Social Influence Theory Research Articles

Predicting positive user responses to social media advertising: The roles of emotional appeal, informativeness, and creativity

As social network services become more pervasive, social media advertising emerges as an attractive vehicle for augmenting advertising effectiveness. To leverage this new means of marketing, one must understand what engages SNS users in a favorable online behavior (i.e., overtly indicating personal interest in, or support for, the exposed message by clicking the Like or Share button in Facebook), thereby resulting in an effective advertising campaign. This research conceptualizes SNS ad effectiveness as a concept encompassing emotional appeal, informativeness and creativity that all have a potential to contribute to a positive online behavior. It empirically investigates the antecedents of positive user behavior for a SNS ad based on the theory of reasoned action, the social influence theory, and a persuasion theory. It proposes and tests a conceptual model of the formation of online user’s behavioral responses with regards to SNS advertising. The results of our empirical tests of the model reveal that informativeness and advertising creativity were key drivers of favorable behavioral responses to an SNS ad and that intention to engage in favorable user responses was positively associated with purchase intention. Based on these findings, the paper suggests further research directions and offers implications for harnessing the full potential of the new SNS advertising platform.

The conceptual framework of the factors influencing consumer satisfaction in social commerce

The twentieth century has seen enormous changes in the field of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and that change will continue into the future, as well. When Web 2.0 tools appeared, people had the opportunity to interact with each other on the internet and helped to create a new stream with different functions. This stream called Social commerce (SC) which is defined as an extension of Business to Customer (B2C) e-commerce where consumers can interact with each other to conduct online shopping activities and discuss their experiences and preferences on products and services. Virtually all of the previous research on SC focus on behavioral and purchase intentions. In addition, there are many theories that can provide a better understanding of the satisfaction in SC. For instance, the theory of social interaction (Liang & Turban 2011) and the theory of social process (Amblee & Bui 2011) can both help in understanding consumer behaviors. In addition, the motivation theory might help in understanding why people use SC as well as how intrinsic and extrinsic motivations carry on in SC (Liang & Turban 2011). Although these studies have reviled promising findings, questions remain concerning what factors affect consumers' satisfaction, which are yet to be answered. Therefore, this study aims to develop a theoretical framework using Trust and Social Influence theories to investigate the influencing factors on customer satisfaction in social commerce. Investigating the theoretical framework of this study would provide theoretical evidence and help businesses and individuals to better understanding the factors that affect consumer satisfaction in SC.

The impact of sellers' social influence on the co-creation of innovation with customers and brand awareness in online communities

This study integrates theoretical concepts adopted from social influence theory, co-creation practice, and brand equity into a single model by examining the role of social comparison and social identity in co-creation activities in an online community context, which is known to affect firms' brand awareness in the Business-to-Business (B2B) marketplace. The model was tested using a dataset gathered via an online survey of four online communities discussing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) related issues in LinkedIn. Empirical findings from our survey of 190 business professionals indicate that sellers' social identity and social comparison are key facilitators for developing a series of co-innovation activities, and confirmed that co-innovation practices make potential customers more aware of company brands. The results of this study provide new insights into effective B2B social media marketing techniques by elaborating how best to orchestrate co-innovation with online communities to boost brand awareness.

Service Recovery via Social Media

Social media channels are increasingly used by consumers to post complaints to companies. In contrast to traditional channels, the complaint and a firm’s recovery efforts are visible to passive observers who are virtually present. Additionally, these unaffected users may become involved by supporting a complainant with negative comments or by supporting the firm with positive comments, leading to interactive virtual presence (VP). We reveal that such VP affects how a complainant reacts to successful and unsuccessful service recovery. Based on social influence theory (SIT), we investigate the influence of a mere VP as well as interactive VP of positive and negative valence on the complainant’s satisfaction and purchase intentions and analyze the role of expertise of those who are virtually present. The results indicate that SIT is applicable to virtual environments but that restrictions apply. Specifically, mere VP enhances the effects of recovery success, but—in contrast to SIT—not the negative results of unsuccessful recovery, and interactive VP leads to attitude polarization. Moreover, high-expertise individuals who engage in positive (negative) interactions after unsuccessful (successful) recovery are deleterious. When experts disconfirm successful recovery, they have higher credibility and reduce confidence in the firm. However, in contrast to SIT, experts trying to mitigate unsuccessful recovery are perceived as less credible, which also reduces confidence. Overall, if service recovery via social media is successful, firms will benefit from VP. However, caution is advised when using expert users who may interfere with service recovery processes.

