Behavioral consequences of customer inspiration: the role of social media inspirational content and cultural orientation

Abstract

Purpose Although previous research emphasized the importance of inspiration in influencing consumer behavior, there is no categorical response to how social-media inspirational content inspires consumers across cultures. This paper aims to take on this agenda through a vignette experimental study. Design/methodology/approach This paper devised a vignette study involving subjects (n = 370) recruited from Nigeria and South Africa. The structural equation modeling procedure, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis aided the examination of the scale psychometrics and hypotheses testing. Findings Among other findings, this study shows that: inspirational content (utilitarian vs hedonic) exerts a positive differential effect on customer inspiration (CI) such that the effect of hedonic content is more pronounced than utilitarian content; collectivistic consumers are inspired more than individualists; CI triggers customer engagement behaviors (CEBs) and purchase intention, and an inspired-to component of CI mediates the effect of inspired-by on CEBs and purchase intention. Research limitations/implications While this study makes significant contributions to knowledge on CI, the focus on firm-generated content limits the scope of this study. Future research should examine the effect of consumer-generated content on CI. Additionally, the likely contextual influence of product type on CI and its triggers in the context of the foote, cone and belding grid creates the room to further interrogate the research model under conditions of high/low involvement products. Originality/value By showing how social-media inspirational content and cultural orientation separately influence and interact to influence CI which consequently triggers CEBs and purchase intention, the findings highlight the psychological mechanisms through which CEBs and purchase intention can be simultaneously triggered.

Stimulating Customer Inspiration Through Online Brand Community Climates: The Mediating Role of Customer Interaction

“…A plethora of studies exist that examine OBC from different perspectives, such as community tribalism, identification, and customer engagement and value co-creation ( Wirtz et al, 2013 ; Hollebeek et al, 2014 ; Black and Veloutsou, 2017 ; Coelho et al, 2019 ). However, the instrumental phenomenon of customer inspiration in buying brand products in OBCs remained widely under-explored ( Winterich et al, 2019 ; Izogo and Mpinganjira, 2020 ). This study highlights the importance of OBCs for customer inspiration and investigates OBCs from an organizational climate perspective.…”

“…Inspiration is a state that all humans experience, and for this reason, numerous studies in the fields of psychology, education, and management have been dedicated to inspiration ( Wartiovaara et al, 2019 ; Khoi et al, 2020 ). Marketing scholars have also examined customer inspiration ( Böttger et al, 2017 ; Winterich et al, 2019 ; Izogo and Mpinganjira, 2020 ) and noted that inspiration is an important component of customer experience ( Liu et al, 2017 ). Customer inspiration refers to a temporary motivational state of customers which facilitates the transition from the reception of a marketing-induced idea to the intrinsic pursuit of a consumption-related goal ( Böttger et al, 2017 , p. 116).…”

Tourist inspiration and its consequences: The moderating role of neuroticism

“…This study is one of the pioneering studies investigating the uniqueness of inspiration in a tourism context. Existing studies (e.g., Khoi et al, 2019) examine the driving factors of tourist inspiration, while others (e.g., Izogo & Mpinganjira, 2020) investigate behavioral consequences in a consumption context; this study, however, focuses on the emotional consequences and contingent factors based on the CAT theory. Thus, the results have some important implications.…”

Power Brand Defense Up, My Friend! Stimulating Brand Defense through Digital Content Marketing

“…Customers distinguish two important sets of benefits when they process content marketing, namely hedonic and utilitarian. The hedonic one refers to the entertaining side of the messages, which is, in its nature, pleasurable and fun-like, whereas the utilitarian one is offering cognitive benefits and is more rationally catchy to customers [16,17]. This study borrowed the inspirational content definition from [16] which stands for the "marketing content with an embedded value that stimulates customers into action", where the value might be hedonic or utilitarian.…”

“…The hedonic one refers to the entertaining side of the messages, which is, in its nature, pleasurable and fun-like, whereas the utilitarian one is offering cognitive benefits and is more rationally catchy to customers [16,17]. This study borrowed the inspirational content definition from [16] which stands for the "marketing content with an embedded value that stimulates customers into action", where the value might be hedonic or utilitarian. Despite social media acting as the hive of customer engagement behaviors, firms can use social network sites to advocate their products, inspire customers, and form a strong customer-firm nexuses [18].…”