How Trust and Need Satisfaction Motivate Producing User-Generated Content

ABSTRACT

The motivation of user-generated content (UGC) is a vital issue for social media providers. This study investigates this issue using the self-determination theory (SDT). The SDT identifies three fundamental human psychological needs, namely the need for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. This study aims to answer the question of how the satisfaction of these needs motivates users to produce UGC and utilizes the multi-study model comparison approach. Two survey studies were conducted in China and the United States. The partial least squares (PLS) analyses confirmed that the SDT indeed explained UGC motivation significantly and that trust beliefs support people’s need for relatedness. Post hoc analyses showed that there were significant differences between Chinese and American culture. Those results make important contributions to theory and practice. For example, practitioners need to motivate users to produce UGC by supporting their psychological needs. Besides, different trust beliefs should be emphasized in different countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Trust
• social network sites
• social media
• self-determination theory
• motivation to produce user-generated content

Funding

This research was partially supported by a research fund from University of Scranton (No. 840792).