Brands, Friends, & Viral Advertising: A Social Exchange Perspective on the Ad Referral Processes
通过全国在线实验，研究品牌关系、人际关系和分享动机如何影响社交网站中广告的推荐与接受，发现品牌关系在确保互惠利他中起中介作用，但在强人际关系中影响减弱。
Advertisers worldwide are designing advertising with an eye toward viral activity particularly within social networking sites such as Facebook. Yet, little is known about the social processes at play when ads are shared. Taking a consumer-centric approach, this study investigates the social processes central to ads going viral within the Social Web. Conducting a national online experiment, the intertwining roles of brand relationships, interpersonal relationships, and sharing motivations in the social exchange of advertising are explored by testing two proposed referral decision-making processes: referral and referral acceptance. Results suggest that brand relationships and interpersonal relationships impact referral of ads within SNSs, and brand relationships interact with sharing motivations to impact decisions; specifically, brand relationships are conduits for ensuring reciprocal altruism in exchange, but their influence is tempered within stronger interpersonal relationships. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.