| dc.description.abstract | Growing use of social media and predicted increases in the social media marketing trend necessitates an understanding of how different social media elements work. This study focuses on finding how the brand-related content (BRC) source (general users vs. celebrities) and sponsorship (non-sponsored vs. sponsored) interact to impact the consumer behavior (likeability of BRC post, brand attitude and purchase intention) for Instagram users. In this context, this study also aims to explore the mediation effect of consumer-perceived profit motive associated with the relationship of source and sponsorship on consumer behavior.
Our findings indicate no significant interaction effect of source and sponsorship on consumer behavior. While sponsorship do not have significant impact on consumer behavior, BRC source significantly impacts consumer behavior. Particularly, BRC by general users lead to significantly more positive consumer behavior compared to celebrity-generated BRC. Further, both BRC source and sponsorship significantly affect consumer perceived profit motive which further impacts consumer behavior. The study finds that BRC by celebrities gives the impression of profit motive, which leads to unfavorable consumer behavior. Further, sponsored post is also associated with profit motive, leading to negative effects on consumer behavior. Therefore, perceived profit motive plays a significant role in influencing consumer behavior when Instagram users come across BRCs; This implies that to encourage favorable consumer behavior, brands should create BRCs in ways that do not give the impression of profit motive regardless of whether they use celebrities or general users for brand marketing on Instagram. | en_US |
