The Influence of Beliefs on Attitudes and Behavior Toward Social Media Advertising: The Mediating Role of Attitudes Between Beliefs and Behavior

Özet

Purpose – Considering the increasing usage of social media channels in Türkiye, this study aimed to contribute to the literature and guide marketing people about factors influencing Turkish customers’ attitudes and behavior towards social media advertising to increase the efficiency of advertisements. Furthermore, the mediating effect of attitudes between beliefs and behavior was also questioned in this study. Design/methodology/approach – A descriptive research method was conducted in this empirical study, with the participation of 311 individuals. A field study was performed via an online questionnaire, including Pollay and Mittal’s original scale for traditional media channels’ advertising, Wolin et al.’s adopted seven beliefs-factors scale for web advertising, and Wolin’s attitudes and behavior measures. Hypotheses were constructed, and a model was developed to be tested with structural equation modeling in AMOS and SPSS 21 to clarify personal and societal beliefs' direct and indirect influences on attitudes and behavior. Findings – Personal factors influenced both attitudes and behavior toward social media advertising. Meanwhile, attitudes mediated the relationship between personal indicators (hedonic motivation, social role, and image) and behavior. In contrast, attitudes did not show a mediating effect between the link of product information and behavior. Discussion – Personal dimensions of seven belief factors prominently stood out as a result of this study. Marketing people should consider customers’ beliefs of hedonic motivation, social roles, and images and try to express essential information about advertised products on social media channels.