The impact of social media information on brand evangelism: a moderating effect model based on three-way interaction

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of social media information (argument quality, post attractiveness, and post popularity) on brand evangelism, as well as the mediating role of value resonance and the moderating role of personal relevance and product type. Design/methodology/approach This paper distributed no fewer than 600 questionnaires to gather data from the virtual brand communities of sneakers, which are utilitarian products, and smartphones, which are hedonic products. This paper tested the proposed hypothesis using AMOS and SPSS software. Findings Social media information has a significant positive effect on brand evangelism. Value resonance mediates the relationship between social media information and brand evangelism. The higher the personal relevance, the more significant the mediating effect of value resonance. The interactions between product type, personal relevance, post attractiveness, and post popularity were significant, respectively, and personal relevance had a greater effect on the relationship between social media information and value resonance in hedonic products than in utilitarian products. Research limitations/implications There are many social media channels; this paper only selects the relevant information in the virtual brand community. The follow-up can choose different social media platforms, such as microblogging, micro, etc., based on different social media characteristics to do further in-depth research. Practical implications To provide theoretical suggestions for promoting consumer brand evangelism by studying the influencing factors of consumer brand evangelism in social media information. This paper can guide enterprises to provide feasible suggestions to improve user stickiness by guiding consumer values when releasing information. Social implications With the prevalence of the “fan economy”, the role of consumers has undergone a major shift, and the impact of consumer communication and interaction on brands has become more and more far-reaching. This paper reveals that the quality, attractiveness, and popularity of information can drive brand evangelism by resonating with consumers' values, and this finding suggests that enterprises should pay attention to the production and dissemination of information to create a good information environment. Originality/value This study adds to the body of literature by examining the impact of social media information on brand evangelism while accounting for the moderating effects of product type and personal relevance. It emphasises the significance of value resonance and offers marketers of various product types insightful information.