No abstract

Ephemeral content has become a vital marketing resource for companies, but its effects have rarely been addressed in academic literature. Through the theory of uses and gratifications (U&G), we explore ephemeral content, the impact of Snapchat use, and their impact on millennials’ purchase motivation. Through an electronic survey of 454 millennial-generation participants, analysed through SMART-PLS, theoretical contributions are presented in identifying modality-based gratifications and interactivity-based gratifications as two additional sources of gratification that generate the modality of Snapchat’s ephemeral content. The study theoretically reflects how much interaction and identification with the medium generates a positive involvement in the audience’s needs, thus explaining its reasons for use.

Literature reflects that Latin America and the Caribbean register more SMEs and produce more entrepreneurial activity than any other place in the world. Using the Theory of Resources and Capabilities, this research explored how SMEs in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic managed the heterogeneity of their entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, social and human capital resources and their impact on innovation capacity and competitiveness. With a survey of 467 SMEs and the analysis of data with the use of PLS-SEM & PLS-MGA, this study contributed new information based on resources and capacities that showed the maximum set of possible variables analyzed for a theoretical understanding and practice of the heterogeneity of resources. The results reflected a positive impact on the proposed hypothesis through the structural model. The data highlight market orientation as the most valuable resource that facilitates innovation and competitiveness in SMEs analyzed. The results revealed and contributed to the new lines of research on how differences and the degree of importance in managing resources generated high competitiveness through their capacity for innovation.

El presente artículo tiene como objetivo analizar cómo los factores dinámicos impactan el uso de Snapchat en la generación Millennials. Específicamente, se utiliza la teoría de uso y gratificaciones para analizar cómo la exposición e interacción de contenidos influye en un mayor uso de Snapchat como medio de comunicación con las empresas. En el estudio participaron 453 Millennials residentes en Puerto Rico y usuarios de Snapchat. Se emplearon ecuaciones estructurales, a partir de lo cual se destaca cómo las gratificaciones impulsan la motivación de compra, fortalecen el vínculo y la interacción con las empresas. Adicionalmente, los resultados explican cómo se puede obtener mayor efectividad y receptividad por parte de la generación Millennials a través de Snapchat.

Purpose At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing measures and diffuse communication by media led to consumers’ uncontrolled product purchases worldwide. This phenomenon was described as a psychological effect experienced by fictitious scarcity, anxiety and herd mentality exacerbated by the media. This exploratory study aims to analyze the impact of risk communication on the perceived risk from the psychological dimension of consumer behavior amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach An exploratory study was conducted through an electronic survey one week after implementing social distancing measures in Puerto Rico. With a sample of 353 participants, the data analysis was carried out by PLS-SEM, partial least squares structural equations (PLS-MGA), multi group test (MGA) and hierarchical component models to answer the research hypotheses. Findings The results revealed that risk communication activates the perceived psychological risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the way in which the consumer faces the psychological risk is explained by the perceptions of scarcity and the bandwagon effect. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is a pioneer in presenting relationships between risk communication and perceived risk in consumer behavior, a topic that needs to be addressed in the academic literature. The research makes significant contributions to the study of consumer behavior by empirically validating the three phases of the Conchar model – risk framing, risk assessment and risk evaluation – where risk communication offers an excellent delineation to understand the consumer’s behavior during a pandemic.