IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i2p907-d482052.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Characteristics of Social Media Content and Their Effects on Restaurant Patrons

Author

Listed:
  • June-Hyuk Kwon

    (Graduate School of Business, Sejong Cyber University, Seoul 05000, Korea)

  • Sally Kim

    (School of Business, Shenandoah University, Winchester, VA 22601, USA)

  • Yong-Ki Lee

    (School of Business, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Korea)

  • Kisang Ryu

    (College of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Sejong University, Seoul 05000, Korea)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine four characteristics of social media content and their effects on restaurant patrons. The characteristics we examine in our study are authenticity, consensus, usefulness, and aesthetics. More specifically, the study investigates how content characteristics influence consumers’ cognition-based and affect-based attitudes toward the message, which, in turn, influence brand attitude and behavioral intentions. Data were collected from 376 respondents who had frequented restaurants on a regular basis and used social media networks for at least one year. Structural equation modeling with AMOS 22.0 was used to analyze the data. The most important content characteristic that influences both cognition-based attitude and affect-based attitude is usefulness. All three other content characteristics (authenticity, consensus, and aesthetics) are also found to have a significant impact on either cognition-based or affect-based attitudes. While both cognition-based and affect-based attitudes have a significant effect on brand attitude, the effect of affect-based attitude is fully mediated by brand attitude in influencing behavioral intentions. The mediating role of brand attitude is also examined.

