What type of purchase do you prefer to share on social networking sites: Experiential or material?

Min Zhang, Yuzhuo Li, Rongjie Gu and Cheng Luo

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2021, vol. 58, issue C

Abstract: Social networking sites (SNSs) have greatly changed individual lifestyles and the means of sharing information. They encourage users to participate in sharing activities and have led to a boost in user-generated content. To gain a deep insight into users' information sharing behaviors on SNSs, this study investigates what type of purchase (material or experiential) users prefer to share on SNSs. Three experiments were conducted, and the results revealed that experiential purchases were more likely to be shared through SNSs than were material ones. This disparity stemmed from the users' perceived social approval of the purchase. Additionally, the users' self-monitoring moderated the impact of the purchase type on the sharing intention. Together, our findings help to explain users’ information-sharing behaviors on SNSs and enrich the research on purchase-type comparisons. Further, the results provide practitioners with proper marketing strategies based on the product type.

Keywords: Social networking sites; Purchase type; Social approval; Self-monitoring (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:58:y:2021:i:c:s0969698920313503

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102342

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