The purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why individuals use corporate pages on Facebook with the aim of developing a usage-specific inventory of incentive factors which describe brand page utilization for consumption, participation and production behavior.
A combined perspective of uses-and-gratifications (U&G) and social cognitive theory (SCT) was applied to develop three models of brand page behavior. Based on a literature review, an online survey (N=215) was conducted. Exploratory factor analyses identified motivational factors based on SCT incentive dimensions, which were cross-validated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).
Results indicate that consumption behavior can best be explained by activity, self-reactive-novel and monetary incentives. Status incentives, practical-novel and self-reactive-idealistic incentives drive participation. Production behavior is best explained by social, self-reactive and status incentives.
The models’ strategic implications for integrated communication management are discussed.
The results suggest interconnections of incentive dimensions unique to brand page usage, which have not yet been explored in any research.
