The increasing relevance of Instagram and its growing adoption among top brands suggest an effort to better understand consumers; behaviors within this context. The purpose of this study

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CYBERPSYCHOLOGY, BEHAVIOR, AND SOCIAL NETWORKING Volume 20, Number 6, 2017 ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2016.0360

Understanding Consumer Interaction on Instagram: The Role of Satisfaction, Hedonism,

and Content Characteristics

Luis V. Casaló, PhD,1 Carlos Flavián, PhD,2 and Sergio Ibáñez-Sánchez, MSc2

Abstract

The increasing relevance of Instagram and its growing adoption among top brands suggest an effort to better understand consumers’ behaviors within this context. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of perceived hedonism and satisfaction in determining consumers’ intentions to interact and their actual interaction behaviors (the number of likes, by tapping a heart icon, and comments) in a brand’s official Instagram account. Also, we investigate the effect of consumer perceptions about the characteristics of the content generated in the account (perceived originality, quantity, and quality) on their perceived hedonism and satisfaction. Data were collected in two stages from 808 members of a fashion brand’s official Instagram account. First, participants answered an online questionnaire to evaluate their perceptions, satisfaction, and interaction intentions. Second, 1 month later, we measure the number of likes and comments done by each participant in the brand’s official Instagram account during that month. Using partial least squares to analyze the data, perceived hedonism is found to affect both satisfaction and the intention to interact in Instagram, which in turn influences actual behavior. Besides, perceived originality is the most relevant content characteristic to develop perceived he- donism. These findings offer managers a general vision of consumers’ behaviors on Instagram, highlighting the importance of hedonism to create a satisfactory experience.

Keywords: Instagram, hedonism, satisfaction, brand communities, consumer interaction behaviors, originality

Introduction

Consumers are increasingly using social networking sites (SNS) to get information about brands and interact with fellow consumers. Among the several SNS available nowadays, Instagram is experiencing a steady increase in the amount of active users. Therefore, its adoption is growing among top brands too,

1 motivating the development of brand

communities on Instagram. Previous research has focused on consumers’ interactions

within brand communities in more traditional SNS such as Facebook,

2 Twitter,

3 or YouTube,

4 but the relevance of In-

stagram seems to be greater as the amount of interactions with brands is much higher on Instagram.

5 Therefore, there is

both a managerial and an academic need to better understand consumers’ interactions on Instagram.

To move on this topic, this study tries to identify some of the factors that influence consumer interaction intentions and ac- tual behaviors, in terms of the number of likes and comments,

in a brand’s official Instagram account. We focus on likes and comments as they are two main behaviors reflecting consumer engagement on Instagram, which consists of behaviors that go beyond purchase and results from an inner motivation that a consumer feels, which finally leads him or her to carry out certain actions focused on a brand or a company.

6

Specifically, we consider two main antecedents of interac- tion intentions. First, hedonism reflects the emotional value of a given experience, representing returns received in terms of enjoyment and playfulness.

7,8 Due to the specific character-

istics of Instagram, which provides a place for visual story- telling for everyone with a creative desire that may motivate users’ experiential enjoyment, hedonism is considered a rel- evant factor influencing consumer interaction. Indeed, previ- ous literature

9 has already noted the relevance of hedonism in

other SNS (e.g., Facebook) that make the user feel experiential enjoyment. Second, satisfaction may also be a crucial variable affecting consumer interaction on Instagram, as satisfaction is the result of a global evaluation of all the aspects that exist in a

1 Faculty of Business and Public Management, Universidad de Zaragoza, Huesca, Spain.

2 Faculty of Economy and Business, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.

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relationship 10

and has been found to help develop successful relationships on SNS.

11 Besides, since previous studies sug-

gest that content characteristics in an SNS may influence consumers’ perceptions and evaluations,

12 we also consider

that perceived originality, quantity, and quality of publications may affect perceived hedonism and satisfaction. Finally, in- teraction intentions will be a key determinant of the subse- quent number of likes and comments made by the consumer on that Instagram account.

