Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing

Consumers attitude towards social media advertising and their behavioural

response: The moderating role of corporate reputation
Henry Boateng Abednego Feehi Okoe

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Consumers attitude towards

social media advertising and
their behavioural response
The moderating role of corporate reputation
Henry Boateng
Marketing and Customer Management, University of Ghana Business
School, Legon, Ghana, and

Moderating
role of
corporate
reputation
299
Received 26 January 2015
Revised 14 March 2015
Accepted 8 April 2015

Abednego Feehi Okoe

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Department of Marketing, University of Professional Studies, Accra, Ghana

Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between consumers attitude
toward social media advertising and their behavioural response and the moderating effect of corporate
reputation in this relationship. Social media advertising is gradually gaining grounds among
practitioners and researchers.
Design/methodology/approach Survey design was used and the respondents totaled 441. They
were selected using convenience sampling technique. Questionnaires were used to collect the data and
analyzed using hierarchical regression.
Findings Findings indicate that there is a significant relationship between consumers attitude
toward social media advertising and their behavioural responses. Again, it was noted that corporate
reputation moderates this relationship.
Research limitations/implications This study relied on convenience sampling and a
cross-sectional survey design, which makes it difficult to generalize the findings and account for
changes that occurred in the attitude of consumers.
Originality/value This study contributes to the understanding of the moderating role of corporate
reputation in consumers attitude toward social media advertising.
Keywords Social media advertising, Buyer behaviour, Corporate identity and branding
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Since its invention, social media has received wide acceptance by its users causing many
companies to revise their communication strategies. Some advertisers have started
investing their energies into social media advertising (Chi, 2011). An outstanding
attribute of social media advertising is its dialogic potential and its capability to track
users behavioural responses (Rodgers and Thorson, 2000). Social media advertising has
the capability of building a strong brand (Briggs and Hollis, 1997). Studies on social
media advertising and online advertising in general have shown that consumers
attitude toward social media advertising (ASMAD) is an essential determinant of its
effectiveness (Li et al., 2002; Chu et al., 2013). Again, some studies (Karson et al., 2006; Li
et al., 2002) have shown the link between consumers attitude toward advertising and
their behavioural responses. Consumers with positive attitude toward advertising have

Journal of Research in Interactive

Marketing
Vol. 9 No. 4, 2015
pp. 299-312
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2040-7122
DOI 10.1108/JRIM-01-2015-0012

JRIM
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300

shown a favorable response, while those with negative attitude have shown unfavorable
responses (Durvasula et al., 2001). In this case, it can be argued that consumers with
positive attitude toward social media advertising will show a positive response and vice
versa (Wolin et al., 2002). However, the outcome can partly be moderated by the
reputation of the company using social media advertising. Consumers response to a
firms marketing programs has been linked to their attitudes toward the firm and the
reputation of the firm (Zinkhan et al., 2003; Roberts and Dowling, 2002). Algesheimer
et al. (2005) asserted that brand relationship quality affects consumers interactions with
a brand community. Gupta et al. (2010) believe that a positive attitude toward a brand
generates a positive response from customers. Arguing along this line, it is safe to
conclude that customers will have a positive attitude toward social media advertising by
reputable firms. Beside, most customers doing business with reputable firms tend to be
loyal (Walsh et al., 2009) and support such firms in different voluntary and extra-role
behaviours (Bartikowski and Walsh, 2011), which may include having a positive
attitude toward their social media advertisement.
The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between consumers
attitude toward social media advertising and consumers response and the moderating
role of corporate reputation in this relationship. This study makes some contribution to
the growing but paucity literature on social media advertising. Studies investigating the
moderating role of corporate reputation in the relationship between consumers attitude
toward social media advertising and their behavioural responses appear to be scanty if
they exist. This study provides some empirical evidence in this regard.
Second, this study provides evidence from a Ghanaian context where studies on
social media advertising have attracted very little attention. Some scholars (Durvasula
et al., 2001; La Ferla et al., 2008) believe that consumers attitude toward social media
advertising and advertising in general differs from one country to the other. This study
therefore becomes expedient. Again, because of the short history of social advertising,
consumers attitude toward social media advertising is still at the embryonic stage and,
therefore, demands more empirical bases (Karson et al., 2006). Furthermore, previous
studies (Burns and Lutz, 2006; Chu et al. 2013) have dwelt more on the factors that drive
consumers attitude toward social media advertising and advertising in general.
The rest of this paper is divided into four sections; Section 1 presents a literature
review, while Section 2 focuses on the methodology used. Section 3 presents the
findings, while the last section discusses the findings and draws conclusions.
Literature review
Social media and advertising
The introduction of the Internet and, most especially, Web 2.0 has changed the phase of
advertising in the world today (Stelzner, 2014). This is partly because Web 2.0 has
improved features that allow a two-way (or multi-way) communication in an online
platform characterized by user freedom, control and dialogue. It features a new degree of
interactivity and consumer involvement in advertising applications (Blackshaw and
Nazzaro, 2004). Also, Web 2.0 and social media have nullified most of the shortcomings
of the traditional advertising media (i.e. print and broadcast media), such as the one-way
nature of communication and expensive usage (Stelzner, 2014).
Social media usage has grown among both individuals and organizations.
Tuurosong and Faisal (2014) found that most (59 per cent) of the people sampled use

