Antecedents and consequences of attitude contagion processes: the example of apparel brand fan pages
| Date | 04 July 2019 |
| Published date | 04 July 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-07-2018-1930 |
| Pages | 31-51 |
| Author | Li-Chun Hsu |
Antecedents and consequences of attitude
contagion processes: the example of apparel
brand fan pages
Li-Chun Hsu
Department of Cultural Resources and Leisure Industries, National Taitung University, Taitung, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to investigate the social, utilitarian and hedonic benefits associatedwith a brand behavioral performance from an
attitude contagion theory perspective. An integrated empirical model was constructed to identify the antecedents and consequences of consumer
attitude contagion.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were obtained from 609 members of Facebook apparel brand fan pages using purposive sampling.
Structural equation modeling was used to validate the proposed theoretical model.
Findings –Social, utilitarian and hedonic benefits could be used to explain the effects of attitude contagion on various relationships. Attitude
contagion factors partially mediate exogenous factors and the behavior of brand fans. Regarding the atti tude contagion effect, perceived community
attitude and attitude toward fans’sponsored recommendation posts have stronger explanatory powers for attitude toward products than for
attitude toward brands. Specifically, attitude toward brands can indirectly influence members’purchase intention through brand recall. The
proposed model exhibited desirable goodness-of-fit.
Practical implications –The findings can give brand community managers insight into the development of consumer attitude contagion and assist
companies to improve their community management.
Originality/value –This study contributes to multiple perspectives in the literature regarding social, utilitarian and hedonic benefits and adopted an
extension viewpoint to explain that the formation of consumer attitude is a complex process.
Keywords Social media, Purchase intention, Perceived benefits, Facebook brand fan pages, Attitude contagion theory,
Brand behavioural performance, Brand recall
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Because of their rapid development, social networking sites
(SNSs) have surpassed email, news mediaand television
shopping channelsto become the most popular online
activity (Varnali and Toker, 2015). In ad dition, social media
has changed the way people communicate and interact
(Tuškej and Podnar, 2018). According to the Social Media
Examiner’s (2015) Social Media Marketing Industry Report,
the three largest benefits of a brand establ ishing a relationship
with its customers through social media are: higher exposure
(90 per cent); more traffic to the brand’sfanpage(77per
cent); and a loyal fan base (69 per cent). The report also
suggests that 96 per cent of marketers use social media for
business marketing management and 92 per cent of
marketers recognize the importance to their business of social
media.
Regarding the worldwide usage of different SNSs, Facebook
is the most commonly used and has an overwhelming number
of users compared with other platforms as of October 2018
(Statista, 2018). Facebook brand fan pages have resulted in
e-commerce entering a new stage (Hu et al., 2014).More than
half of internet users interact with other fans on brand fan
pages; thus, fan pages have become channels in which brands
can be further understood (Belleghem et al., 2011;de Vries
et al., 2012). Company-runFacebook pages, in particular, have
become a new focus of research, with only a limited number of
studies have examined brand communities on social media
platforms (Pongpaew et al., 2017).Brand pages are an efficient
and effective way for companies to improve their marketing
reach (Jeon et al.,2016).
The manner in which consumers receive product
information has evolved from the one-way vertical
communication of br and enterprises to consumers (bu siness-
to-consumer) to a horizontal consumer-to-consumer
interaction network (Weisfeld-Spolter et al., 2014). Through
social networking, users are connected to subjects of their
concern or interest (Wallace et al.,2014) and develop bonds
with brands (Veloutsou and Guzmán, 2017).
Thus, the online community has become a critical marketing
channel, in which brands develop their online markets.
Thecurrentissueandfulltextarchiveofthisjournalisavailableon
Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
29/1 (2020) 31–51
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-07-2018-1930]
Received 5 July 2018
Revised 21 August 2018
9 December 2018
6 March 2019
29 April 2019
Accepted 7 May 2019
31
Emerging topics of discussion are how businesses can
disseminate productinformation in the virtual world and create
resonance among consumers; use the power of social
communication by harnessing social contagion; and translate
favorable consumerimpressions into actual purchases.
The research context expounding the integration of
consumers’relationships with communities, fan page
members, products and brand attitudes is yet, however, to be
holistically understood. The main reason is that a social
psychological theory that explains the consumer–community
relationship paradigm is lacking. Scholars have assertedthat
the concept of social contagion can be extensively used to
further discussion and exploration of the problems in online
environments (Hoffman and Novak, 2011). Subsequently,
the concept of social attitude contagion has been proposed
(Bartikowski and Walsh, 2014;Howard and Gengler, 2001),
which explains the influence process of an individual’s
attitude. Under this concept, the contagion process enables
influential and rapid interpersonal information
communication (Guadagno et al., 2013). Understanding of
this social contagion issue is mature (Peters et al., 2017).
This empirical study aimed to construct a holistic and
complete research model and to clarify the cause-and-effect
relationship present in the formation of consumer attitudes.
