The Effects of Social Media Advertising in China: Theory, Practices and Implications 9781003310594

Table of contents :
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Figures
Tables
Foreword 1
Foreword 2
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction
1.1 Research Background
1.2 Literature Review
1.2.1 Social Networking Sites and SNA
1.2.2 Attitudes Toward Social Networking Advertising (SNA)
1.3 Research Content and Theoretical Foundation
1.3.1 Research Content
1.3.2 Theoretical Foundation
1.3.2.1 Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT)
1.3.2.2 Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)
1.3.2.2 Theoretical Foundations Related to the Cultural Dimension
2 Research Method
2.1 Sampling and Data Collection
2.2 Description of Sample Demographics
2.2.1 Age
2.2.2 Gender
2.2.3 Education
2.2.4 Monthly Household Income
2.2.5 Usual Place of Residence (By Province)
2.3 Operational Definition and Variable Measurement
2.3.1 Informativeness
2.3.2 Entertainment
2.3.3 Quality of Life
2.3.4 Time Structuration
2.3.5 Self-Brand Consistency
2.3.6 Peer Influence
2.3.7 Intrusiveness
2.3.8 Privacy Concerns
2.3.9 Attitude Toward SNA
2.3.10 Social Media Usage
2.3.11 Loneliness
2.3.12 Demographics
2.4 Data Validity
2.5 Statistical Test Method
3 The Effects of Demographic Factors On Attitudes Toward Advertising
3.1 Literature Review and Research Questions
3.1.1 The Impact of Generations On SNA
3.1.2 The Effect of Social Class On Attitudes Toward SNA
3.1.3 The Impact of Gender On Attitudes Toward SNA
3.2 Methodology
3.2.1 Variable Measurement
3.2.2 Data Analysis
3.3 Results
3.3.1 Effects of Age On Attitudes Toward SNA
3.3.2 The Impact of Income On Attitudes Toward SNA
3.3.3 Effects of Education On Attitudes Toward SNA
3.3.4 Effects of Gender On Attitudes Toward SNA
3.4 Discussion and Summary
4 Effects of Social Media Usage On Attitudes Toward SNA
4.1 Literature Review and Hypotheses
4.1.1 Social Media Usage and Attitudes Toward SNA
4.1.2 Mechanism of Improved Attitudes: The Satisfaction of Information and Entertainment Needs
4.1.3 The Mechanism of Negative Attitudes: Intrusiveness and Privacy Concerns
4.2 Methodology
4.2.1 Variable Measurement
4.2.2 Data Analysis
4.3 Research Findings
4.3.1 Overview of Social Media Usage Characteristics
4.3.2 The Impact of Social Media Use On Attitudes Toward SNA
4.3.3 Improving Attitudes: The Mediating Role of Informativeness and Entertainment
4.3.4 Declining Attitudes: The Mediating Role of Intrusiveness and Privacy Concerns
4.4 Discussion and Conclusion
5 The Influence of Consumer Psychological Traits On Attitudes Toward Advertising: The Example of Loneliness
5.1 Literature Review and Research Questions
5.1.1 Loneliness and Social Media Use
5.1.2 Loneliness and Attitudes to SNA
5.1.3 Moderating Effects of Social Media Use
5.2 Research Methodology
5.2.1 Research Variables
5.2.2 Steps in the Analysis
5.3 Research Findings
5.3.1 The Impact of Loneliness On Social Media Use
5.3.2 Effects of Loneliness On Attitudes Toward Advertising and the Moderating Effect of Social Media Use
5.4 Discussion and Summary
6 Influences of SNSs and SNA Factors On Customers’ Attitudes
6.1 Literature Review and Research Hypotheses
6.1.1 Literature Review
6.1.1.1 Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT)
6.1.1.2 Generational Cohort Theory (GCT)
6.1.1.3 City–Country Gap Theory (CCGT)
6.1.2 Research Hypotheses
6.1.2.1 Perceived Informativeness and Entertainment
6.1.2.2 Quality of Life and Structuring Time
6.1.2.3 Self-Brand Congruity and Peer Influence
6.1.2.4 Perceived Invasiveness and Privacy Concerns
6.1.2.5 Regional Differences Among Determinants of SNA
6.1.2.6 Generational Differences Among Determinants of SNA
6.2 Research Methodology
6.2.1 Research Variables
6.2.2 Measurement Procedure
6.3 Findings
6.3.1 Basic Hypothesis
6.3.2 Hypothesis Comparing China and the US
6.3.3 The Moderating Effect of Region
6.3.4 Moderation Effects of Generation
6.4 Discussion and Conclusion
7 Possible Effects of Cultural Differences On Advertising Attitudes: The Example of Intrusiveness
7.1 Literature Review and Research Hypotheses
7.1.1 Effects of Intrusiveness On Consumer’s Responses to SNA
7.1.2 Effects of Cultural Tightness On Advertising Attitudes
7.2 Research Methods
7.2.1 Research Variables
7.2.2 Analysis
7.3 Results
7.4 Discussion and Conclusion
8 Conclusion and Discussion
8.1 Conclusion
8.1.1 The Impact of Demographic Characteristics On Advertising Attitudes
8.1.2 Effects of Social Media Usage On Attitudes Toward SNA: An Inverted “U” Model Proposed
8.1.3 The Influence of Consumer Psychological Characteristics On Attitudes Toward Advertising: An Example of Loneliness
8.1.4 Effects of Factors of SNSs and SNA On Customers’ Attitudes
8.1.5 Possible Effects of Cultural Differences On Advertising Attitudes: The Example of Intrusiveness
8.2 Theoretical and Practical Significance of the Study
8.3 Limitations and Future Research
References
Index

Citation preview

The Effects of Social Media Advertising in China

The book aims to evaluate social media users’ attitude towards social media advertising in mainland China. By conducting a large-​scale national survey in China (N =​4,172), the author systematically and comprehensively examines factors that influence social media users’ attitude towards social media advertising. Integrating the perspectives of sociology, psychology, communication and advertising, the author discusses the influencing factors from the standpoints of consumers, social media platforms, and culture, and the mechanisms among them. Moreover, this book demonstrates the heterogeneity among mainland Chinese consumers, as well as their similarities and differences from American consumers. The book appeals to scholars and postgraduate students in the fields of marketing and advertising, and those advertising practitioners who are interested in Chinese market. Changchun Xuan received his Doctor of Arts in Advertising from School of Journalism and Communication, Xiamen University and is currently an assistant professor there. His research interests focus on the effects of new media advertising and cross-​cultural communication.

The Effects of Social Media Advertising in China Theory, Practices and Implications Changchun Xuan

First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Changchun Xuan The right of Changchun Xuan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-​1-​032-​31540-​9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-​1-​032-​31619-​2 (pbk) ISBN: 978-​1-​003-​31059-​4 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/​9781003310594 Typeset in Times New Roman by Newgen Publishing UK

Contents

List of Figures List of Tables Foreword 1 –​Qingchu Yu Foreword 2 –​Shengdong Lin Acknowledgements 1 Introduction

vi vii viii x xii 1

2 Research Method

24

3 The Effects of Demographic Factors on Attitudes Toward Advertising

36

4 Effects of Social Media Usage on Attitudes Toward SNA

49

5 The Influence of Consumer Psychological Traits on Attitudes Toward Advertising: The Example of Loneliness

69

6 Influences of SNSs and SNA Factors on Customers’ Attitudes

81

7 Possible Effects of Cultural Differences on Advertising Attitudes: The Example of Intrusiveness

95

8 Conclusion and Discussion References Index

103 111 130

Figures

1 .1 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 3.1 3.2 3.3 4.1 4.2 4.3

Research framework Age structure of the sample Gender distribution Distribution of education Income distribution Attitudes toward advertising among different age groups Attitudes of different income groups toward advertising Attitudes of educational groups toward advertising The duration of social media adoption of different gender The duration of social media adoption of different age groups The duration of social media adoption of different education levels 4.4 The duration of social media adoption of different income groups 4.5 The duration of social media adoption of different city tiers 4.6 Effects of gender on weekly social media use time 4.7 Effects of age on weekly social media use time 4.8 Effects of education levels on weekly social media use time 4.9 The impact of income on weekly social media use time 4.10 Effects of city tiers on weekly social media use time 4 .11 The inverted “U” curve model: The effects of social media usage on attitudes toward SNA 5.1 Amounts of time spent using social media by different loneliness groups 5.2 The impacts of loneliness on attitudes toward SNA 6.1 Path estimates for the full sample

23 26 27 28 28 42 43 44 55 56 57 58 58 59 60 60 61 62 64 74 78 89

Tables

2 .1 2.2 3.1 3.2 3.3 4.1 4 .2 4.3 4 .4 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 6 .1 6.2 7.1

Distribution of sample capacity across the country Variable correlation and data summary Fitting curves of the influence of age on attitudes toward SNA Fitting curve of the effects of income on attitudes toward SNA Fitting curve of the influence of educational background on attitudes toward social media advertising Standardized social media usage time values and their correspondence Effects of time of use on attitudes toward advertising Standardized social media adoption time values and their correspondence Effects of adoption time on attitudes toward advertising Fitting curves of the effect of loneliness on duration of social media usage Effects of loneliness on attitudes toward social networking advertising Fitting curves for the effects of loneliness on attitudes toward SNA Fitting curves for the effect of loneliness on attitudes toward SNA Moderating effects of city tiers: Path estimates Moderating effects of generations: Path estimates Cultural tightness in 31 provinces

29 34 42 43 45 62 63 64 65 74 76 77 78 91 92 100

Foreword 1 Qingchu Yu

I am delighted to hear that Dr. Changchun Xuan’s book is about to be published by Routledge. A brief review of history shows that higher education of advertising in mainland China began at Xiamen University. In 1983, the School of Journalism and Communication in Xiamen University was the first to establish a major in advertising, thereafter pioneering advertising education in China. So it happens that this book will be published in 2022, a gift for the fortieth anniversary of advertising education in China. Dr. Xuan is a Ph.D. in Advertising graduate trained by Xiamen University and stayed on to teach when I was the dean. Although he is young, he has made some remarkable academic achievements. In recent years, the development of advertising in China has made considerable progress, and advertising has also become one of the fastest growing disciplines in China. At such a historical moment, it is a good opportunity for us to take stock of and reflect on the development of advertising in China. In terms of publications, we have translated a large number of foreign (mainly American) advertising works. These academic works have contributed greatly to the promotion of advertising education and academic research in China. However, we must also be soberly aware that China’s advertising communication environment, policies and regulations, as well as teaching and research have certain peculiarities. The question of whether foreign research findings are fully applicable to China is in fact a matter for urgent consideration and response as for the majority of scholars. According to my observation, not many domestic advertising scholars can publish academic works abroad, and this attempt by Dr. Xuan is encouraging. In this book, he focused on the basic issue of social media advertising effects, and conducted a large-​scale national survey in mainland China. Combining knowledge from sociology, psychology, communication, advertising and other disciplines, the book explored the factors that affect social media advertising attitudes from three dimensions of consumer (demographic characteristics, social media use behavior, psychological traits) through five sub-​studies, and systematically analyzed the underlying mechanisms. The book is of great theoretical and practical significance in the following aspects. First, based on the reality of mainland China, this study

