Date of Award

2016

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration

Specialization

Marketing

Department

Interdepartmental Program

First Advisor

Ruby Roy Dholakia

Abstract

Posting consumption items on social media has become a common consumer behavior. It represents a new type of word-of-mouth activity. This dissertation investigates the factors that contribute to consumption-related posting behavior (CPB) on social media and the influences of such behavior on how consumers enjoy their purchases. It offers evidence from six studies in support of a framework incorporating the antecedents and consequences of CPB on social media. Antecedents – intrinsic enjoyment of using social media, the motivation to express oneself through word-of-mouth and purchase type – positively predict the posting behavior. Experiential purchases are more likely to be posted than material purchases. Materialism, however, moderates the effects of purchase type on posting. Specifically, lower-materialism consumers are more likely to post experiential purchases than material purchases, while higher-materialism consumers tend to post both types of purchases. For the consequences of CPB on social media, materialism is found to be a moderator interacting with CPB on social media to influence consumers’ enjoyment with their purchases. CPB on social media leads lower-materialism consumers to enjoy their purchases more; on the other hand, CPB on social media does not have such effects on higher-materialism consumers. Moreover, CPB on social media influences enjoyment with purchase through the purchase’s impact on self and interpersonal relationship. This dissertation makes significant contributions to the research on word-of-mouth, social media as well as materialism. It provides important managerial implications as well.

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