As noted, much of UGCs on social media convey consumers’ beliefs, opinions, feelings, and thoughts

about brand (Smith et al., 2012) and these UGCs can serve as eWOM messages influencing other
consumers’ attitudes and behavior toward brand. The influence of brand-related UGC on consumer’s
attitudes and behavior can be explained as the influence of stimulus on organism and response
according to the S-O-R model. The S-O-R model suggests that stimuli influence the emotional and
cognitive states of a person prior to the formation of behavioral responses (Eroglu et al., 2003).
When a consumer encounters brand-related UGC on social media, the UGC acts as a stimulus to
activate internal information processing of an organism (i.e., consumer), then behavioral actions
related to the brand follow as the consumer processes the information contained in the stimulus
(i.e., UGC).

According to Bagozzi (1983), an informational input (S) provokes both emotional and cognitive states
when it contains both affective and cognitive contents. The dual activation of both emotional and
cognitive responses has been documented in Ha and Im’s (2012) investigation of the role of web site
design quality using the S-O-R model. According to Ha and Im (2012), web site design quality (S) had
a significant influence on emotional responses (i.e., pleasure, arousal) of their participants as well as
on cognitive responses (i.e., perceived quality of information).

Brand-related UGC on Facebook contains evaluation of consumption experiences, factual

information, and affect related to a brand (Chen et al., 2013; Smith et al., 2012). Thus, brand-related
UGC shared via Facebook contains both informational and emotional messages. With informational
and emotional messages both being present on Facebook, it was predicted that brand-related UGC
on Facebook is likely to evoke both emotional and cognitive responses of consumers.