Abstract
Nowadays, product placements are commonly presented on mobile social media but related studies are rare. The main purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of content likeability, content credibility, and social media engagement on users’ acceptance of product placement in mobile social networks. The results of the online survey indicate that content likeability is an antecedent of social media engagement and content credibility; social media engagement has an influence on content credibility; and content likeability, content credibility, and social media engagement both directly affect user acceptance of product placement in mobile social networks. Furthermore, social media engagement has an interaction effect with content likeability on the content credibility of mobile social networks. The results of the multi-group analysis indicate that young adults show differences with middle-aged adults in the direct effect of content likeability on social media engagement and in the interaction effect of content credibility and social media engagement on the acceptance of product placement in mobile social networks. The implications for practitioners are discussed on the basis of the empirical findings.
Highlights
In the last few years, due to the increasing prevalence of mobile device, mobile social networks (e.g., WhatsApp and WeChat) appeared and led the social media developing trend [83]
Content likeability has an influence on content credibility (β= 0.677, t-statistics = 16.132) and social media engagement (β= 0.594, t-statistics = 17.822); social media engagement has an influence on content credibility (β= 0.157, t-statistics = 3.165); and content likeability, content credibility, and social media engagement directly affect user acceptance of product placement in mobile social networks (β= 0.354, t-statistics = 6.873; β= 0.385, t-statistics = 7.761; β= 0.142, t-statistics = 3.479)
This study aims to examine the relationships between content likeability, content credibility, social media engagement, and user acceptance of product placement in mobile social networks
Summary
In the last few years, due to the increasing prevalence of mobile device, mobile social networks (e.g., WhatsApp and WeChat) appeared and led the social media developing trend [83]. Mobile social media enable people to interact with others anytime and become a part of people’s daily life nowadays. This trend stimulates marketers to start with product placements through mobile social media. We know little about product placement in mobile social media because there is a lack of research in this area. For improving our knowledge of the consumer behavior reacting to the product placement advertising on the mobile social media, it is essential for researchers to perform empirical studies in this area
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