Purpose: This paper investigates the impact of social-media marketing elements, namely entertainment, customisation, interaction, electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM) and trendiness, on consumer–brand engagement and brand knowledge.Design/methodology/approach: Using an online survey, the study collects data in Hong Kong from 214 experienced social-media users, as indicated by their consumption of a durable technology product, a smartphone. We used partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS–SEM) to test the links between social-media marketing elements, consumer–brand engagement and brand knowledge.Findings: The results reveal that interaction, electronic word-of-mouth and trendiness are the key elements directly influencing consumer brand engagement, then strengthening brand awareness and brand knowledge. This contrasts with the non-significant results found for the influence of entertainment and customisation on consumer–brand engagement.Research limitations/implications: Having cross-sectional nature, the study focuses on one single product, smartphones, at one location, Hong Kong. Future research may enhance the generalisability of the findings by replication in other countries with diverse cultures, such as countries in Latin America and Africa and examine other industries and other products, such as the service sector and convenience products with a low involvement level.Practical implications: Marketers may strengthen consumer–brand engagement by using content that is trendy, along with encouraging interaction and positive EWOM on social-media platforms, in order to build strong and positive brand knowledge in consumers' minds.Originality/value: This study contributes to the branding literature by providing an understanding of the role of social-media marketing elements in the brand-building process. Social media is a marketing channel recognised by its effectiveness in communicating brand-related information and its role as a means to stimulate consumers' brand engagement and brand knowledge. However, how effective these elements are for these purposes remains to be established. By empirically testing a theoretical model, this study confirms that specific social-media marketing elements, namely interaction, EWOM and trendiness, are critical drivers in the brand-building process in Hong Kong.

Despite promising conceptual developments in value co-creation and consumer-brand engagement (CBE), the scholarly attention afforded to the importance of social media marketing (SMM) activities in strengthening consumers’ intention for value co-creation and CBE is limited. SMM is conceptualised as a hierarchical construct with five dimensions: entertainment, customisation, interaction, electronic-word-of-mouth (EWOM) and trendiness. This study examines the role of SMM in building value co-creation and CBE, as well as repurchase intention and on-going search behaviour as behavioural responses. Based on primary data from a survey of 392 smartphone users in China and Hong Kong, we use partial least squares - structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypotheses. The findings show that effective SMM strategies lead to the strengthening of value co-creation, CBE, repurchase intention and ongoing search behaviour. It is also found that there is a significant difference in the impact of CBE on repurchase intention between China and Hong Kong consumers. These findings contribute to the marketing literature by empirically validating the five elements in the SMM construct, providing intelligence on how SMM can drive value co-creation and CBE. The findings also enrich the marketing literature by showing that value co-creation acts as an antecedent of CBE, driving consumers’ behavioural intention, reflected by on-going search behaviour and repurchase intention.

User-generated content (UGC) is one of the most important notions that influences tourists’ decision-making. However, the nature of UGC is still underexplored in the literature. The present study aimed to examine the impact of two different forms of UGC (i.e., emotional and rational) on tourists’ perceived values and their subsequent behavioural responses. Using the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, the two forms of UGC were conceptualised as informational stimuli, while tourists’ overall value assessment (i.e., perceived values, including emotional, functional, relational, and entitativity values) of the utility of tourism activities in the tourism platform were conceptualised as organisms. Tourists’ behavioural responses were demonstrated by impulse buying and future purchase intention. Data from 538 respondents were collected using online survey and analysed using PLS-SEM. The results revealed that both emotional and rational UGC have a significant impact on tourists’ perceived values, which in turn strengthen impulse buying and future purchase intention. This study not only contributes to the tourism marketing literature by empirically examining the impacts of two forms of UGC on tourists’ organisms and responses, but also provides meaningful insights for tourism marketers to facilitate UGC to drive tourists’ perceived values and their subsequent behaviour.

With the advancement of information technology, wearable healthcare technology has emerged as one of the promising technologies to improve the wellbeing of individuals. However, the adoption of wearable healthcare technology has lagged when compared to other well-established durable technology products, such as smartphones and tablets, because of the inadequate knowledge of the antecedents of adoption intention. The aim of this paper is to address an identified gap in the literature by empirically testing a theoretical model for examining the impact of consumers’ health beliefs, health information accuracy, and the privacy protection of wearable healthcare technology on perceived usefulness. Importantly, this study also examines the influences of perceived usefulness, consumer innovativeness, and reference group influence on the adoption intention of wearable healthcare technology. The model seeks to enhance understanding of the influential factors in adopting wearable healthcare technology. Finally, suggestions for future research for the empirical investigation of the model are provided.