The relationships among community experience, community commitment, brand attitude, and purchase intention in social media

Effects of Consumer Dispositional Attitude on Purchase Intention in an Emerging Market

Background

Globalization trends have compelled multinational companies to change their marketing approach from multi-domestic marketing to global marketing. This strategy has had a major impact on the branding of companies. Due to these efforts by international companies, there has been a negative impact on local brands. Strong local brands always maintained the advantage of a high level of awareness among consumers, due to consumers' close relationship with these brands, hence this resulted in strong and positive marketing investments in the home market. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the attitudinal dispositions towards global and local brands and purchase intention. The objective is to understand the underlying motives of consumers' purchase decision.

Methods

Consumer disposition and attitude towards brands are evaluated based on respondents' purchase intention of a select brand. Data are collected from Bangalore and Chennai using the convenience sampling method. Evaluation of the measurement model was performed using the Smart PLS 4 software.

Results

Findings suggest that consumer attitudinal disposition has a significant impact on consumers' purchase intention. Attitude formation is the first step in consumers' behavioural decision and making a purchase decision. Marketing managers/practitioners need to focus on forming this attitude in consumers' minds, so that this attitude formation leads to a purchase decision.

Conclusions

This research provides theoretical and managerial implications for marketers, especially those operating in an emerging market like India as this study has examined the role of consumer disposition on attitude formation and purchase intention. From a theoretical perspective, this study developed and tested a conceptual model describing the relationship between attitudinal disposition and purchase intention.

A study of the purchase intention of insect protein food as alternative foods for fitness proteins

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influencing factors for fitness enthusiasts' willingness to purchase insect protein foods as fitness protein replacements. Using structural equation modeling, a model was developed to understand the factors influencing the purchase intention of insect alternative foods. We conducted an online survey of 968 fitness enthusiasts in China. In accordance with the data processing results, perceived value appears to be one of the most significant factors that contribute to consumers' purchase intention, attitude, and satisfaction with their purchase decisions. Furthermore, satisfaction has the potential to improve user attitudes and increase user purchase intentions. As a whole, this study extends research on insect protein alternatives as a potential alternative product for bodybuilding supplements. Moreover, make some recommendations to producers, designers, and promoters.

How Media Richness and Interactivity in Hotel Visualization Affect Hotel Booking Intention in Online Travel Agency Applications?

This study is aimed at clarifying the relationship between media characteristics and intention to book hotels in online travel agencies. This study is based on a quantitative approach using a between-subject experimental method, with a $2\times 2$ factorial design consisting of two types of media richness (high and low) and two types of interactivities (high and low). Research data were obtained from 152 respondents and were processed using the ANOVA and mediation method on the SPSS application. This study found that hotel visualizations with high media richness and high interactivity more significantly influence users’ trust, perceived value, and attitudes compared to visualizations with low media richness and interactivity. This research provides practical implications for OTA companies regarding offering features that can support enhanced visualization of hotel displays. This study also contributes to enriching tourism research by comparing levels of media characteristics and their impact on booking intention.

Research trends, developments, and future perspectives in brand attitude: A bibliometric analysis utilizing the Scopus database (1944-2021)

Brand attitude has been the primary concern for corporation sustainability for a long. Studies have focused on various attributes concerning brand attitude comprising of many research articles. This study focuses on bibliometric analysis of brand attitude examining 1497 documents published for the years 1944-2021. The purpose of this study is to examine historic research trends, developments, and future conduits based on co-authorship and co-occurrence analysis using VOSviewer. The study highlights the most prolific articles containing the most productive authors and their affiliations, keywords, and influential journals, along with future research trends. The result shows that the number of publications follows a very slow trail until 2008, mildly until 2012, following which the cumulative growth in publication increased manifold. Further, results show that researchers from the United States, South Korea, and Taiwan extended many efforts to the global knowledge of literature leading other countries. The emerging hotspot keywords analysis suggests that brand avoidance, subtle, brand betrayal, consumer ethnocentrism, environmental sustainability and policy, brand activism, brand authenticity, consumer brand engagement, and brand competence are the key areas that attract researchers' attention policymakers as future research boulevards. In the case of consumers' brand attitudes, there is a scarcity of studies that investigated the consumers' implicit and explicit brand attitudes.

