From Agility to Advocacy: Exploring How Gender Moderates the Impact of Social Media Agility on Brand Trust and Influencing Behavior

Abstract

This research investigates the effect of perceived social media agility (P-SMA) on customers' influencing behavior, a theoretical subset of engagement behavior, with brand trust acting as a mediator and gender (male/female) as a moderator. It also explores how these relationships differ across age groups. Two online surveys were conducted: Study 1 with 165 younger participants and Study 2 with 178 adults. Using PROCESS Macro Models 4 and 7, we tested direct, mediated, and moderated mediation effects. Both studies found that P-SMA enhances brand trust, which subsequently mediates its influence on customer behavior. Study 2 confirmed these results, showing that gender moderates the relationship between P-SMA and both brand trust and influencing behavior, with stronger effects observed among females (vs. males) in both samples. The findings highlight the importance of tailoring social media strategies to gender-based engagement patterns. Crafting content and interaction styles that foster trust can improve influence and advocacy, especially when agility is a key element of the brand's digital presence. This research integrates P-SMA, brand trust, and customer influence behavior within a moderated mediation model. Using two age-diverse samples, it shows gender shapes reactions to brand agility, while age differences remain non-significant across both datasets.