Why people use social media: An investigation of engagement on an all-service platform

Bauer, Steven; Tian, Fang Article Why people use social media: An investigation of engagement on an all-service platform Cogent Business & Management Provided in Cooperation with: Taylor & Francis Group Suggested Citation: Bauer, Steven; Tian, Fang (2024) : Why people use social media: An investigation of engagement on an all-service platform, Cogent Business & Management, ISSN 2331-1975, Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, Vol. 11, Iss. 1, pp. 1-16, https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2389252 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/326476 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your personal and scholarly purposes. You are not to copy documents for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Cogent Business & Management ISSN: 2331-1975 (Online) Journal homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/oabm20 Why people use social media: An investigation of engagement on an all-service platform Steven Bauer & Fang Tian To cite this article: Steven Bauer & Fang Tian (2024) Why people use social media: An investigation of engagement on an all-service platform, Cogent Business & Management, 11:1, 2389252, DOI: 10.1080/23311975.2024.2389252 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2389252 © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Published online: 13 Aug 2024. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 1791 View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 1 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=oabm20 Marketing | research article Cogent Business & ManageMent 2024, VoL. 11, no. 1, 2389252 Why people use social media: An investigation of engagement on an all-service platform steven Bauer and Fang tian Business administration Division, seaver College, Pepperdine university, Malibu, Ca, usa ABSTRACT this study provides the first investigation of the complete group of variables in the expanded theory of uses and gratifications on consumer engagement in an all-service social media platform. consumer engagement is measured both from a psychological state and behavioral perspective, an approach which is important since the antecedent variables in uses and gratifications theory have both psychological and behavioral manifestations. a survey is conducted in Mainland china on Wechat with 805 respondents. antecedent variables and consumer engagement are measured using previously validated scales. regression analyses find that the antecedent variables of entertainment, integration/social interaction, personal identity, information, remuneration, and empowerment are significantly associated with consumer engagement on Wechat. age and gender relationships are also explored in correlation and regression analyses, with associations strongest among males and older groups. the results give added support to the relevance of the uses and gratifications theoretical framework. 1. Introduction Uses and gratifications theory (katz etal., 1973) provides a key understanding of why people use social media. this theory, as expanded by Muntinga et al. (2011), helps explain consumer engagement on social media via categories of entertainment, integration/social interaction, personal identity, information, remuneration and empowerment. consumer engagement on social media has been shown to be an important variable, positively affecting the development of brand equity (Dessart et al., 2015; Dwivedi, 2015; santos etal., 2022; schivinski, 2021), well-being (khatri etal., 2021), electronic word-of-mouth (chu et al., 2019; Pang et al., 2024; tan & chen, 2019), social support (Pang, 2020; Wang et al., 2019), and business-consumer relationship quality (chen, 2017). it has been defined as a psychological state including three dimensions (schaufeli et al., 2002): (1) vigor – a dimension denoting high levels of energy and mental resilience, (2) absorption – a dimension denoting a sense of concentration and involvement in interactions, and (3) dedication – a dimension referring to a sense of enthusiasm and inspiration. in addition, consumer engagement has been conceptualized behaviorally in terms of three levels of interactivity and involvement on social media – brand consumption, contribution and creation (Muntinga et al., 2011). although the expanded uses and gratifications theory has been tested on select U.s. social media platforms like Facebook, instagram, reddit and Youtube (Buzeta etal., 2020), the entire theoretical framework has never been evaluated on an all-service platform, such as Wechat. Moreover, studies on all types of platforms have been implemented either with a psychological state (chu et al., 2019) or behavioral (Buzeta et al., 2020; chen, 