To participate or not to participate in a brand micro-blog : Facilitators and inhibitors

Customers’ participation is crucial to the brand micro-blog. However, many brand micro-blogs still face the challenge of low interactive or non-interactive participation. In this paper, we propose a conceptual model that specifies four facilitators (information quality, entertainment value, service quality, and social interaction) and two inhibitors (information overload and advertising reactance) as the key determinants of brand micro-blog participation intention, and we propose that these facilitators and inhibitors in combination determine followers’ identification with the brand micro-blog, and identification eventually determines whether the followers will participate in the brand micro-blog. The data of this study was collected through a quasi-experiment conducted within the Sina micro-blog. The findings confirm that information quality, entertainment value, service quality, and social interaction are four significant facilitators of brand micro-blog participation intention. The findings also show that information overload is a significant inhibitor of brand micro-blog participation intention.