How does mobility affect social media advertising effectiveness? A study in WeChat
Industrial Management & Data Systems
ISSN: 0263-5577
Article publication date: 7 October 2020
Issue publication date: 27 October 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how aspects of mobility affect social media advertising effectiveness (i.e. consumer purchase intention) on mobile platforms from the perspective of the fit-viability model.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through an online questionnaire survey of 378 WeChat users and used to test hypotheses with structural equation modeling.
Findings
Consumer purchase intention is significantly positively influenced by time flexibility, spatial flexibility, mobile lifestyle and ad relevance. Meanwhile, ambivalence toward ads mediates the relationships of time flexibility and spatial flexibility with purchase intention and moderates the relationships of mobile lifestyle and ad relevance with purchase intention.
Research limitations/implications
The findings offer researchers and practitioners a new angle to understand advertising effectiveness on mobile social media and extend the application of the fit-viability model.
Originality/value
This paper fills the research gap on the role of mobility in social media advertising.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The work was substantially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71701002), The Ministry of Education of China; Humanities and Social Sciences Project (No. 17YJC630068); and Anhui Province Philosophy, Social Science Planning Project (No. AHSKY 2017D24) and Anhui Foreign Visiting and Training Program for Young Talents of Higher Education (gxgwfx2019040).
Citation
Zhang, Y., Li, X. and Hamari, J. (2020), "How does mobility affect social media advertising effectiveness? A study in WeChat", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 120 No. 11, pp. 2081-2101. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-05-2020-0268
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited