MGC, consumers’ engagement with MGC, WOM and consumers’ purchase intention: the case of Weibo platform

Abstract

Nowadays, consumers spend more time on and pay more attention to information on social media. Thus, firms are constantly concerned if marketer-generated content (MGC), consumers’ engagement with MGC and WOM could promote purchases; and if so, what kinds of MGC could grab the attention of consumers. The present study establishes a framework based on the Hierarchy of Effects model to determine the effects of two types of MGC, retweets and word-of-mouth (WOM), on consumers’ purchase intention. Data about 28 firms from 4 industries were collected, and a three-stage least squares model was employed to estimate the coefficients. Empirical results show that product-related content (PMGC) and social-related content (SMGC) could increase retweets. Retweets of PMGC could boost positive and negative WOM and also facilitate purchase intention. Retweets of SMGC could increase positive WOM and purchase intention. This study identifies the mechanism of how consumers form purchase intention from MGC, and provides new evidence for the classification of MGC.