Foreword 1  ix clarified the internal heterogeneity of Chinese consumers, and the similarities and differences between Chinese consumers and American consumers. Second, different from previous studies dealing with the “specific” advertising attitudes, this study focused on the “general” social media advertising attitudes, thus has broader applicability and stronger theoretical significance. Third, by introducing theoretical perspectives from other disciplines, this study proposed a series of new variables and constructed a relatively complete social media advertising attitude model, which filled the gap of previous research. Next, the U-​shaped models of social media advertising attitude found in this study highlighted that, apart from the dominating linear model provided by western academia, there may be a “turning point” in social media advertising attitudes, which provided a new perspective for future research. Last but not least, advertising managers can use these findings to understand how social media users perceive the social media advertisement when making advertising decisions. Hope this book can inspire you somehow and hope Dr. Xuan can continuously have enlightening research for us in the future. Qingchu Yu Dean of the School of Journalism and Communication Xiamen University Xiamen, China February 2022

Foreword 2 Shengdong Lin

Social networking sites (SNS), commonly known as social media, are online platforms that allow users to create public profiles, and communicate and share information with others. Social networking advertising (SNA) is a form of advertising that utilizes SNS as a delivery platform. SNA differs in delivery methods, in which some use pushing strategy while others try to pull. SNSs in China have their unique characteristics. Due to the Great Firewall, Mainland Chinese use Weibo as a micro-​blogging substituting Twitter and use QZone, Renren and Kaixin as social media instead of Facebook and LinkedIn. China also has its own “versions” for instant messaging service such as WeChat (an equivalent of Whatsapp and Snapchat), media-​sharing service such as Youku and Tudou (equivalents of Youtube), and fast-​growing e-​commerce sites such as Taobao and JD (equivalents of Amazon and eBay). Moreover, there are also short video apps, like Douyin and Kuaishou, which have been spread to other countries. These hundreds of SNSs in mainland China have given rise to an independent kingdom in the cyberspace, a separated internetwork with billions of users, which are much more than the population of the United States. The social media in China are large in scale with an increasing number of people going mobile. According to China Internet Network Information Center, by June 2021, the number of China’s Internet users had reached 1011 million and most of them used social media. SNSs are supposed to play an important role in promoting brands or driving sales. Yet, in the digital age, consumers are more sensitive to the invasiveness and privacy than ever. Sina Weibo had more than 500 million users at its height but lost 80 percent of them by 2014. One of the reasons is the propensity of unsolicited advertising and over-​commercialization. SNSs have to manage their advertising carefully to avoid the same error. Chinese SNS users are very heterogeneous. In urban cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, SNSs are widespread and frequently used by residents. However, in rural areas, the economic, political and social impacts of SNSs are much smaller. Besides, the several distinct and momentous events in the second half of the twentieth century has shaped different generational cohorts with various modes of decision making and buying behavior. Factors

Foreword 2  xi of regional and generational cohorts are thus important when exploring Chinese market. As more and more Western companies enter China market, they need to understand more about differences between markets and how to effectively introduce advertising appeals into an independent SNS realm like China. Dr. Changchun Xuan and I, with Dr. Rui Chen and Professor Hong Cheng, launched a national survey about mainland Chinese consumers’ attitudes towards SNS advertising five years ago. The project is supported by a grant from the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No.71372076). A nation-​wide sample of 4,172 respondents were collected by an online survey company. It is a sufficiently large and varied sample. Dr. Xuan used part of the data and finished his Ph.D. dissertation. He did a great job. It was recognized as the Excellent Ph.D. graduation thesis of Fujian Province in 2021. This book is based on his excellent dissertation. It enables readers to understand the attitudes of mainland Chinese consumers towards SNS advertising in details, and put into practice immediately. Shengdong Lin, Ph.D. Professor, Renmin University of China Beijing, China February, 2022

Acknowledgements

Many thanks go to Routledge Press for the trust and support to publish this book. The book focuses on the effectiveness of social media advertising, which was my research interest during my Ph.D. study. After finishing this manuscript, I could not help thinking of that period of time. In my loving campus, there are blue coast, flaming phoenix flowers, and singing of cicadas always accompanying me. During six years of my master and Ph.D. study, I experienced hard times but never gave up, and I experienced disappointment but always remained optimistic. I’m so grateful to see this manuscript from idea to publication. Most importantly, I would like to express my utmost gratitude to Prof. Shengdong Lin in the School of Journalism, Renmin University of China, for giving me the opportunity and leading me step by step into the academic world. Thank you so much, not only for giving this book the most patient and careful revision, but also for giving me a starting point of my academic life. Your rigorous research attitude, and your enthusiasm for students, set the best model for me as a researcher and a professor. I would like to express my deep love to School of Journalism and Communication, Xiamen University, China. Thanks not only for sponsoring this research, but also for giving me six years of peaceful and wonderful study time and a perfect platform to start my academic career. I am grateful to Prof. Hong Cheng, the Dean of School of Communication, Loyola University Chicago; to Prof. Peiai Chen, Prof. Xingmin Huang and all my teachers in School of Journalism and Communication, Xiamen University, for giving me valuable guidance and suggestions during my Ph.D. study. Many thanks go to my friends. They are Rui Chen, the associate professor of School of Management, Xiamen University; Hanyun Huang, the associate professor of School of Journalism and Communication, Xiamen University; Sha Li, the instructor of School of Journalism and Communication, Huaqiao University; Xuan Du, the Ph.D. candidate of College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University; Junhao Wu, the postgraduate student of School of Journalism and Communication, Xiamen University; and Xiayu Zhou, the postdoctoral fellow of China Foreign Languages Publishing

newgenprepdf

Acknowledgements  xiii Administration. They have all contributed to this book. I hope I can have more academic sparks with my friends in the future. Last but not least, special thanks go to my family. My parents’ endless love gave me the confidence and persistence to pursue this endeavor. They brought me up, and have planted the seeds of knowledge in my heart since my childhood. They are not intellectuals, but have strong and natural beliefs in knowledge. My mother always encourages me to enrich myself and become a knowledgeable, educated and responsible man to society. Her words are very simple, but have a profound influence on my life. This book is the best gift to my mother for her 55th birthday.

1 Introduction

1.1  Research Background In the era of Web 2.0, the media environment in China has undergone drastic changes. In particular, the rapid popularization and development of mobile Internet devices, such as smartphones, have led to an increasing number of social networking sites (SNS). SNSs are online platforms that allow users to communicate and generate public information. These platforms have different rules for establishing connections. Although most use two-​way connections, some sites allow only one-​way connections, such as brand pages (Taylor, Lewin, & David, 2011). Social networking advertising (SNA) is spread through social networking media. Some advertisements employ a “push” strategy, while others employ a “pull” strategy. In mainland China, the Great Firewall, which is based on the Great Wall and Golden Shield technology, is used to block information that violates national legislation and domestic conditions and has also contributed to the prosperity of domestic self-​operated SNSs. Mainland users use Weibo instead of Twitter, and they use Qzone and Kaixin.com instead of Facebook and LinkedIn. China also has its own versions of instant messaging services, such as WeChat, which is similar to WhatsApp and Snapchat, as well as its own media content-​sharing services, such as Youku and iQiyi, which are similar to YouTube. There are also fast-​growing e-​commerce sites, such as Taobao and JD, which are similar to Amazon and eBay. Hundreds of SNSs in mainland China comprise a relatively independent kingdom in the global Internet space, with hundreds of millions of users, which far exceeds the total population of the US, forming a unique culture of SNSs (Stout, 2015). In China, an increasing number of people access the Internet through their cell phones. In December 2018, the number of Internet users in China had reached 817 million (Internet Society of China, 2019). Many recent studies have shown that social networking media have become important channels for advertising and e-​shopping in China (PwC, 2016). Social network involvement and purchase behaviors are closely related to Chinese consumers’ ratings and recommendations by their friends on SNSs, which have been shown to be the most important factors influencing their shopping decisions DOI: 10.4324/9781003310594-1

2 Introduction (Lau, Chi, & Gong, 2015). However, many SNSs continue to lose users. In China, Sina Weibo, which once had more than 500 million users, lost 80% by 2014. A major reason was “the ubiquitous advertising and a tendency of over-​ commercialization” (Wang, 2014). Therefore, SNSs must be careful in dealing with SNA to avoid the same mistakes. In 2013, the Harvard Business Review published a series of articles on the topic of “The Death of Traditional Advertising” to discuss future developments and changes in advertising communication. As SNSs have become increasingly popular, SNA has become a considerable force in the advertising landscape, attracting an increasing number of advertisers because of advantages, such as personalized service and content that triggers users’ engagement. Following the success of Facebook and Twitter in SNA, China has begun to engage in SNA extensively, and the trial of the advertising flow in Moments on WeChat in 2015 led to its discussion in the entire society (Wu & Shi, 2015). In recent years, domestic SNA has developed rapidly, and its market has expanded. In 2018, the market size of SNA in China was 40 billion yuan (E-​View, 2018). According to Tang Daosheng, Vice President of Tencent, “the era of SNA has arrived.” However, although the great popularity of SNSs has brought vitality and hope to the advertising industry, it has also troubled consumers. How can consumers’ attitudes toward SNA be scientifically and rationally assessed? What factors influence consumers’ attitudes toward SNA? What is the specific mechanism? These questions must be explored and studied by scholars of Chinese advertising. Compared with Western studies, researchers have found that research on consumers’ attitudes toward SNA in China has lagged behind significantly. Moreover, the cultural differences between China and the West make it impossible for Western research findings to be generalized to the Chinese context. Studies in Western countries have shown that consumers’ attitudes toward SNA may be diametrically opposite in different countries and in different cultural contexts. For example, based on age, young people in the US were found to hold the most negative attitudes toward advertising, while in the UK, young people held more positive attitudes toward advertising compared with the elderly (Zanot, 1984). Pollay et al. (1990) found that Chinese consumers showed more positive attitudes toward advertising than Western consumers in a survey of 123 consumers in three major cities in China (Pollay, David, & Wang, 1990). These findings imply that it is necessary to further explore advertising attitudes based on examinations of consumers in their own countries. Therefore, the present study conducted a survey and analysis of Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward SNA. Since the 1990s, studies have been conducted to examine Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward advertising, most of which have focused on traditional media, especially television (TV) advertising. The findings of these previous studies were inconsistent. Some studies found that Chinese consumers were averse to TV advertising (Zhao & Shen, 1995). Others have found

Introduction  3 that Chinese consumers favored advertising (Zhou, Zhang, & Vertinsky, 2002). It must be noted that Chinese consumers are not undifferentiated, and it is reasonable to speculate that consumers with different demographic characteristics may hold very different attitudes toward advertising. In the age of social media, Chinese SNS users have undoubtedly become heterogeneous. While in some highly developed metropolitan cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, almost all residents use SNSs frequently, in some rural areas, the economic, political, and social impacts of SNSs are much less. The rate of the popularization of the Internet in rural China was only 38.4%, and most rural users used the Internet for watching videos or chatting with friends (CNNIC, 2019). Consumers of different ages prefer different shopping environments and exhibit different purchase decisions and behaviors (Chen, 2017). These previous findings suggest that Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward SNA are the result of a complex combination of factors. To reveal as comprehensively and accurately as possible the influence of each variable on consumers’ attitudes toward SNA and their specific mechanisms, this study examines several factors, such as consumers’ demographic characteristics, social media usage behavior, psychological characteristics, the characteristics of SNSs, SNA-​related characteristics, and cultural differences.