As a result, the contribution of this work to previous lit- erature is twofold. First, this study adds to the emerging body of literature on Instagram, which will be further detailed in the next section and is mainly related to the type of content that is uploaded, the personal feelings of its users, or the motivations to use Instagram. Second, this study contributes to previous literature on brand communities from a market- ing perspective since it helps understand consumers’ inter- actions on Instagram and takes the specific characteristics of this social network and actual behaviors into account. Our study may thus serve to better understand consumers’ in- teractions and help managers design an appropriate envi- ronment in brands’ official Instagram accounts.

Previous Research on Instagram

Although Instagram has received relatively little attention, we can distinguish some research lines focused on this SNS. First, some researchers have studied the type of content that is uploaded by users and its behavioral outcomes. Photos with friends and ‘‘selfies’’ (self-portraits) are found to be the most common images posted by people.

13 Also, uploaded photo-

graphs with the presence of a face have a greater impact; these pictures are 32% more likely to receive a comment and 38% more likely to receive a ‘‘like’’

14 from other users.

Second, the relationship between using Instagram and the personal feelings of its users has been also investigated. Speci- fically, it has been argued that users could improve their sense of happiness and satisfaction, as well as decrease their level of loneliness, while using image-based SNS like Instagram or Snapchat.

15 Besides, individuals with a high level of narcissism

tend to post more ‘‘selfies’’ and spend more time on Instagram. 16

In turn, some works have also highlighted the potential negative consequences of using Instagram for users’ well-being.

17,18

Finally, a third research line consists of determining the main motivations

19,20 and gratifications

21 of using Instagram.

In this respect, compared to other SNS, Instagram users’ gratifications are greater in relation to show affection, follow fashion, and demonstrate sociability.

21 Furthermore, these

authors focused on brand communities and show that In- stagram generates a higher level of brand community com- mitment and engagement. However, the nature of their study is mainly exploratory and use self-reported measures without considering actual behaviors.

Formulation of Hypotheses

Effects of content characteristics on perceived hedonism and satisfaction

Previous studies suggest that the characteristics of the content posted on a SNS affect consumers’ perceptions and evaluations.

12 Among the characteristics of online publica-

tions made by a company, quality and quantity are of great

CASALO ET AL.

relevance since they are cues of the company’s interest to initiate a conversation with the consumer.

22 Consequently,

consumers may be more satisfied due to the effort made by the company. Quality and quantity of publications are posi- tively associated with an enjoyable experience in a virtual brand community too.

23

In addition, originality may also have a great relevance in the Instagram context because it represents the newness or the uniqueness of the content as perceived by the consumer, in relation to other alternatives.

24 Originality of the content

posted in an Instagram account may help users have a better time and an interesting and surprising experience when visiting the account that may lead to a greater satisfaction. We thus propose the following:

H1: Perceived originality of contents posted in an In- stagram account has a positive effect on (a) perceived he- donism and (b) user satisfaction.

H2: Perceived quality of contents posted in an Instagram account has a positive effect on (a) perceived hedonism and (b) user satisfaction.

H3: Perceived quantity of contents posted in an Instagram account has a positive effect on (a) perceived hedonism and (b) user satisfaction.

Effects of perceived hedonism on satisfaction and interaction intentions

Hedonism is associated with a cool, fun, and exciting ex- perience

25 that may result in enjoyment. Since social media

serves, among others, as a way to escape from boredom, to pass time, or to relax,

26 hedonism may be a crucial variable in

SNS. For instance, in the context of company-hosted Face- book community pages, hedonic motivations are linked to self-reported participation and membership continuance intentions.

27 Similarly, variables related to hedonism, such

as entertainment, may serve to strengthen the relationships within the community

28 and are positively linked to members’

satisfaction or intentions to use.29 In sum, hedonic experiences produce shifts in the users’ affective states, creating a positive reaction that may increase their satisfaction and intentions to follow a given account or profile. Focusing on Instagram, this work proposes that the following:

H4: Perceived hedonism in an Instagram account has a positive effect on (a) user satisfaction and (b) user intention to interact in that Instagram account.

Effect of satisfaction on interaction intentions

According to the expectation–confirmation theory, 30

sat- isfaction with a product/service is the fundamental motiva- tion for the intention to continue using it as satisfaction reflects that benefits derived from use are, at least, equal to the expected ones.