Antecedents and Consequences of Banking Customers' Behavior towards Social Media: Evidence from an Emerging Economy

Due to the aggressive competitive climate in practically every sector, modern firms in the digital age confront a variety of hurdles for survival and growth. Technology, mainly digital technology, has altered global business practices. To stay ahead of their competitors, marketers need to develop new strategies that make use of digital technology. Using more conventional forms of competition will not result in spectacular outcomes. In this respect, the rise of social media is a game-changer in marketing since it provides marketers with a strategic touchpoint to engage customers with a brand. Still, it is also important to note the customer's attitude towards social media. Previous studies have, for the most part, ignored the connection between programs involving corporate social responsibility (CSR) and positive experiences for customers. As a result, the current study intends to evaluate the relationship between customer-related CSR activities on social media, customer attitude towards social media, and consumer behavioral outcomes, such as purchase intentions (PI) and electronic word of mouth (E-WOM). Information was collected from banking customers in a developing economy and evaluated with Smart PLS 4.0. According to the findings, customer-related corporate social responsibility activities carried out on social media have an effect on attitudes toward social media, customer behavioral outcomes, such as electronic word of mouth (E-WOM), and buying intentions. The findings also show that a consumer's feelings toward a brand can bridge the gap between customer-related CSR, E-WOM, and purchase intentions. The current study's outcomes can help policymakers comprehend the value of CSR practices from the standpoint of marketing, which is something that most CSR researchers overlook.

Antecedents and consequences of brand experience in virtual sports brand communities: A value co-creation perspective

The influence mechanism for brand experience in virtual sports brand communities is the subject of many studies, but these studies do not feature a holistic consideration of antecedents and consequences, and the moderating role of brand attachment is unclear. Drawing on the value co-creation theory, this study determines the impact of brand experience and its mechanism using the data from 508 virtual sports brand communities. The empirical test results show that value co-creation (i.e., corporate-initiated value co-creation and customer-initiated value co-creation) has a positive effect on the brand experience and that the brand experience has a positive effect on the purchase intention. Brand attachment does not have a moderating role between brand experience and purchase intention so as the degree of brand attachment increases, the brand experience does not increase the purchase intention through a brand attachment. This study determines the antecedents and consequences of brand experience in virtual sports brand communities from a value co-creation perspective, to determine the impact and mechanisms of virtual sports brand communities to guide the marketing practices of virtual sports brand communities.

Evaluating the impact of experience value promotes user voice toward social media: Value co-creation perspective

Experience value is positively associated with user voice toward social media, but existing research lacks an examination of its mechanisms of action. Based on value co-creation theory, this paper explores the relationship between experience value (i.e., social value, entertainment value, information value) and customer voice, and explains the specific influence mechanism through the mediating role of user loyalty. The results of the empirical tests show that social value, entertainment value and information value have significant effects on user loyalty; user loyalty has a significant effect on promotive voice but not on prohibitive voice; user loyalty mediates the relationship between body social value, entertainment value, information value and promotive voice. The findings of this research reveal the important role of experience value on customer voice, which is an important guide for social media to achieve sustainable development.

The Effect of Interaction between Followers and Influencers on Intention to Follow Travel Recommendations from Influencers in Indonesia Based on Follower-Influencer Experience and Emotional Dimension

Social media has become a very commonplace way for many people to have social interactions. The role of social media has changed from what was originally only a way to bridge social interactions, to becoming a business tool in various industries, one of which is the tourism industry. The interaction between social media users can create new ways to increase public awareness of existing tourist objects. One way to achieve that goal is by utilizing social media influencers. This study aims to identify the factors that influence the intention of the followers to follow the travel recommendations given by the influencer. This study uses the theory of follower-influencer experience and the theory of emotional dimensions, as well as their effect on the level of commitment and intention to follow the recommendation. This research was conducted by distributing surveys through social media and we managed to obtain a total of 203 valid respondents. The results of the study were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM), which showed that information experience and homophily experience had a significant effect on pleasure, arousal, and dominance. Pleasure and dominance have a significant effect on commitment, and commitment has a significant effect on the intention to follow the recommendation.

The Influence of Tourists’ Online Value Co-creation Behavior on Consumer-Brand Relationship Quality: The Moderating Effect of Altruism

In recent years, there is the popular phenomenon of “grass planting” marketing. The value co-creation behavior of ordinary consumers KOC (key opinion consumer) in the online community is sometimes out of utilitarian intentions, which is deemed as plain people’s “grass planting” advertising in a certain degree. We collected the tourists’ data in Chinese Grand Canal National Cultural Park, analyzed the impact of value co-creation behaviors such as tourists’ experience sharing, topic discussions, and suggestions in online communities on the value of tourism experience and the quality of brand relationships under the “planting grass” marketing environment and verified the moderating mechanism of tourist altruism in it. According to the results, tourists’ online value co-creation behavior has a significant positive impact on the consumer-brand relationship quality, and experience value plays a mediating role. Tourists’ online value co-creation behavior has a significant positive impact on experience value, in which altruism plays a moderating role. The greater the tendency of altruism, the higher the impact of tourists’ value co-creation behaviors on their experience value, and vice versa. This conclusion is not only of great significance in deepening and improving theories of value co-creation, altruism, experience value and consumer-brand relationship quality, but also has important certain management enlightenment on how to combine the design of merchant value co-creation incentive mechanism with altruism in “grass planting” marketing.

