IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joinma/v28y2014i2p134-148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fostering Consumer–Brand Relationships in Social Media Environments: The Role of Parasocial Interaction

Author

Listed:
  • Labrecque, Lauren I.

Abstract

As brands solidify their place in social media environments, consumers' expectations have amplified, thus spurring the development of technologies to assist with the engagement process. Understanding the ways in which brands can preserve the one-to-one characteristics and intimate relationship qualities offered by social media while still meeting consumer expectations amidst the escalating volume of interactions has become essential. Drawing on the communications literature, this research proposes that parasocial interaction (PSI) theory may be used as a theoretical lens for designing successful social media strategies. Three studies, using a multi-method approach, provide evidence of PSI's role in the development of positive relationship outcomes. Mediation analysis reveals that this sense of feeling connected with the brand goes beyond the interaction itself and drives increased feelings of loyalty intentions and willingness to provide information to the brand. Evidence from this research suggests that these effects may not hold when consumers are aware of the possibility that the brand's social media response may be automated. These findings offer marketers theoretical guidance for fostering relationships in social media environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Labrecque, Lauren I., 2014. "Fostering Consumer–Brand Relationships in Social Media Environments: The Role of Parasocial Interaction," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 134-148.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joinma:v:28:y:2014:i:2:p:134-148
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intmar.2013.12.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1094996813000650
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.intmar.2013.12.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Feinian Chen & Patrick J. Curran & Kenneth A. Bollen & James Kirby & Pamela Paxton, 2008. "An Empirical Evaluation of the Use of Fixed Cutoff Points in RMSEA Test Statistic in Structural Equation Models," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 36(4), pages 462-494, May.
    2. Constance Elise Porter & Naveen Donthu, 2008. "Cultivating Trust and Harvesting Value in Virtual Communities," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(1), pages 113-128, January.
    3. Deighton, John & Kornfeld, Leora, 2009. "Interactivity's Unanticipated Consequences for Marketers and Marketing," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 4-10.
    4. Scarpi, Daniele, 2010. "Does Size Matter? An Examination of Small and Large Web-Based Brand Communities," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 14-21.
    5. Gensler, Sonja & Völckner, Franziska & Liu-Thompkins, Yuping & Wiertz, Caroline, 2013. "Managing Brands in the Social Media Environment," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 242-256.
    6. Xinshu Zhao & John G. Lynch & Qimei Chen, 2010. "Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: Myths and Truths about Mediation Analysis," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(2), pages 197-206, August.
    7. Smith, Andrew N. & Fischer, Eileen & Yongjian, Chen, 2012. "How Does Brand-related User-generated Content Differ across YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter?," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 102-113.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fujita, Momoko & Harrigan, Paul & Soutar, Geoffrey N. & Kumar Roy, Sanjit & Roy, Rajat, 2020. "Enhancing member-institution relationships through social media: The role of other-user engagement behavior and similarity perceptions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 642-654.
    2. Kick, Markus, 2015. "Social Media Research: A Narrative Review," EconStor Preprints 182506, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    3. McShane, Lindsay & Pancer, Ethan & Poole, Maxwell & Deng, Qi, 2021. "Emoji, Playfulness, and Brand Engagement on Twitter," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 96-110.
    4. Tony Cooper & Constantino Stavros & Angela R. Dobele, 2019. "The levers of engagement: an exploration of governance in an online brand community," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(3), pages 240-254, May.
    5. Ivanete Schneider Hahn & Flavia Luciane Scherer & Kenny Basso & Marindia Brachak dos Santos, 2016. "Consumer Trust in and Emotional Response to Advertisements on Social Media and their Influence on Brand Evaluation," Brazilian Business Review, Fucape Business School, vol. 13(4), pages 49-71, July.
    6. He, Yi & You, Ya & Chen, Qimei, 2020. "Our conditional love for the underdog: The effect of brand positioning and the lay theory of achievement on WOM," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 210-222.
    7. Maria Antonietta Raimondo & Stefania Farace & Gaetano Nino Miceli, 2018. "User-Generated Systems of Signs and Meanings in Product Customization: Taxonomies and Research Directions," MERCATI & COMPETITIVIT?, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2018(2), pages 61-83.
    8. He, Yi & Chen, Qimei & Lee, Ruby P. & Wang, Yonggui & Pohlmann, Attila, 2017. "Consumers' Role Performance and Brand Identification: Evidence from a Survey and a Longitudinal Field Experiment," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-11.
    9. Bacile, Todd J. & Ye, Christine & Swilley, Esther, 2014. "From Firm-Controlled to Consumer-Contributed: Consumer Co-Production of Personal Media Marketing Communication," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 117-133.
    10. Nadeem, Waqar & Al-Imamy, Saifeddin, 2020. "Do ethics drive value co-creation on digital sharing economy platforms?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    11. Marius Johnen & Oliver Schnittka, 2019. "When pushing back is good: the effectiveness of brand responses to social media complaints," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(5), pages 858-878, September.
    12. Roma, Paolo & Aloini, Davide, 2019. "How does brand-related user-generated content differ across social media? Evidence reloaded," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 322-339.
    13. Ponnamma Divakaran, Pradeep Kumar, 2018. "Technology-enabled community data for gaining pre-release brand insights," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 217-226.
    14. Arora, Anshu Saxena & Sivakumar, K. & Pavlou, Paul A., 2021. "Social capacitance: Leveraging absorptive capacity in the age of social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 342-356.
    15. Benoit, Sabine & Hogreve, Jens & Sichtmann, Christina & Bilstein, Nicola, 2019. "Professionalism Kills the Trading Star: Explaining Member Participation in Trading Communities," SMR - Journal of Service Management Research, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 3(2), pages 54-65.
    16. Hautz, Julia & Füller, Johann & Hutter, Katja & Thürridl, Carina, 2014. "Let Users Generate Your Video Ads? The Impact of Video Source and Quality on Consumers' Perceptions and Intended Behaviors," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 1-15.
    17. Marchand, André & Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten & Flemming, Jan, 2021. "Social media resources and capabilities as strategic determinants of social media performance," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 549-571.
    18. Vernuccio, Maria & Ceccotti, Federica, 2015. "Strategic and organisational challenges in the integrated marketing communication paradigm shift: A holistic vision," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 438-449.
    19. Simon, Françoise & Tossan, Vesselina, 2018. "Does brand-consumer social sharing matter? A relational framework of customer engagement to brand-hosted social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 175-184.
    20. Schaefers, Tobias & Falk, Tomas & Kumar, Ashish & Schamari, Julia, 2021. "More of the same? Effects of volume and variety of social media brand engagement behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 282-294.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joinma:v:28:y:2014:i:2:p:134-148. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-interactive-marketing/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.