Tales of IT Consultants: Understanding Psychological Contract Maintenance and Employment Termination

This research investigates the question why dedicated Information Technology (IT) consultants quit their jobs and voluntarily terminate their employment contracts. A research approach inspired by grounded theory is used and as a theoretical contribution a novel, cyclic process model for the maintenance or neglect of the psychological contract between employees and employers is derived from the empirical data. The model is subsequently substantiated through the integration of various concepts and theories identified in the literature, combining the concept of psychological contract with social influence theory and a theory of the relation between intrinsic motivation and management practices. The research is based on a revelatory case study which provides tales from four IT consultants in an IT consulting firm. The model helps to explain IT consultants’ behaviour of voluntarily terminating their employment contracts. Additionally, it should assist managers in IT consulting firms to avoid practices which might lead to their employees’ loss of intrinsic motivation and result in the loss of valuable employees for the organization.

Online Traveler Reviews as Social Influence: Price Is No Longer King

Price is a major influence on travel purchases; however, traveler reviews have also become a prevalent source of influence. Theories of social influence and cognitive dissonance provide insight into consumer decisions. This research investigated the effect of social influence in the form of traveler reviews and price on consumer decisions and postdecision dissonance. Student subjects evaluated two resorts for a Spring Break vacation in Cancun using a 2 (valence: positive or negative) × 2 (unanimity: unanimous or nonunanimous) × 3 (price: same, slightly lower, much lower) experimental design. The results reveal that social influence had a strong effect on both resort evaluations and postdecision dissonance. Nonunanimous reviews reduced the prevailing valence of reviews, but increased dissonance. The lack of results for price suggests that price may not be the predominant influence on decisions, as previously thought. This research provides new insight into the effect of traveler reviews on decisions by evaluating the unanimity of social influence, the effect of price differences, and the extent to which consumers engage in postdecision dissonance reduction.

Fashionability vis-à-vis rationality: investigating factors driving users’ e-tourism website stickiness

Understanding what drive users’ website stickiness is of strategic importance for e-tourism managers. This study examines the role of a neglected construct ‘perceived fashionability’ in forming users’ e-tourism website stickiness in comparison with four commonly studied rational factors: system quality, information quality, security and e-shopping value. Drawing upon dual-system theories and social influence theories, a conceptual model with hypotheses was developed and tested. A sample of 376 e-tourism website users in China participated in this study. The results indicate that perceived fashionability has a positive impact on user's stickiness to the website, and perceived fashionability also performs a mediating role between website security and stickiness. This study contributes to theory by explaining that website stickiness is not entirely driven by rationality but also perceived fashionability. Managerial implications for e-tourism strategies are provided.

HRM Process Advantage for Firm Performance

To date, most research focused on the possibility of a link between HRM and Organizational Performance has tendedto home in on the content of HRM policies, practices, and strategies, and explore which of them make a difference toorganizational outcomes. The presupposition in such research is that “what is done is more critical than how it isdone”.In this study, based on social context and social influence theories, the HRM-Organizational Performancerelationship has been examined from an HRM process vantage point. It was proposed that employees’ perceptions oforganizational level characteristics of the HRM process would reflect the “strength” of HRM. This strength wouldinfluence the formation of an organizational HRM climate for empowerment, commitment and citizenship. Further,HRM process strength would influence employee performance and voluntary employee turnover. The construct ofHRM process strength was validated using Structural Equation Modeling analysis. Regression and HierarchicalLinear Modeling Analyses showed that HRM process strength influences employees’ attitudes and behaviors, theirperformance, and voluntary employee turnover.

Exploring Podcast Adoption Intention via Perceived Social Norms, Interpersonal Communication, and Theory of Planned Behavior

Previous research has not linked the perspectives of social influence, interpersonal discourse, and behavioral theory to study new media diffusion. The current study integrated these perspectives by incorporating theory of planned behavior with the concepts of normative beliefs and interpersonal communication to explain podcast-adoption intention. A cross-sectional sample responded to a survey online. Results show that descriptive norm and perceived control were significant predictors of attitude; injunctive norm was a significant predictor of perceived control. Social discourse, perceived descriptive norm, and attitude had a direct effect on podcast-adoption intention; perceived control and injunctive norm had an indirect effect in contrast.