The three major contributions are as follows:
First, the formation of a member’s attitude in a brand
community and the contagionprocess are complex and involve
diverse concepts. Contagiontheories can be used to explain the
attitude of online members (Lewis, 2014).In the initial phases
of research on customer attitudes, qualitative approaches are
necessary to develop a thorough understanding and explore
how certain concepts can possibly influence consumers
(Pongpaew et al., 2017). With regard to quantitative research,
using consumer attitudes as variables has gradually been
conceptualized as a multi-dimensional approach in the past
decade. The correlated variables considered in past studies on
consumer attitude factors have included attitude toward
community (Bartikowski and Walsh, 2014); toward a website
(Hwang et al.,2011); toward a product (Bartikowski and
Walsh, 2014;Im et al.,2015); toward a company (Nambisan
and Watt, 2011); and toward a brand (Abzari et al.,2014;
Amaro and Duarte, 2015;Ho et al., 2017;Vogel and
Watchravesringkan, 2017;Yu et al., 2018). Most relevant
studies have used only a unidimensional attitude construct in
their investigation (Im et al.,2015;Hwang et al., 2011;Wang
et al.,2012). Only a few studies have subdivided the effect of
contagion of consumer attitude on consumers’purchase
intention (Bartikowskiand Walsh, 2014).
However, the aforementioned studies adopted a one-sided
understanding of the consumer attitude contagion process.
Specifically, with regard to interactions with a brand and its
extensions, consumers have developed expectations of a seamless
experience (Veloutsou and Guzmán, 2017). This work builds
upon studies that have examined community relationships by
using perceived community attitude and attitude toward fans’
sponsored recommendation posts (AFSRPs) and linking
consumer–product and consumer–brand relationships (i.e.
attitudes toward product and brand) as mediators between
perceived benefits and brand behavioral performance. In modern
society, consumers’use of certain brands often carries over
between the real and virtual worlds (Ramanathan and Purani,
2014). This study sought a comprehensive understanding of the
transfer process of consumers’“online”attitudes to “offline”
attitudes through the consumer attitude contagion process.
Understanding the integration between online and offline
attitudes is an essential element that previous studies have
neglected. Adopting such a multi-dimensional view of the
attitude contagion process can avoid the misunderstanding of
consumer cognition that is caused by single-dimension views of
consumer attitudes.
To obtain a clearer understanding of the relevant theoretical
applications and gaps in past research on consumer attitudes,
this study reviewed the literature on the development of
contagion theories. For example, Langley et al. (2012)
attempted to determine the process with which new product
information is communicatedand summarized the antecedents
that can influence social contagion into two major categories,
namely: product attributes and consumer characteristics.
Muter et al. (2013) investigatedenvironmental risk perceptions
from a lesser-studied negative viewpoint; how community
members form risk perceptions in an online community
environment through social contagion mechanisms. Herrera
et al. (2015) proposed that social contagion influences the
information adoption process.During information
dissemination, members of a social network can be influenced
differentlyas time passes. The same study posited that variation
in social interaction is a problem that must be considered.
Bilgicer et al. (2015) used the concept of social contagion to
explore the influence of choice in sales channels for new
products.
Peters et al. (2017) applied contagion theoriesina business-
to-business scenario to explore how interfirm networks can
increase the learning interest, knowledge dissemination and
willingness to share resources of members of an organization
through contagion mechanisms. Fox et al. (2018) tested the
effect of emotional contagion in an online consumer reviews
(OCRs) context, finding that OCRs influence the emotional
responses of readers. Finally, an integrative model was
proposed by Chaouali and Hedhli(2019); this model was used
to simultaneously investigate the contagion effects ofsocial
pressures and transference effects of attitude and trust on the
intention to use mobile banking. This review of the literature
reveals the lack of a comprehensivestudy that provides insights
into the relationships among attitude types in the attitude
process.
Second, the antecedents of the formation of consumer
attitude have been elucidated inrecent years, and the
correlation between relationship benefits and consumer
attitude has been expounded (Jung et al.,2014;Choi and
Choo, 2016). The aforementioned studies (Jung et al., 2014;
Choi and Choo, 2016) have constructed the antecedents of
brand influence solely from the perspective of the brand or
product attributes, failing to holistically capture and
deconstruct the various lines of thinking on the influence of
online users’attitude formation. The present study attempted
to integrate the social benefit of the interpersonal perspective
(Jung et al.,2014;Li, 2011), the informational benefits of the
utilitarian perspective(Dholakia and Bagozzi, 2004;Jung et al.,
2014;Wang and Fesenmaier, 2004) and the hedonic benefits
of the empirical perspective (Kang et al.,2014;Wang and
Example of apparel brand fan pages
Li-Chun Hsu
Journal of Product & Brand Management
Volume 29 · Number 1 · 2020 · 31–51
32
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