Conceptualizations and operationalization

The final section of the coding form related to the underlying motives for the above described behavior. The exploratory study pointed only to providing value to one’s connections and expressing support and acceptance as the motives for behavioral manifestations of engagement (See Results, Chapter 5.1). Previous literature (see Chapter 2) however, pointed to motives such as keeping in touch with one’s connections (referred to also as maintaining interpersonal connectivity or socializing), expression, presentation (or self-enhancement), and opinion leadership as drivers for social media participation and content sharing and forwarding. It was supported by the exploratory qualitative study that in fact users post content on social media (not necessarily company content though) to keep their connections updated on their life and participate on social media to keep in touch with them. Posting content (in general not company content) was also motivated by expressing their emotions and feelings (self-expression), and raising awareness of important issues, as well as receiving attention and praise. The presented discussion under the exploratory qualitative study suggests that the differences in findings might be due to the cultural differences (see Chapter 5.1.6 for a detailed discussion on why those motives might be influenced by culture). Therefore, the following motives were included in the coding form: (1) keeping in touch, (2) providing value, (3) self-expression, (4) self-presentation, (5) opinion leadership, (6) expressing support.

The coding schemes for those motives were derived both based on the existing literature and the exploratory qualitative study.

Keeping in touch, was operationalized by Dholakia et al. (2006) in a measure of maintaining interpersonal connectivity as: (a) to have something to do with others, (b) to stay in touch. This operationalization has been also used for measuring the ‘socializing’ motive in the study by Eisenbeiss et al. (2011).

Seidman (2013) measures of belongingness with several items: (a) posting to feel included; (b) posting to make others feel closer to oneself, (c) posting to feel closer to others, (d) show caring for others; support others. Thus, in the coding scheme the following definition was adopted:

The user reports he/she engaged with the content in order to connect with others, or keep in touch with them, to have something to do with them, to be included in the conversations, to feel closer to others, or to make others feel closer to himself/herself.

Henning-Thurau et al. (2004) operationalized the concern for other consumers as: (a) I want to warn others of bad products, (b) I want to save others from having the same negative experiences as me, (c) I want to help others with my own positive experiences, (d) I want to give others the opportunity to buy the right product. Taking those items into account, as well as the reports in the qualitative exploratory study, the coding scheme of the motive providing value to one’s connections followed the following definition:

The user reports he/she engaged with the content because he/she thought it would be useful to the people he/she shared it with; the majority of his/her connections will benefit from it by either being able to take advantage of the opportunity or by being warned.

Self-expression, can be defined following Choi and Bazarova’s (2015) definition of self-disclosure “a verbal statement that describes the subject in some way, tells something about the subject, or refers to some affect the subject experiences” (p.

487, cf. Chelune 1975). An important difference between expression and presentation or opinion leadership should be noted here. In contrast to self-presentation and opinion leadership motive, “individuals who are motivated to spread word-of-mouth for self-expression are not seeking to be seen as more expert or more innovative than other consumers. Rather, individuals who engage (…) are simply seeking to be heard and express who they are.” (Saenger, Thomas,

& Johnson 2013: 960). They operationalize self-expression in the context of word-of-mouth with the following items: (a) I like to talk about what products and services I use so people can get to know me better, (b) I like the attention I get when I talk to people about the products and services I use, (c) I talk to people about my consumption activities to let them know more about me, (d) I like to communicate my consumption activities to people who are interested in knowing about me, (e) I like the idea that people want to learn more about me through the products and services I use (f) I like it when people pay attention to what I say about my consumption activities (Saenger, Thomas, & Johnson 2013). Following their definition, as well as the reports in the qualitative

exploratory study, the coding scheme of the self-expression motive followed the following definition:

The user reports he/she engaged with the content because he/she wanted to express his/her feelings, emotions, or opinion, for attention, for others to know him/her better.

The self-presentation motive was operationalized by Seidman (2013) as (a) showing off, (b) getting attention. Krasnova et al. (2010), operationalized the self-presentation motive based on Walther, Slovacek, and Tidwell (2001) with the following measures (a) I try to make a good impression on others on online social networks [OSN], (b) I try to present myself in a favorable way on the OSN, (c) the OSN helps me to present my best sides to others. Dholakia et al.

