Social identity dimensions and consumer behavior in social media

As technological advancements continue to evolve, consumer use and purchase behavior also change in response to the emergence of new tools such as social media. Given that more marketers have shifted their focus toward engaging customers in the development of their marketing mix via social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, finding important factors that drive consumer use and purchase behavior in this environment is of practical and academic importance. Use behavior contributes to fundamental user base, whereas purchase behavior generates firm revenue. For firms, finding a common factor that influences both behaviors would help increase marketing effectiveness. Based on a literature review, this study identifies social identity as the common factor in the social media context. Furthermore, existing research suggests that social identity has multiple dimensions including cognitive, affective, and evaluative. However, whether these three dimensions exert the same influences on these two important behaviors is not clear yet. The present study attempts to fill this research gap and examine the various effects of cognitive, affective, and evaluative dimensions on use and purchase behaviors. The result shows that these three dimensions have various effects on focal behaviors. The findings indicate that affective dimension has an effect on use behavior, while the cognitive and evaluative dimensions have an influence on purchase behavior. Evaluative identity has a stronger influence than its cognitive counterpart. The three dimensions are distinct and non-substitutable by other parts. Implications are elaborated in the discussion section.