Nowadays, consumers spend more time on and pay more attention to information on social media. Thus, firms are constantly concerned if marketer-generated content (MGC), consumers’ engagement with MGC and WOM could promote purchases; and if so, what kinds of MGC could grab the attention of consumers. The present study establishes a framework based on the Hierarchy of Effects model to determine the effects of two types of MGC, retweets and word-of-mouth (WOM), on consumers’ purchase intention. Data about 28 firms from 4 industries were collected, and a three-stage least squares model was employed to estimate the coefficients. Empirical results show that product-related content (PMGC) and social-related content (SMGC) could increase retweets. Retweets of PMGC could boost positive and negative WOM and also facilitate purchase intention. Retweets of SMGC could increase positive WOM and purchase intention. This study identifies the mechanism of how consumers form purchase intention from MGC, and provides new evidence for the classification of MGC.

如今，消费者花更多的时间在社交媒体上并更加关注社交媒体上的信息。因此，公司不断关注营销者生成的内容 (MGC)、消费者对 MGC 和 WOM 的参与是否会促进购买；如果是这样，什么样的MGC可以吸引消费者的注意力。本研究建立了一个基于效果层次模型的框架，以确定两种类型的 MGC，转推和口碑（WOM）对消费者购买意愿的影响。收集了来自4个行业的28家企业的数据，并采用三阶段最小二乘模型估计系数。实证结果表明，产品相关内容（PMGC）和社交相关内容（SMGC）可以增加转发量。PMGC 的转发可以提高正面和负面的口碑，也可以促进购买意愿。SMGC 的转发可以增加积极的口碑和购买意愿。本研究明确了消费者如何从MGC形成购买意愿的机制，为MGC的分类提供了新的证据。