Effects of customers’ psychological characteristics on their engagement behavior in company social networks

Drawing upon customer engagement and value cocreation theories, in the context of company social networks, we examined the influence mechanism of the 3 important psychological characteristics of need for cognition, self-congruity, and psychological ownership, on customer engagement behavior in terms of human interactivity, information sharing, and word-of-mouth referral. We also explored whether or not these 3 behaviors then influenced value cocreation and stickiness. Data from WeChat official account users were analyzed using SmartPLS 2.0 and structural equation modeling. Results showed that self-congruity and psychological ownership significantly influenced the 3 dimensions of customer engagement behavior, which further influenced value cocreation and stickiness. The effects of need for cognition on human interactivity and information sharing were also significant, but the influence of need for cognition on word-of-mouth referral was nonsignificant.