The Effects of Social Influence and Self-Enhancement on Consumers' Willingness to Share Their Purchase Decisions on Social Media

摘要

Aided by advances in internet technology, social media has emerged as the communication platform of the twenty-first century (Hetler, 2012). Defined as Internet-based applications that allow users to create and exchange content (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010), social media provides opportunities for firms and organizations to create awareness, increase brand knowledge, and reinforce brand associations (Yazdanparast et al., 2016). For consumers, social media is a significant/source of information about products, services, and brands (Bruhn et al., 2014). Many individuals rely on this information to make online purchase decisions (Ludwig et al., 2013). A vast literature examines electronic word-of-mouth, focusing on the generation, transmission, and effects on the communicator's consumption and eWOM effects on consumer behavior (King et al., 2014). However, to the authors' knowledge no research has explored why consumers share brand-related content on social media based on the notion that social influence mediated by selfcenhance-ment may have an impact on online purchase decision sharing behavior. Therefore, based on Kelman's (1958, 1961) social influence theory and the concept of self-enhancement (Goffman, 1956; Sirgy, 1982; Sedikides, 1993) this study seeks to answer the following research questions : What are the effects of social influence and self-enhancement on con-sumers' willingness to share their purchase decisions on social media?