新媒体的蓬勃发展赋予了CEO一个重要的新角色，即“企业外交官”角色。本研究希望引起营销界对CEO这个新角色的关注。我们将以态度说服领域的“双途径”理论和沟通学理论为基础框架，采用定性与定量相结合，实验室数据与微博客观数据相结合的综合研究方法，从微博内容、语言、互动尝试三个方面，探索与总结CEO作为企业外交官应如何使用微博这一社交媒体平台与消费者有效互动沟通。本研究将使用消费者契合来衡量消费者与CEO微博的互动体验质量，探究CEO不同的微博使用风格对消费者契合的作用机制，包括微博内容与语言因素对消费者契合的双途径作用机制、互动尝试在核心途径的调节效应、信息源感知在外围途径的中介效应。本研究能进一步明确消费者契合的前因变量，丰富已有消费者契合理论的内涵，加深消费者互动体验的理论研究，拓展“双途径”说服理论的应用边界；并且帮助企业设计出更有效的微博战略，更好地利用新媒体与消费者互动沟通。

This research aims to draw the attention of both marketing practitioners and academics to the potentially influential role of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) as ambassadors of their firms on social media. In particular, building on "dual-process" theories and the study of message features in persuasion, this research will adopt a mixed methods approach to explore the ways in which CEOs use microblogs in dialogue with consumers and to measure the effectiveness of such efforts in creating better consumer interactive experience through engagement. The main objective is to understand how specific microblogging factors affect and/or interact to generate particular consumer engagement levels, in particular, the "dual-process" mechanism involving microblog content and language variables, the moderating effect of microblog interactiveness, and the mediating role of consumer perception of the source...This study will make three specific contributions to the emergent research area on consumer experience and behavior within an interactive social media environment. First, by identifying and testing various firm-related engagement antecedents. Second, by providing a comprehensive conceptualization of consumer engagement in a microblogging context, and finally by broadening the application scope of "dual-process" persuasion theories. The study’s research findings will also offer clear prescriptions for corporate marketing communicators in designing effective microblogging strategies to capitalize on the capabilities of social media in engaging consumers.