Ownership activation in social media advertising: how self-referential cues shape impulse service purchases

Purpose This study aims to examine how ownership activation cues embedded in sponsored social media posts shape consumer responses in online service contexts. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework and the Information Adoption Model, the study examines ownership activation cues as experimentally manipulated stimuli and measures psychological ownership to verify that these cues activate the intended ownership-related state. A between-subjects experimental survey (n = 464) was conducted to test the effects of ownership cues on cognitive, affective, and behavioural outcomes. Findings Ownership activation cues produced significantly more favourable evaluations of incentive-based stimuli, visual attractiveness, and information diagnosticity, as well as higher consumption value and affective experience. Consumer responses are driven by the joint influence of consumption value perception and affective consumption experience. The expected moderating effects of impulsive buying tendency were not supported, whereas consumption motives produced an asymmetric pattern, with utilitarian motives exerting more consistent moderating effects than hedonic motives. Practical implications The findings indicate that the effectiveness of sponsored posts can be enhanced not by intensifying individual stimuli but by embedding ownership activation cues that reframe how these stimuli are interpreted. Rather than optimizing incentives, visuals, or information in isolation, marketers should design posts that induce self-referential processing, thereby increasing the perceived relevance of otherwise standard content. This suggests that stimulus interpretation, rather than stimulus intensity, serves as a scalable alternative to personalization in social media advertising. Originality/value The study contributes to psychological ownership research by showing that ownership-oriented advertising cues can shape pre-purchase consumer evaluations and by distinguishing the experimentally manipulated cues from the psychological ownership state they are designed to activate.