The Impact of Positive Purchase-Centered UGC on Audience’s Purchase Intention: Roles of Tie Strength, Benign Envy and Purchase Type

An increasingly ubiquitous phenomenon on social media is that consumers create user-generated content (UGC) to display their purchases. This type of UGC is purchase-centered. The viewers of the UGC can include both close friends (strong ties) and acquaintances (weak ties). This paper conducted a series of five studies to fill research gaps about the relations between tie strength, purchase intention, and benign envy. The results of the first three studies consistently show that tie strength between the buyer and the viewers positively influences the viewers’ feeling of benign envy, which in turn affects viewers’ purchase intention toward the displayed purchase. Furthermore, two additional experiments identify purchase type as a moderator of the mediation effect. Specifically, benign envy mediates the effect when the purchase is a material one but not an experiential one. These findings not only reveal how the viewers of purchase-centered UGC are influenced by tie strength and benign envy, but also demonstrate the role of purchase type in the effect of purchase-centered UGC. This research extends multiple research streams including tie strength, social comparison, and purchase type. Additionally, this research provides important implications for the practices of advertising, UGC marketing, and influencer marketing.