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social media daily, at least once a day. Although the study is limited in terms of its scope,
it still provides vital information for firms in Ghana; they can advertise their products
and services on social media. The question that needs to be addressed is what would be
their attitudes toward such an advertisement? Mangold and Faulds (2009) posited that
the advent of social media (also referred to as consumer-generated media) has ominously
transformed the means by which organizations communicate to their target audience.
Numerous firms have used social media in their marketing activities. For example,
Boateng (2014) found some telecommunication companies in Ghana have used social
media to manage customer knowledge. This means that social media is very essential in
the marketing practices of firms. Rooney (2011) noted that social media sites have helped
firms to create and build relationships with their customers and expand their market
share. Again, some firms have started incorporating social media into their customer
relationship management systems (Trainor et al., 2014).
Attitude toward social media advertising and consumer response
Armstrong and Kotler (2000) also described advertising as any paid form of
non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified
sponsor. The traditional forms of advertisements were broadcasted through television,
radio, newspaper and billboards just to mention but a few. Advertising through the
traditional media posed some limitations (per the definitions above) which may include:
it is expensive in nature and one-way communication. Subsequently, advertising is
gradually moving from the traditional media to the World Wide Web due to some
features that enable marketers to overcome the limitations of the traditional mass media
(Mulhern, 2009).
Previous studies have shown that consumers attitudes toward advertising influence
their responses toward advertising, especially their purchasing intensions (Mitchell and
Olson, 1981). Li et al. (2002) argued that consumers behavioural response, such as
avoiding online advertising, is due to their negative attitudes toward advertising. This
negative attitude might be the result of the perceived intrusive and disturbing nature of
online advertising (Li et al., 2002). Similarly, Zeng et al. (2009) found that when an online
advertisement is relevant to the recipient, he or she develops a positive attitude toward
it and responds favorably. Again, Sun and Wang (2010) show a significant relationship
between consumers attitude toward online advertising and persuasion in consumers in
the USA and China. Chu et al. (2013) also examined young consumers attitude toward
social media advertising and their behavioural responses and noted that brand
consciousness impacts users attitudes toward social media advertising, which in turn
affects their behavioural responses. From these, it is clear that there is a significant
relationship between consumers attitude toward social media advertising and their
behavioural responses.
Corporate reputation, social media advertisement and consumer response
The concept of corporate reputation has been studied by researchers in the fields of
economics, organizational theory and marketing. Economists analyze issues of
reputation in relation with product quality and price (Shapiro, 1983). Organizational
researchers examine reputation as being a social identity and portray it as an important
and intangible resource which may significantly contribute to an organizations
performance and even to its survival (Fombrun and Shanley, 1990; Rao, 1994). Some