From Liking to Loyalty

Building on existing models and social influence theory, we propose a hybrid social network affinity model which focuses on developing lasting relationships between consumers and social networking firms. Our model incorporates both rational and social influence motivations as antecedents to satisfaction and loyalty. Based on 352 adult respondents, we utilize a partial least squares structural equation method, and find that social network affinity is an important predictor of satisfaction and loyalty within a social network. In addition to other implications, our study indicates that social networking firms must build a sense of belonging, encourage interactivity, and offer ways to develop an emotional connection for their consumers.

Social Effects in the In-Flight Marketplace: Characterization and Managerial Implications

This article investigates the in-flight marketplace, using detailed data of in-flight purchases to understand social effects in purchase behavior and determine their potential for designing marketing promotions. On average, a passenger is approximately 30% more likely to buy an item after being exposed to a lateral purchase. Analyses on the underlying mechanisms reveal that the classical social influence theories do not suffice to explain all the patterns in the data. The author proposes omission neglect, product contagion, and goal balancing as complementary theories. Finally, consumers’ willingness to buy is shown to be positively correlated with responsiveness to social influence. This finding indicates that homophily and social feedback effects—classically viewed in the literature as nuisances—can provide targeting value for the firm. By taking these factors into account during behavior-based targeting, firms can double the social spillovers of marketing actions.

Social support as a neglected e-learning motivator affecting trainee’s decisions of continuous intentions of usage

<p>Drawing from the social influence theory and acknowledging that the others’ support within the work context affects employees’ learning, values, and behaviours, an alternative framework was proposed to explain employees’ learning satisfaction and future intention to participate in e-training programs in the current study. 578 survey data collected from employees of various corporations in Taiwan provide empirical support for our extended model. The results suggest that social support from peers and supervisors, a usually neglected factor, has significant effect on trainees’ learning satisfaction, while family support, an often neglected antecedent of e-learning choice, was surprisingly found to affect trainees’ continuous intentions to participate. Finally, the paper concludes with the importance of employees’ perceptions of social support in terms of organisational training. The impact of human resource management policies is also discussed.</p>

Social Influence and Technology Acceptance: The Use of Personal Social Media as a Career Enhancement Tool Among College Students

While a growing number of hiring managers use personal social media (PSM) websites to screen job candidates, many students primarily use PSM websites to connect with friends and family. Little research has been conducted into how students use PSM as a career enhancement tool (CET). The purpose of this study was to examine the differences between college students who attended a workshop about the use of PSM as a CET and those who did not attend the workshop. This research study incorporated social influence theory and technology acceptance to examine behavioral intentions to use PSM as a CET. The results of this study revealed that students who attended the instructional workshop had higher levels of social influence and behavioral intentions to use PSM as a CET than students who did not receive this workshop.

Exploring the determinants of knowledge adoption in virtual communities: A social influence perspective

This study aims to explore the determinants of online knowledge adoption with respect to informational and normative social influences. Existing studies on online knowledge adoption have primarily focused on the perspective of knowledge provider. Knowledge recipients, however, also play a fundamental role in knowledge adoption. Informational and normative social influence theory is utilized as the theoretical foundation to investigate the influences of informational and normative factors on online knowledge adoption. Based on the theories and previous literature, this study proposes a theoretical model of knowledge adoption, in which knowledge quality and source credibility serve as informational determinants, whereas knowledge consensus and knowledge rating serve as normative determinants. In addition, time pressure is hypothesized to be a moderator that impacts the dual evaluation process toward knowledge adoption. Data collected from 510 respondents was tested against the research model using the partial least squares approach. The findings demonstrate that both informational and normative determinants had positive effects on knowledge adoption, while the moderating test indicates that time pressure exerted influences with different directions on the two evaluation processes of adopting behavior. Theoretical and practical contributions are also outlined.

Advertising in social network sites – Investigating the social influence of user-generated content on online advertising effects

AbstractIn today’s social online world there is a variety of interaction and participatory possibilities which enable web users to actively produce content themselves. This user-generated content is omnipresent in the web and there is growing evidence that it is used to select or evaluate professionally created online information. The present study investigated how this surrounding content affects online advertising by drawing from social influence theory. Specifically, it was assumed that web users sharing an interpersonal relationship (interpersonal influence) and/or a group membership (collective influence) with authors of user-generated content which appears next to advertising on the web page are more strongly influenced in their response to the advertising than unrelated users. These assumptions were tested in a 2 × 2 between-subject experiment with 118 students who were exposed to four different Facebook profiles that differed in terms of interpersonal connection to the source (existent/non-existent) and collective connection to the source (existent/non-existent). The results show a significant impact in the case of collective influence, but not in the case of interpersonal influence. The underlying mechanisms of this effect and implications of the results for online advertising are discussed.

