Exploring the impact of perceived social media agility on co-creation opportunities and brand attachment: the moderating role of technology reflectiveness

Purpose: This paper aims to address how perceived social media agility can promulgate co-creation processes, such as co-production and value-in-use, and how it impacts brand-related outcomes. This study also addresses calls for marketing scholars to investigate the types of personality traits that affect these potential relationships by accounting for the impact of technology reflectiveness. Design/methodology/approach: This paper conducted an online survey with 321 adult subjects. The direct, indirect and conditional (moderation) effects were assessed using multivariate regression, various PROCESS models and the Johnson–Neyman technique (to probe the interaction terms). Additional supplemental analyses were conducted via PROCESS models. Findings: The results show that perceived social media agility directly and indirectly (through co-production and value-in-use) positively influences brand attachment and that the order of these two processes matters (co-production followed by value-in-use). Results also show that the positive impact of perceived social media agility on co-production and value-in-use deviates for customers high in technology reflectiveness but can be manipulated according to which process comes first. Originality/value: This paper expounds on the new construct of perceived social media agility by uniquely linking perceived social media agility to two distinct value co-creation processes (co-production and value-in-use) and brand-related outcomes while highlighting how consumer-specific traits can affect this relationship in a social media setting.