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scholars (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 1996) in marketing have studied reputation under
the rubric of brand equity and associated it with the credibility of the firm (Herbig et al.,
1993). Although the vocabularies differ making terms difficult to define (Dowling, 1986),
one can observe the consensus on the essence of the concept of corporate reputation: it is
a result of past actions of a firm (Nguyen and Leblanc, 2001). Corporate reputation may
be viewed as a mirror of the firms history which serves to communicate to its target
group information regarding the quality of its products or services in comparison with
those of its competitors (Yoon et al., 1993). Herbig et al. (1993, p. 18) define reputation as
an estimation of the consistency over time of an attribute of an entity. A firm can,
therefore, have numerous reputations one for each attribute such as price, product
quality, innovativeness, management quality or a global reputation. According to
Wartick (1992), corporate reputation is an aggregation of a single stakeholders
perceptions of how well organizational responses are meeting the demands and
expectations of many organizational stakeholders. This definition includes also the
focal groups perception of the firms ability to meet the expectations of groups other
than itself. A firms reputation may not be common among all the groups. Thus, the firm
can have multiple reputations defined according to each combination of attribute and
stakeholder.
According to Herbig et al. (1993), corporate reputation is formed as a process that
accumulates the judgments over time of the various groups who interact with the firm.
Berens and Van Riel (2004) viewed corporate reputation from three different schools of
thoughts, namely, the concept of social expectation, corporate personality and trust. The
concept of social expectation is frequently used as a basis for distinguishing corporate
associations. Some scholars (Roach and Wherry, 1972; Winters, 1986) posit that most
organizations derive their corporate reputation by doing exactly what society expects of
them, such as: providing good quality products and services and contributing
something to the society (Roach and Wherry, 1972) through philanthropic gestures and
other corporate social responsibilities (Winters, 1986; Brown and Dacin, 1997; Chew,
1992) and not meddling in political affairs (Roach and Wherry, 1972).
Other scholars also discovered that people use personality traits to describe the
general behaviours of companies (Davies et al., 2001). Pervin (1989) defined personality
as those characteristics of the person or of people generally that account for consistent
patterns of behaviour (p.4). Spector (1961) and Davies et al. (2001) further added that
people apply the concept of personality not only to other persons, but also to companies
(thereby using it as a metaphor). Spector (1961) borrowed a number of items from
different personality scales and previous research on corporate reputation and found
underlying dimensions like dynamic, cooperative, successful and business-wise as key
to corporate reputation. This concept has enabled scholars to successfully examine the
gaps between perceptions of internal and external stakeholders (Davies and Chun, 2002;
Davies et al., 2003) as well as the influence of corporate reputation on stakeholders
preferences (Davies et al., 2003; Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001).
Last but not least, companies obtain their reputation depending on how trustworthy
they are. Trust in this sense does not just explain the ability of an actor to fulfill its
promises, but it includes its intentions to fulfill the promise. Miyamoto and Rexha (2004)
and Sako (1992) postulated that there are three dimensions of trust: reliability, honesty
and benevolence. The first two dimensions deal with the likelihood that a company will

