Abstract

With the increasing popularity of Instagram, a representative SNS with photo sharing as its main function, consumers are frequently sharing products or services purchased by individuals on Instagram. This study explored the motivation of Instagram users to share purchase photos based on the usage and satisfaction theory and investigated how this motivation affects users’ satisfaction with sharing purchase photos and continuous sharing intention. Furthermore, the relative influence of each purchase photo sharing motivation on the user’s photo sharing satisfaction and the moderating effect of user characteristics (age, gender, and frequency of sharing) in the relationship between them were examined. In order to collect the measurement items of Instagram users’ motivation to share purchase photos, previous studies on sharing existing digital photos were reviewed, and a preliminary survey was conducted on users who had experience sharing purchase photos on Instagram accounts, and then exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted. As a result, five factors were derived for Instagram users’ motivation to share purchase photos: status-seeking, information sharing, self-expression, social-connection, and entertainment. In addition, a survey was conducted on users who had experience sharing purchase photos on individual Instagram accounts using Amazon Mechanical Turk, and the results of analyzing 305 valid surveys with SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 21.0 programs are as follows. First, as a result of analyzing the effect of each purchase photo sharing motivation on the user’s photo sharing satisfaction, it was found that status-seeking, information sharing, self-expression, and social-connection motivations had a positive effect on photo sharing satisfaction. Second, as the user’s satisfaction with sharing purchase photos increased, the intention to continuously share purchase photos was found to be higher. Third, the moderating effect of user characteristics was verified in the relationship between the purchase photo sharing motivation and the user’s photo sharing satisfaction. The results of this study identify the motive factors for sharing purchased item’s photos of Instagram users, suggest a theoretical framework to promote continuous sharing behavior, and help practitioners design a strategic direction to encourage photo sharing of their products/services.