Impact of Sharing Marketing on Marketing Willingness of Employees in Internet Decoration Industry

Zhongxin LI

College of Economics and Management, Shanghai University of Electric Power, Shanghai 200090, China

Abstract With the development of information technology, sharing marketing, as an innovative marketing method, plays an important role in promoting the marketing willingness and enthusiasm of employees in the Internet decoration industry. Based on the data obtained from the questionnaire survey, this paper makes an empirical analysis of the impact of the economic value, social value, perceived ease of use, perceived convenience, enabling conditions and subjective norms of sharing marketing on the marketing willingness of employees in the Internet decoration industry. The results showed that the questionnaire had good internal consistency and construct validity. Through empirical analysis, it can be found that the economic value, social value, perceived ease of use, perceived convenience, enabling conditions and subjective norms of sharing marketing have a significant positive impact on employees’ marketing willingness.

Key words Marketing, Sharing marketing, Internet decoration, Marketing willingness

1 Introduction

Sharing marketing is a kind of marketing method to promote products or services by sharing on social media such as forums, communities, Weibo and WeChat for profit. The shared content can be any one of text, picture, voice, QR code or short video.

2 Characteristics of sharing marketing and decoration services

2.1 Characteristics of sharing marketingSharing marketing is characterized by a large number of users and high participation, simple and convenient transactions or interactions, and users can get cash, coupons or other in-kind rewards after sharing. Compared with other marketing methods, sharing marketing can share the content of promotion from the source of communication to its social circle, and then spread from the social circle to start the market quickly and efficiently, so as to achieve higher marketing effect at lower cost[1]. Since the social media software is not limited by geographical location, more and more companies and merchants choose this peer-to-peer sharing marketing method[2].

2.2 Characteristics of decoration servicesFirstly, China has a vast territory, different accommodation habits of residents in different regions, and the entry threshold of decoration industry is generally low, which leads to the obvious geographical restrictions on the service scope and brand radiation of traditional decoration enterprises, thus forming the characteristics of "big market but small enterprises". Secondly, the decoration of the whole project covers design, quotation, procurement, construction, acceptance and other links, involving a large amount of money and complex procedures. Thirdly, for most consumers, the consumption of decoration belongs to the first consumption, which is usually unfamiliar with specific consumption matters. Furthermore, the complex consumption process, the long consumption cycle, the lack of access to information and the special consumption attributes will lead to the low transparency of information in the traditional decoration industry, such as opaque quotation, difficult to detect professional engineering problems,etc.In consequence, it is difficult to protect consumers’ rights when their rights and interests are infringed, and the decision-making costs of consumers remain high.

In addition to the above characteristics, the decoration business also has the characteristics of high unit price, long conversion cycle and low repurchase frequency[3]. The characteristics of high unit price and low frequency of decoration consumption are not conducive to the formation of integrity system and business reputation in the decoration industry, which will lead many enterprises to spend a lot of time and money in attracting customers.

In the marketing process, the goal should be clear, and the limited time should be spent on the most effective customers. At present, the generation born in the 1990s and after the 2000s are gradually entering the marriageable age and have become the main force of decoration consumption, bringing new consumer demand. In addition, the new mobile network technology has given birth to new consumption patterns, social consumption patterns are increasingly accepted and respected by consumers, and the change in consumption habits also makes consumers strongly dependent on social media consumption anytime and anywhere.

Decoration service requires customers to participate in the whole process. The whole process includes pre-marketing promotion, customer consultation, design, material procurement, construction,etc.Each link needs to communicate with customers for confirmation and acceptance. With the development of the times, the requirements of decoration customers for decoration services are growing, which requires decoration companies to provide customers with satisfactory, comprehensive and personalized services in the whole process.

3 Hypothesis and theoretical model of the study

Combining the characteristics of sharing marketing and decoration service, according to the theory of planned behavior[4]and technology acceptance model[5], we put forward the following hypotheses.

Economic value refers to the expected economic benefits that employees in the decoration industry can obtain after sharing marketing, including economic costs, time costs, loss reduction and economic return expectations. Individual behavior is driven by expected values. According to previous studies, information sharing is generally accompanied by reciprocal behavior, which means that rewards can be obtained. When studying the influencing factors of social network marketing information sharing, Zhu Lin found that expected rewards have a significant positive impact on users’ sharing behavior[6]. The higher the expected reward, the higher the enthusiasm of employees to share product and service information on social media, the higher the unit price of decoration, the higher the reward, and the higher the willingness of employees to market. Therefore, we put forward the following Hypothesis H1:

Hypothesis H1: The economic value of sharing marketing has a positive impact on the marketing willingness of employees in the Internet decoration industry.