1.2  Literature Review 1.2.1  Social Networking Sites and SNA Since the 1990s, the emergence of the World Wide Web and the development of the Internet have connected the globe and brought us into the information age. The ways in which people access information and the amount of information available continue to grow at a tremendous rate, during which social media plays an important role. Because traditional media provide only content, readers, viewers, and listeners cannot participate in its creation or development (Ward, 2010). Networking social media based on Web 2.0 facilitate communication, allowing individual and collaborative participation in the creation, distribution, and adaptation of content and its application. SNSs have thus been defined as “Internet applications that allow the production and exchange of user-​generated content (UGC) based on Web 2.0 technologies” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010), including collaborative projects, blogs, and tweets, content communities, social networks, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds (McGregor & Siegel, 2013). According to Jenkins (2006), social media have emerged as a convergence culture that changes relationships between technology, industry, market, art genres, and audiences through media convergence, participatory culture, and collective intelligence. Qualman (2012) pointed out that social media have led to an age of instant communication and transparency, in which people can use social media to “filter” the information they require. The possibilities of social media

4 Introduction have brought new potential to various fields and attracted the attention of researchers. Social media have become the fourth major research subject since the Internet, mobile phones, and ICT (Zheng et al., 2016). Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are the main social media platforms to which researchers pay attention (Snelson, 2016). Van and Coursaris (2014) found that nearly half of all social media research dealt with several topics, including education and learning, culture, and community, health care, politics, and public policy, as well as user demographics. The advertising and marketing field is also deeply aware of the opportunities and challenges that social media bring to both industry and academia (Hensel & Deis, 2010). Jeremiah et al. (2009) divided the development of social media into five eras: the era of social relations, the era of social functions, the era of social colonization, the era of social content, and the era of social commerce. While relevant practices are being conducted in industry, scholars are engaged in research, analyzing the characteristics of SNSs, discussing the reasons for the success of social media as a new advertising and marketing platform, and exploring its potential. Previous research has focused on the following: First, the construction of virtual brand communities. For example, Hensel and Deis (2010) found that in the age of attention economy, social media have challenged traditional advertising and marketing models. How to attract customers’ attention and communicate with users to improve brand image and increase the number of fans should become the focus of enterprises. McKee (2010) proposed the Social Media Trinity Model, which places the brand at the center and the network, dialogue, and community at the three sides of a triangle. According to McKee (2010), enterprises operate brand communities through various SNSs. The second is the consumers’ motivation and decision-​ making process. Mangold and Faulds (2009) demonstrated that social media play a significant role in all stages of consumers’ decision-​ making process as well as in the formation of their ideas and attitudes (2009). Luke (2009) showed that companies use social media platforms to quickly reach opinion leaders and their targeted groups through KOLs. The third is the uses and gratification theory, which was applied in Bourdieu’s social capital theory. The latter theory regards social networks and communities owned by social media users as resources for enterprises to increase their brand exposure so that users can produce, share, and persuade (e.g., eWOM) users in their social networks (Zinnbauer & Honer, 2011; Paquette, 2013). In addition, companies have used UGC to involve users in the innovation process (Hodge, 2010). The fourth is viral marketing, the key to which lies in whether users can consciously follow the content sent by the enterprise to reach more relevant groups (Chu, 2011). Many researchers have studied the factors that promote user forwarding. For example, based on the conceptual framework of fundamental interpersonal relations orientation (FIRO) proposed by Schutz, Ho and Dempsey (2010), we examined the effects of attribution need, independence, altruism, personal growth, curiosity, and other factors on forwarding behavior. Plume

Introduction  5 and Slade (2018) explored the advertising forwarding behavior of enterprises from the perspective of UGT. These studies have provided valuable insights into the success of advertising and marketing on SNSs. They also revealed possible directions for future development. However, most previous studies have focused on the analysis of the characteristics of media platforms and ignored an important means of marketing implementation—​ advertising. Hirschman and Thompson (1997) considered that to solve problems in the field of marketing and advertising, it is necessary to understand the relationship between consumers and media, and the relationship between consumers and advertising. Whether in the form of a social network or blog, SNSs accommodate many advertisements. Advertisements that rely on social media platforms are referred to as social networking advertisements (SNA) (Yuanxin & Noichangkid, 2011). Unfortunately, there has been less research on social media in the advertising field than in the field of marketing and communications (Khang, Ki, & Ye, 2012). The theoretical basis of previous studies is also weak (Alalwan et al., 2017). Most studies have combined SNA with online and interactive advertising, and the number of studies on SNA is limited (Bond et al., 2010; Idemudia, 2014; Aslam & Karjaluoto, 2017). These studies have focused on the role of SNA in increasing brand equity, improving brand attitude, and promoting purchase intention and purchase behavior (Dehghani & Turner, 2015; He & Qu, 2018; Duffett, 2015; Mir, 2012). Other studies have directly examined the relationship between SNA and the long-​or short-​term sales of corporate goods (Brettel et al., 2015; Mackey & Liang, 2013). In addition to marketing campaigns, academic research on public health and medicine has focused on the potential roles of SNA, such as recruiting smoking cessation groups (Frandsen, Walters, & Ferguson, 2014), academic research subjects (Kapp, Peters, & Oliver, 2013), and medical subjects (Subasinghe et al., 2016; Nash et al., 2017; Topolovec-​Vranic & Natarajan, 2016). The literature on social networking media tends to be “results oriented,” attaching great importance to the practical benefits of SNA for advertisers. However, only a few studies have been conducted on the relationship between consumers and SNA. Advertising attitude as a critical factor to understand the relationship between consumers and the effects of advertising should be brought to the attention of researchers (Wang & Sun, 2010). “Attitude” refers to a stable positive or negative acquired tendency toward a certain object or a certain kind of object (Assael, 1984; Schwarz, 2007). Attitudes toward advertising have been considered to play a vital role in traditional media advertising research but have received little attention in SNA research (Ferreira & Barbosa, 2017). Logan et al. (2012) investigated differences in female college students’ attitudes toward SNA and TV advertisements. Ferreira and Barbosa (2017) compared users’ attitudes toward different forms of SNA on Facebook and found that users had more positive attitudes toward news stream ads than toward pop-​ups and banners. Some previous studies have focused on specific aspects of attitudes toward

6 Introduction SNA or have applied it as a mediating variable to examine the influence of SNA characteristics, users’ social media activities, and other factors on advertising attitudes. For example, Lee and Hong (2016) used consumers’ empathy displays, a dimension of users’ attitudes toward social media advertisements, as a mediating variable. They demonstrated the effects of the degree of information and creativity of social media advertisements on consumers’ empathy displays and purchase intentions. In two studies, Chu and Celebi (2015) showed that joining Facebook groups and other social media use behaviors had a positive impact on users’ attitudes toward SNA, whereas users with positive advertising attitudes were more inclined toward brand promotion information-​ push behaviors. However, Can and Kaya (2016) found that social media use, perceived difficulty, and psychological dependence did not affect people’s attitudes toward SNA, which contradicted Chu and Celebi’s findings. In general, these previous studies emphasized the generation of positive advertising attitudes. However, survey results have shown that there are more people with negative attitudes toward advertising on online platforms than on other media platforms. Banister et al. (2013) showed that although college students were active users of social media, they had negative attitudes toward advertisements and were less likely to click on them if their content did not match their needs. Other factors, such as privacy concerns, have also been shown to negatively influence users’ attitudes toward SNA (Yaakop et al., 2012; Roberts, 2010). Therefore, the current understanding of attitudes toward SNA is far from sufficient. To increase understanding of the effects of SNA, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive and in-​depth study of advertising attitudes. In addition, because international academic research has often been based on SNA and users in the US, the UK, and other countries in the West, cultural differences and other factors prevent the generalization of their results to the Chinese context. For example, Kim (2014) found that in an individualistic culture, such as that of the US, users who were “liked” by their friends tended to avoid social media advertisements, while there was no correlation between the two in a collectivist culture, such as that of South Korea. A specific study on consumers’ attitudes toward SNA based on the domestic situation in China is required. Compared with Western countries, in China, the Internet and social media were introduced late, but their usage has rapidly increased. Although Chinese research on social media was delayed, it has since proliferated. According to Ye’s (2018) statistics on social media in the SSCI and A&HCI databases, American scholars started research on social media in 2007, while Asian scholars in China, Japan, and South Korea began research on social media in 2011. After 2016, the number of Asian studies began to increase exponentially, among which Chinese scholars had the advantage. They have focused on WeChat, Weibo, QQ, and other social media platforms, and their research topics have included urban management, communication marketing, data mining, and content analysis (Ye, 2018). Chinese scholars paid attention to social media earlier than those in the west. In 2009, the number of Internet

Introduction  7 users in China was the highest worldwide, and Weibo was officially launched in the same year. Since then, the amount of social media-​related research has continuously increased. In 2011, the emergence of WeChat introduced a new mode of communication, and opinion leaders as a research topic began to be investigated. Since 2014, with the popularization of 4G, social media have developed rapidly in China. College students have become the main users of social media, and user behavior analyses and precision marketing have found a new direction for social media-​related research (Chen & Chen, 2017). The present review of social media research in the field of advertising and marketing revealed that early studies were critical, focusing on comparative analyses of social media platforms and traditional media platforms to better understand the possible impact of this new media platform. In their research, Li and Cao (2013) found that social media differed from traditional media in terms of communication channels, methods, content, audiences, and influence cycles. They recommended directions for the development of social media marketing strategies in enterprises, social media platforms, and governments. Han (2014) summarized the value and characteristics of social media marketing by studying the current situation of social media marketing in China and pointing out the advantages of social media in promoting brand images and sales, as well as the disadvantages of social media, such as the difficulty of controlling and detecting them. Researchers also examined social media platforms, such as WeChat and Weibo, after their user bases grew. For example, Hou Jia (2016) analyzed the cases of Coca-​Cola and Dragonair and summarized the roles of WeChat, Weibo, and Renren in product and brand promotion, customer “stickiness” enhancement, crisis management, and other aspects. Numerous studies have been conducted on these platforms, but the results are highly repetitive. These detailed analyses and summaries revealed not only attractive possibilities for social media platforms in the field of marketing, but also the shortcomings of overgeneralization and highly similar conclusions. In these studies, advertising has not been considered an important means of achieving goals. For example, Yang (2014) focused on the development history of SNA and divided it into an initial stage represented by BBS and instant messaging tools, a dormant stage represented by blogs, content-​sharing media, and SNS, and an explosive stage represented by Weibo and WeChat. Li’s (2013) research on the performance strategy of SNA found that, compared with traditional Internet advertising, the core advantage of SNA is its user and platform value, and SNA should focus on creating better user experiences. Some scholars have considered that traditional advertising was the product of the industrial age and that SNA is the product of the information age. Since the focus has shifted from the product to the consumer, SNA no longer focuses on advertising exposure only but relies more on precision transmission platform features. Scholars even predicted that as SNA increased, “traditional advertising will die” (Guo, 2015). Although traditional advertising may not yet be dead, the rise of SNA is indisputable.

