different marketing strategies for creating initial sales and generating repeat sales. Unfortunately they are not knowledgeable about how to employ social media marketing methods to develop networked munication forums that govern the expression, transmission, and reception of a message [Dutta 2010]. One of our study goals, therefore, is to remedy this gap in knowledge. Yet even as modes of group buying are mushrooming, there is very little academic literature on social buying. To our knowledge no academic paper so far has tried to understand how these groups form, how they are organized, how they are managed. None has examined the internal negotiations that go on within these groups. This lack of research is ironic in that there are many reasons why consumers should be fascinated by social buying. In addition to the reasons articulated above, a second reason that favors it is that today’s consumers are not fettered by traditional channels of distribution [Black et al. 2002。 Harrington amp。 Tjan 2008。 Johnson 2007。 Nunes amp。 Cespedes 2003。 Porter 2001]. Before the Internet, consumers typically relied on only one type of channel for goods。 as a result, a pany would identify a target segment of buyers and focus on the channel that could deliver them [Ghosh 1998。 Nunes amp。 Cespedes 2003]. Today, firms increasingly seek multiple channels including interactive and direct channels (., direct mail, the Web, and physical stores) to reach customers [Balasubramanian et al. 2005。 Johnson 2007。 Rangaswamy amp。 Van Bruggen 2005]. There is a strong justification for this because customers using multiple channels spend two to four times as much as customers using a single channel [Kumar amp。 Venkatesan 2005]. As more channel options bee available, consumers are learning to take advantage of how various channels serve their various needs, offer better prices, and provide faster services. These far more sophisticated consumers, clearly more sensitive to the value propositions of multiple channels and better equipped with information and technology, are better able to make informed and advantageous decisions [Lee et al. 2008。 Nunes amp。 Cespedes 2003]. For instance, many potential customers use the Internet channel to do research and choose the cheapest channel when it is time to buy. This situation poses a challenge for a pany’s gotomarket strategy. Companies must adapt to the buyer behaviors。 and design pathways across channels to help its customers get what they need at each stage of the buying process. IGP is one of the channels that Internet consumers could opt in to take advantage of superior values that may not be available from a regular channel. In short, knowledge of IGP can help panies design better services for potential customers. The third and somewhat surprising reason for social buying is that the whole group buying phenomenon has emerged dynamically from parts of the world outside the West, and the phenomenon is experiencing a reverse migration to the West. This gives social buying a wide spread acceptance that few innovations enjoy. The basic push for group buying has e from China where it is better known as “Tuangou” [Farrrar 2009, Zhang 2010]. Tuangou or group buying has really taken off in China, spreading through China like “wildfire” [Economist 2006, p. 59]. According to Zhang [2010], by September 2010, there was over 1,000 online group buy websites in China and sales had reached one billion Yuan (Chinese RMB, equal to USD$ 15 million). In recent years the group buying phenomenon has spread through the West also. For example, , an online vendor founded in 2008, has been phenomenally successful in promoting group buying in the US. Groupon and similar websites offer deals to its members if they promise to signup for cer