The outcome of online social interactions on Facebook pages: A study of user engagement behavior

Khobzi, Hamid; Lau, Raymond Y.K.; Cheung, Terence C.H. (2019). The outcome of online social interactions on Facebook pages: A study of user engagement behavior. Internet research, 29(1), pp. 2-23. Emerald 10.1108/IntR-04-2017-0161

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of different ways of message framing
on users’ engagement behavior regarding the brand posts on Facebook and to determine whether users’
thumbs-up and reply moderate this impact.
Design/methodology/approach – A panel data analysis was conducted on a panel with 11,894
observations on 850 unique brand posts from the Facebook pages of the world’s most valuable brands over a
seven days window with two observations each day. A system of equations was estimated using ordinary
least squares, Hausman–Taylor IV and seemingly unrelated regressions to test study’s hypotheses.
Findings – The empirical findings confirm that more positively and negatively framed comments result in
increased users’ engagement. Also, an increase in thumbs-up ratio for neutrally and negatively framed
comments results in less engagement. The reply ratio might also have a positive and negative moderation
effect on the influence of neutrally and positively framed comments on engagement behavior, respectively.
Practical implications – This study provides an in-depth understanding of online social interactions on
Facebook pages for firms’ managers and marketers. Online social interactions might be either harmful or
fruitful for firms depending on the type of interaction and engagement behavior. Findings can help managers
and marketer to improve their strategies for leveraging Facebook for electronic marketing.
Originality/value – This is likely to be the first study that examines the moderating effect of users’ thumbs-up
and reply on the relationship between message framing and users’ engagement behavior. By providing robust
findings by addressing issues like omitted variables and endogeneity, the findings of this study are promising for
developing new hypotheses and theoretical models in the context of online social interactions.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Department of Business Management > Institute of Information Systems > Information Engineering
03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Department of Business Management > Institute of Information Systems

UniBE Contributor:

Khobzi, Hamid

Subjects:

000 Computer science, knowledge & systems
600 Technology > 650 Management & public relations
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics

ISSN:

1066-2243

Publisher:

Emerald

Language:

English

Submitter:

Luca Giacomelli

Date Deposited:

01 Oct 2020 10:31

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:40

Publisher DOI:

10.1108/IntR-04-2017-0161

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.146774

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/146774

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