Abstract
As the most prevalent social media platform in mainland China, WeChat enables interpersonal communication among users and serves as an innovative marketing platform for enterprises to interact with consumers. Although numerous studies have investigated the antecedents of electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM), WeChat users’ specific behaviors still receive limited academic attention. Drawing from social capital theory and social exchange theory, this article develops a model to systematically explore three differentiated types of WeChat behaviors and their association with users’ social capital and e-WOM intention. The conceptual model is explicitly evaluated by utilizing web-based data gathered from 271 young people. Obtained results demonstrate the path effects indicating that: (1) WeChat use behaviors such as seeking, sharing, and liking can positively influence bonding social capital, while only the impacts of sharing and liking on bridging social capital are significant; (2) bonding and bridging social capital are both significant predictors of e-WOM intention, and bonding social capital is the more influential of the two; (3) bonding social capital partially mediates the effect of seeking on e-WOM intention. These findings are eloquent for researchers and operators to further grasp the increasing importance of WeChat adoption and social capital on young generations’ e-WOM intention in the evolving digital age.
Highlights
Accepted: 27 July 2021The dramatic advance of social media, including microblogs, video-sharing websites, and instant messaging applications, shows great potential for influencing users’ behavior, which has induced enterprises to implement digital transformations [1,2]
Social capital is comprised of bonding and bridging social capital and the model illustrates the direct correlation between social capital and electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) intention
This current paper initially carries out empirical research among Chinese young people in ascertaining the underlying mechanism between WeChat use behavior, social capital, and e-WOM intention in mainland China
Summary
The dramatic advance of social media, including microblogs, video-sharing websites, and instant messaging applications, shows great potential for influencing users’ behavior, which has induced enterprises to implement digital transformations [1,2]. Among these diverse platforms, WeChat is presently recognized as the most preponderant social networking site (SNS) and has grabbed increasing attention from researchers [3,4,5]. As a substitute for SNSs like Facebook and Twitter in mainland China, WeChat has currently grown into the most widely used social media platform for marketers by virtue of its ease of use, large user base, and direct communication channels [6,13,14]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
