Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, closed social networking sites (SNSs) have become popular advertising media. Marketer-generated advertisements (MGAs) and user-generated advertisements (UGAs) are the two pillars of advertising businesses. The objective of this research is to investigate and compare how these ad types (i.e. MGA versus UGA) affect advertising effectiveness in closed SNSs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a scenario-based experiment of 403 WeChat users in China and used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine the research model.
Findings
The study results indicate that UGAs perform better than MGAs in enhancing consumers' perceived informativeness, credibility and entertainment, while MGAs are more likely to make consumers feel irritated than UGAs in closed SNSs. Moreover, consumers' perceived informativeness, credibility and entertainment positively influence advertising effectiveness, whereas perceived irritation negatively affects it.
Originality/value
This study reveals consumers' psychological response mechanisms to MGA and UGA and sheds light on their differential effectiveness by extending the stimuli-organism-response model to the context of closed SNSs.
In recent years, closed social networking sites (SNSs) have become popular advertising media. Marketer-generated advertisements (MGAs) and user-generated advertisements (UGAs) are the two pillars of advertising businesses. The objective of this research is to investigate and compare how these ad types (i.e. MGA versus UGA) affect advertising effectiveness in closed SNSs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a scenario-based experiment of 403 WeChat users in China and used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine the research model.
Findings
The study results indicate that UGAs perform better than MGAs in enhancing consumers' perceived informativeness, credibility and entertainment, while MGAs are more likely to make consumers feel irritated than UGAs in closed SNSs. Moreover, consumers' perceived informativeness, credibility and entertainment positively influence advertising effectiveness, whereas perceived irritation negatively affects it.
Originality/value
This study reveals consumers' psychological response mechanisms to MGA and UGA and sheds light on their differential effectiveness by extending the stimuli-organism-response model to the context of closed SNSs.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-20 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Internet Research |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 17 Mar 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published (in print/issue) - 2 Nov 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors are grateful to the senior editor, the associate editor, and the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable guidance and insightful comments. This study was supported by MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences [Project No. 21YJC630058], the grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [Project No. 71601027], and the General Research Fund (GRF) offered by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council [Project NO. 11509420].
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Keywords
- closed social networking sites
- user-generated advertisements
- stimuli-organism-response model
- advertising effectiveness
- informativeness
- Credibility
- Entertainment
- irritation
- Marketer-generated advertisements