Understanding Brand-Related Content Consumption: The Role of Source of Content, Persuasive Knowledge, and Product Type

Abstract

Purpose – This study applies the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory to investigate how source of content (firm- and user-generated content) impacts content-consumption, which is mediated by persuasive knowledge. While prior studies treat persuasive knowledge as a unidimensional construct, this study addresses two dimensions of persuasive knowledge (conceptual and attitudinal). Lastly, this study explores different effects of user-generated content related to different product types (utilitarian and hedonic) on persuasive knowledge Design/Methodology/Approach – Three conditions of stimuli are designed to test our hypotheses with 214 participants familiar with brand-related content posted on Facebook. An independent t-test, MANOVA, and PROCESS are employed in this study. Findings – The results show that FGC stimulates more conceptual persuasive knowledge than UGC. By contrast, consumers perceive UGC to be more appropriate and tend to like UGC more than FGC. In addition, this study finds that two dimensions of persuasive knowledge mediate the relationship between source of content and consumer content consumption. Regarding UGC, this study shows that compared to hedonic products, UGC regarding utilitarian products evokes consumers to infer persuasive intent and decreases perceived appropriateness. Research Implications – This study sheds light on proving a relevant application of the S-O-R theory and regulatory theory to propose a holistic framework to help better understand the relationship between source of content, product types, persuasive knowledge, and content-consumption in the context of Facebook.