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1 – 10 of over 23000Juan-Antonio Martinez-Comeche and Ian Ruthven
The aim of this exploratory study is to analyze if the most used factors related to the engaging interaction and long-term engagement with online applications can be…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this exploratory study is to analyze if the most used factors related to the engaging interaction and long-term engagement with online applications can be applied to WhatsApp in a context of everyday life in Madrid and to investigate what parameters would best describe the engagement with WhatsApp in this context.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative method was employed to explore the cognitive, emotional and behavioral factors that mainly comprise the experience of a user with an online application, both at a point in time and over time. Data from 30 semi-structured interviews and questionnaires from six group chats were collected and analyzed. The sample was made up of people aged from 13 to 58 years old.
Findings
Findings suggest that the factors used in this study to evaluate long-term engagement and engaging interactions with WhatsApp are relevant, except for cognitive factors related to engaging interactions, indicating that the cognitive point of view is more difficult to apply in the engaging interaction analysis. Other attributes related to information retrieval are suggested, best suited to the informative use of this tool.
Originality/value
Long-term engagement studies are scarcer concerning Mobile Instant Messaging applications. Regarding engagement interaction, its analysis focusing on WhatsApp has not been approached. This study suggests the convenience of using parameters related to information to evaluate the engaging interaction, according to the informative use of the application.
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Welf H. Weiger, Hauke A. Wetzel and Maik Hammerschmidt
Firms increasingly rely on content marketing to trigger user engagement in social media brand communities. The purpose of this paper is to examine how three generic types…
Abstract
Purpose
Firms increasingly rely on content marketing to trigger user engagement in social media brand communities. The purpose of this paper is to examine how three generic types of marketer-generated content (affiliative, injunctive and utilitarian content) drive user engagement by considering distinct motivational paths and the role of users’ preference for intimate (vs broad) social networks.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct a field survey and a scenario experiment among social media users across different brands from three different product categories. They examine the impact of marketer-generated content on user engagement while considering the moderating role of network intimacy (i.e. the mutual confiding within a user’s social network in terms of small social circles) and the mediating role of user motivations (i.e. autonomous vs controlled motivation for community membership).
Findings
The findings show that affiliative content (i.e. content that highlights shared values) drives user engagement through autonomous motivation, and utilitarian content (i.e. content that highlights tangible benefits) drives user engagement through controlled motivation. Notably, injunctive content (i.e. content that demands specific user behavior) is not a promising instrument to increase user engagement in social media brand communities when not targeted correctly.
Research limitations/implications
The authors link three generic content types derived from literature on communal systems to user engagement, demonstrate the motivational underpinnings of their translation into engagement behavior and show that network intimacy can explain why the same content type can impact user engagement through two motivational paths.
Practical implications
The authors present three types of content that marketers can craft to trigger users to engage with a brand’s social media community and show when this content is most effective and why. By examining the moderating role of network intimacy, this research aims at providing targeting implications to social media marketers.
Originality/value
This research provides new insights on the effectiveness of marketer-generated content. The authors reveal two motivational paths that compete in explaining the overall effectiveness of different types of marketer-generated content to fuel user engagement. The authors further demonstrate that these relationships depend on the intimacy of a user’s circle of online friends.
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Fathima Zahara Saleem and Oriol Iglesias
The purpose of this paper is to present an affect-based perspective to explain levels of social media engagement.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an affect-based perspective to explain levels of social media engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses face-to-face long interviews and online observation of the Facebook profiles of respondents over an eight-month period.
Findings
Social media engagement varies depending on a user’s current and desired affective state. When individuals are in a low to moderately aroused negative affective state (such as feeling bored or upset), individuals tend to spend time passively consuming content: the lowest level of engagement. In a low to moderately aroused positive mood state (such as happiness), users both passively consume and actively participate with relevant content by liking and commenting on existing content. When users are in a highly aroused positive affective state, the propensity to create original content is greater, reflecting the highest level of engagement. When users are in a highly aroused negative affective state (such as being angry at a brand), users are motivated to vent on social media to manage the mood. Conversely, when users are in a highly aroused negative affective state related to personal trauma, the avoidance of engagement on social media is evident.
Practical implications
Brands can increase the likelihood of consumers creating positive consumer–brand stories offline and online by priming consumer affect.
Originality/value
This study explores how a desired affective state motivates varying levels of user engagement with different types of content on social media.
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Andrea Geissinger and Christofer Laurell
The purpose of this paper is to add to the literature by exploring how curvilinear manifestations of user engagement can be explained in the setting of fashion-oriented…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to add to the literature by exploring how curvilinear manifestations of user engagement can be explained in the setting of fashion-oriented social media.
