Antecedents and Outcomes of Brand Relationship Quality in Brand Communities: A Cross-validation Test of Two Social Media Samples

This study adopts the brand relationship perspective to investigate the effects of social media-based brand communities on social marketing performances. An empirical study was conducted to examine the proposed hypotheses. Two analyses, one with 152 survey respondents on Weibo and the other with 209 survey respondents on Facebook, revealed that most of the antecedents (with the exception of monetary needs fulfillment) including information needs fulfillment, entertainment needs fulfillment, and social interaction needs fulfillment had positive effects on brand relationship quality for both Weibo and Facebook. Further, we found that brand relationship quality had positive effects on fans’ behavioral intentions toward brands, including willingness to buy, member continuance intention, and electronic word of mouth intention. This study contributes to research that shows brand relationship quality can be improved via a social media-based marketing approach. Implications corresponding to the research findings as well as study limitations and future directions are also discussed

IS SOCIAL ADVERTISING EFFECTIVE? INFLUENCE OF BRAND CONTENT ON BRAND PURCHASE INTENTION AND BRAND INFORMATION DIFFUSION

In the era of Web 2.0, the development of information communication technologies (ICTs) promotes consumer–company and consumer–consumer interactions. The prosperity of social networking sites (SNSs) is a fine illustration, which not only promotes people’s communication but also drives social advertising. Product selling and brand information diffusion are equally important for a company. Therefore, this study investigates how social advertising promotes consumers’ brand purchase inten-tion and brand content-sharing intention. That is, entertainment-oriented brand content characteris-tics affect the attitude toward brand content and then promote brand purchase intention and brand content-sharing intention. An empirical study will be done to examine the research hypotheses. There will also be a discussion about academic and practical implications corresponding to the study find-ings as well as future research directions

Are Online Parasites Really Different from Lurkers?

With the development of digital technology, the internet environment has dramatically changed the way people share information, which has been changed by different types of sources, making it convenient to obtain information. The lurking phenomenon in the network is becoming increasingly common, and previous studies have been conducted on lurkers on the internet with shifting focus from active users to passive users. Under these circumstances, this tries to conceptualize a new type of passive users, titled as “online parasites” who focus on obtaining information by utilizing the internet or their host to achieve their other purposes. The aim is to deeply understand these users and clearly distinguish them from other types of users such as lurkers

Promoting User Participation of Shared Mobility in the Sharing Economy: Evidence from Chinese Bike Sharing Services

User participation plays a critical role in the business success of shared mobility services. This study classifies user participation behavior into two different types (in- and extra-role participations), integrates the motivation–opportunity–ability (MOA) model and social exchange theory (SET) to identify key antecedents, and empirically examines the influences of user–user, user–provider, and user–service interaction-related factors on user participation in the context of bike sharing services. The results of structural equation model analysis with 438 bike sharing service users in China reveal that altruism, rewards, and user knowledge enhance both in- and extra-role participations, whereas perceived ease of use promotes only user in-role participation, and both user satisfaction and commitment increase only user extra-role participation. Rewards are also found to promote user satisfaction, ultimately increasing user commitment. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on value co-creation and customer cooperation behavior in the sharing economy and provides practical implications to both managers of bike sharing services and policymakers for urban transportation and ICT-enabled sustainable development

Deterrence and Reciprocity Approaches for Enhancing User Participation in the Sharing Economy

Sharing economy is becoming increasingly popular, which brings many benefits to consumers and society. However, these are many failure cases in this industry. Customer cooperation largely affects the success and performance of sharing economy. As customers are involved in the service delivery process, firms should encourage customers to co-create value. Drawn from organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) theory, this study defines value co-creation in terms of in-role and extra-role participation. For enhancing user participation, this study further take the institutional perspective grounded in service-dominant (S-D) logic to provide a framework regarding deterrence and reciprocity approaches for enhancing user participation. Regarding deterrence approach, perceived sanction certainty, severity, and celerity as well as perceived effectiveness of legal protection can increase rule compliance intention, which in turn increases in-role participation. Regarding reciprocity approach, perceived relationship investment can enhance user satisfaction and user role identification, which in turn promotes user in-role and extra-role participation

Factors Affecting User Participation in Sharing Economy: The Case of Commercial Bike Sharing Service in China

Commercial sharing program, as a form of sharing economy providing access-based service to consumers is becoming increasing popular. Customer cooperation largely influences its success and business performance. Taking the value co-creation perspective grounded in service-dominant (S-D) logic, this study explores user in-role participation and extra-role participation and their antecedents in the context of the commercial bike sharing service. Empirical research findings indicate that altruism, reward, and user knowledge enhance user in-role and extra-role participation, whereas perceived ease of use promotes user in-role participation, and user satisfaction and commitment increase user extra-role participation. Implications from the study findings and future research directions are also discussed

Determinants of Fan Engagement in Social Media-Based Brand Communities: A Brand Relationship Quality Perspective

This study adopts a brand relationship quality (BRQ) perspective to reveal the reason firms’ investments in social media-based brand communities should increase their social relationship marketing performances. An empirical analysis with 234 Facebook users who joined brand communities was conducted to examine the proposed hypotheses, revealing that fan needs fulfillments—information, entertainment, social interaction, and monetary ones—had positive effects on BRQ. Further, BRQ was found to have positive effects on fans’ engagement behavioral intentions toward brands, including willingness to buy, member continuance intention, and electronic word of mouth intention. This study contributes to existing research that indicates a new mechanism of BRQ improvement via the social media-based brand community. Implications corresponding to the research findings as well as study limitations and future directions are also addressed

Tourist Satisfaction Enhancement Using Mobile QR Code Payment: An Empirical Investigation

Innovative technologies have greatly changed people’s lives, including their travel experiences. This study investigates the antecedents and outcomes of the quick response (QR) code payment technology used in tourism to provide empirical evidence that mobile technologies can be used to enhance tourist satisfaction. An empirical analysis using 247 field survey responses reveals that relative advantage, compatibility, and observability innovation attributes significantly affect tourists’ attitudes positively toward QR code payment services, which results in their use of the technology while traveling. However, image—the subjective norm in innovation diffusion—has no effect on such use. Furthermore, the study confirms that the use of the QR code payment technology in tourism influences an individual’s transaction satisfaction and travel satisfaction, suggesting that this technology can be used to advance the tourism industry. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings and future research directions are also discussed

How Streamers Foster Consumer Stickiness in Live Streaming Sales

Streamers play a critical role in fostering consumer stickiness in live streaming sales. Thus, it is necessary to make clear the mechanism of how streamers influence consumer stickiness. Based upon the theories of social support, social identification and consumer stickiness, this study investigates the effects of consumers’ perceived emotional support, informational support, financial support, affectionate support and social network support from streamers on consumer–streamer identification, which in turn affects consumer–streamer stickiness and consumer–brand stickiness in live streaming sales settings. Based on the structural equation modeling analysis of 280 online questionnaires, using the software of Smart PLS 3.0, the results demonstrate that perceived emotional support, perceived informational support, perceived financial support and perceived affectionate support enhance consumer–streamer identification, thereby enhancing consumer–streamer stickiness and consumer–brand stickiness, and thus, consumer–streamer stickiness also enhances consumer–brand stickiness. This study not only extends the theories of live streaming sales, but also provides practical implications for enterprises’ improving consumer–streamer stickiness and consumer–brand stickiness in live streaming sales