Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research

The study looks at the way electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) contributes to customer loyalty (CL) in the informal street food industry, with a focus on the mediating function of perceived authenticity (PA) and the moderating role of management response strategy (MRS). Drawing on an integrated theoretical framework that combines the elaboration likelihood model, signaling theory, the stimulus-organism-response framework, and the information adoption model, the research examines survey data collected from 437 street food consumers in Cairo and Giza using partial least squares structural equation modelling. The results show that eWOM has significant positive effects on both PA and CL, alongside PA acting as an important partial mediator. MRS has a significant moderating effect on both the eWOM authenticity and the authenticity-loyalty relationships, since the influence of digital word of mouth is increased when sellers respond promptly, in a personal way, and in a manner that resonates with cultural values. The findings highlight that for informal food businesses, sustainability is not just an economic necessity but also a culturally rooted process, in which strategic digital engagement and the preservation of culinary heritage together strengthen long-term customer relationships. The study offers practical advice for decision makers, suppliers, and platform developers who wish to encourage the development of sustainable business models in the rapidly digitising informal economies of emerging markets.

Organizations are increasingly using Instagram as a marketing mechanism to increase brand exposure, increase sales, identify leads, and monitor audience engagement among young consumers. Therefore, this study aims to determine the impact of advertising on Instagram on the purchase intention of Millennials via the advertising value and technology acceptance models in an African emerging economy. The research made use of descriptive and quantitative research methods via an online questionnaire to collect data from 521 South African Millennial respondents in 2024 through convenience and snowball sampling. AMOS software (v23) and structural equation modeling were utilized to evaluate the hypotheses. The findings yielded positive associations between informativeness, credibility, irritation, and perceived usefulness and between entertainment, informativeness, credibility, and perceived ease of use; however, the association between irritation and perceived ease of use was negative. The variables also showed positive associations with purchase intention, with the exception of irritation, which demonstrated a negative relationship among South African Millennials due to advertising on Instagram. This study offers an understanding of the effect of advertising on Instagram among Millennial consumers in an emerging economy. The research also makes a unique contribution to digital advertising and Instagram commerce via the advertising value and technology acceptance models among younger generational cohorts.

Elaborate short-video design may support product-link clicking by providing richer information and more varied presentation; yet, it may also impose greater processing demands during recommendation-driven browsing. This study examines whether two video design features, Guide-oriented content and shot-duration diversity, are associated with users’ likelihood of clicking product links. Drawing on information processing and cognitive load perspectives, we consider semantic and visual temporal processing demands as possible explanations for these associations. Guide-oriented content presents instructional information, whereas shot-duration diversity describes the distribution of shots across duration categories. We further examine algorithmic user–content fit, defined as the platform-estimated correspondence between a video and a user’s historically revealed content preferences, as a boundary condition. Using first-position household-product video exposures from a major Chinese e-commerce platform from 25 July to 23 August 2022, we estimate linear probability models on 66,244 complete-case observations, with date fixed effects and standard errors clustered by creator and user in two dimensions. In the full specification, both design features are negatively associated with product-link clicking. Interestingly, while algorithmic user–content fit also exhibits a direct negative association with clicking, the negative association of Guide-oriented content is weaker at higher fit. Conversely, no robust interaction is observed for shot-duration diversity. The Guide association and its fit interaction become non-significant with user fixed effects, while the diversity association depends on the control set. Creator fixed effects also weaken the evidence for both design features and the Guide–fit interaction. These conditional associations connect video design and platform matching with users’ transition from content viewing to product-page entry.