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This study aims to investigate diners’ self-presentation mechanism as manifested in foodstagramming. Drawing upon the social cognitive and self-presentation theories, this study develops a conceptual model to examine the relationships among food experiential value (i.e. extrinsic value and intrinsic value), self-efficacy, strategic self-presentation and self-presentation outcomes.

The authors adopt a multi-study approach with two empirical studies (Study 1: tourists, n = 254; Study 2: residents, n = 252) and use partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the proposed model.

The results consistently show significant effects of extrinsic value, intrinsic value and self-efficacy on strategic self-presentation, which subsequently evokes perceived enjoyment and behavioral intention. The impact of food experiential value on self-efficacy varies between tourists and residents. The mediating effects of self-efficacy and strategic self-presentation are also confirmed.

Restaurant managers and destination marketers should acknowledge the importance of food experience as expressive capital and recognize self-presentation as a meaningful tool that links restaurant food experience with consumers’ personal branding. Businesses should strive to create a desired experiential setting shaped by food price, restaurant service, food aesthetics and consumers’ feelings, allowing diners to translate these stimuli into self-presentational resources.

This study dives into an important, yet under-examined, phenomenon of foodstagramming. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to theoretically link food experience to foodstagramming behavior via a self-presentation mechanism. Findings provide important theoretical and managerial implications.

This paper examines how and why online daters, differentiated by gender, strategically self-present in online dating profiles when pursuing two competing goals: attracting potential daters and avoiding detection as a liar.

A survey and a content analysis were employed to test four hypotheses.

The results revealed that seeking to project an attractive image in online dating was significantly associated with acquisitive self-presentation. The online daters adopted falsification more than any other strategies, and women were more likely than men to embellish their self-presentation, especially their physical appearance.

The findings clarify people's mate selection processes in light of the interpersonal deception theory (IDT) and the information manipulation theory (IMT) as well as take an evolutionary psychological perspective on computer-mediated communication. For practitioners, they provide a more nuanced picture of deceptive communication in online dating and, for online daters, can guide the adaptation of their online behaviors.

This study aims to examine whether counterfeit luxury buyers’ tendency to impress others overrides their anticipation of embarrassment or whether the anticipation of embarrassment delimits their self-presentational goals.

This paper is based on three studies – a survey and two experiments that test the predictions. This study adopts a mix of moderation and mediation analyses to test the proposed hypotheses.

The findings reveal a greater counterfeit purchase likelihood and embarrassment aversion among publicly (vs privately) self-conscious consumers. Furthermore, a higher (vs a lower) audience class and a conspicuous (vs an inconspicuous) brand lead to lower counterfeit purchase intention, and anticipated embarrassment mediates both these effects. To mitigate the threat of embarrassment, publicly self-conscious consumers are more likely to buy counterfeits among a higher-class audience when the brand is inconspicuous (vs conspicuous). They, however, are indifferent to brand conspicuousness among a lower-class audience.

To deter counterfeit consumption, anti-counterfeiting campaigns must invoke consumers’ tendency to overestimate the degree of public attention. Ad appeals must accentuate the anticipation of embarrassment by enhancing self-consciousness through a higher-class audience involving a conspicuous brand.

This paper makes a novel contribution to counterfeiting literature by demonstrating that counterfeit luxury consumption is driven by countervailing motives of gaining approval and avoiding disapproval. The paper departs from mainstream theorizing by demonstrating that counterfeit luxury buyers engage in a protective self-presentation style by choosing inconspicuous counterfeits.

Motivating users to self-disclose online is significant to the long-term development of social media. Therefore, research on emotional disclosure, a significant form of self-disclosure, is required. By developing a stimulus-organism-response model, this study aims to investigate the mechanisms by which the social media environment affects users' online emotional disclosure.

This paper proposes two dimensions of social media environments, the online interpersonal environment (tie strength and network size) and the online information environment (self-reference). They are hypothesized to stimulate users' internal psychological needs (image management and emotional expression) which in turn will influence their emotional disclosure intentions. Using data from 489 users of WeChat Moments, the authors conduct partial least squares analysis to validate the research model.

The findings show that users' intrinsic psychological needs are stimulated by social media environments, but network size is not correlated with the need for emotional expression. The user's need for emotional expression promotes both positive and negative emotional disclosure intentions. The need for image management has a positive impact on positive emotion disclosure intentions but has a negative impact on negative emotion disclosure intentions.