Understanding the Mechanism of User Experience Role in Educational Livestreaming Platform

The booming development of educational livestreaming platforms has caused the prevalence of user experience to a certain extent, which profoundly affects users' purchase intention and behavior, and has become a hot topic of current research in the online education field. However, there is a lack of in-depth analysis on the mechanism of the role of user experience in influencing purchase intention. Based on the analysis of user experience and psychological ownership, this study constructs a moderated mediation model to investigate the mediating psychological mechanism and boundary conditions of user experience affecting purchase intention. In this study, a valid sample of 372 users was used for structural equation modeling analysis. The results of the study found that user experience not only had a significant positive effect on purchase intention but was also mediated by psychological ownership. We also found that the effect of psychological ownership on purchase intention was moderated by privacy concerns. This study examines the role of user experience in purchase intention and reveals the mechanism of the role of user experience in an educational livestreaming platform.

Evaluating the Impact of Community Experience on Purchase Intention in Online Knowledge Community

Community experience has an important influence on the brand building of an online knowledge community. By enhancing the community experience of members, it can promote the building of an online knowledge community and increase users' purchase intention. Although existing research has explored the influence model of community experience, there is a dearth of research regarding the influence of community experience on purchase intention. To this end, this study uses the online knowledge community experience as a theoretical basis to construct a mediating model to examine the behavioral patterns of consumers using the online knowledge communities and to explore in detail the mechanisms of the different dimensions of the community experience on purchase intention. It was found that not only the three dimensions of community experience (i.e., information experience, entertainment experience, and interactive experience) had a significant effect on brand identity, but also brand identity had a significant effect on purchase intention. The study also confirmed that brand identity mediates the relationship between community experience and purchase intention. This study reveals the mediating mechanism of community experience on purchase intention and helps to effectively guide the innovative management practices of the online knowledge community.

The Impact of Nostalgia Proneness on Online Donation Willingness: The Mediating Effect of Consumer-Brand Relationship

The rapid outbreak of COVID-19 wreaked havoc and brought a pause to the normal lives, and the labor market and human livelihoods were strongly negatively affected because of it. The emergence of groups that were unable to withstand various pressures has increased the appeal of donation behavior to a certain extent. Therefore, under the impetus of COVID-19 and digital background, online donation represented by Waterdrop financing has become popular. In the common difficult period, how to improve an individual’s willingness to donate online has become an urgent problem to be solved. To address this issue, on the basis of previous literature, we proposed a research hypothesis and a theoretical model of “nostalgia-relationship variables-donation”. After that, we determined the measurement scale, conducted a large sample survey, and finally conducted hypothesis testing through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling analysis. Through the above analyses, the study reached the following conclusions: the main influence factors of personal nostalgic proneness are insecurity, past experience, loneliness, and recovery from grief, among others. There is a positive causal link between nostalgia proneness and familial utility intensity and emotional utility intensity. The greater the degree of the nostalgia intensity of the donor, the more the trust placed in charitable organizations. The donors’ relationship commitment to charitable organizations significantly influences their online donation willingness. The main source of relationship commitment consists of emotional intensity, followed by trust, and finally, familial intensity.

The role of senses on purchase intention in social commerce

Purpose

This paper aims to examine how situational factors with social support affecting purchase intention in social commerce (SC). In Taiwan’s SC, the relationship between trust belief and purchase intention has always been a key issue.

Design/methodology/approach

This study presents a research model that comprises five hypothesis with five constructs, including situational factors, social support, senses, trust belief and purchase intention. The model is tested on data collected from 532 valid samples in Taiwan, using structural equation modeling. The results show that, in order of importance, control senses and raise mediation trust belief reach the better purchase intention.

Findings

The findings of the study provide practical insights in understanding how seller should notice consumer’s trust belief, in order to enhance purchase intention for the SC as a whole.

Originality/value

Much existing consumer behavior research is focused on decision making rather than the trust belief themselves. Accordingly, analyzing how senses influence trust belief and purchase intention is an important issue in SC.

