Analysing Impact of Social Tagging in User- generated Images on Fashion Mobile Social Commerce

Abstract

Many social media platforms have multi social media systems; for instance, images and photographs are tagged and shared on the Pinterest platform (Nam and Kannan, 2014). Social tagging is a web 2.0 emerging technology, which allows users to generate and share content by “keywords” in an online social environment (Shiri, 2009). However, even though social tagging is a medium of online communication (Shiri, 2009; Monge, 2013), the effect of the social tagging within user-generated images’ information technology on consumers’ emotion and behaviour responses is not well known in the fashion mobile social commerce context. Xiaohongshu is a Chinese fashion social commerce platform, which owns a mobile social commerce app to attract and maintain its consumers. The purpose of this thesis is to empirically identify how the tool of social tagging within user-generated fashion images simulates consumers’ emotion (pleasure and arousal) and influences word of mouth intention and purchase intention through Xiaohongshu’s mobile social commerce app among 18–34- year-old females. This study integrates the technology acceptance model with the stimulus- organism-response model to explore the relationship between the variables. The results were collected through online questionnaires with 387 samples corresponding to users of the Xiaohongshu mobile social commerce community. The result indicates that ease of use is strongly related to informativeness, and informativeness is significantly related to word of mouth intention and purchase intention. Furthermore, this thesis examines the relationship between usefulness and emotional arousal, and this emotional arousal causes word of mouth intention and purchase intention. It shows the difference between traditional information technology and web 2.0 social media information technology. This study helps B2C fashion retailers provide effective marketing strategies in the mobile social commerce context. Mobile social commerce apps could implement social tagging within user-generated images’ technology to attract and maintain consumer segments in the mobile social shopping environment. Meanwhile, social tagging within user-generated images needs to be designed and managed to meet consumer needs and expectations.

Date of Award	8 Jan 2019
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Delia Vazquez (Main Supervisor) & Helen Mccormick (Co Supervisor)