This study contributes to the understanding of online emotional disclosure. It can also help social media managers create efficient plans to encourage users to create content.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2022-0245.

Previous research suggests that self-presentation causes people to have a reflective tendency to produce electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Drawing on the theory of the reflective-impulsive model (RIM), this paper aims to examine whether self-presentation also could motivate an impulsive tendency to produce eWOM. Self-monitoring is suggested as a possible moderator in the relationship between self-presentation and impulsive eWOM production.

Data were collected based on an online survey of members from a consumer panel. The effective sample size was 574 respondents. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data.

The findings show that self-presentation may drive both impulsive and reflective eWOM tendencies; however, that the relationship between self-presentation and impulsive eWOM tendency is contingent on high levels of self-monitoring.

By including self-monitoring as a moderator, this study is the first to show a relationship between self-presentation and impulsive eWOM production. Moreover, the findings show that both impulsive and reflective eWOM tendencies are associated with an enhanced tendency to produce eWOM, thereby demonstrating the usefulness of the RIM theory in understanding eWOM behavior. Overall, the findings shed light on how companies may stimulate eWOM production, and consequently provide insight into creating more effective eWOM campaigns.

Limited research has examined the segment of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs). This study aims to explore how this segment self-presents with regard to luxury on Instagram.

We use a qualitative research approach to content-analyze 815 publicly available photos on Instagram. The analytical approach involves multiple stages and yields three key themes.

Through Instagram images, UHNWIs engage in inconspicuous consumption via subtle displays of luxury possessions and more cues that indicate luxury experiences, power and social connections. The results further identify four dimensions of self-presentation in luxury consumption on social media: ostentatious, humble, revealed and hidden.

The study adopts an inductive approach to identify themes related to UHNWIs’ self-presentation on Instagram. Other research could adopt a quantitative approach to identify drivers of the various themes. In addition, the unit of analysis was the photo posted by the UHNWI rather than the UHNWI himself or herself. Further research might explicitly consider the overall profile of each UHNWI and their holistic approach to posting with a view to developing a typology of UHNWIs based on the way they self-present and portray their luxury consumption.

Luxury marketers should focus on inconspicuous products and experiences that allow the UHNWIs to decelerate and spend time with their loved ones, access rare experiences and demonstrate power via their networks.

We extend prior research on self-presentation on Instagram. The authors focus on UHNWIs, a neglected yet significant segment of the luxury market.

This study aimed to investigate positive associations between three main motivations (social interaction, information and entertainment) for the use of social network sites (SNSs) and users' well-being, as well as the multiple mediating effects of perceived social support, positive and honest self-presentation.

A sample of 759 active users of SNSs (WeChat Moments, Qzone and Weibo) aged 14–43 years was measured with online questionnaires. Correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were implemented to examine the corresponding hypotheses.

The results showed the overall intensity of motivations was positively associated with users' well-being; perceived social support and positive self-presentation played intermediary roles and honest self-presentation and perceived social support had a chain mediation effect. However, the motivations of social interaction, information and entertainment indirectly affected users' well-being through three different mediation paths.

Although some studies have investigated the effects of motivations (including social interaction, information and entertainment) for SNS use on users' well-being, there has not been a consistent conclusion. The findings may shed light on the motivations for SNS use and how they may affect people's well-being in the digital era, thereby promoting their healthy use of SNSs as well as improved interface design and user management of SNSs.

This study examined Instagram content shared by public relations (PR) agencies, through the sensitizing framework of organizational identity theory, to determine what messages related to organizational identity, culture and image were communicated to external audiences. This study highlights the various ways that Instagram can be used for strategic organizational communication.

A qualitative, thematic analysis of Instagram content was conducted. The constant comparative analysis was guided by organizational identity theory, which provided an individual-level perspective for interpreting organizational messages within the posts.

PR agencies use hashtags, employee sharing and communicating about agency outreach efforts and accolades to communicate organizational identity. PR agencies communicate aspects of its culture through employee engagement and development, employee cohesiveness and through communicating a commitment to diversity, philanthropy and community service. PR agencies influenced its organizational image by communicating content related to promotion and support of creative efforts, having a public Instagram account and retelling the history of the agency.

This study extends our understanding of corporate self-presentation strategies on social media.