Old George had bought the black gloves at a 25% discount, for just $35.00, ten years ago. They were genuine lamb skin, soft and warm and very durable2. Until then, he had worn cheaper man-made material that never lasted longer than three years. His impulsive3 decision to buy the expensive gloves turned out to be a good one, which even promoted his social status on the bus, as poorer passengers stared at him enviously4 for six months out of the year. He had taken care not to let a drop of water or rain touch his expensive gloves, so they looked like new. Losing this favourite possession was almost like losing a child to him.

Social value refers to the utility gained by employees in the decoration industry when they are connected with other social groups in the process of sharing marketing, that is, the connection between employees and other social groups, the feeling of being respected and the satisfaction they can experience when they share marketing on the network social media. Sharing marketing can not only start the market quickly and efficiently, but also expand the relationship circle of employees, accumulate interpersonal resources for re-sharing, and increase the possibility of successful marketing, thus further improving the marketing willingness of employees. Therefore, we put forward the following hypothesis H2:

Hypothesis H2: The social value of sharing marketing has a positive impact on the marketing willingness of employees in the Internet decoration industry.

Perceived ease of use refers to the perception evaluation of employees in the decoration industry on the difficulty of using social media to share marketing. Through studying the influencing factors of users’ willingness to share knowledge in virtual communities, Chen Shuo found that the perceived ease of use of technology has a positive impact on users’ willingness to share[7]. When studying brand information sharing in social networks, Fan Yuwei also pointed out that the perceived ease of use of social networks has a significant impact on users’ willingness to share[8].

The difficulty of operation will affect their willingness to share and sharing behavior, the simpler the operation of sharing marketing, the more willing employees are to apply this way to promote products and services. Therefore, we put forward the following hypothesis H3:

Hypothesis H3: The perceived ease of use of sharing marketing has a positive impact on the marketing willingness of employees in the Internet decoration industry.

Perceived convenience refers to the degree of convenience that employees in the decoration industry feel in the process of using social media to share marketing. The Internet can exchange information beyond time and space constraints, which provides more time and space for marketing and increases the possibility of successful transactions. Whether in daily working hours or in the early morning, there are netizens surfing the Internet, which may become the specific target of marketing. The way of sharing marketing has brought great convenience to employees and promoted them to be more active in marketing. Therefore, we put forward following hypothesis H4:

Enabling conditions refer to the influencing factors that positively promote the use of social media for sharing marketing by employees in the decoration industry. The enabling conditions of sharing marketing are mainly based on the product characteristics of decoration projects, which are considered from three aspects: customer participation characteristics, rigid demand characteristics and customer switching cost characteristics of decoration projects.

If the customer participation of the decoration project is high, the rigid demand is large, and the customer switching cost is high, the difficulty of sharing marketing will be greatly reduced, making employees more active in sharing marketing. Therefore, we put forward the following hypothesis H5:

Hypothesis H5: The enabling conditions of sharing marketing have a positive impact on the marketing willingness of employees in the Internet decoration industry.

In this study, subjective norms refer to the social environment that decoration sales staff face when they carry out sharing marketing, mainly referring to the support of people around them or people who are important to them for the use of sharing marketing. In the process of users contacting sharing marketing, there is a certain degree of correlation between the recommendation of others and the willingness of users to use sharing marketing. According to the previous literature, people tend to be skeptical in the face of an unknown new sharing, simple sharing can not dispel the concerns of new users, and at this time, if a trusted person recommends, it can eliminate the suspicion of new recipients and enhance their willingness to use. The more the trusted person recommends, the stronger the new user’s willingness to use[9].

When employees are engaged in sharing marketing and sales, their familiar circle is the first to see the sharing information. The higher the trust of the familiar circle in employees, the easier it is to accept sharing, and the more motivation employees will have to share. Therefore, we put forward the following hypothesis H6:

Hypothesis H6: The subjective norm of sharing marketing has a positive impact on the marketing willingness of employees in the Internet decoration industry.

