The Impact of Firm-Created Content and User-Generated Content on Purchase Intention through the Mediating Effect of Brand Passion among Gen Z

Purpose – Modern digital marketers leverage social media as a tool for brand awareness and customer engagement. Technological advancements have significantly transformed the way consumers and companies communicate. The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of investigating the impact of firm created content and user generated content on purchase intention through the mediating effect of brand passion. Focusing on TikTok, a popular platform among Gen Z users Design/methodology/approach – The positivist philosophy and associated methods as the quantitative technique and deductive approach, were employed. The research sample consists of TikTok users who are considered part of Gen Z, aged between 16 and 28, with a sample size of 387 respondents. Findings – The correlation analysis revealed that all variables demonstrated positive, strong, and statistically significant relationships. In the regression analysis, three out of the five proposed hypotheses were supported. Specifically, user-generated social media communication was found to have a positive effect on brand passion, brand passion positively influenced purchase intention, and firm-created content had a positive effect on purchase intention. However, the relationships between firm-created social media content and brand passion, as well as between user-generated content and purchase intention, were not statistically significant, as their p-values exceeded the 0.05 threshold.