Design/methodology/approach
This study analyses how ten Swedish fashion brands have been integrated in expressions of user engagement in social media. In total, a material of 11,173 user-generated contents from different types of social media applications over a period of 12 weeks was collected and analysed.
Findings
The results of this paper show that user engagement fluctuates considerably over time in social media. It also shows that the degree of engagement varies between different forms of social media applications.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on fashion marketing and user engagement by adding empirical support for the suggestion that expressions of engagement found in social media are curvilinear in their nature. It also concludes that highly involved and engaged users, instead of being brand activists, tend to be variety seekers in the studied setting that when taken together represents an emerging managerial challenge for the fashion industry and particularly fashion firms.
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Soohyung Joo, Kun Lu and Taehun Lee
The purpose of this paper is to explore topics of Facebook posts created by public libraries using the bi-term topic model, and examine the relationships between types of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore topics of Facebook posts created by public libraries using the bi-term topic model, and examine the relationships between types of topics and user engagement. The authors further investigated the effects of three library factors, namely, staff size, budget and urbanization degrees, on Facebook content and user engagement based on multilevel generalized linear modeling.
Design/methodology/approach
This study suggested a novel method, a combination of the bi-term topic modeling and MGLM, to enhance the understanding of social media in the context of public libraries.
Findings
The findings revealed that posts related to community events, awards and photos were likely to receive more likes and shares, whereas posts about summer reading programs received relatively more comments. In addition, the authors found that a larger staff size and the inclusion of multimedia had positive impacts on user engagement.
Originality/value
This study analyzed the content of public library-generated social media based on text mining. Then, the authors examined the effects of contextual library-level factors on social media practice in public libraries. Based on empirical findings, the study suggested a range of practical implications for effective use of social media in public libraries.
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Jorge Matute, Ramon Palau-Saumell and Nicoletta Occhiocupo
The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of customer brand engagement (CBE) by proposing and empirically testing a model of antecedents and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of customer brand engagement (CBE) by proposing and empirically testing a model of antecedents and consequences of CBE for user-initiated online brand communities (OBCs).
Design/methodology/approach
The model is tested using a sample of 584 participants in two relevant OBCs created and managed by brand fans. Specifically, data were collected from two communities in the photography products category: Nikonistas and Canonistas.
Findings
The results indicate that community and brand identification positively and significantly influence CBE. Furthermore, the supporting role of OBCs’ moderators facilitates CBE and moderates the influence of community identification on CBE. Regarding the outcomes of CBE, the results show that higher levels of engagement are positively, directly and significantly associated with favorable intentions towards the brand and the community. These effects are then mediated by brand affective commitment.
Research limitations/implications
The study has been conducted in two Spanish OBCs of two specific high-involvement products category: it is cross-sectional and focuses on a limited number of antecedents and consequences.
Practical implications
Evidence from this research supports and emphasizes the potential that these platforms have for brand management such that firms’ resources could be best allocated on those elements that lead to superior CBE.
Originality/value
The study endorses the role of CBE in fostering brand and community-related favorable outcomes in the context of user-initiated OBCs. It shed lights on the potential that these online platforms have for brands and on the role that brand management should play in digital contexts that are outside the direct control of the company.
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Soohyung Joo, Namjoo Choi and Tae Hyun Baek
The purpose of this paper is twofold: to explore what kinds of social media content public libraries create to communicate with users online, and to examine the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: to explore what kinds of social media content public libraries create to communicate with users online, and to examine the relationships between social media content types and corresponding levels of user engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample comprises 4,637 Facebook posts collected from 151 public libraries across the USA. The authors identified ten types of Facebook posts based on the open coding, and calculated the degrees of user engagement for each type of Facebook post, represented by the numbers of likes, shares and comments. Also, The authors examined the effects of the inclusions of images or video clips on user engagement.
Findings
The authors observed that the most frequent type of post was related to announcing upcoming events held in libraries. This study also found that posts about community news or emotionally inspiring messages elicited much engagement from users. Posts having an image or images tend to receive more user engagement.
Practical implications
Based on the findings of this study, the authors discussed practical strategies for public libraries to effectively use social media to better facilitate user engagement.
Originality/value
This study is one of a few attempts that examine the relationships between the types of social media content and the degrees of user engagement in public library environments. Also, the authors have proposed a coding scheme useful to analyze social media content in the context of public libraries.
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Hamid Khobzi, Raymond Y.K. Lau and Terence C.H. Cheung
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of different ways of message framing on users’ engagement behavior regarding the brand posts on Facebook and to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of different ways of message framing on users’ engagement behavior regarding the brand posts on Facebook and to determine whether users’ thumbs-up and reply moderate this impact.