Student engagement: the role of social influence and locus of control

Engagement has become a popular topic in marketing research and practice. The present study focuses on higher education as a propitious context for the assessment of engagement phenomena and tests two sets of constructs as predictors of student engagement with a course. One set is conceptually grounded on the Social Influence Theory (SIT), whilst the other is grounded on the locus of control concept. We conducted surveys in higher education institutions and used structural equation modelling for the analysis. Results suggest that social influence constructs are stronger predictors compared to locus of control constructs. We discuss the results along with implications.

Understanding the Influential People and Social Structures Shaping Compliance

Abstract This study integrated efforts to identify influential people and to extend theories of structural predictors of compliance. Adults (N = 195) were shown a sociogram of 11 people who were connected by friendships. Participants were asked to imagine themselves in this group, identify a position for themselves, select another member for an interaction, and predict their likelihood of complying with the member’s request. Connectors (those wanting to link others) identified with more central positions for themselves and selected more central interaction partners. Agents with greater persuasive impact were more successful in gaining compliance from participants; for connectors, targets’ supportive impact also reduced their likelihood of compliance. Findings have implications for diffusion efforts that depend on interpersonal compliance, and for theories of social influence.

Understanding social influence theory and personal goals in e-learning

This paper investigates important factors in shaping attitudes toward knowledge sharing by email in e-learning, based on social influence theory and self determination theory. It tests how the personal goals moderate the relationships in the model. An empirical test of the proposed model using an online survey was conducted with a sample of undergraduate college students who use email for class assignments. All social influence factors significantly influenced attitudes toward knowledge sharing by email (R2 0.63) in the high personal goal group (186 participants), but social identity did not influence the attitude (R2 0.54) in the low personal goal group (225 participants). The results will help e-learning and information systems researchers and practitioners to more fully understand the roles of social influence factors in developing and designing e-learning systems.

Beyond the individual victim: multilevel consequences of abusive supervision in teams.

We conceptualize a multilevel framework that examines the manifestation of abusive supervision in team settings and its implications for the team and individual members. Drawing on Hackman's (1992) typology of ambient and discretionary team stimuli, our model features team-level abusive supervision (the average level of abuse reported by team members) and individual-level abusive supervision as simultaneous and interacting forces. We further draw on team-relevant theories of social influence to delineate two proximal outcomes of abuse-members' organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) at the individual level and relationship conflict at the team level-that channel the independent and interactive effects of individual- and team-level abuse onto team members' voice, team-role performance, and turnover intentions. Results from a field study and a scenario study provided support for these multilevel pathways. We conclude that abusive supervision in team settings holds toxic consequences for the team and individual, and offer practical implications as well as suggestions for future research on abusive supervision as a multilevel phenomenon. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

COCRIAÇÃO DE VALOR COM ALUNOS: UMA ANÁLISE DA INFLUÊNCIA SOCIAL E DO ENGAJAMENTO NA DISCIPLINA COMO ANTECEDENTES DE FEEDBACK DO ESTUDANTE

<p>É natural que educadores de disciplinas vinculadas à área de gestão analisem e reflitam sobre os fenômenos da sala de aula baseada em perspectivas que permeiam essa área de conhecimento. Observa-se que educadores e pesquisadores interessados na temática de serviços têm interpretado a sala de aula como um ambiente de encontro de serviço altamente propício à cocriação de valor. O presente estudo procede com tal interpretação, buscando analisar antecedentes do comportamento proativo de fornecimento de feedback do aluno ao professor,<br />a fim de promover a melhoria da experiência nos encontros de aula no ensino superior. O estudo avalia, como antecedente direto de feedback, o engajamento na disciplina. Como antecedentes diretos de engajamento, são avaliados constructos oriundos da Teoria da Influência Social. Os resultados, analisados com técnicas de equações estruturais, apresentam relações positivas e com significância entre os constructos, mostrando que, no contexto de sala de aula, processos sociais afetam o relacionamento do estudante com a disciplina e que esse relacionamento propicia o comportamento de colaboração para a melhoria das aulas.<br /><br /></p>