8 Introduction With the rapid development of social media platforms in China, the forms of advertising on each platform have been constantly updated. Researchers have gradually shifted their focus from comparing SNA with traditional advertising to empirical research on SNA on specific platforms. For example, Zhao’s (2014) study on WeChat and Weibo led him to speculate that the reason the conversion rate of social media advertisements was higher than that of traditional media and portal websites was that situational factors in social media advertisements offered users a better social experience. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), Ma (2015) verified that three situational factors—​namely, the audience’s behavioral attitude, subjective norms, and behavioral control perception of SNA—​ influenced users’ consumption of advertising information. Among various forms of SNA, WeChat’s circle of friends information flow advertising has attracted much attention (Airui, 2019). Some scholars have pointed out that the success of this form of advertising not only benefits from the accuracy of the WeChat platform but also strictly observes the law that “content is king” (Shi, 2015). However, some scholars have provided different findings. Xu and Yang (2016) found that variables related to advertising itself, such as advertising performance and advertising brand fit, had little influence on user engagement, while factors related to social media attributes, such as the number of friends and viewing frequency, had a significant influence on user engagement. Based on the unified technology acceptance and use theory (UTAUT), Wu and Zhou (2016) found that performance expectations and social presence enhanced users’ behavioral intention to use advertisements in friend moments, information flow, and community, while effort expectation and community influence did not have significant effects. In general, the theoretical basis of domestic research on SNA has been weak. Only single social media platforms and advertising forms have been examined in previous studies, and the selection of dependent variables was haphazard. Similar to foreign studies, these previous studies have usually been results oriented, and they have focused on the behavior of social media users while ignoring their attitudes toward advertising. Moreover, behavioral variables have been treated as dependent variables (Qiu & Chen, 2018). Scholars have discussed both the characteristics of social media platforms and the influence of SNA content on users’ participation behavior and behavioral intention. However, the following questions need to be addressed: What are people’s attitudes toward SNA, not only individual forms of advertising? What factors affect these attitudes? What is the mechanism of action? In 2020, the number of social media users in China reached 1.04 billion, and this number continues to grow (Hootsuite, 2020). The SNA industry continues to prosper. In 2019, advertising spending on social media in China reached $14.09 billion, an increase of 20% from the previous year, which was the fastest growth among all categories of advertising spending. In contrast, there is a lack of research on SNA in the academic world, and little is known about attitudes toward SNA. On one hand, compared with foreign studies,

Introduction  9 there is less Chinese academic research on domestic SNA, and it lacks systematic and theoretical guidance. However, because of China’s culture and demographic characteristics, as well as the characteristics of Weibo, WeChat, and other social media, the results of foreign research on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media should not be generalized to the Chinese context. Instead, we should focus on the actual situation of the country to better explain the current situation and predict the future. 1.2.2  Attitudes toward Social Networking Advertising (SNA) As advertising is one of the main ways of increasing the profitability of social media platforms, advertising effects are of utmost concern. Because of its importance, scholars have evaluated SNA from different perspectives, such as the communicator (Yang, Dong, & Song, 2005), the consumer (Ding, Zhao, & Zhu, 2010), and brand equity (Sun & Li, 2015). Among these, the consumer’s perspective has been the most widely used. The variable of advertising attitude was evaluated from the consumer’s cognitive perspective. This variable is a prerequisite for the effectiveness of SNA (Chu, Kamal, & Kim, 2013) and an important link between stimulus and behavior (Tan, Ling, &Li, 2013). The word attitude refers to an individual’s perception of external things. The term attitudes toward SNA refers to consumers’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioral tendencies in browsing social media and receiving advertising stimuli. Generally, the investigation of advertising attitudes involves two levels: general advertising attitudes and specific advertising attitudes. General advertising attitudes are also called overall attitudes. Research subjects include various forms of social media, focusing on consumers’ overall attitudes toward SNA. Specific SNA attitudes are held toward a specific type of social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, short videos, WeChat, Weibo, etc.) or a specific form of SNA (e.g., information flow advertising, native advertising, etc.). The review of the literature showed that foreign research initially focused on whether the SNA was accepted and subsequent attitudes toward it; that is, general advertising attitudes. The key to the effectiveness of SNA lies in the audience’s advertising attitudes. Only by adopting a positive or accepting attitude toward the advertisements can desirable communication economic effects be achieved. Researchers have found that consumers tend to hold negative attitudes toward SNA or simply ignore them. For example, Taylor, Lewin and Strutton (2011) found that because the audience’s motivation for using SNSs was to satisfy social needs, content needs (e.g., information, entertainment, etc.), or structural needs (e.g., killing time, etc.), the appearance of advertisements negatively affected their purpose and motivation for using social media, which resulted in negative attitudes toward social advertising. Through in-​depth interviews, Hadija, Barnes and Hair (2012) found that their participants did not hate SNA, but they often ignored it. The reason was that in using SNSs, the salience of other content attracted their attention. However, some studies have found that when an advertising message was interesting,

10 Introduction honest, and credible, the audience adopted a positive attitude toward SNA (Clemons, Barnett, & Appadurai, 2007). Moreover, when users had a positive attitude toward social media sites, their attitudes toward advertising on the sites tended to be positive (Bruner & Kumar, 2000). However, the results of previous research on the “general” advertising attitudes of foreign consumers on social media have been controversial, and a sufficient consensus has not been reached. Therefore, because some social media platforms are predominant in the advertising field, researchers have gradually begun to study attitudes toward advertising on specific social media platforms. Based on the current situation, the number of studies on “specific” advertising attitudes abroad is considerable. Previous studies on “specific” advertising attitudes have focused on platforms such as Facebook (Lukka & James, 2014; Dondolo, 2014; Yaakop, Anuar, & Omar, 2013; Duffett, 2015), Twitter (Sook-​Kwon et al., 2014; Brooks & Cheshire, 2012), and YouTube (Yang et al., 2017). Some studies have compared users’ attitudes toward advertising on different platforms (Logan, 2014), most of which have focused on Facebook. Therefore, there is a lack of research on general SMA attitudes in foreign academic circles, which remains to be further explored by researchers. Many foreign scholars have already been aware of the need for research on this topic. For example, Alalwan et al. (2017) found that previous studies did not pay enough attention to overall attitudes toward SNA. Moreover, previous research applied only qualitative methods to determine attitudes toward SNA. Taylor et al. (2011) proposed that research on SMA attitudes should “try not to specify advertising platforms to obtain a general advertising attitude.” Although research on SMA attitudes has shown that foreign audiences generally have held negative attitudes toward SMA, it is worth noting that social media can improve advertising attitudes in many ways. Previous studies have shown that audiences’ attitudes toward SMA vary greatly, which indicates the possibility of improving advertising attitudes. From this point of view, research on advertising attitudes on specific social media platforms has focused on the factors that affect SMA attitudes. Foreign scholars began to explore the factors that affected advertising attitudes earlier, and their theoretical foundation was solid. The review of this literature showed that these studies were guided by theoretical models, such as the UGT, the technology acceptance model (TAM), the theory of rational behavior (TRA), the theory of planned behavior (TPB), and other theoretical models. The consumer’s perspective is derived from demographic characteristics, social attribute variables, and psychological variables (e.g., beliefs, motivations, values, etc.) to explore the relationship between factors and attitudes. In researching demographic factors, such as age, education, and average monthly consumption, most scholars found a significant impact on attitudes. Previous studies have shown that elderly and educated people held negative attitudes toward advertising and that men and women had different motives for surfing the Internet (Petrovici & Paliwoda, 2007). Male advertising

Introduction  11 attitudes were influenced by informativeness and entertainment, and women’s advertising attitudes were influenced by social interaction. Regarding social attributes, research has found that social identity, group awareness, and group interest norms significantly affected SMA attitudes (Zeng, Huang, & Dou, 2009). At the psychological level, previous studies have shown that different motivations (e.g., obtaining information, enjoying entertainment, socializing, etc.) had different effects on SMA. In addition, consumers’ beliefs in advertising (Kamal & Chu, 2012) and advertising values (Hamouda, 2018) were also found to affect advertising attitudes. From the perspective of media and advertising, scholars have explored the content and technical factors that affect attitudes toward advertising. Positive influential factors included the informativeness, entertainment, and credibility of the advertising content, whereas negative influential factors included intrusiveness and so on (Jung et al., 2016). From the perspective of the theory of advertising value, most scholars have drawn similar conclusions in their research on SMA attitudes in different countries; that is, the informativeness, entertainment, and credibility of advertising increase public value, which positively affected advertising attitudes. Intrusiveness was found to significantly reduce the value of advertising, which negatively affected attitudes. However, some studies have failed to discover the significant effects of these factors. For example, in their research on Facebook, Noprisson et al. (2016) and Dar et al. (2014) did not find a significant effect of information on advertising attitudes. From the perspective of the media, scholars have been concerned about the impact of social media and technology on advertising attitudes in the context of big data technology. For example, from the perspective of social media, studies have found that relationships (Lin & Kim, 2016) had a significant impact on advertising attitudes. From the perspective of technical media, the negative impact of privacy concerns on advertising attitudes was indicated. In addition, a few foreign studies have focused on the influence of the characteristics of media, products, brands, and corporations on SMA attitudes. There has been little foreign research on products, brands, and corporations, and more attention has been paid to macro-​level corporate-​ level variables. For example, Boateng and Okoe (2015) found that corporate reputation was a key factor influencing the effect of consumer’s advertising attitudes on their behaviors. The results of foreign research have shown that the characteristics of media and advertising and the consumer’s perspective are key dimensions. Existing research has been based mainly on TAV, UGT, TAM, and other theoretical frameworks. Moreover, scholars have focused on the positive value of advertising. The variables of informativeness and entertainment have often been used in SNA research. Petrovici and Paliwoda (2007) and Logan et al. (2012) found that information acquisition and hedonic benefits were important factors that affected attitudes toward SNA and were important sources of advertising value. However, these previous studies were biased regarding

12 Introduction “specific” and “general” advertising attitudes; that is, they emphasized “specific” rather than “general.” Furthermore, only a small number of factors have been identified in the research on “specific” attitudes toward SNA. In recent years, with the emergence of new forms of domestic social media, such as WeChat and Tencent in 2011 and Douyin in 2016, advertising formats have also evolved, and research on domestic advertising attitudes has continued to develop. Although the overall amount of research is still not comparable to that of foreign research, the focus on “specific” SMA attitudes is problematic. For example, existing research has focused on WeChat information flow ads (Zhou, 2016; Zheng, 2016) and Douyin video ads (Li, Xia, 2016; Yang, 2019). Only Ren (2014) has conducted empirical research on the “general” level of SNA attitudes. The domestic technological environment has included the continuous emergence of social media and the continuous revision of advertising formats. The number of social media platforms, such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, and Kuaishou, have constantly increased, and trends of short video ads, e-​commerce ads, and WeChat platform ads continue to multiply. Therefore, for academia and industry, it is vital to understand consumers’ attitudes toward SNA. SNA has been divided into several sub-​categories, such as product placement, information flow ads, and native ads. When these new forms of advertising emerged, scholars began to pay attention to consumers’ attitudes toward them. For example, Fan et al. (2011) found that college students had pessimistic attitudes toward pop-​up and floating advertisements. Zhu’s (2012) research found that people were disgusted with the product placement ads that first appeared on social media, perhaps because of their rigidity and the fact that they had just appeared in people’s fields of vision, thereby inducing reverse psychological responses. Regarding follow-​up information flow ads and native ads, people’s attitudes were found to show two levels of polarization, which were negative on the cognitive level and positive on the emotional level (Zhu & Zhao, 2017). Research on the factors that affect advertising attitudes has become the focus in both academia and industry. To optimize advertising and enhance the effectiveness and economic benefits of advertising, companies, media, and academia intend to explore the factors that influence advertising attitudes in order to improve the effectiveness of SNA or to provide new forms for the development of SNA. Therefore, there has been abundant research in this field. In communication research, discussions of influential factors have been based on Laswell’s 5 W model, which explores the influence of communication according to the four dimensions of disseminator, audience, information content, and media. According to the relevant literature, advertising scholars have followed communication scholars to explore the factors that influence advertising attitudes. They discussed these factors based on the four dimensions of media, consumers, advertising attributes, and products, brands, and enterprises.