31 In our research context, satisfaction

with an Instagram account would imply the realization of the expected benefits,

31 increasing the user intention to follow

this account in the future to continue obtaining these benefits. Therefore, we propose that the following:

H5: Satisfaction with an Instagram account has a positive effect on user intention to interact with that Instagram account.

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ANTECEDENTS OF CONSUMER INTERACTION ON INSTAGRAM

Effects of interaction intentions on interaction behaviors

Previous research suggests that intentions are a main an- tecedent of behaviors,32 since intentions represent a solid signal of how the consumer will behave in the future.

11

Therefore, previous literature has found that behavioral in- tentions and actual behaviors are highly correlated.

33 We

thus propose that interaction intentions will positively affect the actual interaction behavior on Instagram in terms of the number of likes and comments made by the consumer in a brand’s official Instagram account:

H6: User intention to interact in an Instagram account has a positive effect on the subsequent number of (a) likes and (b) comments made by the user.

The proposed model is summarized in Figure 1.

Materials and Methods

Participants

Data to test these hypotheses were collected from a brand’s official Instagram account focused on fashion with more than 47,000 followers, who were invited to participate in the research. Specifically, we obtained data from 808 participants (96.3% female, probably because of the topic of the account). Most of them were gradu- ate (66%), below 25 years of age (68.4%), and had at least 1 year of experience using Instagram (94.1%). Fi- nally, participants belonged to a total of 64 countries. There were 193 (23.9%) U.S. residents; United Kingdom (n = 147, 18.2%), Spain (n = 74, 9.2%), and Australia (n = 39, 4.8%) were the next three largest subgroups re- presented in the sample.

Procedure and materials

First, a link to an online questionnaire was included in the brand’s official Instagram account. Before answering the questionnaire, potential participants read a brief explanation about the project and we requested their Instagram username (so that it could be possible to look for their likes and com- ments in the account considered later and make sure that bots or fake accounts were not part of the research). Although answers should be ideally anonymous

34 (and asking for the

Instagram username may be a threat to this), we followed the recommendations of these authors to ensure the quality of our data set and assure respondents that (a) data collected would be used only for research purposes and (b) no right or wrong answers exist, so they should answer the questions as honestly as possible.

Then, individuals who voluntarily participate in the pro- ject answered the questionnaire, including multiple-item measurement scales adapted to our specific research context from previous literature regarding perceived originality,

24

perceived hedonism, 35

satisfaction, and interaction inten- tions.

11 This helped ensure their content validity. In addition,

two items were used to assess both the perceived quality and quantity of the publications posted on the account. Scales used seven-point Likert-type response formats, which respondents rated from 1 (‘‘strongly disagree’’) to 7 (‘‘strongly agree’’).

Second, 1 month later, the number of both likes, that is, number of times the heart icon is tapped, and comments done by each participant on the new publications in the brand’s official Instagram account during that period of time were measured. Specifically, there were four new publications on that time (approximately one per week) and this information was provided by the manager of the brand’s official In- stagram account, who downloaded the usernames of the members who liked and commented each new publication.

FIG. 1. Suggested research model.

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´ 372 CASALO ET AL.

Table 1. Convergent and Discriminant Validity of Measures

Variable CR AVE (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)

Likes (1) — — — Comments (2) — — 0.612 — Interaction intentions (3) 0.759 0.513 0.632 0.469 0.716 Satisfaction (4) 0.874 0.701 0.212 0.076 0.461 0.837 Perceived Hedonism (5) 0.913 0.725 0.163 0.116 0.441 0.618 0.851 Perceived Originality (6) 0.939 0.688 0.160 0.076 0.380 0.645 0.604 0.829 Perceived Quality (7) — — 0.120 0.052 0.198 0.203 0.199 0.207 — Perceived Quantity (8) — — 0.145 0.031 0.204 0.234 0.262 0.275 0.556 —

Diagonal elements (in bold) are the square root of the AVE (variance shared between the constructs and their measures). Off-diagonal elements are the correlations among constructs. To ensure discriminant validity, diagonal values should be greater than the off-diagonal ones.

AVE, average variance extracted; CR, composite reliability.

The information was then coded in the following way: for each new publication, we assigned the value 1 if the initial respondent to the questionnaire liked the publication and 0 otherwise. The same procedure was followed with comments (1 if the user commented the publication and 0 otherwise). Afterward, we aggregated these values and, for each indi- vidual, we obtained two variables measuring the number of likes and comments, respectively, which range from 0 (if the user had not liked/commented on any of the new publications during that month) to 4 (if the user had liked/commented on all the new publications).