2017) measurement of the consumer engagement variable, but not with both types. a test of the expanded uses and gratifications theory on an all-service platform would provide additional support for the relevance of the theoretical framework. this examination is particularly important © 2024 the author(s). Published by informa uK Limited, trading as taylor & Francis group. CONTACT steven Bauer stev[email protected] Business administration Division, seaver College, Pepperdine university, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, Ca, 90263, usa https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2389252 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. ARTICLE HISTORY received 25 november 2023 revised 15 July 2024 accepted 1 august 2024 KEYWORDS social media marketing; consumer behavior; consumer psychology; customer experience; customer insight; marketing communication SUBJECTS communication theory; Mass communication; consumer Psychology 2 s. BaUer anD F. tian because Buzeta et al. (2020) found the variables added in the expansion – remuneration and empowerment – to be the most important drivers of consumer engagement. although chu et al. (2019) demonstrated the importance of self-enhancement and chen (2017) of entertainment on consumer engagement in the all-service platform of Wechat, their tests did not include the remuneration and empowerment variables. a measurement approach based on psychological state and behavioral perspectives would also provide an improved test of uses and gratifications theory, since the theory’s constructs have both psychological and behavioral manifestations. in addition, implementing a study which tested consumer engagement from both of these perspectives would enable a more rigorous evaluation of the variable. Our study further develops uses and gratifications theory by testing its expanded version on an all-service social media platform, Wechat. We examine the influences of the complete group of variables embodied in the expanded theory, i.e., entertainment, integration/social interaction, personal identity, information, remuneration, and empowerment. in addition, we evaluate variables both from psychological state and behavioral perspectives. We begin by describing uses and gratifications theory and then move to a section on hypothesis development with accompanying literature support. then we describe the methodology and detail the results of our study. Finally, we present a summary of key conclusions, implications for theory, practical implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research. 2. Uses and gratifications theory a theoretical approach which helps explain internal antecedents of consumer engagement on social media is uses and gratifications theory (katz et al., 1973). the theory argues that people are in control of the media they use, rather than the media overpowering them. it presents a grouping of needs which explains why different media are chosen by individuals. Originally, five types of needs were outlined: (1) needs strengthening information, knowledge, and understanding; (2) needs building aesthetic, pleasurable and emotional experience; (3) needs strengthening credibility, confidence, stability, and status; (4) needs building contact with family, friends, and the world; and (5) needs related to escape or tension-release. these needs are based on utilitarian, hedonic, psychological and social predispositions. McQuail (1983) later summarized these categories as entertainment, integration/social interaction, personal identity, and information, with Muntinga etal. (2011) adding the remuneration and empowerment categories due to their relevance for social media. Under remuneration, people use social media to gain some type of future reward, such as an economic incentive. empowerment involves individuals engaging in social media to exert influence on other people or companies. tsai and Men (2013) used this six-dimension set in their research on consumer engagement in social media, as did Buzeta et al. (2020) in their study on consumer engagement with U.s.-based social media platforms. Per Buzeta et al. (2020, p. 81), the six categories may be defined as follows: (1) entertainment – “the emotional relief generated by temporarily recreating or recessing from daily routines,” (2) integration/ social interaction – “the users’ feeling of connection (to an online community, for instance) that enables them to increase their knowledge about other people’s circumstances and augment individuals’ socializing capabilities,” (3) Personal identity – “the need for shaping one’s identity by providing an image of one’s personality and by receiving peer recognition,” (4) information – “individuals’ understanding of relevant events and conditions in the world around,” (5) remuneration – “Users’ intention to obtain some future benefit or external reward that basically stands apart from the behavior,”, and (6) empowerment– “individuals’ purpose of exerting their influence or power on others’ perceptions (e.g., consumer, companies, brands), by voicing their opinions and by demanding improvements in products, services, and corporate policies.” all of these categories involve psychological processes which lead to different types of behaviors on social media. 