Introduction  13 Regarding the dimension of media, some researchers have continued to use traditional media variables to determine whether they are adaptable to social media. For example, Yang (2019) found, through research on short videos, that media popularity and media favorability did not have a significant impact on advertising attitudes. Moreover, the characteristics of social media are significantly different from those of traditional media. Therefore, most scholars have explored the influence of the unique media characteristics of social media on advertising attitudes, especially interactivity, sociality, and technology matching. Research has found that social media’s interactivity, relationships (Xue, 2018), and push accuracy (Yang, 2019) had a significant positive impact on attitudes. Regarding the dimension of consumers, research has explored the influence of different consumer groups on SNA attitudes from the perspectives of consumer demographics, social attributes, and psychology. Zhou (2005) and Ren (2014) focused on the demographics of consumers to investigate whether gender, average monthly consumption, and average monthly income affected attitudes, but their conclusions differed. Zhou did not find significant differences in the attitudes of males and females. However, Ren found that compared with females, male users had more positive attitudes toward advertising, perhaps because of the limited number of survey subjects and large differences between the survey groups. Specifically, Zhou investigated a sample of Wuhan citizens, and Ren investigated a sample of college students and office workers. The differences in the results of the study may have been due to the limitations of the size and heterogeneity of the sample. Zhu (2012) investigated whether consumers’ initial social media participation motivation affected their advertising attitudes from a psychological perspective and found that compared with consumers with relationship needs and entertainment needs, consumers with content needs had more positive attitudes toward advertising. Zheng (2016) found that consumers’ participation had a positive effect on their advertising attitudes. Regarding the dimension of advertising attributes, scholars have explored the value and non-​value attributes of SNA in advertising content and advertising forms based on TAV, showing that they affected consumers’ advertising attitudes. From the perspective of advertising content, there were both positive value factors and negative hindrance factors. Positive value factors included informativeness, entertainment (Liu, 2017), social image, matching (Liu, 2018), the popularity of advertising language and advertising characters, the type of story (emotional experience) and other factors. In addition, negative content factors, such as intrusiveness and target obstacles in advertising (Dai et al., 2012) had negative effects on advertising attitudes. Advertising forms were also found to significantly affect advertising attitudes. Consumers held different attitudes toward different types of SNA. Previous findings showed that advertising forms, such as non-​advertising texts in combination with information and high advertising picture quality, significantly promoted

14 Introduction advertising attitudes, while unclear advertising forms significantly reduced advertising attitudes. Regarding the dimensions of product and brand, most previous research has applied experimental methods to study them. Some scholars have regarded product-​level variables as adjustment variables in investigating their adjustment mechanisms. For example, Xue’s (2018) research found that brand familiarity regulated the relationship between relationship strength and advertising attitude. In some studies, it has been applied as an independent variable to explore the mechanism of advertising attitudes. For example, Wang’s (2016) experimental study found that consumers’ advertising attitudes were more positive when brand awareness was higher. Most previous research on the factors that influence SNA attitudes has been conducted based on two perspectives on consumers: advertising characteristics and media attributes. First, social media are “consumer-​ centered,” so they are valued by consumers. Scholars have focused mainly on demographics and psychological motivations. Second, the main assumption regarding media attributes is that social media, as platforms for advertising, also affect advertising attitudes. Social media have interactive, social, and other media characteristics, especially in comparison with traditional media. The functions of social media have undergone fundamental changes in not only information transmission but also social interaction. Hence, the research on the factors influencing media characteristics has focused on the attributes of social interaction and information transmission, such as community influence and peer relationships. Finally, because advertising is proactive from the viewpoint of advertising practitioners, it has received more attention in the literature. Scholars have focused on distinguishing between beneficial and harmful advertising attributes based on the framework of calculating advertising losses. The discussion of influential factors has laid the foundation for research on the mechanisms of advertising attitudes. Previous research on this mechanism has focused on its relationship with brand attitudes, purchase intentions, and other interactive behaviors. Scholars have paid attention to whether advertising attitudes affect attitudes toward brands and purchase intentions, thereby transforming communication effects into economic effects. In the context of social media, researchers have paid attention to the relationship between advertising attitudes and interactive behaviors. Previous findings showed that, in that context, there was a direct emotional transfer between advertising attitudes and brand attitudes. For example, Wang (2016) found that advertising attitudes had significantly positive effects on brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Researchers have also found that advertising attitudes can act independently of purchase intentions and interactive behaviors. For example, attitudes toward SNA were found to positively affect consumers’ purchase intentions and interactive behaviors, and they were moderated by self-​expression (Lai, 2018).

Introduction  15 In domestic research on attitudes toward SNA, most scholars have used questionnaire surveys and convenience sampling aimed at college students or regional populations. Therefore, the sample sizes and survey scopes have been limited. In addition, some scholars have applied experimental methods and in-​depth interviews. Experimental methods have been used to examine the effects of a specific variable, while in-​ depth interview methods have been used in exploratory analyses of a new form of advertising. Moreover, scholars have focused on influential factors with the intention of providing recommendations for forms of SMA in the future. Regarding theoretical frameworks, most research has been based on the UGT, TPB, and TAM. From these theoretical perspectives, researchers have aimed to determine aspects of SNA that can provide basic perceived benefits. They have sought to determine the factors that affect advertising attitudes, and then apply the factors that promote positive consumer attitudes. Previous domestic research has followed foreign research ideas and variables, but corresponding conversions have been conducted on a specific platform. However, there has been a lack of inquiry into the influence of cultural factors (Okazaki & Taylor, 2013). Countries and cultures have different values, forms of social media, advertisers’ use of social media, and forms of advertising. There may also be differences in the ways in which consumers use social media and in their attitudes toward SNA (Nikolaos, Leonidas, & Christina, 2012; Cheng, Lai, & Ye, 2014). Early research on advertising attitudes found that consumers in Western countries had more positive attitudes toward advertising, while consumers in Eastern countries had more negative attitudes. Recent studies on SNA have shown that consumers in different cultures hold different assumptions about social media, which leads to inconsistencies in factors affecting consumers’ advertising attitudes in different cultures. For example, Muralidharan et al. (2015) found that entertainment and credibility had the greatest impact on Indians’ attitudes toward advertising, while informativeness and entertainment had the greatest impact on American’s attitudes toward advertising. In addition, in different cultures, the mechanisms of advertising attitudes may not be exactly the same. Muk (2007) found that American consumers’ acceptance of mobile text message ads was based on their attitudes, while Chinese Taiwanese consumers’ acceptance was influenced by both regulations and attitudes. Therefore, the influence of culture on advertising attitudes is worthy of further exploration.

1.3  Research Content and Theoretical Foundation 1.3.1  Research Content The majority of foreign and domestic studies on attitudes toward SNA have focused on specific media (e.g., WeChat, short video ads, Facebook, etc.) or

16 Introduction a specific form of media (e.g., WeChat friend circle ads, and WeChat public number ads). At the micro level, these studies have certain theoretical and practical value, but their theoretical contributions are relatively narrow, and their scope of application is limited. Moreover, specific attitudes are inevitably influenced by general attitudes. Therefore, based on a large number of case studies, researchers need to explore general advertising attitudes, which would not only help academics and the industry understand consumers’ attitudes toward SNA but also help guide advertising business managers to better use SNA in marketing and promotion. Hence, the present study examines general attitudes toward SNA at the macro level. Regarding specific dimensions, consumer, social media and advertising have been priorities in both Chinese and foreign studies. By exploring these two dimensions, this study aims to better our understanding of attitudes toward SNA. Therefore, this study highlights these two dimensions in the overall framework. In addition, we introduce the cultural dimension. The literature review revealed that domestic studies have paid little attention to cultural variables. Moreover, although foreign studies have explored the cultural dimension, they have mainly conducted country-​to-​country comparisons. Considering the vast size of China and the large differences in cultural customs among different regions, it is necessary to pay attention to the possible effects of cultural differences in different regions on attitudes toward SNA. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the effects of various factors on attitudes toward SNA by examining three dimensions: consumers, SNSs, SNA, and cultural differences. In terms of the consumer dimension, many studies conducted both nationally and internationally have included demographic and psychographic characteristics. In terms of demographic characteristics, the sample sizes in previous survey studies were limited to between 500 and 1,000. Moreover, the representativeness of these studies was poor, and most used a convenience sample drawn from college students or the population of a specific province or city. To draw a scientific and comprehensive portrait of users in different attitude groups, it is necessary to conduct a nationwide sampling survey. In terms of psychological characteristics, previous domestic and international studies have focused on various usage motives but have lacked attention to important psychological characteristics in the social media era. Therefore, this study introduces loneliness as an important psychological characteristic of social media users. In addition, regarding the consumer dimension, this study introduces social media use behavior, which has been largely ignored in previous studies. The inclusion of this factor will facilitate a more scientifically rigorous study of the influence of consumer factors. Both domestic and foreign studies have focused on the dimensions of social media and advertising. The variables applied in foreign studies have been examined in domestic studies. A comparison of the results of these variables revealed that, interestingly, the mechanisms of action of individual

