Consumer participation and gender differences on companies’ microblogs: A brand attachment process perspective

•We examine consumer participation and gender differences on companies’ microblogs.•We find that participation is predicted by trust and commitment.•Self-congruence and partner quality are found to affect trust and commitment.•The effects of self-congruence and trust are stronger for male consumers.•The effects of partner quality and commitment are stronger for female consumers. This paper presents a research model to explicate that the level of consumers’ participation on companies’ brand microblogs is influenced by their brand attachment process. That is, self-congruence and partner quality affect consumers’ trust and commitment toward companies’ brands, which in turn influence participation on brand microblogs. Further, we propose that gender has important moderating effects in our research model. We empirically test the research hypotheses through an online survey. The findings illustrate that self-congruence and partner quality have positive effects on trust and commitment. Trust affects commitment and participation, while participation is also influenced by commitment. More importantly, the effects of self-congruence on trust and commitment are found to be stronger for male consumers than females. In contrast, the effects of partner quality on trust and commitment are stronger for female consumers than males. Trust posits stronger effects on commitment and participation for males, while commitment has a stronger effect on participation for females. We believe that our findings contribute to the literature on consumer participation behavior and gender differences on brand microblogs. Companies can also apply our findings to strengthen their brand building and participation level of different consumers on their microblogs.