Survivability Scenario of SMEs in Facing COVID-19 Crisis Based on the Social Commerce Framework

Government regulations that limit social and community activities to reduce the spread of COVID-19 have a very negative impact on the economy. This negative impact has a more profound effect on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because their business models are highly dependent on sales flows. Falling demand will significantly threaten the survival of SMEs. To overcome this impact, SMEs need to consider digital technology to better market their products. Social commerce, a new e-commerce business model, is becoming an online sales platform that helps businesses connect with customers and gain a competitive edge. This study aimed to develop scenarios for the ability of SMEs to survive the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We created scenarios based on a social commerce framework with four components: customer, platform, merchant, and context. These components were mapped in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) 4 to obtain scenarios of practical and well-documented actions by SMEs affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used canonical action research to apply scenarios to an affected SME and then evaluated how these scenarios can help the SME survive based on its financial performance. This study proposes applicable social commerce scenarios to encourage the ability of SMEs to withstand the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Exploring perceived innovation in building customers’ patronizing behavior in the food delivery service context

Purpose

In the food delivery industry, mobile applications have become an important platform for providing services and interacting with customers. Thus, this study aims to examine whether customers’ perceived innovation changes their patronizing behavior intention toward the brand’s application.

Design/methodology/approach

Using data from food delivery customers in the USA, this study identifies the relative impact of multidimensional innovation (i.e. service concept innovation, service process innovation and customer experience innovation) on customers’ behavior. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

Results show that customers’ perceived service process and experience innovation increase commitment, which turns into reuse intention of the delivery application. Commitment also increases the impact of customers’ perceived innovation on loyalty. However, in this study, service concept innovation is insufficient to solely create positive behavioral intention.

Practical implications

Findings suggest that a food delivery application that continues to innovate to improve the service process and experience can be an effective marketing tool because they increase bonding with customers. This study recommends that food delivery companies manage their relationship with customers to achieve sustainable growth.

Originality/value

Despite the growing attention in the mobile service industry, limited studies have examined the effects of innovations of food delivery application on customers’ behavior. Thus, this study provides useful guidelines that advance mobile commerce research, especially in the food delivery industry.

Research on the Relationship Between Cross-Level Motivation, Integrated Emotion, and Virtual Knowledge Community Commitment

Community commitment is the key to the success of virtual communities. Under the background of virtual knowledge community, based on motivation hierarchy model and integrated emotion theory, this paper takes “motivation-emotion-community commitment” as the main framework, and introduces multiple mediation and regulation functions to establish the relationship model of motivation hierarchy, integrated emotions, and community commitment. The results show that the user motivation follows the hierarchical structure of the layer-by-layer influence from the situational level to the personality level, that is, knowledge-seeking motivation and entertainment-seeking motivation at a situational level will positively affect social- interaction motivation at the contextual level, thereby enhancing user self-efficacy at personality level. Users have abundant integrated emotions toward the virtual knowledge community, namely, satisfaction, attachment, and identity, and such multi-integrated emotional model is more conducive for promoting community commitment of users. At the same time, attachment, identity, and satisfaction have an interactive complement, that is, when satisfaction is low, attachment and identity will complement and strengthen community commitment.

The Relationship between CSR Communication on Social Media, Purchase Intention, and E-WOM in the Banking Sector of an Emerging Economy

Modern businesses in the present digital age are facing different challenges for survival and growth due to the stiff competitive environment that prevails almost in every sector. Technology, especially digital technology, has changed the way of doing business around the globe. Marketers need to develop new strategies by incorporating the element of digital technology to overrun their competitors, as conventional competitive strategies will not produce extraordinaryresults. The rise of social media, in this regard, is a game-changer in the context of marketing as it provides a strategic touchpoint to the marketers to involve the customers with a brand. Prior research has largely ignored the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of a brand and positive customer experiences. Hence the present study aims to test the relationship of customer-related CSR activities on social media on behavioral consequences of customers, such as their purchase likelihood and electronic word of mouth (E-WOM). The data were collected from the banking customers of a developing economy and were analyzed through structural equation modeling in AMOS software. The results revealed that customer-related CSR activitieson social mediainfluence customer behavioral outcomes like E-WOM and purchase intentions. The result also revealed that brand attitude mediates the relationship between customer-related CSR, E-WOM, and purchase intentions. The findings of the present study can help policymakers to understand the importance of CSRpractices from the perspective of marketing, which is largely ignored by contemporary CSR researchers.