Introduction  17 variables differed in the findings of domestic and foreign studies. However, because the research questions and methods in these previous studies were different and the samples varied widely, these findings cannot yet be used to draw research conclusions. They can only enable researchers to hypothesize that cultural differences may cause differences in advertising attitudes in China and abroad. Therefore, this study did not select novel variables in the dimensions of social media and advertising. Instead, this study applied scientifically established research variables used in foreign studies in the analysis and then discussed them from a cross-​cultural perspective. Previous studies on advertising attitudes have rarely included the cultural dimension, especially regarding cultural differences within a country. Considering that this study was based on Chinese consumers, the actual situation in China could not be ignored. Moreover, cultural differences within the country helped us determine differences in Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward SNA. Therefore, this study introduced the variable of regional cultural differences to explore their effects on advertising attitudes. 1.3.2  Theoretical Foundation 1.3.2.1  Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT) For both academics and the media industry, social media have become an important venue for marketing and advertising. On the one hand, advertisers can send precise marketing messages directly to their target audiences or interact with them. On the other hand, social media provide platforms where people can receive, publish, exchange, search, and disseminate information anytime and anywhere (Whiting & Williams, 2013). Scholars have moved away from emphasizing “what advertising does to the audiences” to exploring “what the audience does to the advertising.” From the perspective of users, it has become crucial to study how they use social media and how they approach SNA (Chung & Austria, 2010). In this regard, UGT has greatly benefited our research (O’Donohoe, 1994). The introduction of UGT was an important turning point in communication research. In early communication theories, such as the “bullet theory” and the “hypodermic needle theory,” audiences were regarded as passive recipients of media content. However, UGT emphasizes the active nature of audiences. According to the UGT, audiences can choose and use media and media content according to their own needs (Williams, Phillips, & Lum, 1987). Developed in the 1940s, its usage can be thought of as divided into traditional and modern stages in the late 1960s (Cai & Liu, 2004). In the traditional stage of its development, the focus was on organizing types of satisfaction in terms of use motivation. For example, Lazarsfeld (1940) summarized the needs met by radio competition programs as follows: competing for self-​ esteem, acquiring knowledge, self-​ assessment, and playing games. Other studies identified people’s needs for watching certain television programs as

18 Introduction follows: obtaining information, escaping reality, emotional release, seeking companionship, exploring the world, and enhancing values (Rubin, 1994). In the late 1960s, based on previous studies, scholars began to explore the social and psychological roots of these media use needs and the patterns of exposure to different media in order to explain the motivations and outcomes of individual behavior at the micro level. For example, Donohew, Palmgreen, and Rayburn’s (1987) study of cable television viewers found that people’s activity needs were influenced by a variety of social and psychological factors, and that different levels of activity needs were met in different ways. Katz et al. (1974) and others also noted that the satisfaction of needs was influenced by an individual’s mental state and social role. An important theory of mass communication, the UGT was also applied in consumer research in the age of traditional media (Eighmey & McCord, 1998). For example, some scholars have pointed out that consumers are not passive and helpless receivers of advertising (Joyce, 1967) but actively choose which ads they pay attention to, which McDonald (1980) considered the only value of advertising. Lannon (1993) found that consumers expected advertising to provide aesthetic, emotional, and intellectual rewards. However, because of the nature of traditional media, the research on them has not supported this finding. With the advent of new media technologies, users have been given more power, and UGT has been applied with renewed vigor. Whiting and Williams (2013) outlined the following 10 motivations for social media use: (1) social interaction; (2) searching for information; (3) spending time; (4) entertainment; (5) relaxation; (6) expressing opinions; (7) communicating availability; (8) convenience availability; (9) information sharing; and (10) monitoring and learning about others. These personal motivations provide a basis for understanding the choice of social media types, their usage, perceptions of the media platform and its content, and the effects of usage behavior (Rubin, 2002; Larose, Mastro, & Eastin, 2001; Bondad-​Brown, Rice, & Pearce, 2011; Ang et al., 2015). Perspectives in advertising and marketing research include the relationship between needs satisfaction and personal factors, as well as attitudes and usage behavior toward media technology products (Grace-​Farfaglia et al., 2006; Lim & Ting, 2012), the impact of needs satisfaction on attitudes toward SNA (Dai et al., 2012), and the impact on willingness to reshare SNA (Coyle et al., 2011; Curras-​Perez, Ruiz-​Mafe, & Sanz-​Blas, 2014). In summary, UGT provides a theoretical basis for the present study to examine attitudes toward advertising from the perspective of consumers, who in this case are social media users. Because most previous studies have focused on specific needs satisfaction, this study aimed to focus on measuring the level of social media use; therefore, the amount of time spent on social media was applied as a variable. In addition, this study included individual consumer factors (i.e., demographic and psychological characteristics) from the perspective of the UGT. Previous studies have demonstrated differences in social media usage motivations and engagement behaviors between different

Introduction  19 user groups, and age and gender were key variables in understanding social network usage behavior (Taraszow et al., 2010; Odaci & Kalkan, 2010; Dhir et al., 2016). In the present study, the psychological factor of loneliness was chosen as an important factor (Wen, Li, & Zheng, 2017). 1.3.2.2  Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) In contrast to UGT, which focuses on consumer characteristics, TAM focuses on the effects of factors related to the media technology platform (i.e., external factors) on the attitudes of potential users (Van & Kotze, 2008). Developed by Davis (1989), the TAM is based on the social psychological theories of reasoned action and planned action. Well established in social psychological research, these theories focus on explaining why people behave in certain situations by clarifying the relationships among perception, attitude, will, and behavior (Kwon & Chidambaram, 2000; Barnes & Huff, 2003; Pedersen, 2005). The TAM introduced the concepts of perceived usability and perceived usefulness based on the following: (1) external factors influence potential users’ perceived usability and perceived usefulness of a new technology; (2) perceived usability directly influences perceived usefulness; (3) both affect potential users’ attitudes toward the new technology; (4) perceived usefulness and attitudes affect intention to use; and (5) intention to use and perceived usefulness directly affect usage behavior. In many empirical studies conducted since the development of Internet technology in the last decade, the logic on which the TAM is based has been validated, and it has become one of the most important models in the study of IT acceptance and use. Research based on the TAM initially focused on the two factors of perceived usefulness and perceived usability, but other factors, such as information richness (Chen, Gillenson, & Sherrell, 2004), entertainment (Luo, 2005), perceived risk, and trust (Dhami, 2005), have been added over time. The TAM has also been adopted in related fields to understand the influence of external factors on people’s attitudes. The field of advertising has adopted the basic logic of TAM in its application but has adapted the influential factors to the content of the advertisement and the platform on which it is delivered. For example, Bamoriya (2012) investigated the effects of perceived usefulness habits, perceived usability, and perceived trust on attitudes toward advertising and willingness to accept advertising, finding that this model explained 81.1% of the results. In addition, Lin and Kim (2016) examined the relationship between users’ perceived privacy risks, intrusion concerns, perceived usefulness, and perceived usability of Facebook ads and their effects on attitudes toward advertising. Their results showed that privacy concerns negatively affected perceived usability, perceived usefulness, and attitudes toward advertising but that intrusion concerns affected only perceived usefulness and attitudes toward advertising. However, perceived usefulness and perceived usability conformed to the predictions of the original TAM model and had a positive effect on advertising attitudes (Lin & Kim, 2016).

20 Introduction Overall, the TAM provides a strong theoretical basis for studying the influence of social media platforms and factors related to SNA on users’ attitudes toward SNA. However, the model has been criticized as being too repetitive because it involves a single influential factor. Therefore, this study adopted the basic logic of the TAM. However, because it sought to facilitate cross-​ cultural comparisons, the theoretical model in classic Western research was applied to select the variables, including informativeness, intrusiveness, and entertainment. 1.3.2.2  Theoretical Foundations Related to the Cultural Dimension Culture affects all aspects of human attitudes and behavior. If advertising and marketing campaigns are to be effective, it is important to understand the role that culture plays (Soares, Farhangmehr, & Shoham, 2007). In practice, products may need to be adapted to different cultures, and advertisements may need to conform to certain cultural perceptions to gain the goodwill of audiences. However, as a conceptual term, culture is difficult to define (Zhang, 2012; Soares, Farhangmehr, & Shoham, 2007). According to statistics, there are currently around 260 definitions of culture by both domestic and international scholars (Fu, 2003). As early as 1952, Kroeber and Kluckohn summarized more than 160 definitions, most of which were based on different styles of thought and behavior. These definitions can be broadly divided into two perspectives: one perspective values the reasons for which culture is formed. Del Gado (1996), for example, considered culture a collection of learned behavior consisting of thoughts, feelings, and actions. The other perspective focuses on the influence of culture on people’s perceptions of behavior. Goodenough (1981), for example, viewed culture as a set of beliefs and norms held by a group and influenced by individuals who guided people’s perceptions of things and related actions. Thus, it has been argued that culture is both the cause and the effect (Zhang, 2008), shaped by geographical, political, economic, legal, religious, linguistic, educational, technological, and even industrial contexts in which individuals live. Culture also shapes individual preferences and perceptions and influences individual decisions and behaviors. For example, members of different cultures are likely to give different answers to the same questions. Despite these different perspectives, there is consensus among scholars that “culture is shared by a group” (Steers, Meyer, & Sanchez-​Runde, 2008), and the choice of definition should be adapted to the purpose of the study (Honold, 2000). This study focuses on the effects of cultural factors on the attitudes of social media users toward advertising, and therefore considers culture according to Spencer-​Oatey’s definition: culture is “a set of attitudes, beliefs, and values held by a group of people that influence how they view things” (Spencer-​Oatey, 2004). In early academic research, because of the difficulty of separating culture from other macro-​environmental factors with which it is closely associated, it became a sort of “silver bullet” or “bin” that was used to explain differences

Introduction  21 that could be explained by tangible factors (Buzzell, 1968; Usunier, 1999). Marketing scholars have often used the concept of culture to explain differences in market structure, consumer behavior, and marketing effectiveness, which has attracted much criticism because of the “ethereal” nature of culture. This situation has been alleviated by the refinement and application of the “cultural dimension” by many scholars. The cultural dimension refers to variables or factors used to measure different cultures (Fitzgerald, 2004), often with polarities, and they can be quantified using values ranging from large to small or small to large. Scholars in the fields of psychology, anthropology, and sociology have identified cultural dimensions, the most influential of which are Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions. In the 1970s and 1980s, he conducted a large-​scale, worldwide survey. Based on the results, he identified five dimensions: individualism/​collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/​femininity, and long-​term/​short-​term orientation. Each dimension was clearly expressed in numerical terms (Hofstede, 1994, 2001, 2004). These five dimensions have served as the norm for scholars and have been widely used in cross-​cultural research (Choi & Geistfeld, 2004). A review of the marketing and advertising literature also revealed that Hofstede’s five dimensions of culture theory were the most frequently cited cross-​cultural theory in the field (Kim et al., 2014; Ngai, Tao, & Moon, 2015). Hence, research perspectives can include the following: how culture affects the specific performance of advertising in different countries (Milner & Collins, 1998); how culture affects the acceptance and use of new products and technologies in different countries (Choi & Geistfeld, 2004); and how culture affects the attitudes and perceptions of advertising audiences in different countries (An & Kim, 2008). The validity of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in cross-​country comparative cultural studies has been extensively tested. Therefore, this study includes individual dimensions to analyze the effects of cultural differences between China and the US on attitudes toward SNA. Cross-​cultural studies have focused on transnational cultures. A review of the literature revealed that relevant studies have compared two or more countries (Al-​Juhiam, 2008). However, cultural differences may also exist within a country, and this dimension has received little attention. On one hand, the five dimensions widely used in research were originally based on cultural differences between countries and were unparalleled in explaining cross-​ national differences. On the other hand, cultural differences between countries, which have been assumed to be culturally homogeneous, have been the focus of cross-​cultural studies. However, the emergence of any culture has a geographical basis (Cai, 1992). In particular, the neglect of the study of internal cultural differences is worrying in the case of China, which is a vast country with a huge territory. In fact, the discussion of internal cultural differences in China has been widespread since the Spring and Autumn periods (Pan, 1987), but like the problems encountered in the early days of cross-​cultural studies, it has been examined only in qualitative discussions rather than empirical research. In recent years, scholars have paid attention to this issue, but in

22 Introduction their studies, they have still adopted Hofstede’s cultural dimensions without regard to the context in which they vary from country to country. To remedy this lack, this study uses the regional dimension of “cultural closeness” as a cultural indicator in examining the effects of cultural differences within China regarding attitudes toward advertising. In addition, this cultural dimension is based on the tightness of social norms, which have an important influence on attitudes. Thus, the impact of culture can be determined retrospectively from socio-​ecological, historical, psychological, and geographical dimensions (Lu, Chen, & Le, 2017). In summary, this study is based on the integration of the perspectives of sociology, psychology, communication, and advertising. It analyzes the influence of various factors on consumers’ advertising attitudes from three different perspectives: consumers, social media, SNA, and cultural dimensions. In addition, based on China’s reality, it proposes that various moderating and mediating variables can improve the mechanism of various factors that influence advertising attitudes, and then constructs a scientific model of attitudes toward SNA. The main body of this study consists of five sub-​studies. In Chapter 3, Study 1 focuses on sketching the user profiles of different advertising attitude groups, beginning with the demographic characteristics of consumers. Specifically, by analyzing the influence of demographic variables, such as gender, age, monthly household income, and education, on attitudes toward SNA, this study determines the group characteristics and group profiles of different social media attitude groups in a scientific manner. In Chapter 4, Study 2 focuses on the impact of social media usage behaviors, particularly the duration of social media usage, on attitudes toward SNA, as manifested in consumers’ social media usage behavior. The mediating roles of four variables, namely informativeness, entertainment, intrusiveness, and privacy concerns, were analyzed at different stages of social media usage behavior to determine their influence on attitudes toward SNA. Specifically, the mediating roles of informativeness and entertainment were analyzed at the stage in which social media usage behavior positively influenced attitudes toward SNA, while the mediating roles of intrusiveness and privacy concerns were analyzed at the stage in which social media usage behavior negatively influenced attitudes toward SNA. Based on the results, a theoretical model of the influence of social media usage behavior on attitudes toward SNA was constructed. In Chapter 5, Study 3 focuses on the influence of consumers’ loneliness on their attitudes toward SNA based on their psychological characteristics. In analyzing the influence of loneliness on attitudes toward SNA, this study further introduces social media use as a moderating variable to analyze differences in attitudes toward SNA between groups with frequent and infrequent social media use. It thus determines the specific mechanisms through which loneliness influences attitudes toward SNA.

Introduction  23

Figure 1.1 Research framework.

In Chapter 6, Study 4 focuses on social media and attributes associated with SNA to analyze the influence of eight factors on attitudes toward SNA, including informativeness, entertainment, quality of life, time structuring, self-​brand congruence, peer influence, privacy concerns, and intrusiveness, and further suggests generational and regional moderating mechanisms. Based on the results, this study constructs a structural equation model of Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward SNA and compares it with the findings of Western studies. In this cross-​cultural comparison, the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western consumers’ attitudes toward SNA are analyzed, and the characteristics and features of Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward SNA are further identified. In Chapter 7, Study 5 follows the findings of Study 4 and uses intrusiveness, which emerged as a difference in the East–​West comparison, as an entry point to further explore the specific ways in which intrusiveness affects Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward SNA. This study focuses on the cultural dimension by analyzing the moderating effect of differences in cultural intensities across different regions within China on the influence of intrusiveness on attitudes toward SNA.

2 Research Method

This chapter introduces and explains the questionnaire survey method applied in this study. The first section describes the sampling procedure, data collection, and quality control of the questionnaire. The second section describes the composition of the study sample in terms of age distribution, gender distribution, educational background distribution, monthly household income distribution, city distribution, and permanent province distribution. The third section introduces the compilation process and measurements of the variables in this study, including demographic variables, consumer dimension variables, social media and advertising dimension variables, and social media use variables. The fourth section describes the results of the validity analysis, which is an important indicator. It was used in this study to assess the validity and accuracy of the questionnaire. Validity analysis is also an important prerequisite for ensuring the validity and reliability of the research conclusions. Therefore, in this section, the author examines the validity of this questionnaire in detail using data analysis software. In the fifth section, the author briefly explains the data analysis software and analytical methods used in this research.

2.1  Sampling and Data Collection In this study, a questionnaire was developed to conduct a nationwide survey on advertising attitudes. The questionnaire survey is a classic quantitative research method that is especially suitable for large-​scale communication effect research. It can be used in both exploratory communication research and descriptive and explanatory research. In advertising and marketing studies, questionnaire surveys are widely used to study consumer attitudes and behaviors. To include social media users across the country, we entrusted a comprehensive Chinese survey company to conduct a large-​scale survey. The Wenjuanxing platform provides functions equivalent to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Wenjuanxing’s database contains detailed information on more than 2.6 million Internet users, which therefore provided an ample sample database and ensured DOI: 10.4324/9781003310594-2

Research Method  25 sample representativeness, which met the needs of the nationwide survey conducted in this study. The scope of this survey included consumers in mainland China. Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan were not included. To approximate the actual structure of the population, quota sampling, which is widely used in consumer research, was adopted based on three factors: province, gender, and age. First, regarding regional differences in the social media use behavior of Chinese consumers, the proportion of social media users is high in the four first-​tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Therefore, we allocated about 10% of the sample capacity to Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong and 2.5% of the sample capacity to other provinces. Second, the sample capacity was allocated equally for men and women. Finally, according to a report released by the China Internet Network Information Center in 2016, the age of social media users in China is mainly in the range of 18–​40 years old; therefore, 70% of the sample capacity was allocated to social media users in this age group, while others were allocated 30% of the sample capacity. Wenjuanxing collected data according to the sampling frame decided by the author, which was the number of samples of each level (class) unit. This survey set a filtering question to exclude non-​social media users: “Are you familiar with or at least use one social media?” Only those who answered “Yes” continued to answer the questionnaire survey. Considering that there may have been a high percentage of respondents who did not take the online questionnaires seriously, the author added polygraph questions to test the degree of seriousness: “Where is the capital of China?” and “Which word in the following options appears in this sentence?” All respondents who did not choose the option “China” were regarded as invalid. To improve the quality of the questionnaire, except for setting polygraph questions, this study also used a Likert five-​point scale on which the respondents rated their computer skills and social media knowledge, which indicated their ability to provide meaningful answers. The average score for skills was 3.60; only 2.4% of the respondents had very weak skills, and 0.4% had weak skills. The average score for social media knowledge was 3.40. Most respondents were social media users with relevant knowledge. The results regarding social media use and participation rates showed that most respondents participated in social networks at a high or moderate level. A total of 5,837 questionnaires were received in this survey, of which 1,665 contained incorrectly filled-​in polygraph questions, or the respondents were weak and very weak in computer skills and social media knowledge. We regarded these as invalid questionnaires. Therefore, a total of 4,172 valid questionnaires were obtained. The effective rate was 71.5%, which met the requirements for analysis, thus confirming the validity of the survey results.

26  Research Method

2.2  Description of Sample Demographics 2.2.1 Age Figure 2.1 illustrates the age structure of the sample. A total of 4,172 respondents participated in this survey, the majority of whom were more than 15 years old. The specific distribution was as follows: 149 respondents were aged 15–​ 17 years, accounting for 3.6% of the total sample; 917 respondents were aged 18–​22 years, accounting for 22%; 1,216 respondents were aged 23–​29 years, accounting for 19.1%; 1,202 respondents were aged 30–​40 years, accounting for 28.8%; 545 respondents were aged 41–​50 years, accounting for 28.8%; 117 respondents were aged 51–​60 years, accounting for 2.8%; and 26 respondents were aged above 60 years, accounting for 0.6% of the sample. 2.2.2 Gender In the study sample, there were 2,088 males and 2,084 females. Hence, the gender proportions were almost equal, accounting for 49.95% and 50.05%, respectively, of the total sample (Figure 2.2). 2.2.3 Education In this survey, 161 respondents had a junior high school education or below, accounting for 3.9% of the total sample; 498 respondents had a high school 35 29.1

30 25

28.8

22.0

20 15

Percent

13.1

10 5

3.6

2.8 0.6

0

15-17

18-22

23-29

30-40

Figure 2.1 Age structure of the sample.

41-50

51-60

60+

Research Method  27 50.06

50.05

50.04 50.02 50 49.98

Percent

49.96

49.95

49.94 49.92 49.9

male

female

Figure 2.2 Gender distribution.

or technical secondary school education, accounting for 11.9%; 3,117 respondents had a bachelor’s degree or a junior college degree, accounting for 74.7%; and 396 respondents had a master’s degree or above, accounting for 9.5% of the total sample (Figure 2.3). 2.2.4  Monthly Household Income The distribution of the monthly household income of the survey respondents was as follows: 193 households earned 0–​1000 yuan, accounting for 4.6% of the total sample; 509 households earned 1,001–​3,000 yuan, accounting for 12.2%; 731 households earned 3,001–​5,000 yuan, accounting for 17.5%; 753 households earned 5,001–​8,000 yuan, accounting for 18.0%; 623 households earned 8,001–​10,000 yuan, accounting for 14.9%; 637 households earned 10,001–​15,000 yuan, accounting for 15.3%; 532 households earned 15,001–​ 30,000 yuan, accounting for 12.8%; 112 households earned 30,001–​50,000 yuan, accounting for 2.7%; 82 households earned above 50,000 yuan, accounting for 2.0% of the total sample (Figure 2.4). 2.2.5  Usual Place of Residence (by Province) Based on the distribution of the sample by province, except for the three economically developed regions of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, we deliberately increased the sample capacity. Each accounted for about 10%, while the sample capacity of the other provinces was about 2.5% (Table 2.1).

28  Research Method 80

74.7

70 60 50 40 Percent

30 20 11.9 10 0

9.5

3.9 Junior high school and below

High school Undergraduate Master degree or Secondary and Junior or above school college

Figure 2.3 Distribution of education.

20.00

18.00

17.50

18.00

15.30

14.90

16.00 14.00

12.80

12.20

12.00 10.00 8.00 6.00

Percent

4.60

4.00

2.70

2.00 0.00

00

10

0-

10

00

30

01

30

00

50

01

Figure 2.4 Income distribution.

