Gender and Hedonic Usage Motive Differences in Social Media Site Usage Behavior

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how the user's gender and hedonic usage motive differences influence evaluation and usage of social media sites. This study develops and tests a conceptual model that captures the relationship among four social media site usage determining factors, social media involvement, satisfaction, and usage intention. The moderating role of two user characteristics on the social media site usage behavior is also empirically tested. Structural equation analysis results show significant moderating effects of gender and the hedonic usage motive of users on the evaluation and usage behavior of social media sites. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Does consumers' personal reciprocity affect future purchase intentions?

In this study, we examine the mediating role of a consumer's personal reciprocity in the relationships between brand trust, brand loyalty and product familiarity, and future purchase intentions. Data from 308 printer users in Hong Kong reveals that a consumer's personal reciprocity partially mediates the relationships between brand trust and brand loyalty, and future purchase intentions. The theoretical implication is that personal reciprocity not only enhances consumers' future purchase intentions but also provides an alternative path linking brand trust and brand loyalty to consumers' future purchase intentions. The managerial implication is that by capitalising on a consumer's personal reciprocity in the context of consumer-firm relationships, firms can improve their performance in retaining existing customers.     

Leveraging consumer personality and social media marketing to improve a brand's social media equity

Consumer personality traits impact consumer actions, preferences, online behaviour and shopping motives. This study examines personality traits as drivers of social media equity by addressing the mechanisms under which consumer personality traits influence social media equity. We aim to combine consumer-level information with brand-level metrics to advance our understanding of consumers' associations with brands on social media and how specific consumer personality traits can be leveraged to improve a brand's social media equity. Using a self-administered survey, a total of 418 respondents from an online consumer panel participated in this study. The results from structural equation modelling revealed that while extraversion, openness to experience and neuroticism personality traits are positively associated with brand engagement and brand advocacy, agreeableness and conscientiousness are significantly associated with brand advocacy and not with brand engagement. This study advances theory by examining how consumer personality traits influence social media equity via brand engagement and brand advocacy as mediators. The findings provide rich practical insights into underlying mechanisms through which marketers can increase social media equity using consumer personality traits.     

Brand Actions on Social Media: Direct Effects on Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) and Moderating Effects of Brand Loyalty and Social Media Usage Intensity

Most existing social media research has been user focused. This study looks at social media from the brand's perspective by testing (1) theoretical links between brand-action antecedents and positive electronic word of mouth (eWOM); and (2) how brand loyalty and social media usage intensity moderate the relationships between the antecedents and eWOM. Using structural equational modelling from 290 Facebook users, we find empirical support for three brand action constructs (personalization, responsiveness, and transparency) to eWOM. We also find the moderating effects of social media usage intensity and brand loyalty on the relationship between responsiveness and eWOM. Theoretical and managerial implications for these findings are discussed.     

Antecedents of emotional attachment of social media users

Emotional attachment has been documented to be an effective basis for consumer loyalty behaviors in many contexts; however, not much has been offered for new service formats enabled by information technology. This study explores the emotional attachment of social media users in terms of personality traits of users and websites. Drawing on literature on brand personality and brand–self congruence, this research proposes that a match between user’s individual personality and the personality traits of the digital artifacts promotes affective connection to social media websites. The social media, to which the user becomes emotionally attached, therefore becomes part of one’s self-definition and representation in the digital world. Self-expressiveness is also investigated as a motivational driver that helps users form such an emotional bond. Individuals with higher motivation to express themselves are more likely to develop an emotional attachment to social networking sites, exhibit loyal behavior, and experience a stronger effect than self-website congruence on emotional attachment. Results of this research provide support to the proposed relationships. Theoretical and managerial implications are elaborated in the discussion.     