From Interactivity to Brand Preference: The Role of Social Comparison and Perceived Value in a Virtual Brand Community

The main purpose of the paper is to examine whether and how perceived interactivity in a virtual brand community affects brand preference to realize the sustainable development of the brand. In this study, we propose and empirically test a theoretical model by analyzing data collected from online brand community members in China. The study confirms that (1) perceived interactivity has a positive effect on social value, emotional value, and informational value; (2) social value, emotional value, and informational value positively influence brand preference; (3) upward social comparison positively moderates the impact of perceived interactivity on social value, while downward social comparison negatively moderates the impact of perceived interactivity on social value. This study has highlighted the role of perceived interactivity in a brand community in promoting brand preference. We believe that the findings offer reliable and important insights for research and practice of brand management.

Examining the Factors Affecting SME Performance: The Mediating Role of Social Media Adoption

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have become a vibrant and dynamic sector of the world economy. Information technology plays a vital role in improving the productivity and competitiveness of SMEs. The dynamic business environment has brought fierce competition among SMEs and, therefore, requires the owners to interact with internal and external members actively. Hence, this study aims to investigate the impact of technology, organization, and environment as important factors in the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises. It also examines the mediating role of social media adoption. Items were developed to measure the various purposes of social media use in organizations, which contribute to increasing the measurement of social media usage. For the empirical investigation, this paper used a closed-ended questionnaire. Using a quantitative method, we observed 423 responses through structural equation modeling. The findings of the study indicate that technology, organization, and the environment play effective roles for SME performance. More importantly, social media adoption positively mediates the relationship between technology, organization, environment, and SME performance. The study also helps organizations realize the advantages of using social media and specifies the rationale behind an organization’s investment in social media.

Sustainable Value Co-Creation in the Virtual Community: How Diversified Co-Creation Experience Affects Co-Creation Intention

The popularization of digital infrastructure has enabled the rise of the online game industry. Instead of targeting entertainment-oriented technology and services, which are the focus of most relevant studies, in the present study, we review the literature from the perspective of considering players of online games as both consumers of entertainment and co-creators of value. The three major antecedents of the theory of planned behavior, namely personal attitude toward co-creation, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, were modified to explore the relevant constructs. Specifically, the diversity of co-creation experience was used to predict co-creation intention. The proposed model was empirically evaluated through the structural equation modeling of survey data collected from 321 World of Warcraft (WoW) players. As hypothesized, the diversified co-creation experience positively affected the antecedents. The findings provide implications on how to increase players’ participation in co-creation to achieve sustainable mutual benefits.

The Relationship Benefits of Auto Maintenance and Repair Service: A Case Study of Korea

This study aimed to empirically examine what effects confidence, social, and economic benefit factors have on continuous relationship orientation through the mediation of service trust, service satisfaction, and customer engagement factors in the auto maintenance and repair service sector. This study carried out a questionnaire survey with 319 customers using auto maintenance and repair service and verified hypotheses. As a result of the analysis, the confidence and social benefits of auto maintenance and repair service affected service trust, while the confidence and economic benefits affected service satisfaction. Service trust did not affect customer engagement or long-term relationship continuity but affected them when it mediated service satisfaction. Consequently, it was revealed that confidence benefit should be consolidated and that professionalism or service quality excellence in maintenance or repair becomes the most important factors to produce customer engagement or long-term relationship continuity in the auto maintenance and repair service. Although it is vital to improve trust or service, it is confirmed that a relationship can be maintained only if the auto maintenance or repair service is satisfactory.

Measuring brand-related content in social media: a socialization theory perspective

Purpose

Building on consumer socialization theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine antecedents and consequences of generating and sharing brand-related content on social media in a restaurant context.

Design/methodology/approach

A scale development process was undertaken to develop the scale for brand-related user-generated content (BRUGC). Then the authors tested the antecedents and consequences of BRUGC using 375 responses obtained through a mall-intercept survey. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling with AMOS.

Findings

Study findings revealed that age, time on Facebook, number of Facebook friends, Facebook usage intensity, and need for self-enhancement were key antecedents of both the generation and sharing of BRUGC. The results also indicated that gender, race and need for self-affirmation were not significantly related to generating and sharing BRUGC. Both generating and sharing BRUGC were positively associated with attitude and intentions toward the restaurants.

Originality/value

This study is the first to develop a BRUGC scale through a rigorous scale development process. It thus contributes to consumer socialization theory literature in considering social media as a socialization agent. The findings provide valuable insights for both academicians and social media managers and aid in enhancing BRUGC.