Our data set thus comes from two different sources (self- reported measures from participants and the actions made by each participant in the Instagram account), and includes a combination of both subjective (perceptions and intentions) and objective (number of likes and comments) measures, which may serve to avoid common method bias.

34

Partial least square (PLS) was used as the estimation pro- cedure because it is especially useful when the phenomenon under research is relatively new,

36 as is the case with the

Instagram context. Data analyses were carried out using SmartPLS software version 2.0.

37 First, a confirmatory factor

analysis corroborates the initial factor structure; all item loadings were above the recommended benchmark of 0.7

38 on

their respective construct. Furthermore, composite reliabilities are higher than 0.65

39 and average variance extracted (AVE)

values are also above the benchmark of 0.5 40

for all reflective constructs, proving their internal consistency and convergent

validity (Table 1). To confirm discriminant validity, we checked that the value of the square root of the AVE is greater than the shared variance among constructs (correlations).

40 All

pairs of reflective constructs satisfy this criterion (Table 1). Once measures were validated, we estimated the proposed effects and their significance using PLS with the recommended bootstrap of 500 iterations.

41

Results

Results (Table 2) reveal that perceived hedonism is posi- tively affected by perceived originality (b = 0.574, p < 0.01) and, in a lesser extent, by perceived quantity (b = 0.086, p < 0.05); however, contrary to our expectations, the influence of perceived quality (b = 0.033, p > 0.05) on hedonism is nonsignificant. Therefore, results support hypotheses 1a and 3a, but hypothesis 2a is not supported. Satisfaction is posi- tively affected by perceived originality (b = 0.421, p < 0.01) and hedonism (b = 0.356, p < 0.01); however, the influence of perceived quality (b = 0.045, p > 0.05) and quantity (b = -0.00, p > 0.05) on satisfaction is nonsignificant. Therefore, results support hypotheses 1b and 4a, but hypotheses 2b and 3b are not supported. In turn, both perceived hedonism (b = 0.252, p < 0.01) and satisfaction (b = 0.305, p < 0.01) have a positive influence on interaction intentions, support- ing H4b and H5, respectively.

Finally, interaction intentions have a positive effect on the number of likes (b = 0.632, p < 0.01) and comments

Table 2. Summary of Results

Dependent variables

Perceived hedonism Satisfaction Interaction intentions Likes Comments

Antecedent factors b t B t b t b t b t

Originality 0.574** 17.312 0.421** 9.446 Quality 0.033 0.828 0.045 1.255 Quantity 0.086* 2.077 -0.00 0.011 Perceived hedonism 0.356 8.107 0.252** 4.891 Satisfaction 0.305** 5.543 Interaction intentions 0.632** 21.913 0.469** 14.873 R

2 0.376 0.500 0.252 0.399 0.220

*Coefficients are significant at the 0.05 level. **Coefficients are significant at the 0.01 level.

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ANTECEDENTS OF CONSUMER INTERACTION ON INSTAGRAM

(b = 0.469, p < 0.01) made by the consumer in the Instagram account, confirming H6a and H6b. In terms of explained variance, the proposed model presents high levels of R

2 .

Post hoc analysis: interaction effects

Previous literature suggests that characteristics of the content may interact and affect consumers’ perceptions and evaluations.

12 We thus include the effects of three interac-

tion terms among perceived originality, quality, and quantity of publications (i.e., ‘‘originality*quality,’’ ‘‘originali- ty*quantity,’’ and ‘‘quality*quantity’’) on both perceived hedonism and satisfaction. While the influence of the inter- action terms on satisfaction is nonsignificant, two interac- tions have a positive and significant effect on perceived hedonism. Specifically, the interaction between quality and quantity has a positive influence on hedonism (b = 0.153, p < 0.01), but the effect of the interaction between originality and quantity is negative (b = -0.163, p < 0.01). The inclusion of these interaction effects does not alter the influence of the remaining variables considered, and serves to increase the R

2

level of perceived hedonism (R 2 = 0.413).