Design/methodology/approach
A panel data analysis was conducted on a panel with 11,894 observations on 850 unique brand posts from the Facebook pages of the world’s most valuable brands over a seven days window with two observations each day. A system of equations was estimated using ordinary least squares, Hausman–Taylor IV and seemingly unrelated regressions to test study’s hypotheses.
Findings
The empirical findings confirm that more positively and negatively framed comments result in increased users’ engagement. Also, an increase in thumbs-up ratio for neutrally and negatively framed comments results in less engagement. The reply ratio might also have a positive and negative moderation effect on the influence of neutrally and positively framed comments on engagement behavior, respectively.
Practical implications
This study provides an in-depth understanding of online social interactions on Facebook pages for firms’ managers and marketers. Online social interactions might be either harmful or fruitful for firms depending on the type of interaction and engagement behavior. Findings can help managers and marketer to improve their strategies for leveraging Facebook for electronic marketing.
Originality/value
This is likely to be the first study that examines the moderating effect of users’ thumbs-up and reply on the relationship between message framing and users’ engagement behavior. By providing robust findings by addressing issues like omitted variables and endogeneity, the findings of this study are promising for developing new hypotheses and theoretical models in the context of online social interactions.
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Xiabing Zheng, Christy M. K. Cheung, Matthew K.O. Lee and Liang Liang
The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of user engagement in the context of online brand communities. A research model is proposed to explain how brand…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of user engagement in the context of online brand communities. A research model is proposed to explain how brand loyalty is developed through user engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
The research model was empirically tested with an online survey study of 185 current Facebook users.
Findings
Results revealed that user engagement influenced brand loyalty both directly and indirectly through online community commitment. Users tend to focus on the benefits (rather than the costs) derived from the usage when they engage in an online brand community.
Research limitations/implications
The selection of respondents is bound to the Hong Kong area, while Facebook members are globally distributed. In addition, this study involved a cross-sectional design instead of investigating the development of brand loyalty from a long-term perspective.
Practical implications
The results inform e-marketers the importance of user engagement behaviors for building brand loyalty through online communities. Strategies that encourage members to engage in online brand communities on social networking sites such as Facebook are also provided.
Originality/value
The concept of user engagement in online brand communities is still poorly understood, underscoring the need for theoretically based research of user engagement. This paper enriches the knowledge in the area of brand engagement by presenting a research model that introduces the concept of user engagement in social media research and empirically examines its role in building brand loyalty in online brand communities.
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Yuri Seki, Monty Sutrisna and Ayokunle Olubunmi Olanipekun
The more contemporary views on managing projects recommend stakeholder engagement as an important part of the process. Challenges have been reported when attempting to…
Abstract
Purpose
The more contemporary views on managing projects recommend stakeholder engagement as an important part of the process. Challenges have been reported when attempting to involve project stakeholders in a construction project due to the complexity of the processes. In projects such as refurbishment projects, the efforts to incorporate end users' needs and preferences into spatial environmental functions increase the complexity of stakeholder engagement during the journey of the project. This paper presents a unique technique used to integrate different tools within the system enquiry methodology in modelling the project stakeholder engagement process for refurbishment projects.
Design/methodology/approach
Aiming to address the problem, system dynamics (SD) has been selected as the most suitable method for modelling the dynamic behaviour of this complex system over time. A tool known as a rich picture diagram (RPD) is proposed as the precursor of the development of a causal loop diagram (CLD) to facilitate a more holistic abstraction for applicable solutions. An example of a single case study involving the refurbishment of a higher education building project is presented to explain the analysis undertaken in the process of developing the CLD that models the dynamic behaviour within end-user stakeholder engagement.
Findings
This paper demonstrates the complementarity capabilities of the soft and hard systems of enquiry in modelling stakeholder's dynamics within the refurbishment construction contexts. The RPD soft system tool was found useful to congregate diverse stakeholder expressions and experiences of a complex system in a holistic manner. Subsequently, the development of the CLD was fully guided by the information and relationship captured and presented in the RPD to yield a representative system model. Furthermore, this paper also reports the dynamics of the actors, situations, events and their inter-relationship found in the presented refurbishment project.
Originality/value
This paper enriches the techniques within the system enquiry methodology by integrating hard and soft system tools for dynamic process modelling purposes. This is particularly achieved by utilizing the RPD as the precursor of SD that provides a useful way for researchers and stakeholders to fully understand the dynamics and develop robust systemic interventions to optimize end-user stakeholder engagement during the journey of refurbishment projects, particularly of higher education buildings.
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