Abstract
Increasingly, businesses collaborate with influencers and content creators (the source) to advertise on social media, with social media users being exposed to an environment saturated with unsolicited advertisements. With social contacts remaining the most trusted advertisement sources, users' passing of such advertisements helps their dissemination and creates a specific kind of electronic word of mouth called information passing. Information passing involves users forwarding advertisements about products/services to someone else. Prior studies have found at least three factors influence information passing, including value homophily (similarity with the source as perceived by users), rational appeal (information about how a product can meet users' utilitarian needs and increase personal gains), and emotional appeal (information about a product's esthetic, pleasurable, and hedonic benefits to stir up positive feelings). There is some debate as to how these three factors interact to influence information passing. We propose, compare, and test three models. The direct model posits all three as standalone factors influencing users' advertisement passing. The moderation model postulates value homophily interacts with rational and emotional appeal. The mediation model posits value homophily is caused by rational and emotional appeal. Our model comparison was performed using data collected from 412 social media users randomly exposed to a uniquely manipulated advertisement with an integrated survey via email. Our results demonstrate that although the direct and moderation model are significant, the direct model is a more parsimonious framework and overall, better for explaining and predicting users' information passing without incurring unnecessary complexity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Liu, G. H., Chua, C. E., Lee, N. C., & Wu, J. H. (2026). The Impact of Value Homophily, Rational and Emotional Persuasion on Information Passing of Social Media Advertisements: A Model Comparison Approach. Information and Management, 63(1) Elsevier.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2025.104271
Department(s)
Business and Information Technology
Publication Status
Full Text Access
Keywords and Phrases
Emotional persuasion; Information passing; Model comparison; Rational persuasion; Social media advertising; Value homophily
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
0378-7206
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2026 Elsevier, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Jan 2026