Fig.1 Theoretical model of research hypothesis

4 Empirical analysis

4.1 Questionnaire distribution and data collectionThe questionnaire copies of this study were distributed in the form of an online questionnaire in June and July 2023 through the Wenjuanxing platform, mainly targeting users aged 20-60 who use social media such as WeChat, QQ and Weibo. After eliminating the samples with inconsistent matching, missing values and outliers, we confirmed 378 valid questionnaires related to this empirical study.

4.2 Variable description statistics (Table 1)From the statistical results of the mean description of each variable, it can be seen that the mean value of each variable in this study is between 3.05 and 3.35, indicating that the perceived recognition of the respondents to the study variables is in the upper middle level. At the same time, the absolute value of skewness of each variable is less than 3, and the absolute value of kurtosis is less than 10, indicating that the data of each variable are in line with the approximate normal condition, and the data of the questionnaire can be directly used for subsequent statistical analysis.

Table 1 Descriptive statistics of variables

4.3 Reliability analysisTo ensure the reliability of the questionnaire, we used Cronbach’s coefficient (Cronbach’s Alpha) to test the reliability. In addition, we used CITC (Corrected Item-Total Correlation) to measure the reliability of a single question item. The results showed that the internal consistency of each dimension of the questionnaire is good, and the data results of this paper passed the reliability test.

4.4 Validity analysisTo ensure the validity of the questionnaire, we performed exploratory factor analysis to test the validity of the questionnaire. Before factor analysis, KMO test and Bartlett’s sphericity test should be used to determine whether the relevant variables we designed meet the conditions for factor analysis. According to Kaiser’s metric standard, in general, when KMO is greater than 0.7, it can be considered to meet the conditions for factor analysis. The KMO value in this study was 0.939, and the KMO value was greater than 0.700. Therefore, the questionnaire data were eligible for factor analysis. Combined with the factor loading coefficient, it can be seen that the factor dimensions obtained from the rotated factor loading coefficient matrix are consistent with the expected research items divided by the research design, and the absolute value of the factor loading coefficient is greater than 0.500, so the questionnaire has good construct validity.

4.5 Correlation analysisIt can be seen from Table 2 that there is a positive correlation between the willingness of employees to share marketing and the economic value, social value, perceived ease of use, perceived convenience, enabling conditions and subjective norms of sharing marketing by using Pearson correlation analysis, which can be further analyzed accordingly.

Table 2 Pearson correlation analysis between study variables

4.6 Regression analysisAccording to the analysis results of the variance test in the regression fitting process (Table 3), it shows that there is a significant linear correlation between at least one independent variable and the dependent variable in the regression model, indicating that the overall model has passed the variance test and the model is valid.

Table 3 Test results of regression coefficient

According to the coefficient test table of the regression model, economic value has a significant positive impact on the willingness of sharing marketing (β=0.176,t=3.665,P=0.000<0.05); social value has a significant positive impact on the willingness of sharing marketing (β=0.152,t=3.412,P=0.001<0.05); perceived ease of use had a significant positive effect on willingness of sharing marketing (β=0.251,t=5.418,P=0.000<0.05); perceived convenience had a significant positive effect on willingness of sharing marketing (β=0.165,t=3.804,P=0.000<0.05); enabling condition had a significant positive effect on willingness of sharing marketing (β=0.100,t=2.232,P=0.026<0.05); subjective norm had a significant positive effect on willingness of sharing marketing (β=0. 128,t=2.837,P=0.005<0.05). These indicate that the perceived ease of use of the sample for sharing marketing has the greatest impact on the willingness of sharing marketing, followed by the economic value of sharing marketing. The final model formula is:

The willingness of sharing marketing=0.473+(0.163×Economic value)+(0.140×Social value)+(0.222×Perceived ease of use)+(0.154×Perceived convenience)+(0.088×Enabling conditions)+(0.111×Subjective norms).

5 Conclusions

Based on the existing literature, we designed the questionnaire, obtained the data, and analyzed the impact of sharing marketing on the marketing willingness of employees in the Internet decoration industry. We reached the following conclusions. (i) The economic value, social value, perceived ease of use, perceived convenience, enabling conditions and subjective norms of sharing marketing will have an impact on the marketing willingness of employees in the Internet decoration industry. (ii) In the reliability and validity test, there are good results for each item of the six influencing factors. (iii) Through the correlation analysis, the test confirms that the six factors are positively correlated with employees’ marketing intention, and the correlation degree from strong to weak is: perceived ease of use, economic value, perceived convenience, social value, subjective norms and enabling conditions.