Understanding consumers’ creating behaviour in social media: an application of uses and gratifications and the theory of reasoned action

Employing the theory of uses and gratifications in conjunction with the theory of reasoned action, this study examines why consumers create social media content and how their motivational beliefs and subjective norms influence attitudes toward, intention to, and behaviour of creating social media content. By combining qualitative and quantitative analyses, the results identified five significant motivations to create social media content, including social-cognition, entertainment, self-expression, social-belonging, and communication. Structural equation modelling revealed that some motivations were positively related to attitudes toward creating behaviour, which in turn affected intentions and real behaviours involved in creating social media content. However, subjective norms did not prove to be directly influential. The implications of these results are discussed.

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