When do consumers buy the company? Perceptions of interactivity in company-consumer interactions on social networking sites

Social networking sites allow their users to view how companies interact with fellow consumers in a variety of ways. This study seeks to clarify how merely viewing company-consumer interactions can meaningfully influence viewers' impressions of a company and its products. In an online experiment, participants viewed a company Facebook page that varied in how the company responded to its consumers. The results indicate that perceptions of company responsiveness and personalization, based on existing consumer interactions, affect how participants rated the company, the quality of their own potential company interactions, and their likelihood of purchasing products from the company. The theoretical and practical implications of this study's results for online interactivity research are discussed.