50

00

80

01

0

80

00

00

1 1-

00

10

00

50

1 1-

00

15

00

00

3 1-

00

30

00

00

5 1-

2.00

+

00

0 50

Research Method  29 Table 2.1 Distribution of sample capacity across the country Province

Sample capacity

Percentage

Province

Sample capacity

Percentage

Anhui Beijing Fujian Gansu Guangdong Guangxi Guizhou Hainan Hebei Henan Heilongjiang Hubei Hunan Jilin Jiangsu Jiangxi

102 449 106 105 422 105 98 87 93 116 93 103 101 102 111 96

2.4% 10.8% 2.5% 2.5% 10.1% 2.5% 2.3% 2.1% 2.2% 2.8% 2.5% 2.5% 2.4% 2.4% 2.7% 2.3%

Liaoning Inner Mongolia Ningxia Qinghai Shandong Shanxi Shaanxi Shanghai Sichuan Tianjin Tibet Xinjiang Yunnan Zhejiang Chongqing

107 88 98 96 111 108 110 429 122 106 97 98 111 103 99

2.6% 2.1% 2.3% 2.3% 2.7% 2.6% 2.6% 10.3% 2.9% 2.5% 2.3% 2.3% 2.7% 2.5% 2.4%

2.3  Operational Definition and Variable Measurement This research focused on “social networking advertising (SNA),” an emerging form of advertising. Because research in this field is still in its infancy, scholars have not reached a consensus on the concept and definition of SNA. Broadly, SNA includes many forms of advertising, such as banner ads, video ads, and other interactive forms of advertising (e.g., fan pages). Based on the purpose of this research, which is to investigate general attitudes toward SNA, the author defined social networking advertising as a general concept that refers to all forms of advertising on social media, including both explicit types (e.g., banners and commercial advertising videos) and implicit types (e.g., fan pages or company-​ related messages). Therefore, in this study, various forms of SNA were integrated into one measurement. This operational definition has also been adopted in previous studies (Celebi, 2015; Jung et al., 2016; Taylor, Lewin, & David, 2011). Twelve important variables were included in this study: informativeness, entertainment, quality of life, time structuration, self-​ brand consistency, peer influence, intrusiveness, privacy concerns, attitudes toward SNA, social media usage, loneliness, and demographics. In terms of the order of measurement, loneliness and demographics were assessed at the end of the questionnaire because the measurement of loneliness may have impacted the results of the measurement of other variables. At the end of the questionnaire, the respondents were likely to have been impatient. The demographics were placed at the end because the answers to the questionnaire were mechanically fixed and therefore were not affected by the mood of the respondents.

30  Research Method 2.3.1 Informativeness Following Cheng et al.’s (2009) research, this research measured the variable of informativeness according to the responses to three items on a five-​point Likert scale: a) SNA is an important source of product or service information; b) SNA is a convenient source of product or service information; and c) SNA helps me keep up with fads. The reliability coefficient of the responses to these three items was 0.81. In addition, it should be noted that all English scales used in this study were translated “back and forth” to ensure that there was no deviation in their meaning. 2.3.2 Entertainment Following Lastovicka (1983), this research measured the variable of entertainment according to the responses to four items on a five-​point Likert scale: a) ads on social media are fun to watch or read; b) social media ads are clever and entertaining; c) SNA is not just about sales—​they also bring me entertainment; d) SNA is often fun. The reliability coefficient of the responses to these four items was 0.90. 2.3.3  Quality of Life Following Huang et al. (2007), this study measured the variable of quality of life according to the responses to three items on a five-​point Likert scale: a) Participating in social media has improved my quality of life; b) Participating in social media can reduce the pressure after a hard day; c) Participating in social media is a way to enjoy yourself or relax. The reliability coefficient of the responses to these three items was 0.81. 2.3.4  Time Structuration Following Bond and Feather (1988), this research assessed the variable of time structuration according to the responses to five items on a five-​point Likert scale: a) I often participate in social media at almost the same time every day; b) The activities that I participate in on social media are integrated; c) Participating in social media has accomplished a goal in my life; d) I participate in social media on a daily routine; e) Browsing social media is sometimes a way of “talking to live.” The reliability coefficient of these five items was 0.73. 2.3.5  Self-​brand Consistency Following Sirgy (1985), this research measured the variable of self-​brand consistency according to the responses to four items on a five-​point Likert

Research Method  31 scale: a) The brand advertised on social media matches my perceived self-​ image; b) The brand advertised on social media oriented people like me; c) Brands advertised on social media reflect who I am; and d) Brands advertised on social media target typical customers like me. The reliability coefficient of the responses to these four items was 0.83. 2.3.6  Peer Influence Following Roman and Cuestas (2008), this research measured the variable of peer influence according to the responses to six items on a five-​point Likert scale: a) Participating in social media is exciting; b) Participating in social media is cool; c) Participating in social media is popular; d) I recommend that others participate in social media; e) I encourage my friends to participate in social media; f) I talk to others about the benefits of social media. The reliability coefficient of the responses to these six items was 0.85. 2.3.7 Intrusiveness Following Li, Edwards, and Lee (2002), this research measured the variable of invasiveness according to the responses to five items on a five-​point Likert scale: a) I find that ads on social media distract my attention; b) I find that social media ads disrupt my life; c) I find social networking advertising unpleasant; d) I find that social networking advertising is aggressive; and e) I find that social networking advertising hinders my life. The reliability coefficient of the responses to these five items was 0.87. 2.3.8  Privacy Concerns Following Wolnbarger and Gilly’s (2003) research, this research measured the variable of privacy concerns according to the responses to three items on a five-​point Likert scale: a) I think it is safe to provide sensitive information to social media; b) I think social media will keep my personal information confidential; c) I think it is safe to post personal information on social media pages. The reliability coefficient of the responses to these three items was 0.85. 2.3.9  Attitude toward SNA Following Taylor et al. (2011), this research measured the variable of customers’ attitude toward SNA according to the responses to three items on a five-​point Likert scale: a) Generally speaking, I think social networking advertising is good; b) Generally speaking, I like social networking advertising; and c) I think social networking advertising is essential. The reliability coefficient of the responses to these three items was 0.88.

32  Research Method 2.3.10  Social Media Usage In this study, two indicators were assigned to social media use: the time of social media adoption and the weekly time of social media use. The following question was asked about the time of social media adoption: How many months have you been using social networks? Six options were given: 0–​12, 13–​24, 25–​36, 37–​ 48, 49–​60, and 61+​. The following question was asked about the weekly time of social media use: How many hours do you use social networks on average per week? Six options were given: 0–​6, 7–​12, 13–​18, 19–​24, 25–​30, and 31 +​. 2.3.11 Loneliness Several methods have been developed to measure loneliness, including the UCLA Loneliness Scale, the Rasch Loneliness Scale, and the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale. Because most loneliness scales contain too many questions and items, subjects are likely to be irritated when they respond to them. Considering the possible influence of the length of the scale, this study decided to use the short form of the loneliness scale developed by Hughes et al. (2004). Respondents only needed to answer three questions on a three-​ point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (almost no) to 3 (frequent). The questions included the following: a) Do you often feel that you lack friends or partners? b) Do you often feel left out? c) Do you often feel isolated? The reliability coefficient of the responses to these three questions was 0.90. 2.3.12 Demographics The demographic variables of this study included gender, age, province, education, occupation, and monthly household income. The age variable included seven optional age ranges: 15–​17, 18–​22, 23–​29, 30–​40, 41–​50, 51–​60, and 60 and above. The education variable included four options: junior high school and below, high school and technical secondary school, undergraduate, and junior college, and master’s degree or above. The occupation variable included 15 options: full-​time student, production, sales, marketing/​ public relations, customer service, administrative/​ logistics, human resources, finance/​audit, clerical staff/​clerk, technical/​R&D personnel, management, teacher, consultant, professional (e.g., accountant, lawyer, architect, medical staff, journalist, etc.), and others. The variable of monthly household income included nine options: 0–​ 1,000, 1,001–​ 3,000, 3,001–​5,000, 5,001–​8,000, 8,001–​10,000, 10,001–​15,000, 15,001–​30,000, 30,001–​50,000, and 50,000, or above.

2.4  Data Validity The results of the exploratory factor analysis showed that the questionnaire consisted of nine factors: informativeness, entertainment, quality of life, time

Research Method  33 structuration, self-​brand consistency, peer influence, intrusiveness, privacy concerns, and attitudes toward SNA (variance explained variance =​69.63%). Each variable conformed well to the expected construct. The researchers used AMOS 21.0 to perform a confirmatory factor analysis on all items loaded. The results showed that the measurement model had a good fit: χ2 =​4715.15, df =​753, CMIN/​DF =​10.27; IFI =​0.95, TLI =​0.94, CFI =​0.95, RMSEA =​0.05, and RMR =​0.04. Previous studies have shown that a larger sample size results in a higher CMIN/​DF ratio. In this study, when a smaller sub-​sample (N =​500) was randomly selected to test the same model, the ratio (CMIN/​DF) dropped significantly and remained below the recommended value of three. The researcher tested the validity of the questionnaire variables. First, the results of the Pearson correlation analysis of each pair of variables showed that all theoretically proposed correlations were significant and in line with the expected direction (see Table 2.2). Second, all VIF values were lower than 2.5, which was in line with the recommended value of less than 10 (Hair et al., 2005). First, the test for convergent validity revealed that the standardized factor load of each observed variable was highly significant (p 0.70), and all exceeded the recommended minimum load value of 0.50 (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). Second, composite reliability was between 0.75 and 0.90, and AVE was between 0.51 and 0.71. The discriminative validity of the construct was estimated. First, the author analyzed each pair of constructs through a set of measurement models to test whether a fixed and unified relationship existed between the two constructs. There were 36 groups of constructs in the model, and the chi-​square statistic of the unconstrained model in each group was significantly lower than the chi-​square statistic of the respective constrained model (chi-​square difference ranged from 342.71–​2522.72, df =​1, p < 0.001). Second, the average variance was higher than 0.5, and the square root of the AVE of each construct was higher than the correlation between the constructs. These results indicated that the variables measured in this study had good discriminative validity. All self-​reported data may produce common method variations. CMV causes measurement errors and interferes with the relationships between data variables. These errors may be due to the type of scale, answer format, or context. The researchers first performed a Harmon single-​factor test. The results showed that the single-​factor model explained only 34.82% of the total variance, indicating that the influence of the common method was not a significant factor interfering with the results of this survey. To further eliminate the interference of common method bias, the researcher added a common method factor (CMF) to the confirmatory factor analysis model for additional testing. The results of the CMF model were then compared with the results of the same model, excluding the “same source” factors. The results showed that there was no significant difference between the two models. The results of the analysis showed that common method bias had a significant

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Variable

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1. Informativeness 2. Entertainment 3. Self-​brand consistency 4. Peer influence 5. Intrusiveness 6. Privacy concerns 7. Quality of life 8. Time structuration 9. Attitudes toward SNA Mean SD CR

0.781 .589** .521** .476** −.028 −.309** .459** .438** .520** 3.62 0.77 0.824

0.840 .704** .417** −.119** −.463** .369** .414** .677** 3.24 0.91 0.878

0.810 .427** .003 −.513** .372** .430** .697** 3.04 0.88 0.851

0.780 .054** −.418** .636** .614** .439** 3.62 0.77 0.860

0.760 −.009 .055** .103** −.039* 3.20 0.81 0.870

0.814 −.330** −.390** −.508** 3.22 0.98 0.855

0.768 .643** .375** 3.75 0.74 0.811

0.716 .426** 3.50 0.77 0.752

0.777 3.16 0.77 0.901

Note. The diagonal element is the square root of the average variance-​extracted value. *p