Essays on consumer behavior under digital communication channels in the mobile era

Abstract

With the ubiquity of Internet and widespread use of digital media as well as smart devices the world over, companies are shifting their communication channels from traditional papers and face-to-face channels to digital channels including social media, the web and email. Particularly, as smartphone functions are becoming computer-like and Internet access is becoming simple, ubiquitous, and readily available, digital communication channels have become even more valuable in the mobile era. In addition, media convergence is blazing a trail in the field of digital communication. Therefore, identifying the factors that influence marketing communication in the mobile era is an essential step toward enhancing the execution and productivity of online business. Furthermore, investigating the characteristics of consumer behavior in the digital age and understanding how consumers interpret as well as react to the digital communication channels, are essential for successful strategy implementation. The main objective of this dissertation is to investigate the changes in digital communication channels and consumer behavior, and elucidate how these changes affect the consumer acceptance of these digital communication channels. I focus on two representative channels of digital marketing communication, i.e., a company’s official web page and social network services (SNSs), and their effects on consumer behavior to verify the characteristics of each communication channel and suggest valuable insights for marketing area. First, this study examines the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication by multinational corporations in terms of the type of message being delivered on the company’s website in. Results of Study 1 showed that CSR messages received more positive responses from consumers when temporal distance was low, compared to when it was high. Moreover, emotional message appeals generated more positive product evaluations from consumers than did rational message appeals when framed in the near versus distant future. Results of Study 2 revealed that Korean consumers reacted more positively to CSR messages from domestic companies than to those from multinational corporations when such messages were described concretely versus abstractly. Across the 2 studies, I found that construal levels and message appeals shaped the behavioral processes that generate consumers’ responses to CSR messages from multinational companies. Next, current study investigates the effectiveness of mobile social networking service (SNS) advertising on Facebook by examining two prominent types of mobile SNS ads: hyper-targeted advertising and socially recommended advertising. I find that hyper-targeted advertising, based on users’ personal information that is voluntarily posted and permitted to be displayed and shared on their Facebook profiles, leads to better attitudes and increased behavioral intentions compared with non-hyper-targeted ads, whereas socially recommended ads show a significant increase in attitudes and behavioral intentions only when the ads are provided with hyper-targeting. I also find that users’ level of Facebook engagement is an important moderator of mobile SNS advertising effectiveness. Specifically, highly engaged Facebook users have more-positive perceptions about social recommendations, but hyper-targeted advertising is effective only when provided together with social recommendations. This result indicates that Facebook engagement strengthens the relationship between social recommendation and the advertising effectiveness of mobile SNS. Based on the results, this dissertation concludes that the effects of digital communication channels can be enhanced through deeper understanding of consumer behavior under mobile environments. This will help practitioners to minimize marketing costs and improve digital communication effectiveness.