Motivation and Reuse: How Does Motivation Affect Sustainable Use Intention for Brand Webtoons?

Abstract

This study explores consumers’ motivations for sustainable consumption in the context of branded content marketing. By focusing on brand webtoons, which are one of the most commonly used formats of branded content, this study investigates the link between consumers’ motivations for using brand webtoons and their continuous use intentions. The identified use motives are entertaining information, social conformity, and convenience, and among these three dimensions, entertaining information influences attitude towards brand webtoons and need for self-expression most strongly. Consumers’ need for self-expression is found to be a potential predictor of sustainable intention to consume brand webtoons via the mediating role of attitude towards the webtoons. The findings from this study fill the literature gap in the context of content marketing by exploring motives for and consequences of consuming brand webtoons, which may, in turn, help in encouraging and reinforcing sustainable use intention for branded content. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

A Study on the Sustainable Use Intention of Restaurant Companies Using the Information Attributes of SNS: The Dual Process Theory

“…Brand attitude was measured using four items that were modified from Fishbein (1963) [37]. In addition, the sustainable use intention was measured using four items that were identified by Hossainand Kim (2018) [44]. The final section of the questionnaire included respondents' relevant personal information, such as age, gender, household income, and dining motivation.…”

“…For example, Kim and Lee (2021) [46] identified that the attitude towards a webtoon brand can directly influence sustainable use intention. Similarly, Hossain and Kim (2018) [44] found that consumers who are satisfied with Facebook's website have sustainable use intention about the site. In addition, Hwang, Choe, Kim, and Kim (2021) [51] verified that brand attitude has a significant influence on brand loyalty from coffee shop visitors.…”

“…In previous studies, a significant causal relationship between customer satisfaction and continuous use intention was verified in various fields. For example, Hossain and Kim (2018) [44] verified the relationship between satisfaction and sustainable use intention as perceived by Facebook users. Therefore, the present study established the following hypothesis.…”

“…The intention of continuous use online can be interpreted in more various forms than offline, and it is characterized by being very free of time and place restrictions [43]. In previous studies, continuous use intention has been defined as a concept explaining a consumer's plan to continue to use a service or product [44]. A prior study found that consumers who are satisfied about a specific service or product have driven the continuous use of branded content and reuse intention [44].…”

“…In previous studies, continuous use intention has been defined as a concept explaining a consumer's plan to continue to use a service or product [44]. A prior study found that consumers who are satisfied about a specific service or product have driven the continuous use of branded content and reuse intention [44]. In recent years, the issue related to sustainable consumption of a branded product has been reported by only a few studies [45][46][47].…”