How do relational bonds affect user engagement in e-commerce livestreaming? The mediating role of trust

E-commerce livestreaming depends heavily on user engagement. However, the effect of relational bonds (i.e., financial bonds, social bonds, and structural bonds) on user engagement in e-commerce livestreaming has not been well understood. Our study develops a conceptual model to investigate the impacts of relational bonds on user engagement and addresses the mediating role of trust. We collected data from users of the DianTao App. The results show that social bonds and structural bonds positively affect user engagement, while financial bonds have no direct impact on user engagement. Financial bonds, social bonds, and structural bonds are positively related to trust in the broadcaster. Similarly, financial bonds, social bonds, and structural bonds are also positively associated with trust in the platform. Furthermore, trust in the broadcaster and trust in the platform directly affects user engagement, fully mediating the impact of financial bonds on user engagement, while partially mediating the impacts of social bonds and structural bonds on user engagement. In addition, we find that experience moderates the mediating effects of trust between relational bonds and user engagement. The findings of this study provide useful insights for operators who should invest in building relational bonds and user trust to improve user engagement in e-commerce livestreaming.     

Bridging the online offline gap: Assessing the impact of brands’ social network content quality on brand awareness and purchase intention

Social media is shaping the way companies and brands engage and interact with consumers, particularly Millennials. In light of this growing trend, this study aims to understand the influence of content quality and brand interactivity within social media on consumers' brand awareness and purchase intentions by proposing an empirical model which is tested using structural equation modeling. The study also explores whether the relation between social media stimuli and offline purchase intention is mediated by hedonic motivation, consumer engagement and brand awareness. Results reveal that the quality of content provided by brands on social media and company-users' interactivity are of major importance to Millennials. They increase the hedonic motive derived by these users from social media, strengthen their online engagement and intensify their brand awareness. This heightened online consumer engagement coupled with an increased online consumer brand awareness leads to an increase in the purchase intention of these brands offline. Consequently, companies are encouraged to invest in producing high-quality content on their social media pages, deploy all possible strategies to enhance brand users’ interactivity given the important role these variables play in entertaining, engaging users online, building brand awareness and influencing their offline purchase intentions.     

The Role of Trust in Understanding the Impact of Social Media Marketing on Brand Equity and Brand Loyalty

Abstract

In this era, social media platform is integrated into the marketing strategy. This new technology sets out new mechanisms and communication tools that companies can rely on to interact and engage with actual and potential customers. This study aimed at exploring the impact of social media marketing activities (SMM) on brand loyalty via brand trust and brand equity. Based on an online survey of 287 users who follow telecommunications companies on social media located in Egypt, data was collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results revealed that SMM activities comprise only three dimensions; trendiness, customization and word-of-mouth. These attributes of social media marketing directly influence brand loyalty and indirectly influence brand equity mediated by brand trust. The study emphasis the role of trust and provide guidance toward measuring the effectiveness of social media marketing.     

A two-dimensional model of trust–value–loyalty in service relationships

The study examines the relationships between consumer trust (cognitive and affective), perceived value (utilitarian and hedonic), and loyalty behavioral intentions (repurchase and advocacy) in a two-dimensional (affect- and rational-based) consumer–service provider model. It provides an alternative theoretical representation of consumer behavior in service relationships and implications for service providers about consumers' loyalty intentions. A mail survey analyzed by SEM supports the model of loyalty as a function of consumers' expressive and instrumental responses resulting from intrinsic and extrinsic perceptions of trust and heuristic and rational-based perceived value. Implications for designing loyalty programs are explored and future research opportunities recommended.     

From active participation to engagement in online communities: Analysing the mediating role of trust and commitment

The advent of new media and the internet has brought social media to the fore of all brand communications. Marketers are looking at leveraging social media and all its capabilities to their advantage so as to build and manage customer relationships while also co-creating brand experiences. Online communities are one of the most preferred choices of marketers, from among all the tools and features that social media offers. The present study aims to understand how user’s active participation in online communities is instrumental in influencing their engagement with the community. The above relationship is tested on a sample of 203 respondents, using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), where trust and commitment are explored as mediators. While trust is found to partially mediate the relationship between active participation and engagement, commitment acts as a full mediator. The influence of personal characteristics (membership duration, gender) is also explored as an ancillary outcome to the study.     

