How social media advertising features influence consumption and sharing intentions: the mediation of customer engagement
Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing
ISSN: 2040-7122
Article publication date: 30 June 2021
Issue publication date: 24 February 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Social media advertising (SMA) has become overly critical in the interactive marketing research field. This paper aimed to construct a research architecture model and to investigate the mediating effect of customer engagement between SMA and consumer behavioral intention in the context of Macao's casino integrated resorts.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data from 300 Chinese-speaking visitors of Macao's casino integrated resorts through a face-to-face survey. The hypotheses derived from the conceptual model were tested through two-stage structural equation modeling. The authors considered age and gender as control variables.
Findings
This study found that entertainment and promotional rewards had significant direct effects on consumption intention. Social media dependency did affect directly not only consumption intention but also sharing intention. Customer engagement on SMA mediated the effects of two SMA features (entertainment and promotional rewards) and one feature of SMA viewers (social media dependency) on consumption intention. As to extraneous variables, neither age nor gender significantly influenced consumer behavioral intention.
Practical implications
The casino integrated resort managers should enhance the entertainment elements and provide reasonable promotional rewards to increase SMA's effectiveness. Managers should also consider the social media usage habits of the targeted customers. Further academic research on casino integrated resorts in other regions may use this study as a basis for investigating the mediation of customer engagement on SMA.
Originality/value
This study contributed to understanding the mediating mechanism of customer engagement on SMA by conceptualizing customer engagement on SMA as a unique idea and provided a conceptual framework for further theoretical and empirical research in the interactive marketing research field.
Keywords
Citation
Ji, C., Mieiro, S. and Huang, G. (2022), "How social media advertising features influence consumption and sharing intentions: the mediation of customer engagement", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 137-153. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-04-2020-0067
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited