Humanitarian social-media messaging and consumer support for logistics services: evidence from China

Purpose This study examines whether humanitarian social-media messaging by logistics service providers is associated with supportive consumer intentions in China through an emotion-response-support pathway. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 584 respondents in Guangdong and Gansu, China. The study used a mixed-exposure online survey featuring humanitarian social-media message executions presented in graphic and video formats. Respondents then completed the focal evaluation with reference to the execution they found more salient or impressive. Covariance-based structural equation modelling was used to test the focal affective-to-response-support pathway. Accordingly, execution-related contrasts are reported as supplementary response-based comparisons rather than as randomised causal tests. Findings More positive emotion was positively associated with humanitarian issue response, which in turn was positively associated with willingness to pay, word of mouth and electronic word of mouth for logistics services. In the pooled screened-sample model, all focal structural paths were positive and statistically significant. Originality/value The study contributes to logistics service marketing by conceptualising humanitarian social-media messaging as a claim-based, public-facing service cue in an intangible service context and by modelling humanitarian issue response as the receiver-side response mechanism linking message-elicited affect to supportive intentions.