Sustainable Corporate Social Media Marketing Based on Message Structural Features: Firm Size Plays a Significant Role as a Moderator

Moon Young Kang and Byungho Park
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Moon Young Kang: KAIST College of Business, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(KAIST), 85 Hoegi-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-722, Korea
Byungho Park: KAIST College of Business, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(KAIST), 85 Hoegi-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-722, Korea

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-14

Abstract: Social media has been receiving attention as a cost-effective tool to build corporate brand image and to enrich customer relationships. This phenomenon calls for more attention to developing a model that measures the impact of structural features, used in corporate social media messages. Based on communication science, this study proposes a model to measure the impact of three essential message structural features (interactivity, formality, and immediacy) in corporate social media on customers’ purchase intentions, mediated by brand attitude and corporate trust. Especially, social media platforms are believed to provide a good marketing platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by providing access to huge audiences at a very low cost. The findings from this study based on a structural equation model suggest that brand attitude and corporate trust have larger impacts on purchase intention for SMEs than large firms. This implies that SMEs with little to no presence in the market should pay more attention to building corporate trust and brand attitude for their sustainable growth.

Keywords: structural feature; social media; small and medium enterprise; SME; sustainability; message attribute; marketing; structural equation model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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