Influence of Social Media Interactions on Vaccination Intention in India: An Application of the Stimulus-Organism-Behavior-Consequence Framework

Abstract

The role of social media has been momentous in COVID-19 vaccine discussions. This study explores the impact of social media interactions on vaccination intention by employing the Stimulus-Organism-Behavior-Consequence theory. We empirically test the proposed framework by surveying 298 social media health group members from India. The study’s findings reveal the positive influence of human-to-human interaction on social support and vaccine information exchange and human-to-information interaction on vaccine information exchange. Further, both social support and vaccine information exchange positively influence value co-creation, enhancing vaccination intention. We also test the moderating effect of perceived vaccine efficacy, which adds novelty to this study. This research may be a frontrunner to empirically study vaccination intention in the social media context, an emerging reality. This study’s results have meaningful implications for scholars, healthcare practitioners, social media platforms, and governments promoting vaccination.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Notes on contributors

Cedric Hsi-Jui Wu

Cedric Hsi-Jui Wu is a marketing professor in the Department of Business Administration, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan, Republic of China. His research interests are consumer behavior, services/tourism marketing, and brand management. Published articles in international journals including Service Industries Journal, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Tourism Management, etc.

Revanth Kumar Guttena

Revanth Kumar Guttena is a PhD candidate in the Department of Business Administration, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan, Republic of China. His research interests are co-creation, consumer behavior, complexity theory, storytelling, and design thinking.

Ferry Tema Atmaja

Ferry Tema Atmaja is a PhD candidate in the Department of Business Administration, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan, Republic of China. He is also a lecturer in the Department of Management, University of Bengkulu, Indonesia. His research interests are services marketing, consumer behavior, financial technology marketing, and entrepreneurial marketing.