Storytelling in the Digital Era: A Meta-Analysis of Relevant Moderators of the Narrative Transportation Effect

Abstract

In the digital era, marketers increasingly use storytelling techniques to narratively transport and persuade their customers. This paper pursues three primary objectives: (1) to integrate three digitally relevant moderators of the narrative transportation effect into the marketing literature, (2) to empirically assess the integrated model with a quantitative meta-analysis of extant research, and (3) to provide directions for marketing managers to enhance the narrative transportation effect in an evolving technological environment. The paper contributes to the field by means of a meta-analysis of 64 articles featuring 138 narrative transportation effect sizes. The research shows that the narrative transportation effect is stronger when the story falls in a commercial (vs. non-commercial) domain, is user (vs. professional) generated, and is received by one story-receiver at a time. The study concludes with implications for research and practice and directions for future research.

Keywords: Digital marketing; Meta-analysis; Narrative transportation; Story domain; Story-receiver; User-generated content

JEL Classification: M31