Motives for Consumer Behavioral Engagement on Brand-Related Social Media Content: A Study Based on Organismic Integration Theory and Personality

This study adopts organismic integration theory (OIT) to classify and contrast the predominant roles of five motivations (i.e., economic incentives, self-presentation, information acquisition, altruism, and enjoyment) in fostering three levels of behavioral engagement on brand-related social media content. This study further examines the moderating effect of personality (thinkers vs. feelers) on these relationships. The results of PLS-SEM reveal the greater impact of autonomous motivations on content consumption (enjoyment and information acquisition) and content contribution and creation (altruism and information acquisition), compared with controlled motivations (self-presentation and economic incentives). This study also finds that thinkers mostly engage on brand-related content for information acquisition and economic incentives, whereas feelers are mostly driven by enjoyment for content consumption and by altruism for content contribution and creation. This study addresses the inconsistency in prior research findings and provides practical implications to social media marketers.