본 연구는 최근 소비자들의 SNS의 이용이 증가하고 있는 상황에서 기존 인터넷과는 다른 특성을 지닌 SNS 환경에서 상호작용이 어떻게 일어나는지를 파악하고자 하였다. 구체적으로는 소비자간 상호작용과 소비자-정보 상호작용에 영향을 주는 선행 요인을 파악하고 상호작용의 e-WOM에 미치는 영향에 관한 것으로 선행 요인으로 사회적 자본 요인과 정보 특성 요인을 제시하였다. 사회적 자본은 중개적 사회적 자본과 유대적 사회적 자본으로, 정보 특성 요인은 정보의 유희성과 정보의 생동감으로 구체화하여 상호작용에 미치는 영향에 대해 알아보고자 하였다. 기존의 연구들이 인터넷 커뮤니티와 SNS의 차이점을 고려하지 않고 연구를 진행하거나 SNS의 이용 기기의 차이점에 대해 다루지 않은 반면 본 연구에서는 모바일 기기의 활용이 높아지는 SNS 환경에서 소비자 상호작용에 영향을 주는 선행 요인의 특성이 어떻게 차이가 나는지에 대해 알아보고자 한다. 연구 결과 소비자간 상호작용에 영향을 미치는 사회적 자본 요인은 중개적 사회적 자본으로 나타났으며 기존 연구 결과와는 달리 유대적 사회적 자본은 소비자간 상호작용에 유의한 영향을 주지 못하는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 중개적 사회적 자본의 영향이 유대적 사회적 자본의 영향보다 더 큰 것을 밝혀 SNS 환경에서 중개적 사회적 자본의 중요성에 대해 알 수 있었다. 소비자-정보 상호작용에 정보의 유희성, 정보의 생동감이 모두 긍정적 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으나 SNS 이용 기기에 따른 차이점을 발견할 수 있었다. 모바일 기기를 통해 SNS를 이용하는 소비자에게는 유희성이 중요하며 PC를 통해 SNS를 이용하는 소비자에게는 생동감이 더 중요한 것으로 나타났다. 소비자-정보 상호작용은 소비자간 상호작용에 긍정적 영향을 주며 두 가지 상호작용 모두 e-WOM에 긍정적 영향을 주는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구는 SNS에서 발생하는 상호작용을 소비자간, 소비자-정보 상호작용으로 나누어 살펴볼 수 있었으며 SNS 환경에서는 중개적 사회적 자본의 역할이 크며 사용 기기에 따라 중요한 정보 특성 요인이 다르게 나타날 수 있다는 점을 제시하고 있다. 이를 통해 기존 인터넷 커뮤니티와는 다른 SNS 이용 특성과 기기에 따른 정보 제공 방식이 달라질 필요가 있음을 제시하고 있다.
Nowadays there are many people who share information and express their opinions through social network services(SNS) like Facebook, Twitter. Especially, consumers are more actively using SNS because people are increasingly using mobile devices like smart phones or tablet PCs more in the current mobile internet environment. So marketers and enterprises should actively utilize SNS as a new communication channel. Consumers are no longer passively absorbing the information provided by firms via traditional media. This research examines the concrete factors affecting consumer interactions on SNS that have recently received attention as a new online marketing communication channel. This research also investigates the intentions of e-word of mouth that is affected by consumer interactions. This research deals with social capital, information attributes, consumer interactions and e-WOM and aims to investigate consumers` interactions and e-WOM processes based on the circumstances surrounding SNS usage. This research intends to suggest precedent factors such as social capital attributions (bridging and bonding) and information characteristic attributions (enjoyment and vividness). Also, in this study, consumer interactions are subdivided into consumer-consumer interaction and consumer- information interaction. While previous researches identically deal with internet community and SNS, this study investigates consumer behaviors only in SNS and identifies the differences between SNS consumer interaction behaviors. Moreover, this study considers consumer behavior differences according to the usage of mobile devices and PCs. Because mobile devices have small monitors, it is difficult for consumers to create and share information. On the other hand, PC users easily manage and share information. Recently, the number of consumers who use SNS via their mobile devices is increasing. So it is meaningful to study mobile device users and the differences of information characteristics between mobile devices and PCs. In the empirical study, this research collects data on SNS users through a face-to-face questionnaire and an analysis of data on 393 SNS users. This study verified the model and hypotheses using analysis of covariance. The results of this study indicate that bridging social capital increases consumer-consumer interaction relative to bonding social capital (bridging = 0.549***, bonding = -0.019; X2(1) = 16.170, p = .000, △NFI = .003, △IFI = .003, △TLI = .003), and that the enjoyment attribute and the vividness attribute increase consumer-information interaction. Mobile device users are more greatly affected by the enjoyment attribute than by the vividness attribute(enjoyment = 0.598***, vividness=0.069; X2(1) = 6.403, p = .011, △NFI = .002, △IFI = .002, △TLI = .002). On the other hand, PC users are more greatly affected by the vividness attribute than by the enjoyment attribute (vividness = 0.558***, enjoyment = 0.052; X2(1) = 5.850, p = .016, △NFI = .002, △IFI = .002, △TLI = .002). Also, consumer-information interactions affect consumer-consumer interactions positively and the two interaction factors increase e-WOM. Especially this study provides the following suggestions. First, this study examinesthe factors affecting the interaction level. There are social capital factors (bridging, bonding) and information attribute factors (information vividness, enjoyment). Specifically, bridging social capital has an effect on consumer-consumer interactions but bonding social capital does not affect consumer-consumer interactions. This result shows that consumers prefer to make weak strength relationship and this relationship make people interact each other more easily in SNS. When consumers use mobile devices, they prefer interesting information to vivid information. However, when consumers use PCs, they prefer vivid information to interesting information. These results are caused by device differences: because mobile devices are small and are often used for entertainment and for accessing information-rich contents, consumers using mobile devices prefer information that is just for fun. PC users, however, can use PCs for entertainment and create information-rich contents. These results are meaningful because researches on the interactions and behavior differences by devices when accessing SNS are scant. Second, this study examines the interaction types on SNS: consumer-consumer interaction and consumer-information interactions, and concludes that consumer-information interactions affect consumer-consumer interaction. The results of this study suggest that it is important to promote the active use of information by consumers. The more consumers who use a company`s information , product and brand, the more interaction and e-WOM that can occur. This study is especially meaningful because there are few studies on consumer-information interaction. Corporations and marketers can use these results effectively. Marketers should pay attention to their relationships with consumers frequently and regularly. Consumers with bridging social capital or weak strength of relationship tend to interact actively on SNS. For effective marketing communication, marketers concentrate on the information attribute when they send messages or information to consumers. SNS users on their mobile devices like interesting information but SNS users on their PCs prefer like vivid information. Therefore, marketers should have knowledge about the preference differences of information according to the devices being utilized by SNS users.