Visual Storytelling on Social Media: How Digital Gastronomic Representations Reshape Consumers’ Adoption of Homemade Culinary Products

Abstract

The phantomization of gastronomic culture has established visual storytelling as a core mechanism of digital food communication, reshaping how homemade culinary products are represented, perceived, and adopted by consumers. Grounded in the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, this study conceptualizes social media visual storytelling (SMVS) as a second-order reflective construct comprising four dimensions - visual aesthetic appeal, process narrativity, emotional resonance, and situational embodiment - and examines its impact on consumers’ adoption intention toward homemade culinary products via the parallel and serial mediation of perceived authenticity and perceived hedonic value. Data were collected from 412 social media users in Nanning, China, and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that SMVS exerts a significant positive direct effect on adoption intention. Both perceived authenticity and perceived hedonic value partially mediate the relationship, and the serial mediating pathway “SMVS - perceived authenticity - perceived hedonic value - adoption intention” is also statistically supported. This study advances digital gastronomy scholarship by unpacking the cognitive-affective processing mechanism underlying visual food representation, and provides actionable guidance for homemade culinary micro-entrepreneurs on optimizing visual content strategies.