(2006) operationalized it (social enhancement value) as: (a) to impress, (b) to feel important. Teichmann et al. (2015) adapted their measures from Kim, Chan, and Kankanhalli (2012): (a) I like putting information about myself online, (b) I spend a considerable amount of time updating online information about myself, (c) I use online communication tools such as social networks, forums, and blogs to promote myself, (d) I am very concerned about my online appearance, (e) I want my achievements to be recognized by others. Nov, Naman, and Ye (2009) used three measures: (a) I earn respect for my photography by posting my photos publicly on Flickr, (b) I feel that posting my photos publicly on Flickr improves my status as a photographer, (c) I post my photos publicly on Flickr to improve my reputation as a photographer. Taking those items into account, as well as, the reports in the qualitative exploratory study, the coding scheme of the self-expression motive followed the following definition:

The user reports he/she engaged with the content in order to make himself/herself look exceptional, to show off, to present himself/herself in a different or favorable way, or to show his/her expertise, gain reputation among others due to his/her knowledge or expertise, and to be recognized.

Opinion leadership motive was operationalized by Teichmann et al. (2015) based on Flynn, Goldsmith, and Eastman (1996) as: (a) I often persuade others to choose a tour (e.g., ski-tour, hiking-tour) that I like, (b) I often persuade others to agree with my opinion concerning [online community X], (c) I often influence others concerning the choice of a tour (e.g., ski-tour, hiking-tour), (d) I often influence others with my opinion on [online community X]. Taking those items into account, as well as the reports in the qualitative exploratory study, the coding scheme of opinion leadership motive followed the following definition:

The user reports he/she engaged with the content in order to influence others, encourage them to do something or do not do something.

Expressing support and acceptance was operationalized based on the findings from the exploratory qualitative study and Henning-Thurau et al. (2004) measures of the construct ‘helping company’ (a) I am so satisfied with the company and its product that I want to help the company to be successful, (b) in my opinion, good companies should be supported. Thus the following definition was adopted in the coding scheme:

The user reports he/she engaged with the content because he/she likes the brand and wants to support it, or to express his/her support for the person or company who posted it.

The next step involves deciding between human and computer coding and developing the coding schemes involving the codebook and the coding form based on the above definitions (see Attachments 10 and 11). Human coding was deemed as the only appropriate one in this study. The unit of analysis constitutes a piece of amessage that constitutes a basis for reporting analyses or on which the variables are measured (Carney 1971). In this study, a diary entry constitutes the unit of analysis. The sample consisted of 1914 diary entries provided by 130 respondents. Table 17 summarizes how different motives were coded.

Table 17. Coding of the motives

Motive Definition and coding

KEEPING IN TOUCH

The user reports he/she engaged with the content in order to connect with others, or to keep in touch with them, to have something to do with them, to be included in the conversations, to feel closer to others, or to make others feel closer to

himself/herself.

1=yes 0=no

PROVIDING VALUE

The user reports he/she engaged with the content because he/she thought it would be useful to the people he/she shared it with; the majority of his/her connections will benefit from it by either being able to take advantage of the opportunity or to be warned.

1=yes 0=no

SELF-EXPRESSION

The user reports he/she engaged with the content because he/she wanted to express his/her feelings, emotions, or opinion; for attention, or for others to know him/her better.

1=yes 0=no

SELF-PRESENTATION

The user reports he/she engaged with the content to make oneself look exceptional, to show off, to present himself/herself as different or in favorable way, or to show his/her expertise, gain reputation among others due to his/her knowledge or expertise; and to be recognized.

1=yes 0=no

OPINION LEADERSHIP

The user reports he/she engaged with the content to influence others, encourage them to do something or do not do

something.

1=yes 0=no

EXPRESSING SUPPORT AND ACCEPTANCE

The user reports he/she engaged with the content because he/she likes the brand and wants to support it, or to express his/her support for the person or company who posted it.

1=yes 0=no