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fulfill the explicit promises that it makes, while the latter deals with the likelihood that
a company will behave in a cooperative manner, independent of promises.
As early as in 1986, Hite and Bellizzi (1986) discovered that professional service
providers have been very much concerned about how they can develop and maintain a
high-quality reputation. Such concerns also extend to other firms where it has been
argued that a positive corporate reputation has a number of beneficial consequences.
For instance, Yoon et al. (1993) linked corporate reputation to intention to purchase.
Brown (1995) also linked it to the attitude of buyers to salespersons and products in
buying situations. Other scholars have further connected corporate reputation to
perceived product quality and to deterring competitor entry when a tough stance is
adopted (Weigelt and Camerer, 1988); contributing to performance differences between
firms (Rao, 1994); attracting investors, lower cost of capital and enhancing the
competitive ability of firms (Fombrun and Shanley, 1990); and to enabling strong
organization identification by employees and inter-organizational co-operation or
citizenship behaviour (Dutton et al., 1994). Furthermore, Caruana and Ewing (2010)
found that corporate reputation has a direct impact on online loyalty and plays a
mediating role in perceived value and with respect to its effect on online loyalty.
It can be inferred from existing studies that corporate reputation has the capability to
influencing consumers response toward product/service advertisements irrespective of
the medium (i.e. whether social media/traditional media) used. Although advertising
through social media is not free from pitfalls notably related to trust and credibility
(Rutsaert et al., 2013), the responsibility is on marketers/advertisers to provide adverts
with credible, reliable and trustworthy information. Organizations need to make their
presence felt on the social media, so that in case of any misconception/poor service
delivery/product failure/propaganda, they will be there to clear the air.
Marsh (2014) asserted that advertisements appearing on a credible Web site are
trusted by consumers. He further indicated that online consumers are concerned about
the credibility of advertisements on Web sites. As a result, most consumers visit credible
news site to validate the contents of what they read on social media. He concluded that
reputation for trust is one critical source of media industrys unique value
propositions. Meanwhile, some researchers (Goldsmith et al., 1999; Clinton et al., 2008)
have found credibility of advertising endorser as an essential factor to obtain favorable
response from consumers. This means that consumers are likely to trust and show
positive attitude toward social media advertising by a reputable company. Therefore, it
would be safe to conclude that corporate reputation moderates the relationship between
consumers attitude toward social media advertising and consumers behavioural
response.
Design, sample and data collection
This study used the survey research design. This was to enable large data to be
collected, analyzed quantitatively and generalize the findings. The respondents were
selected from Ghana using the convenience sampling technique. This technique speeded
up data collection and enabled the researchers engage only respondents who were
available and willing to partake in the study. Questionnaires were self-administered to
the participants; most of which filled and returned them instantly, while others were
returned later. Out of a total of 600 questionnaires, 441 usable ones were used in the final
analysis. The background information of the respondents has been provided in Table I.

Moderating
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This information includes age, gender, educational level and working experience. Most
(58.5 per cent) of them were males, while 41.5 per cent were females. Again, most (44.9
per cent) of them were within the ages of 28-37 years. Furthermore, most (56.0 per cent)
of them were university degree holders and 35.4 per cent of them have 1-3 years working
experience.

304

Measures
All the measures were adapted from the extant literature. Specifically, the consumer
behavioural response measures were adapted from Zeng et al.(2009) and Sun and Wang
(2010), while that of consumers attitude toward social media advertising were adapted
from Sun and Wang (2010). Similarly, the corporate reputation measures were adapted
from Walsh et al. (2009). Four items were used to measure the constructs (Table II) using
a five-point Likert scale; 1 strongly disagree, 2 disagree, 3 neutral, 4 agree and
5 strongly agree. The means of all the items were closer to 4 (Table II) indicating that
the respondents were in agreement with the statements. Furthermore, as shown in
Table II, all the standard deviation values were far from the means, which means that
the data were fairly distributed.

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Measurement model
This study used Lisrel 8.5 and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software to
perform a reliability and validity test for the measures and these were assessed using

Demographic variable
Age
18-27 years
28-37 years
38-47 years
48-57 years
58 years and above
Total

Table I.
Demographic
characteristics of
respondents

Frequency

(%)

139
198
80
21
3
441

31.5
44.9
18.1
4.8
0.7
100.0

Educational level
Higher National Diploma (HND)
Degree
Postgraduate
Other
Total
Gender
Male
Female
Total

47
247
112
35
441

10.7
56.0
25.4
7.9
100.0

258
183
441

58.5
41.5
100.0

Working experience
1-3 years
4-6 years
7-9 years
10 years above
Total

156
127
80
78
441

35.4
28.8
18.1
17.7
100.0

Constructs

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Corporate reputation
I believe in social media advertisement of
companies that are concerned about their
customers
I believe in social media advertisement of
companies I recommend to my friends and
relatives
I believe in social media advertisement of
companies that can be generally be trusted
I believe in social media advertisement of
companies that I am satisfied with my overall
experience
Attitude toward social media advertising
Overall, I consider social advertising a good
thing
Overall, I like social media advertising
I consider social media advertising very essential
I would describe my overall attitude toward
social media advertising very favorably
Consumer response
I will search for related information about
advertisements shown on social media
I will buy a product/service advertised on a
social media
I will pay attention to advertisements shown on a
social media
Overall, I am persuaded by social media
advertisement

