What motivates people to share social promotional advertising: a cost-benefit perspective

Purpose This research aims to investigate the factors influencing consumers’ intention to share social promotional advertising (SPA), a form of firm-created WOM passed through consumers’ strong-ties. Design/methodology/approach A survey method with 588 useable responses was conducted in China. The authors adopted a covariance-based structural equation modeling procedure to test the hypotheses. Findings Benefit factors, including sense of self-worth, socializing, financial reward and reciprocity, enhance consumers’ intention to share SPAs. However, cost factors, including effort, perceived responsibility and image concern, decrease that intention. The influencing factors differ across two types of SPAs. Specifically, financial reward influences consumers’ intention to share interactive SPAs but not informative SPAs, while sense of self-worth and perceived responsibility influence consumers’ intention to share informative SPAs but not interactive SPAs. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first to introduce and define social promotional advertising, a form of firm-created WOM passed through consumers’ strong-ties and investigates the factors that influence consumers’ sharing intention.