Toward an Integrated Model of Public Engagement on Corporate Social Networking Sites: Antecedents, the Process, and Relational Outcomes

Abstract

The importance of social media engagement as an influential factor for cultivating quality organization-public relationships has been increasingly recognized by strategic communication scholars and professionals. However, there exist few theoretical deliberations on the underlying mechanisms of organization-public engagement on social media. This study focused on organization-public engagement and relationship management via social networking sites. We proposed and tested an integrative model that incorporated the antecedents of social media dependency, parasocial interaction, and community identification, as well as the effects of user engagement on relational outcomes of trust, satisfaction, and commitment. Acknowledging the worldwide popularity of social networking sites, the proposed model was tested among users of leading social networking site in China (i.e., Renren, Sina Weibo), the country with the world's largest Internet population and second-largest economy. The study findings well supported the proposed conceptual model. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are also provided.