The impact of pronoun choices on consumer engagement actions: Exploring top global brands' social media communications

To enhance the understanding of consumer engagement with brand content on social media, this study examines how pronoun choices affect different types of consumer engagement (e.g., likes, comments, shares) by simultaneously exploring five different pronoun types (first-person singular, first-person plural, second person, third-person singular, and third-person plural). Furthermore, this study explores how the effects of these linguistic (pronoun) choices vary across two brand classifications: characteristics (hedonic vs. utilitarian) and offerings (goods vs. services). The proposed multivariate Poisson regression model, analyzing 15,788 unique brand posts from Facebook over an 8-month period, reveals differences in engagement due to pronoun usage across brand classifications. These results offer a deeper understanding of how the way brands talk to consumers on social media platforms influences consumers' attitudes (likes), propensity to engage with the brand (comments), and willingness to share branded content with their social networks (shares) across different brand classifications.     

The role of actual,ideal, and ought self‐congruence in the consumption of hedonic versus utilitarian brands

To emotionally attach consumers to a brand and inspire brand loyalty, marketers often target the brand personality towards the consumer's actual or ideal self. The self is not limited to its actual and ideal dimension, however, and motivation to approach a desired self may vary depending on the consumer's personality. Thus, the current research is the first to link self‐congruence to self‐discrepancy theory by incorporating the ought self into the self‐congruence framework and taking into account self‐discrepancies as potential moderators of the self‐congruence effect. Additionally, hedonic brand nature is discussed as important condition for self‐congruence and self‐discrepancies exhibiting their fullest effect. The conducted study focuses on how actual, ideal, and ought self‐congruence influence emotional brand attachment and consequently brand loyalty. For brands of primary hedonic nature, findings confirm actual and ideal self‐congruence as drivers of emotional brand attachment, which in turn increases brand loyalty, while ought self‐congruence influences brand loyalty directly. Moreover, self‐discrepancies moderate the described relations, albeit their effect is contrary to theory‐based expectations. From these findings, the authors derive important implications for business practice and future research.     

Consumer self‐construal and trust as determinants of the reactance to a recommender advice

Commercial recommendation agents (RAs) represent an important type of the decision support systems (DSSs) that are widely used by online retailers and firms. To date, little is known about the factors that shape the user's decision making and reactance toward the recommendations of these agents. Building on theories from psychology and information systems domains, this research proposes that a user's self‐construal and trust are two relevant factors that interact to shape the behavior toward the RA advice. Two studies, the first conducted using potential online customers and the second conducted at a behavioral laboratory, provided support to this proposition. The first study considered RA trust and showed that activating the interdependent self leads users with low (high) trust to exhibit high reactance behavior toward the RA advice. The second study variated trust using trust cues and corroborated the latter finding, while showing no important impact for the psychological reactance trait. As expected, in both studies the reactance behavior of independent users was not affected by trust. These results contribute by underscoring that social interdependence extends to RAs because the role of trust becomes salient when the interdependent self is activated for a user.     

Asymmetries in the Effects of Drivers of Brand Loyalty Between Early and Late Adopters and Across Technology Generations

Mobile marketing activities are growing at a rapid pace. The success of mobile marketing hinges on consumers' adoption of mobile devices. However, consumers' mobile device adoption is not well understood at the brand (e.g., Apple, Nokia, Samsung) level. We propose a conceptual framework linking mobile device brand loyalty (repurchase intention) to its drivers including perceived value, brand satisfaction, brand attachment and trust, and develop hypotheses about the moderating roles of adopter type and mobile technology generation in some of these linkages. We test these hypotheses using structural equation modeling on a unique cross-sectional dataset of attitudes toward mobile phone brands spanning two technology generations, 2.5G and 3G. The results reveal important asymmetries between adopter types and between technology generations: early adopters of mobile devices emphasize perceived value, whereas late adopters rely on brand satisfaction in developing brand loyalty; and consumers depend more on trust and less on perceived value in developing loyalty for the new generation than for the existing generation. We outline how brand managers of mobile devices should adapt their marketing strategies to different adopter types and technology generations.     

How social presence drives commitment and loyalty with online brand communities? the role of social commerce trust

Increasing interest in social commerce has been accompanied by concerns about creating high-quality customer relationships. Brands are particularly interested in how they may foster the creation of commitment and loyalty regarding their online social commerce communities. The present study contributes to this question by examining the relationship between social presence and customer relationship quality by means of customer commitment and loyalty. More specifically, this study clarifies the role of social commerce trust in this relationship. Based on 189 questionnaires from social commerce users, the direct relationships between social presence and commitment as well as loyalty are not supported, in contrast to prior findings. The results show that social commerce trust fully mediates the relationship between social presence and commitment as well as loyalty in social commerce online brand communities.     

