Understanding consumers’ social media engagement behaviour: An examination of the moderation effect of social media context

• Published in: Journal of business research 2021-01, Vol.122, p.835-846
• Main Authors: Cao, Dongmei, Meadows, Maureen, Wong, Donna, Xia, Senmao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Consumer preferences; Content trustworthiness Consumption; Contribution; Creation; Marketing; Media richness; Social media; Social media engagement behaviour
• ISSN: 0148-2963; 1873-7978
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.025

Social media has become a norm for retailers seeking to engage actively with consumers. There is growing evidence that some consumers choose not to engage with social media marketing content and that the depth of consumer engagement varies across different social media. However, there is a lack of empirical research on contextual factors that may contribute to such differences. Moreover, the variation of social media engagement behaviours, namely, consumption, contribution, and creation is underexplored. Hence, we seek to understand the various levels of engagement behaviours that are influenced by key social media contextual factors, namely media richness and content trustworthiness. We analyse 721 survey responses using PLS-SEM. Results reveal significant effects of media context on engagement behaviours. This research contributes to the growing body of literature on social media engagement, in particular, understanding the impact of social media contextual factors on various engagement behaviours.