Abstract: The launching of new products is important for the success of a firm. Nowadays, official brand pages have become one of the main channels to launch new products because of the low cost and high controllability. Firm-generated content (FGC) is a potential signal of product quality and product brand, which gradually turns into the key information for companies to launch new products. In case of the market launch of new products, this study investigates the effect of FGC effectiveness on purchase intention. The online experiment was conducted and data were collected from 423 brand followers on Sina Weibo. The structural equation modeling was used to empirically test the proposed conceptual framework. Findings of the direct effects of the research show that emotional appeal positively affects purchase intention. Informativeness and emotional appeal are the important predictors of the perceived quality and brand attitude, and further influence purchase intention. This study also demonstrates that the perceived quality has a positive impact on the brand attitude, showing that the perceived quality and brand attitude sequentially mediate the effects of FGC effectiveness on purchase intention. The results implicate that a firm should not only serve as an information provider but also serve more as an emotional provider.

Key words: new product launching, firm-generated content, perceived quality, brand attitude, purchase intention