Social media engagement: a model of antecedents and relational outcomes

This article investigates individual-level antecedents and relational outcomes of social media engagement. Social media engagement approached in this study is a three-dimensional construct composed of affective, cognitive and behavioural dimensions. Surveying more than 48 Facebook pages, spanning nine product categories and 448 consumers, the results show that product involvement, attitude towards the community and online interaction propensity all impact social media engagement. The study also reveals that high social media engagement increases brand relationships significantly, particularly affecting brand trust, commitment and loyalty. Additionally, community engagement appears as a precursor of brand engagement. These findings provide insight into antecedents and outcomes of engagement for academic research and bring value to online brand and community management.     

The moderating effect of individual level collectivist values on brand loyalty

In today's dynamic business environment the success of a firm often depends on its ability to create brand loyalty. While there is a large body of research exploring brand loyalty and its antecedents, little has been done to examine how the relationship between these antecedents and brand loyalty is moderated by consumer differences in individual level collectivist values. This understanding is important however as consumers high in individual level collectivist values have been found to make different brand choices than consumers low in individual level collectivist values. We develop and test theory that suggests consumer differences in individual level collectivist values have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between perceived value, perceived quality, brand trust and brand loyalty. The results show that consumers high in individual level collectivist values are significantly more loyal to a focal brand, especially when brand trust and perceived quality are at relatively low levels.     

Virtual test-driving: The impact of simulated products on purchase intention

This paper studies a number of key determinants of users׳ experience and engagement when driving a simulated car model, the outcome of this engagement in relation to enjoyment and satisfaction and the role of user satisfaction in purchasing the actual product. We test a holistic model using an experimental quantitative approach. Our analysis suggests that hedonic experience may create higher levels of engagement among users of the simulated car. Enjoyment and engagement were found to positively influence user satisfaction while driving the simulated car. In turn, user satisfaction with the simulated car was found to positively influence purchasing intention for the actual car. Our work has shown how a simulation based on widely available technologies can provide a foundation for the development of a relationship between a user and the simulated product. Consequently, our research findings have significant theoretical and practical implications beyond the auto-manufacturing industry, as experiencing simulated products can play an important role in the context of electronic commerce. This is especially true given the increasingly important role ‘experience’ plays in electronic marketing.     

Brand trust and engagement in social commerce

With the surge in social media (SM) users around the world, the scope of social commerce (SC) in brand engagement is a prominent area of discussion. The present study empirically investigates the effect of social commerce construct (SCC), multi-dimensional constructs of social presence theory (SPT) and consumer generated content (CGC) on brand trust and brand engagement in SC platforms. An online survey was conducted among 625 Indian consumers who had made more than one purchase using SC platforms in the previous 6 months. Structural equation modelling technique was employed for testing the hypotheses and conceptual model. The results suggest that each element of SCC, SPT and CGC positively contributes to brand trust and engagement. Further, the study provides insight into brand trust and brand engagement in SM, which prompts brand usage intention of the consumers. The insights can be used by managers to create long-term customer relationship management action plans that emphasize brand trust and engagement.     

Building Customer-Brand Relationships through Customer Brand Engagement

Abstract

Engagement has surfaced as a vital tool in marketing to enhance the customer’s relationships and loyalty with brands. Despite this, there is dearth of empirical studies focusing on the role of customer engagement within the context of brands. Thus, the main objective of this study is to investigate the role of customer brand engagement in building customer-brand relationships and brand loyalty within the context of hotel industry. Using convenience sampling technique, a sample of 418 respondents has been collected through self-administered questionnaire method from the users of hotel services in India. The study findings suggest that different dimensions of customer brand engagement vary in terms of their influence on customer-brand relationships and brand loyalty. In addition, customer-brand relationships exhibit positive and significant influence on brand loyalty. This present study enhances the understanding of customer brand engagement construct by empirically verifying its relevance in determining the long-term success of firms/brands.