Mean

SD

Factor
loadings

Cronbachs
alphas
0.82

3.67

1.040

0.70

3.58

0.948

0.80

3.62

0.951

0.81

3.57

0.970

0.70

Moderating
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305

0.84
3.80
3.67
3.73

0.923
0.878
0.938

0.6
0.81
0.82

3.58

0.934

0.80
0.80

3.76

0.960

0.70

3.41

0.926

0.72

3.60

0.894

0.77

3.30

0.996

0.70

CFA (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988), factor loadings and Cronbachs alpha (Bagozzi and
Yi, 2012). From the results, the composite validity for corporate reputation, attitude
toward social media advertising and consumers response to social media advertising
were 0.819, 0.830 and 0.811, respectively. Similarly, the average variance extracted
(AVE) values for corporate reputation was 0.56, attitude toward social media
advertising was 0.52 and consumers response to social media advertising was 0.53.
Again, from Table III, it can be observed that AVEs are greater than the squared
correlations among constructs. These indicate that the measures have achieved
convergent validity and the constructs are empirically different from each other
(Bagozzi and Yi, 2012; Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Bagozzi and Yi (2012) again
recommended that if the variables load high on their hypothesized constructs and low
on the other constructs, the measure has achieved convergent and discriminant validity
and it is free from common method bias. As shown in Table II, the factor loadings were
high (above 0.6) and there were no cross-loadings. Moreover, the Cronbachs alphas for
all the constructs were above 0.7 indicating that the measures are valid (Hair et al., 2006).

Table II.
Descriptive and
reliability

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306

Furthermore, the chi- square (2) statistics show 109. 7 with a degree of freedom (df)
of 51 (2/df 2.15), p 0.0001. Because the chi-square is significant, other model fit
indices were used; the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) is 0.051,
comparative fit index (CFI) is 0.97, standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) is
0.033 and non-normed fit index (NNFI) is 0.96. These indicate that the measures are
robust as all the indices met their respective thresholds (Bentler and Bonett, 1980;
Bagozzi and Yi, 2012).

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Hierarchical regression analysis

Hierarchical multiple regression was used to examine the moderation effects of
corporate reputation and consumers attitude toward social media advertising on
consumers behavioural response. The moderation effect of corporate reputation (CR
ASMAD) was assessed in Step 1. The R squared change ( R2) 0.048, F change (1, 439)
22.016, was significant, p 0.001. This indicates that the interaction of corporate
reputation and attitudes toward social media advertising explains 5 per cent of the variance
in consumers behavioural response to social media advertising (Table IV).
At Step 2, corporate reputation and attitude toward social media advertising were
entered and the total variance explained by the model was 32 per cent, F (3, 437)
70.467, p 0.001. Further analysis shows that, individually, corporate reputation and
attitude toward social media advertising significantly predict consumers behavioural
response to social media advertising. Attitude toward social media advertising recorded
a higher beta value ( 0.483, p 0.001) than corporate reputation ( 0.190, p
0.001) (Tables IV and V).
The results indicate that a unit increase in consumers positive attitude toward social
media advertising will result in 50 per cent increase in favorable response to social
media advertising, while a unit increase in corporate reputation will result in 20 per cent
increase in consumers favorable responses to social media advertising (Table VI).

Constructs

CNR

CR

Consumer response (CNR)

Corporate reputation (CR)
Attitude towards social media advertising (ASMAD)

0.53
0.40
0.49

0.56
0.46

ASMAD

0.52
Table III.
Discriminant validity Note: Diagonal values are the AVE, variables while the others are the squared correlations among the
test
constructs

Change statistics
Model
1
2
Table IV.
Model summary

Adjusted
R2

Standard error
of the estimate

R2
change

df1

df2

Significance
F change

0.046
0.321

0.698
0.321

0.048
0.278

1
2

439
437

0.000
0.000

Notes: Model 1: predictors: (constant), CR * ASMAD; Model 2: predictors: (constant), CR * ASMAD,

attitude towards Social Media Ad (ASMAD), Corporate Reputation (CR)