3. Hypotheses development in our study, we seek to identify the key antecedents of consumer engagement on an all-service platform, represented by Wechat, using the six-folded categories based on uses and gratification theory. engagement is defined both from a psychological state and behavioral perspective. the psychological state definition uses the vigor-absorption-dedication framework originally developed by schaufeli et al. cOgent BUsiness & ManageMent 3 (2002), and the behavioral definition the brand consumption-contribution-creation model originally proposed by Muntinga etal. (2011). as the constructs of uses and gratifications theory include psychological and behavioral manifestations, our hypotheses are framed across both types of definitions. We believe that the entertainment dimension of uses and gratifications theory is an important antecedent of engagement on Wechat, since people are looking to the platform for emotional relief and pleasure. chen (2017) found entertainment value to be significantly related to Wechat engagement, as defined by “stickiness”, or the degree of brand consumption and contribution. in addition, hedonic value was shown to be related to the variables of liking behavior (gan, 2017), share intention (Ma et al., 2018) and continuance intention (ashraf et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2017) on Wechat. Boyd (2008) also demonstrated the relevance of entertainment on engagement on Myspace. Our first hypothesis is thus as follows: H1: entertainment is positively related to engagement on Wechat, measured as a psychological state of vigor-absorption-dedication and behaviorally as brand consumption-contribution-creation. Based on research by chu et al. (2019), personal identity is also an antecedent of Wechat engagement. they found that the need for self-enhancement was significantly associated with engagement on the platform, as measured by the vigor-absorption-dedication psychological state framework. in addition, Osei-Frimpong et al. (2022) highlighted the importance of self-status seeking on engagement on Facebook. Boyd (2008) also demonstrated the relevance of entertainment on engagement on Myspace. these results are in line with our belief that people look to Wechat to strengthen their confidence and status, as defined in the personal identity dimension of uses and gratifications theory. therefore, our second hypothesis is as follows: H2: Personal identity is positively related to engagement on Wechat, measured as a psychological state of vigor-absorption-dedication and behaviorally as brand consumption-contribution-creation. the remuneration and empowerment dimensions of uses and gratifications theory have not been tested as antecedent variables by Wechat researchers. however, Buzeta et al. (2020) showed that these dimensions were the most critical drivers of engagement as defined by the brand consumption-contribution-creation model, working with four different social media platforms – Facebook, instagram, reddit and Youtube. We feel that individuals use Wechat to receive remuneration via economic incentives and to achieve empowerment through influence over consumers, companies and brands, per the expanded uses and gratifications theory. Our third and fourth hypotheses are thus as follows: H3: remuneration is positively related to engagement on Wechat, measured as a psychological state of vigor-absorption-dedication and behaviorally as brand consumption-contribution-creation. H4: empowerment is positively related to engagement on Wechat, measured as a psychological state of vigor-absorption-dedication and behaviorally as brand consumption-contribution-creation. We are not hypothesizing that the uses and gratifications theory dimension of integration/social interaction will be significant as an antecedent variable in our research. chu et al. (2019) did not find the related dimension of sense of belonging to be significantly associated with engagement on Wechat. they suggested that relationship needs were not a critical motive for Wechat use, with a more important factor being the desire to showcase lifestyle and achievements (embodied in the dimension of personal identity). We are also not hypothesizing that the uses and gratifications theory dimension of information will yield significant results as an antecedent variable. chen (2017) did not find usefulness, a dimension related to information, to be significant, explaining that usefulness was perceived more as a standard function than an added value of Wechat. 4. Methodology We implemented a survey on Wechat, an ideal representative of an all-service platform, in Mainland china in the Mandarin language in October 2021. Wechat, with 1.3 billion users worldwide (Dixon, 2023) offers consumers a highly convenient tool to organize their lives and satisfy all their personal needs in one place. consumers can use Wechat for social purposes, texting, payment, and other specific uses, 4 s. BaUer anD F. tian such as hailing rides or booking flights. the platform features Wechat Moments, or friendship circles, which has been shown to have positive social effects (Duan et al., 2020; Pang, 2019; Zhao et al., 2018). it also has a payment mechanism, Wechat Pay, which has become a beneficial feature (greiffenhagen etal., 2023; Matemba etal., 2018). Wechat Moments and Wechat Pay together have enabled social commerce on the platform (chen et al., 2019; Yang et al., 2016). the survey was conducted through tencent survey, an online questionnaire platform developed by tencent. We selected this survey platform because, first, it is one of the most widely used platforms in china; tencent survey has collected 3.3 billion questionnaires for 44.996 million users. second, tencent survey could better assist us to recruit more respondents from our target group, Wechat users, as Wechat is a tencent product. third, Wechat Pay (one of china’s two online payment methods and another tencent product) could easily be used for paying each respondent 15 rMB (roughly $2.25) for participation. ethical approval for our study was received from the Pepperdine University institutional review Board under protocol 21-06-1614, and the study adheres to the Declaration of helsinki. in addition, written informed consent was obtained from participants. Our survey collected data from 805 individuals who were 20 years of age or older and used Wechat on a daily basis, with the sample 41.12% male and 58.88% female. age composition was 82.24% 20-29, 13.04% 30-39, 3.73% 40-49, and 0.99% 50+. all demographic and Wechat use statistics, including gender, age, individual income, education, place of residence, when started using Wechat, and how often use Wechat on an average day, are summarized in table 1. Table 1. Demographics and WeChat usage of survey sample. n % gender Male 331 41.12% Female 474 58.88% age 20-29 662 82.24% 30-39 105 13.04% 40-49 30 3.73% 50+ 8 0.99% individual income Less than 36,000 RMB 384 47.70% 36,000-143,999 RMB 310 38.51% 144,000-299,999 RMB 73 9.07% 300,000-419,999 RMB 25 3.11% 420,000-659,999 RMB 7 0.87% 660,000 or greater RMB 6 0.75% education Middle school or less 37 4.60% High school 95 11.80% two-year college 253 31.43% university 381 47.33% graduate school 39 4.84% Place of Residence shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang 107 13.29% Beijing-tianjin 93 11.55% guangdong 129 16.02% other provinces 476 59.13% Place of Residence northeast China 50 6.21% east China 277 34.41% Central China 134 16.65% north China 104 12.92% south China 150 18.63% northwest China 24 2.98% southwest China 66 8.20% When started using WeChat 2014 or earlier 213 26.46% 2015-2017 445 55.28% 2018 or Later 147 18.26% How often visit WeChat on average day Less than 2 hours a day 222 27.58% 2 to 4 hours a day 113 14.04% More than 4 hours a day 470 58.39% cOgent BUsiness & ManageMent 5 the six antecedent variables of entertainment, integration/social interaction, personal identity, information, remuneration and empowerment were measured with an 18-item likert scale used by Buzeta et al. (2020). this scale provides a validated tool for measuring the constructs included in the expanded version of uses and gratifications theory (Muntinga et al., 2011). Questions were adapted for appropriateness on the Wechat platform. in addition, we used scales validated in two different studies to test consumer engagement from a psychological state and behavioral perspective. the vigor-absorption-dedication psychological state measure of engagement was tested using a 9-item likert scale developed for the Wechat platform by chu etal. (2019). the brand consumption-contribution-creation behavioral measure of engagement was based on a 17-item likert scale used by Buzeta etal. (2020), but reduced down to 10 likert items adapted for appropriateness on Wechat. administration of the scales measuring antecedent variables (aV), psychological state engagement (Pse) and behavioral engagement (Be) was rotated to avoid order bias, for a total of six different scale rotations: (1) aV/Pse/Be, (2) aV/Be/Pse, (3) Pse/aV/Be, (4) Pse/Be/aV, (5) Be/Pse/aV, and (6) Be/aV/Pse. in addition, demographic and/or Wechat use questions separated the administration of each scale in the survey in order to diminish common method bias (Podsakoff et al., 2012). table 2 summarizes questions, as well as their means (M) and standard deviations (sD). these questions tested six antecedent variables, three psychological state engagement variables, and three behavioral engagement variables. each variable was composed of a series of multiple likert-type items which represented similar questions. the average of the responses to these likert Table 2. survey questions. type Variable Question M sD antecedent Questions entertainment i use WeChat because it is entertaining. (Q1) 3.18 1.08 i use WeChat because it relaxes me. (Q2) 3.42 1.02 i use WeChat because it is fun. (Q3) 3.45 1.01 integration/ social interaction i can interact with people like myself on WeChat. (Q4) 4.10 0.83 i use WeChat to belong to a group with the same interests as mine. (Q5) 3.91 0.88 i have made interpersonal connections to other people on WeChat. (Q6) 4.11 0.76 Personal identity on WeChat, i can present to others who i am. (Q7) 3.72 0.86 i try to adjust my comments on WeChat to improve my reputation among other WeChat users. (Q8) 3.25 1.00 WeChat allows me to express my opinions. (Q9) 3.87 0.78 information WeChat gives me something to talk about with my friends. (Q10) 3.98 0.84 i use WeChat to keep up with what’s going on. (Q11) 3.93 0.85 i use WeChat to remember something important. (Q12) 3.85 0.90 Remuneration i use WeChat to get a discount. (Q13) 3.43 0.99 i use WeChat to get the red envelopes. (Q14) 4.06 0.87 i use WeChat to access other financial benefits. (Q15) 3.60 0.98 empowerment on WeChat, i want to give suggestions to other users. (Q16) 3.43 0.95 on WeChat, i want to influence other people. (Q17) 3.22 1.01 on WeChat, i want to influence companies and organizations. (Q18) 3.14 1.04 (Continued) 6 s. BaUer anD F. tian items was used to construct the respective variable. this type of construct allowed the application of the central limit theorem, which supports the parametric analysis in the study. the assumption can be verified by the histograms of the linear regression residuals discussed in section 5.2 (see Figure 1). to test the internal consistency reliability of each variable, we calculated both cronbach’s alpha (α) and McDonald’s omega (ω). all alphas and omegas are at least 74%, indicating strong internal consistency for each variable (see table 3). these scales were further validated through convergent and discriminant validity analyses, which can be observed from the factor loading matrix exhibited in table 4. strong correlations between questions of the same variable showed convergent validity (see bold numbers in table 4). For discriminant validity, weak correlations were found between questions of different variables; in table 4, most of those numbers were omitted because they were insignificant. additionally for convergent validity, we calculated average variance extracted (aVe) and composite reliability (cr). although for a few (five out of twelve) variables, aVe was a bit less than 0.5, all crs were close to or above 0.7 (see table 4). according to lam (2012), the convergent validity for these variables is considered to be adequate. type Variable Question M sD Psychological state Questions Vigor i can continue using WeChat for a very long period at a time. (Q22) 3.57 1.01 i feel vigorous when i am using WeChat. (Q23) 3.41 0.91 i devote a lot of energy to WeChat. (Q24) 3.42 1.00 absorption i am rarely distracted when using WeChat. (Q25) 3.22 0.97 My mind is focused when using WeChat. (Q26) 3.29 0.98 i pay a lot of attention to WeChat. (Q27) 3.28 1.01 Dedication i am enthusiastic in using WeChat. (Q28) 3.62 0.95 i found WeChat full of meaning and purpose. (Q29) 3.75 0.87 i am interested in using WeChat. (Q30) 3.78 0.84 Behavioral Questions Consumption i read (product/service) brand-related posts and/or watch videos created by the company on WeChat. (Q35) 3.68 0.89 i read (product/service) brand-related articles and/or watch videos created by influencers on WeChat. (Q36) 3.58 0.92 i read (product/service) brand-related information and/or watch videos created by my contacts on WeChat. (Q37) 3.58 0.92 Contribution i follow brands on WeChat. (Q38) 3.64 0.95 i follow brand-related influencers on WeChat. (Q39) 3.29 1.07 i “like” brand-related posts and/or videos on WeChat. (Q40) 3.41 1.00 i comment on brand-related posts and/or videos on WeChat. (Q41) 3.32 1.03 i share brand-related posts and/ or videos on WeChat. (Q42) 3.20 1.04 Creation i initiate brand-related posts and/or videos on WeChat. (Q43) 3.22 1.08 i write brand-related reviews on WeChat about products i try or use. (Q44) 3.44 1.01 Table 2. Continued. cOgent