From excavating user content engagement to establishing psychological ownership mechanisms for transforming citizenship behaviours on social media platforms

Changyu Wang, Jiao Liao, Keyang Yu and Jianyu Chen

Behaviour and Information Technology, 2025, vol. 44, issue 19, 4749-4764

Abstract: Transforming user content engagement into citizenship behaviours is significant for a social media platform’s prosperity. By integrating psychological ownership theory with the technology acceptance model, this study examined how and when in the context of social media, three different types of user content engagement (consumption, participation, and production) impact three different types of user citizenship behaviours (recommendation, helping, and feedback). Building upon survey data collected from 401 social media users in China, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to demonstrate that user content engagement is positively linked to user citizenship behaviours through the mediation of psychological ownership. The positive association between psychological ownership and recommendation behaviour is enhanced by perceived ease of use but weakened by perceived usefulness. Conversely, perceived ease of use weakens the positive link between psychological ownership and helping behaviour, while this relationship is enhanced by perceived usefulness. The positive effect of psychological ownership on feedback behaviour is weakened by perceived ease of use. This study contributes to the literature by revealing the transformative process from user content engagement to user citizenship behaviours on social media platforms.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2025.2488903

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