User and Firm Generated Content on Online Social Media: A Review and Research Directions

Social media communication content has gained a lot of interest in e-commerce literature. The present research note explores the scope of social media communication content across content source and levels of analysis. Based on a comprehensive review of 36 empirical papers spanning a decade 2004-2016, the research in social media content source is divided as user generated and firm generated. The levels of analysis are divided into three groups: users and society, platforms and intermediaries and firms and industries. Subsequently, a grid with six cells is created that has the content source user/firm on one axis and level of analysis on the other. The findings reveal communication content across users and society to be the most researched area, whereas, platforms and intermediaries being the least researched. Further, a set of future research questions are proposed for content in social media across various levels of analysis.