BUsiness & ManageMent 7 5. Results 5.1. Correlational analyses We use two nonparametric statistical techniques to measure the relationship between ordinal variables: the spearman rank-order correlation and kendall’s tau-b correlation. table 5 shows spearman’s ρ and kendall’s τ between the antecedent variables and the psychological state and behavioral engagement variables. correlations are positive for all pairs at a .32 level or above. Figure 1. Residual histograms. Table 3. internal consistency (α and ω) and convergent validity (aVe and CR). Variable α ω aVe CR entertainment 0.85 0.85 0.649 0.847 integration/ social interaction 0.81 0.81 0.522 0.763 Personal identity 0.75 0.75 0.472 0.699 information 0.74 0.74 0.479 0.711 Remuneration 0.74 0.75 0.551 0.784 empowerment 0.83 0.84 0.632 0.825 Vigor 0.79 0.79 0.471 0.693 absorption 0.87 0.87 0.572 0.779 Dedication 0.84 0.85 0.609 0.818 Consumption 0.80 0.81 0.496 0.724 Contribution 0.88 0.90 0.433 0.753 Creation 0.79 0.79 0.594 0.810 14 s. BaUer anD F. tian brand curious, and prospect brand fan – based on cognitive patterns which stimulate social media engagement. it would be valuable to chart the relationship between these variables and the antecedents investigated in our research. Other lines of inquiry would be to evaluate the association between our drivers and online shopping (nayak etal., 2022) as well as the broader areas of technology usage (kiburu et al., 2023) and concept restoration (li et al., 2023). Acknowledgments the authors are deeply grateful to Ms. saier Ma, a B.s. graduate in Business administration of seaver college, Pepperdine University, in spring 2022, for her support in data collection and literature review; to Mr. Marc Vinyard, associate University librarian for graduate studies, Pepperdine University, for his assistance in journal selection; and to Drs. alice labban and robert shearer, Business administration Division, seaver college, Pepperdine University for their guidance throughout the study. Author contributions statement steven Bauer and Fang tian were both involved in the conception and design of the work; the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of the data; the drafting of the paper and reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; and the final approval of the version to be published; and they agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Disclosure statement no potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. Funding the authors received no funding for this research. About the authors Steven Bauer is assistant instructor of teaching of Marketing in the Business administration Division, seaver college, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific coast highway, Malibu, ca 90263, Usa. email: [email protected]. Fang Tian is associate Professor of Decision science in the Business administration Division at seaver college, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific coast highway, Malibu, ca 90263. ORCID steven Bauer http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7097-7528 Data availability statement the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, steven Bauer, upon reasonable request. References ajina, a. s., Javed, h. M. U., ali, s., & Zamil, a. M. a. (2023). are men from mars, women from venus? examining gender differences of consumers towards mobile-wallet adoption during pandemic. Cogent Business & Management, 10(1), 2178093. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2178093 ashraf, r. U., hou, F., & ahmad, W. (2019). Understanding continuance intention to use social media in china: the roles of personality drivers, hedonic value, and utilitarian value. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 35(13), 1216–1228. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2018.1519145 Boyd, D. (2008). Why youth (heart) social network sites: the role of networked publics in teenage social life. in D. Buckingham (ed.), Youth, identity, and digital media (pp. 119–142). Mit Press. cOgent BUsiness & ManageMent 15 Buzeta, c., De Pelsmacker, P., & Dens, n. (2020). Motivations to use different social media types and their impact on consumers’ online brand-related activities (cOBras). Journal of Interactive Marketing, 52(1), 79–98. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.intmar.2020.04.004 chen, r. Y.-r. (2017). Perceived values of branded mobile media, consumer engagement, business-consumer relationship quality and purchase intention: a study of Wechat in china. Public Relations Review, 43(5), 945–954. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2017.07.005 chen, Y., lu, Y., Wang, B., & Pan, Z. (2019). how do product recommendations affect impulse buying? an empirical study on Wechat social commerce. Information & Management, 56(2), 236–248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2018.09.002 chu, s.