The path to people’s responses to native advertising in social media : A perspective of self-presentational desire

Social media advertising has become an important source for Internet giants (e.g., Facebook and Twitter), and in the meanwhile, an imperative advertising outlet for global and local businesses. Recently, anecdotal evidence suggests that native advertising in social media has been considered another important arena for people to build desired self-presentational images and online identities. Thus, it calls for empirical analysis on people’s responses to native advertising from a perspective of self-presentational desire. However, to the best of our knowledge, limited research has been made in this direction. This study proposed and tested a conceptual model examining the role of self-presentational desire on people’s responses to native advertising (i.e. advertising acceptance and advertising engagement) in social media. The model was validated by using survey data collected from a large social group with hundreds of members who have a special interest on outdoor activities and travels. Results indicated that self-presentational desire is a crucial determinant of positive responses to native advertising in social media, and advertising acceptance partially mediated the relationship between self-presentational desire and advertising engagement. This work contributes to our understanding of advertising responses by extending the theory of self-presentation to the context of native advertising, and generates several critical managerial insights for social media providers and advertisers