Suggested Citation

  • June-Hyuk Kwon & Sally Kim & Yong-Ki Lee & Kisang Ryu, 2021. "Characteristics of Social Media Content and Their Effects on Restaurant Patrons," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-16, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:907-:d:482052
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/907/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/907/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard A. Peterson, 2005. "In Search of Authenticity," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5), pages 1083-1098, July.
    2. Batra, Rajeev & Ray, Michael L, 1986. "Affective Responses Mediating Acceptance of Advertising," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(2), pages 234-249, September.
    3. Tran, Gina A. & Strutton, David, 2020. "Comparing email and SNS users: Investigating e-servicescape, customer reviews, trust, loyalty and E-WOM," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    4. Aaker, Jennifer L & Maheswaran, Durairaj, 1997. "The Effect of Cultural Orientation on Persuasion," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 24(3), pages 315-328, December.
    5. Wang, Yong Jian & Minor, Michael S. & Wei, Jie, 2011. "Aesthetics and the online shopping environment: Understanding consumer responses," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 46-58.
    6. Audrezet, Alice & de Kerviler, Gwarlann & Guidry Moulard, Julie, 2020. "Authenticity under threat: When social media influencers need to go beyond self-presentation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 557-569.
    7. Leonard Lee & On Amir & Dan Ariely, 2009. "In Search of Homo Economicus: Cognitive Noise and the Role of Emotion in Preference Consistency," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(2), pages 173-187.
    8. Brown, Steven P & Stayman, Douglas M, 1992. "Antecedents and Consequences of Attitude toward the Ad: A Meta-analysis," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 19(1), pages 34-51, June.
    9. Myungsuh Lim & Yoon Yang, 2016. "The effect of authenticity and social distance on CSR activity," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(3), pages 397-414, August.
    10. Kolar, Tomaz & Zabkar, Vesna, 2010. "A consumer-based model of authenticity: An oxymoron or the foundation of cultural heritage marketing?," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 652-664.
    11. Anand, Punam & Holbrook, Morris B & Stephens, Debra, 1988. "The Formation of Affective Judgments: The Cognitive-Affective Model versus the Independence Hypothesis," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 15(3), pages 386-391, December.
    12. Benedicktus, Ray L. & Brady, Michael K. & Darke, Peter R. & Voorhees, Clay M., 2010. "Conveying Trustworthiness to Online Consumers: Reactions to Consensus, Physical Store Presence, Brand Familiarity, and Generalized Suspicion," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 86(4), pages 322-335.
    13. Wright, Peter, 1980. "Message-Evoked Thoughts: Persuasion Research Using Thought Verbalizations," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 7(2), pages 151-175, Se.
    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. Yoo, Changjo & MacInnis, Deborah, 2005. "The brand attitude formation process of emotional and informational ads," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(10), pages 1397-1406, October.
    2. Dharun Kasilingam & Soundararaj Ajitha, 2022. "Storytelling in advertisements: understanding the effect of humor and drama on the attitude toward brands," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(4), pages 341-362, July.
    3. Castéran, Herbert & Roederer, Claire, 2013. "Does authenticity really affect behavior? The case of the Strasbourg Christmas Market," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 153-163.
    4. Susan Standing & Craig Standing, 2019. "Innovating Authentically: Cultural Differentiation in the Animation Sector," Systemic Practice and Action Research, Springer, vol. 32(5), pages 557-571, October.
    5. Pauwels, Koen & Aksehirli, Zeynep & Lackman, Andrew, 2016. "Like the ad or the brand? Marketing stimulates different electronic word-of-mouth content to drive online and offline performance," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 639-655.
    6. Megehee, Carol M., 2009. "Advertising time expansion, compression, and cognitive processing influences on consumer acceptance of message and brand," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 420-431, April.
    7. Jiménez, Fernando R. & Mendoza, Norma A., 2013. "Too Popular to Ignore: The Influence of Online Reviews on Purchase Intentions of Search and Experience Products," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 226-235.
    8. Malhotra, Naresh K., 2005. "Attitude and affect: new frontiers of research in the 21st century," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 477-482, April.
    9. Nithima Sumpradit & Richard P. Bagozzi & Frank J. Ascione, 2015. "“Give Me Happiness” or “Take Away My Pain”: Explaining consumer responses to prescription drug advertising," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 1024926-102, December.
    10. Bambauer-Sachse, Silke & Heinzle, Priska, 2018. "Comparative advertising: Effects of concreteness and claim substantiation through reactance and activation on purchase intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 233-242.
    11. Osorio, Maria Lucila & Centeno, Edgar & Cambra-Fierro, Jesus, 2023. "An empirical examination of human brand authenticity as a driver of brand love," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    12. Humairah Hamzah & Muhammad Shahrim Ab Karim & Mohiddin Othman & Azimi Hamzah, 2013. "Dimensions of Authenticity in Malay Cuisine from Experts’ Perspectives," Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Richtmann Publishing Ltd, vol. 2, November.
    13. Selma Kadić-Maglajlić & Maja Arslanagić-Kalajdžić & Milena Micevski & Nina Michaelidou & Ekaterina Nemkova, 2017. "Controversial Advert Perceptions in SNS Advertising: The Role of Ethical Judgement and Religious Commitment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 249-265, March.
    14. Kirk Kristofferson & Lea Dunn, 2023. "The brand that wasn’t there: The impact of brand displacement on viewer engagement and brand attitude," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 716-745, May.
    15. Brigitte Muller, 2008. "Consistency between brand image and website image: Does it matter?," Post-Print hal-01796278, HAL.
    16. Duygu Turker & Ozge Can & Gizem Aras‐Beger, 2023. "How authenticity of corporate social responsibility affects organizational attractiveness: Stakeholder perceptions of organizational ideology," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1680-1697, July.
    17. Suryandari, Retno Tanding & Paswan, Audhesh K., 2014. "Online customer service and retail type-product congruence," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 69-76.
    18. Robert Zniva & Wolfgang J. Weitzl & Christina Lindmoser, 2023. "Be constantly different! How to manage influencer authenticity," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1485-1514, September.
    19. Teng, Lefa & Laroche, Michel, 2007. "Building and testing models of consumer purchase intention in competitive and multicultural environments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 260-268, March.
    20. Pham, Michel Tuan & Geuens, Maggie & De Pelsmacker, Patrick, 2013. "The influence of ad-evoked feelings on brand evaluations: Empirical generalizations from consumer responses to more than 1000 TV commercials," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 383-394.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:907-:d:482052. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.