-c., lien, c.-h., & cao, Y. (2019). electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on Wechat: examining the influence of sense of belonging, need for self-enhancement, and consumer engagement on chinese travellers’ eWOM. International Journal of Advertising, 38(1), 26–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2018.1470917 Dessart, l., Veloutsou, c., & Morgan-thomas, a. (2015). consumer engagement in online brand communities: a social media perspective. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 24(1), 28–42. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-06-2014-0635 Dixon, s. (2023, February 14). Most popular social networks worldwide as of January 2023, ranked by number of monthly active users. retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-bynumber-of-users/ Duan, W., he, c., & tang, X. (2020). Why do people browse and post on Wechat Moments? relationships among fear of missing out, strategic self-presentation, and online social anxiety. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 23(10), 708–714. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2019.0654 Dwivedi, a. (2015). a higher-order model of consumer brand engagement and its impact on loyalty intentions. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 24, 100–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.02.007 gan, c. (2017). Understanding Wechat users’ liking behavior: an empirical study in china. Computers in Human Behavior, 68, 30–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.002 greiffenhagen, c., li, r., & llewellyn, n. (2023). the visibility of digital money: a video study of mobile payments using Wechat Pay. Sociology, 57(3), 493–515. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385221104007 ifinedo, P. (2016). applying uses and gratifications theory and social influence processes to understand students’ pervasive adoption of social networking sites: Perspectives from the americas. International Journal of Information Management, 36(2), 192–206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2015.11.007 katz, e., haas, h., & gurevitch, M. (1973). On the use of the mass media for important things. American Sociological Review, 38(2), 164–181. https://doi.org/10.2307/2094393 khatri, P., raina, k., Dutta, s., Pahwa, h., & kumari, P. (2021). reaction to cOViD-19, social media engagement and well-being: a mediation analysis. Labour & Industry: a Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work, 31(4), 457–484. https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2021.196623 kiburu, l., njiraini, n., & Boso, n. (2023). social networks and consumer technology usage: a systematic literature review and future research directions. Cogent Business & Management, 10(1), 2153487. https://doi.org/10.1080/233 11975.2022.2153487 lam, l. W. (2012). impact of competitiveness on salespeople’s commitment and performance. Journal of Business Research, 65(9), 1328–1334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.10.026 li, P., cho, h., shen, c., & kong, h. (2023). From context adaptation to context restoration: strategies, motivations, and decision rules of managing context collapse on Wechat. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 29(1), zmad043. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmad043 Ma, l., Zhang, X., & Ding, X. Y. (2018). social media users’ share intention and subjective well-being. Online Information Review, 42(6), 784–801. https://doi.org/10.1108/Oir-02-2017-0058 Mainolfi, g., lo Presti, l., Marino, V., & Filieri, r. (2022). YOU POst, i traVel. ‘Bloggers’ credibility, digital engagement, and travelers’ behavioral intention: the mediating role of hedonic and utilitarian motivations. Psychology & Marketing, 39(5), 1022–1034. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21638 Matemba, e. D., guoxin, l., & Maiseli, B. J. (2018). consumers’ stickiness to mobile payment applications: an empirical study of Wechat Wallet. Journal of Database Management, 29(3), 43–66. https://doi.org/10.4018/JDM.2018070103 McQuail, D. (1983). Mass communication theory: An introduction. sage Publications ltd. Muntinga, D. g., Moorman, M., & smit, e. g. (2011). introducing cOBras. International Journal of Advertising, 30(1), 13–46. https://doi.org/10.2501/iJa-30-1-013-046 nayak, s., suhan, M., nayak, r., spulbar, c., Birau, r., & gull, s. M. (2022). antecedents to purchase intention in virtual market space in india: an empirical investigation. Cogent Business & Management, 9(1), 2003502. https://doi.or g/10.1080/23311975.2021.2003502 Osei-Frimpong, k., Mclean, g., islam, n., & Otoo, B. a. (2022). What drives me there? the interplay of socio-psychological gratification and consumer values in social media brand engagement. Journal of Business Research, 146, 288–307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.03.057 Pang, h. (2019). how can Wechat contribute to psychosocial benefits? Unpacking mechanisms underlying network size, social capital and life satisfaction among sojourners. Online Information Review, 43(7), 1362–1378. https://doi. org/10.1108/Oir-05-2018-0168 Pang, h. (2020). examining associations between university students’ mobile social media use, online self-presentation, social support and sense of belonging. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 72(3), 321–338. https://doi. org/10.1108/aJiM-08-2019-0202 16 s. BaUer anD F. tian Pang, h., Qiao, Y., & Zhang, k. (2024). Modeling pathway linking mobile social media intensity to attitude towards electronic word-of-mouth and engagement: the significant role of social trust and perceived homophily. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 198, 123023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2023.123023 Pang, h., & Zhang, k. (2024). Determining influence of service quality on user identification, belongingness, and satisfaction on mobile social media: insight from emotional attachment perspective. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 77, 103688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103688 Podsakoff, P. M., Mackenzie, s. B., & Podsakoff, n. P. (2012). sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it. Annual Review of Psychology, 63(1), 539–569. https://doi.org/10.1146/ annurev-psych-120710-100452 santos, c. r., cheung, c. M. k., coelho, P. s., & rita, P. (2022). consumer engagement in social media brand communities: a literature review. International Journal of Information Management, 63, 102457. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijinfomgt.2021.102457 schaufeli, W. B., Martínez, i. M., Pinto, a. M., salanova, M., & Bakker, a. B. (2002). Burnout and engagement in university students: a cross-national study. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 33(5), 464–481. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0022022102033005003 schivinski, B. (2021). eliciting brand-related social media engagement: a conditional inference tree framework. Journal of Business Research, 130, 594–602. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.08.045 tan, s., & chen, W. (2019). can members’ Wechat engagement affect relational outcomes in community-supported agriculture? empirical evidence from china. Agribusiness, 35(1), 36–52. https://doi.org/10.1002/agr.21590 thomala, l. l. (2023a, June 30). Monthly active users of Xiaohongshu app in china 2020-2022. retrieved from https:// www.statista.com/statistics/1327421/china-xiaohongshu-monthly-active-users/#:~:text=the%20chinese%20 lifesyle%20app%20Xiaohongshu,a%20third%20of%20its%20userbase thomala, l. l. (2023b, February 27). share of Douyin (tiktok) users in china as of november 2022, by age group. retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1202727/china-douyin-user-age-distribution/#:~:text=Douyin%20 (tiktok)%20user%20age%20distribution%20in%20china%202022&text=as%20of%20november%202022%2c%20 one,as%20measured%20in%20november%202022 tsai, W.-h. s., & Men, l. r. (2013). Motivations and antecedents of consumer engagement with brand pages on social networking sites. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 13(2), 76–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/15252019.2013.826549 Wang, g., Zhang, W., & Zeng, r. (2019). Wechat use intensity and social support: the moderating effect of motivators for Wechat use. Computers in Human Behavior, 91, 244–251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.10.010 Wang, X., & haapio-kirk, l. (2021). emotion work via digital visual communication: a comparative study between china and Japan. Global Media and China, 6(3), 325–344. https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364211008044 Yang, s., chen, s., & li, B. (2016). the role of business and friendships on Wechat Business: an emerging business model in china. Journal of Global Marketing, 29(4), 174–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/08911762.2016.1184363 Zhang, c.-B., li, Y.-n., Wu, B., & li, D.-J. (2017). how Wechat can retain users: roles of network externalities, social interaction ties, and perceived values in building continuance intention. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 284– 293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.069 Zhao, Z., Zhu, M., & hao, X. (2018). share the gaze: representation of destination image on the chinese social platform Wechat Moments. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 35(6), 726–739. https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2018. 1432449