Exploring the determinants of social media stakeholder engagement in third-party ship management firms from a psychological motivation and values perspective

Abstract

Social media is an important driver of firm success by providing an avenue for stakeholder engagement. Operating in a highly complex and competitive environment, firms in the ship management industry can utilise social media platforms to engage with their stakeholders which can enhance stakeholder satisfaction and loyalty. However, stakeholder engagement rates can vary with some posts generating more engagement than others. Drawing on the word-of-mouth psychological motivation and perceived value theories, this study introduces a theoretical model to identify the determinants of stakeholder engagement on LinkedIn that can lead to higher engagement levels in the ship management industry. Thereafter, a hierarchical regression analysis is applied to study the effect of message characteristics and content type variables on engagement rates. The analysis is conducted on the posts of ten third-party ship management firms between 1 January 2021 and 31 July 2021. The results revealed nine variables that can significantly influence stakeholder engagement. They are links, corporate brand names, call-to-actions, message length, tangible resources, social content, emotional content, first-person texts, and emojis. The findings provide recommendations for firms in the ship management industry in terms of the messages strategies to incorporate into their posts to encourage higher engagement rates. This study also contributes to the existing literature for stakeholder engagement on social media.