Discussion

Although there has been an increasing interest in the anal- ysis of consumer participation in brand communities within SNS,

2–4 there is still a need to better understand consumers’

interactions on Instagram. By collecting data in two steps from a brand’s official Instagram account, this work considers not only consumer perceptions, evaluations, and intentions but also some of the main actual behaviors that could be per- formed on Instagram (the number of likes and comments made by the consumer in that account).

In sum, this work confirms the relevance that perceived hedonism has on Instagram, as it is a key aspect that activates a satisfaction-intention-behavior chain that may help in- crease the number of consumers’ interactions in a brand’s official Instagram account. In addition, satisfaction is also found to influence consumer interaction intentions, which in turn has a positive effect on actual behaviors. Specifically, interaction intentions are positively associated with two be- haviors that can be performed on Instagram: commenting and ‘‘liking’’ the photos by tapping a heart icon.

Finally, results suggest that a proper combination of the characteristics of the content posted on the brand’s official Instagram account may help develop a cool, fun, and exciting experience. Specifically, perceived originality of the content is the most relevant factor to guarantee an enjoyable and satisfactory experience. In a lesser extent, quantity seems to be important to make the consumer experience hedonic. The more brand-generated content posted on the Instagram ac- count, the more new experiences and less boredom the consumer will feel.

However, the negative effect of the interaction between quantity and originality on hedonism suggests that as quan- tity of content posted on the account increases, the effect of originality may be reduced, probably because consumers become used to a new and unique content. In this situation, it may be relevant to guarantee a high quality in the brand- generated content because, although it has no direct effect on hedonism, it interacts positively with quantity. This may

help compensate the negative interaction effect of originality and quantity.

Limitations

Despite the interesting results found, this research also has several limitations that should be acknowledged. First, respondents are followers of just one brand’s official In- stagram account that operates in the fashion industry; so we may be cautious when extrapolating our findings to other Instagram accounts or SNS. Second, although we have followed the recommendations to make participants an- swer the questions as honestly as possible,

34 some people

who might be initially interested in the project could have refused participation since we required their Instagram username. Finally, it is important to note that we have just considered two behavioral measures of engagement on Instagram, and the number of antecedents of interaction intentions and actual behaviors could be larger as well. The personal attributes of the consumer (e.g., online interaction propensity) or the consumer relationship with the brand (e.g., loyalty) could also affect consumer interactions in this context.

Conclusion and Future Research

Instagram is a recently established SNS that is experiencing an increasing adoption among brands and customers. This study helps understand the main antecedents of consumers’ actual behaviors in this SNS. Results show that the originality of the content is decisive to create a hedonic and satisfactory experience; in turn, these factors positively affect the intention to interact, which finally influences the number of ‘‘likes’’ and comments that a post receives on Instagram.

Future research could first try to generalize results by fo- cusing on a wider sample of official Instagram accounts from different industries as our scope is restricted to just one ac- count in the fashion industry. In addition, future research could focus on developing other metrics to measure the impact of a publication in this context and analyzing not only consumer interactions on Instagram but also their influence on other relevant variables such as consumer loyalty or word-of-mouth.

Finally, despite the difficulties to collect both self-reported and behavioral data, it could be interesting to evaluate the role of content characteristics, hedonism, and satisfaction in motivating consumer interaction behaviors in other SNS. Although the role of satisfaction may be stable across SNS as it is the result of a global evaluation made by the user,

10 the

role of hedonism may vary being specially relevant in SNS that provide a greater experiential enjoyment. Instead, use- fulness may be of greater relevance in SNS that mainly provide informational value for consumers.

9 Similarly, the

influence of content characteristics might also be different across SNS, for example, while originality is crucial in In- stagram, it may be less relevant again in SNS focused on information rather than entertainment.

Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful for the financial support received from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (ECO2016-76768-R).

´ 374 CASALO ET AL.

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Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

References

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2. Hassan M, Casaló LV. Consumer devotion to a different height: how consumers are defending the brand within Facebook brand communities. Internet Research 2016; 15: 963–981.

3. Henning-Thuraü T, Wiertz C, Feldhaus F. Does Twitter matter? The impact of microblogging word of mouth on consumers’ adoption of new movies. Journal of the Acad- emy of Marketing Science 2015; 43:375–394.

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