Purpose
This study aims to identify key motivation factors for consumers’ social search and examine the role of flow in the process. This study assessed how content quality (i.e. visual aesthetics, textual information and timeliness) and system quality (i.e., intuitiveness and interactivity) influence flow experience. Additionally, this study tested how mental simulation and ease of task mediate this process and examined how the flow experience leads to purchase intention.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey via Amazon MTurk was performed using the general consumer population in the USA. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to test proposed hypotheses.
Findings
Visual aesthetics, text information, intuitiveness and interactivity were found to increase consumers’ flow experience in social search on Instagram. The timeliness of information was not a significant predictor of flow experience. Additional analyses demonstrated the mediating role of mental simulation and perceived ease of task mediate in flow experience, ultimately leading to increased purchase intention.
Practical implications
The concept of flow should be taken into consideration in a setting of social media marketing. To create holistic consumption experiences, social media strategy should promote seamless information search by increasing both the content (i.e. visual aesthetics and text information) and system (i.e. intuitiveness and interactivity) quality.
Originality/value
This study expands the theory of flow by applying it to the social search process in social media. Mental simulation and perceived ease of task are distinctively recognized as essential factors for flow experience on Instagram.
The purpose of this study was to examine a hierarchical model of consumer innovativeness in the context of 3D fashion products. In particular, this study explored how different traits, such as personal values and innate innovativeness, predict a positive attitude towards 3D fashion products through domain-specific variables such as fashion innovativeness and fashion leadership. Using a convenience sample (n = 250), the data were collected through a self-administrated online survey. The results of this study identified personal values as an antecedent of innate innovativeness and found that fashion leadership played a critical mediating role between innate innovativeness and domain-specific innovativeness, in turn developing a positive attitude towards 3D fashion products which led to intention to use. Although the effect of innate innovativeness on domain-specific innovativeness (i.e., fashion innovativeness) was partially supported and no direct effects of personal values on domain-specific innovativeness was found, findings of this study contribute to existing literature on the Technology Acceptance Model and Consumer Innovativeness by examining additional predictors. The significant mediating role of fashion leadership was valuable as the result supported the key role of innovators as opinion leaders as discussed in the previous literature.
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