Fostering consumer engagement with expressive certainty in entrepreneur-generated content

Purpose Entrepreneurs seek to increase their influence and foster consumer engagement by generating content on social media platforms that expresses certainty. However, the impact of the expressive certainty of entrepreneur-generated content (EGC) on consumer engagement is unclear. Through a field study and controlled experiment, this study aims to reveal how the expressive certainty of EGC affects consumer engagement. Design/methodology/approach The proposed research model was empirically tested by analysing the content generated by 220 entrepreneurs on Sina Weibo over the past four years and conducting a randomised controlled experiment in the laboratory. Negative binomial regression and an analysis of variance were used to examine the proposed research model. Findings The results show that the expressive certainty of EGC increases consumer engagement by influencing consumers’ perceptions of leadership. Specifically, EGC with a higher level of expressive certainty makes entrepreneurs appear more confident and powerful and leads consumers to perceive them as stronger leaders, thereby positively influencing consumer engagement. In addition, EGC with a higher level of certainty stimulates more positive consumer engagement when generated via mobile devices than when generated via non-mobile devices. The authors also found that the positive effect of perceived leadership on consumer engagement is moderated by power distance. Among consumers with high power-distance, the indirect effect of expressive certainty on consumer engagement is stronger. Research limitations/implications This study is subject to several constraints that could be solved through future research. Firstly, the field study only focuses on Sina Weibo, a well-known Chinese social media platform and the experimental study focuses only on Twitter, which may limit the generalisation of this research’s results to other social media platforms. Secondly, a more sophisticated approach to data analysis could be considered for future research to ascertain some of the most effective certainty words in EGC, such as text mining and machine learning. Finally, future research could examine the impact of EGC’s expressive certainty on other significant marketing effectiveness variables, such as consumer attitudes and brand loyalty. Practical implications The results suggest that using certainty in content is a way to help entrepreneurs project a high leadership profile. The positive impact of expressive certainty on perceived leadership suggests that entrepreneurs should use more certainty expressions on social media and other communication channels (e.g. brand launches) to make themselves appear more confident and influential, which is beneficial to stimulate consumer engagement with EGC. Specifically, entrepreneurs should generate more EGC with a higher level of certainty via mobile devices, as doing so will increase consumers’ perceptions of authenticity and trust in certainty information, increasing their engagement. Originality/value This study provides a valuable complement to previous research on information dissemination and consumer engagement on social media by exploring the mechanisms by which the expressive certainty of EGC and generating devices affects consumer engagement from the perspective of perceived leadership and indicates practical guidelines for developing EGC on social media.