Model

df

Mean square

Significance

Regression
Residua
Total
Regression
Residua
Total

1
439
440
3
437
440

10.741
0.488

22.016

0.000a

24.443
0.347

70.467

0.000b

307

Notes: Model 1: predictors: (constant), CR * ASMAD; Model 2: predictors: (constant), CR * ASMAD,

attitude towards Social Media Ad (ASMAD), Corporate Reputation (CR); dependent variable:
consumers behavioural response

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Model
(Constant)
CR * ASMAD
(Constant)
CR * ASMAD
Corporate reputation
Attitude towards social media Ad

Beta ()
0.219
0.081
0.190
0.483

Moderating
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corporate
reputation

t-values

Significance

101.188
4.692
6.415
1.761
3.889
10.042

0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000

Note: Dependent variable: consumers behavioural response

Again, it can be inferred from the result that apart from positive attitude toward social
media advertising, consumers consider the reputation of the company using social
media advertisement in their response to the advert.
Discussions and conclusions
The consistency between consumers attitude and behavioural intentions has been
established in the consumer behaviour literature (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2010; Hawkins
and Mothersbaugh, 2010). Consumers with a favorable attitude toward an
attitude-related object are likely to take actions that reflect their attitude. Thus,
consumers with favorable attitude to social media advertising are likely to respond
favorably to social media advertising; buy a product advertised on social media; or look
for further information (Sun and Wang, 2010).
This study found that the respondents have a positive attitude toward social media
advertising. They consider it to be a good communication channel and very essential.
This might have accounted for their intention to buy a product advertised on social
media (Mitchell and Olson, 1981). Again, it might account for the reason why the
consumers will search for information about products advertised on social media
platform. Additionally, this might explain why the consumers are persuaded by social
media advertising.
However, these behavioural responses partly depend on the reputations of the
company using social media advertising, as corporate reputation has a key role in
consumer decision-making (Yoon et al., 1993). Some consumers respond favorably to
companies that are consumer-centric and can be trusted (Berens and van Riel, 2004;

Table V.
Anova

Table VI.
Coefficients

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308

Rutsaert et al., 2013). Consistent with some earlier studies (Caruana and Ewing, 2010;
Yoon et al., 1993), this study found that corporate reputation is critical in consumers
decision to buy products or take a favorable action toward products advertised on social
media. Consumers respond favorably toward social media advertisement by a company
they have had a nice experience with (Winters, 1986) and those they can trust and
recommend to family and friends.
The results imply that companies that intend to use social media advertising must
build a corporate image for themselves; such companies should empathize with their
customers and instill trust and confidence in their customers. Again, companies that
intend to use social media advertising must create a memorable and lasting impression
on the mind of their consumers in every encounter. Companies should link their
corporate Web sites to their social media sites, so that visitors can validate the
authenticity of the advertisements (Marsh, 2014).
For future researchers, it would be prudent to investigate the kind of products or
services that consumers are likely to buy through social media advertising. Again,
future studies may explore other variables that can also moderate attitude toward social
media advertising and consumers behavioural intention.
Furthermore, this study relied on convenience sampling and a cross-sectional survey
design, which makes it difficult to generalize the findings and account for changes that
may occur in the attitude of consumers. Future studies may therefore use a random
sampling technique and a longitudinal technique in this regard. One other limitation of
this study is that it did not include respondents frequency of usage and experience of
using social media. This is not likely to affect the findings in anyway, as the participants
were regular social media users, and beside, most social media users in Ghana use it at
least once a day (Tuurosong and Faisal, 2014).
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About the authors
Henry Boateng holds a Master of Philosophy degree in Business Administration and is a Research
Assistant at the Department of Marketing and Customer Management, University of Ghana
Business School, Legon. His main research interests are customer knowledge management,
information and knowledge management and transfer in business organizations, electronic
business and commerce and internet application in marketing. Henry Boateng is the
corresponding author and can be contacted at: hboateng85@gmail.com
Abednego Feehi Okoe currently serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Management, University
of Professional Studies-Accra. A marketing professional, he holds a Doctorate of Business
Administration. His area of research covers branding, services marketing, strategic marketing
and consumer issues.

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