The Role of Guanxi and Positive Emotions in Predicting Users’ Likelihood to Click the Like Button on WeChat

Clicking the like button is a popularly used interaction function on social media. Although prior empirical studies have examined motives for liking behavior on social media, they have largely neglected culture-driven theories and the underlying mechanisms for why users click the like button. By int...

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Main Authors: Haichuan Zhao, Mingyue Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-07-01
Series:Frontiers in Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01736/full
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author Haichuan Zhao
Mingyue Zhang
author_facet Haichuan Zhao
Mingyue Zhang
author_sort Haichuan Zhao
collection DOAJ
description Clicking the like button is a popularly used interaction function on social media. Although prior empirical studies have examined motives for liking behavior on social media, they have largely neglected culture-driven theories and the underlying mechanisms for why users click the like button. By integrating guanxi theory and the affective response model, we propose a conceptual model to determine what factors influence users’ liking behavior on WeChat. We examine data from an online survey of 327 respondents using PLS-SEM. The findings show that content cues (i.e., content usefulness and content interestingness) positively affect WeChat users’ positive emotions, which in turn predict their intention to like. More importantly, guanxi cues (i.e., mianzi giving, renqing, and ganqing) positively affect WeChat users’ expected guanxi benefit, which in turn affects intention to like in two ways. On the one hand, the expected guanxi benefit has a direct positive effect on intention to like; on the other hand, this benefit can translate into positive emotions, which in turn predict users’ intention to like.
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spelling doaj.art-3dc964d51b184cffa62de5f71dc97f852022-12-21T22:40:23ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782020-07-011110.3389/fpsyg.2020.01736534091The Role of Guanxi and Positive Emotions in Predicting Users’ Likelihood to Click the Like Button on WeChatHaichuan Zhao0Mingyue Zhang1School of Management, Shandong University, Jinan, ChinaAsia Europe Business School, Faculty of Economics and Management, East China Normal University, Shanghai, ChinaClicking the like button is a popularly used interaction function on social media. Although prior empirical studies have examined motives for liking behavior on social media, they have largely neglected culture-driven theories and the underlying mechanisms for why users click the like button. By integrating guanxi theory and the affective response model, we propose a conceptual model to determine what factors influence users’ liking behavior on WeChat. We examine data from an online survey of 327 respondents using PLS-SEM. The findings show that content cues (i.e., content usefulness and content interestingness) positively affect WeChat users’ positive emotions, which in turn predict their intention to like. More importantly, guanxi cues (i.e., mianzi giving, renqing, and ganqing) positively affect WeChat users’ expected guanxi benefit, which in turn affects intention to like in two ways. On the one hand, the expected guanxi benefit has a direct positive effect on intention to like; on the other hand, this benefit can translate into positive emotions, which in turn predict users’ intention to like.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01736/fullintention to likeguanxiaffective cuespositive emotionexpected guanxi benefit
spellingShingle Haichuan Zhao
Mingyue Zhang
The Role of Guanxi and Positive Emotions in Predicting Users’ Likelihood to Click the Like Button on WeChat
Frontiers in Psychology
intention to like
guanxi
affective cues
positive emotion
expected guanxi benefit
title The Role of Guanxi and Positive Emotions in Predicting Users’ Likelihood to Click the Like Button on WeChat
title_full The Role of Guanxi and Positive Emotions in Predicting Users’ Likelihood to Click the Like Button on WeChat
title_fullStr The Role of Guanxi and Positive Emotions in Predicting Users’ Likelihood to Click the Like Button on WeChat
title_full_unstemmed The Role of Guanxi and Positive Emotions in Predicting Users’ Likelihood to Click the Like Button on WeChat
title_short The Role of Guanxi and Positive Emotions in Predicting Users’ Likelihood to Click the Like Button on WeChat
title_sort role of guanxi and positive emotions in predicting users likelihood to click the like button on wechat
topic intention to like
guanxi
affective cues
positive emotion
expected guanxi benefit
url https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01736/full
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