Antecedents of consumer intention to follow and recommend an Instagram account

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of consumers’ perceived enjoyment and usefulness on their intention to follow and recommend an official account of a brand community on Instagram through satisfaction, following a perception-evaluation-intention chain. Design/methodology/approach The present study suggests that both perceived enjoyment and usefulness have a positive influence on satisfaction, which in turn affects intended following and recommendation of an account on Instagram. Data are collected from 548 members of a fashion brand community official Instagram account. After the validation of measurement scales, the hypotheses are contrasted using a structural equation model. Findings Results show that both perceived enjoyment and usefulness have a positive effect on satisfaction with the Instagram account, which in turn positively affects the intention to follow and recommend the account. Specifically, satisfaction fully mediates the influence of perceptions on intentions, except for the influence of perceived usefulness on intended recommendation as these variables are also directly linked. Practical implications The findings help managers to understand consumers’ behavioral intentions on Instagram and note the relevant role of perceived enjoyment and usefulness in creating a satisfactory experience in this context. Originality/value Nowadays, brands and users are continuously joining Instagram and, as a result of its growing importance, there is a need to better understand consumer behavior in this context. This research analyses the antecedents of both the intention to follow and recommend an account on Instagram.

From Instagram overuse to instastress and emotional fatigue: the mediation of addiction

“…According to its website, the platform is continuously offering users new ways to interact and form deeper connections with their friends or celebrities/brand they might follow. These features, together with the recently launched Instagram shopping tool, provide both, entertainment and utility to users, which results in increased satisfaction and intention to follow and recommend the Instagram account (Casalo et al, 2017a).…”

Adoption of Mobile Applications for Identifying Tourism Destinations by Travellers: An Integrative Approach

“…Previous studies included the intentions to purchase services and products (Wang, 2018), to seek (Braunstein-Bercovitz & Lipshits-Braziler, 2017), to use, to travel (Kaplan, Wrzesinska, & Prato, 2018), to participate in festivals (Ye, Zhang, & Yuan, 2017), and to follow the advice of the online travel community (Casalo, Flavián, & Ibanez-Sanchez, 2017).…”

Facebook’s power: factors influencing followers’ visit intentions

“…Some prior studies have found that social network sites boost behavioural intentions (Casalo et al, 2017a;Chung and Buhalis, 2008;Cristobal-Fransi et al, 2017). Most of the tourism research conducted into this topic looks at the influence of UGC on visiting intention, focusing on blogs Hsiao et al, 2013), electronic word of mouth (eWOM) Wang 2015aWang , 2015b, virtual communities (Duhan and Singh, 2014) and travel experience sharing on social network sites (Liu et al, 2018).…”