Measuring consumer perception of social media marketing activities in e-commerce industry: Scale development & validation

This study developed a scale for perceived social media marketing activities (SMMA) of e-commerce.Employed a blend of qualitative and quantitative research to develop the scale.The study offers implications of perceived SMMA of e-commerce for academics and managers. The internet has changed the nature of shopping in the past two decades, which has supported the proliferation of e-commerce sites and thus shopping has shifted to e-shopping. Also, customers use social media to gain information on preferred products with the best price options, as social media provides shoppers a voice, and facilitate them to interact and share their opinion worldwide. Moreover, social media is extensively adopted platform for e-commerce. Although, social media marketing has achieved wide acceptance in business, especially in e-commerce, there is no scale in the extant literature to measure perceived social media marketing activities (SMMA) in an e-commerce context. Therefore, this study develops and validates a 15-item, five-dimensional scale for measuring perceived SMMA of e-commerce based on extant literature on e-commerce and social media marketing and five different studies conducted in this research. The scale revealed comprehensive psychometric characteristics as per the results from the diverse reliability and validity checks. It was revealed that perceived SMMA positively influenced purchase intention and brand equity; which endorses the nomological validity of the developed scale. The new scale provides both theoretical as well as managerial implications along with the avenues for forthcoming research.

[1]  P. Rauschnabel,et al.  Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework , 2017 .

[2]  Margo Buchanan-Oliver,et al.  Industry and agency views of social media: Issues implementing dialogic communication , 2016 .

[3]  J. Morse.  Building Validity in Qualitative Inquiry , 2015 .

[4]  Jari Salo,et al.  Engaging consumers online through websites and social media: A gender study of Italian Generation Y clothing consumers , 2015, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[5]  Brian J. Baldus,et al.  Online brand community engagement: Scale development and validation , 2015 .

[6]  P. Bossuyt,et al.  Factors influencing long-term adherence to two previously implemented hospital guidelines. , 2010, International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care.

[7]  Zillur Rahman,et al.  Customer co-creation through social media: The case of ‘Crash the Pepsi IPL 2015’ , 2016 .

[8]  David W. Gerbing,et al.  An Updated Paradigm for Scale Development Incorporating Unidimensionality and Its Assessment , 1988 .

[9]  Zillur Rahman,et al.  The impact of online brand community characteristics on customer engagement: An application of Stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm , 2017, Telematics Informatics.

[10]  The Effect of the Well-being Consumer Value Orientations, the Perceived Value and Brand Preference on Purchase Intention of the Environment-friendly Cosmetic , 2009 .

[11]  Sumeet Gupta,et al.  What motivates customers to participate in social commerce? The impact of technological environments and virtual customer experiences , 2014, Inf. Manag..

[12]  S. Sampath,et al.  Sampling Theory And Methods , 2000 .

[13]  J. Hair.  Multivariate data analysis , 1972 .

[14]  Gilbert A. Churchill.  A Paradigm for Developing Better Measures of Marketing Constructs , 1979 .

[15]  Peter H. Reingen,et al.  Evolving Patterns of Organizational Beliefs in the Formation of Strategy , 1994 .

[16]  Nirankush Dutta,et al.  Exploring the Effect of Store Characteristics and Interpersonal Trust on Purchase Intention in the Context of Online Social Media Marketing , 2016 .

[17]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .

[18]  A. Kaplan,et al.  Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media , 2010 .

[19]  Patrick Y. K. Chau,et al.  Reexamining a Model for Evaluating Information Center Success Using a Structural Equation Modeling Approach , 1997 .

[20]  Zillur Rahman,et al.  Social media marketing: literature review and future research directions , 2017, Int. J. Bus. Inf. Syst..

[21]  J. Ivey.  Focus groups. , 2011, Pediatric nursing.

[22]  Z. Rahman,et al.  Linking Customer Engagement to Trust and Word-of-Mouth on Facebook Brand Communities: An Empirical Study , 2016 .

[23]  Mary J. Culnan,et al.  How Large U.S. Companies Can Use Twitter and Other Social Media to Gain Business Value , 2010, MIS Q. Executive.

[24]  John Hulland,et al.  Use of partial least squares (PLS) in strategic management research: a review of four recent studies , 1999 .

[25]  Efraim Turban,et al.  What Drives Social Commerce: The Role of Social Support and Relationship Quality , 2011, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[26]  Katja Hutter,et al.  The Impact of User Interactions in Social Media on Brand Awareness and Purchase Intention: The Case of MINI on Facebook , 2013 .

[27]  M. Hajli,et al.  Establishing trust in social commerce through social word of mouth , 2013, 7th International Conference on e-Commerce in Developing Countries:with focus on e-Security.

[28]  Hyunsun Park,et al.  Effects of various characteristics of social commerce (s-commerce) on consumers' trust and trust performance , 2013, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[29]  Bin Wang,et al.  From virtual community members to C2C e-commerce buyers: Trust in virtual communities and its effect on consumers' purchase intention , 2010, Electron. Commer. Res. Appl..

[30]  Dhruv Grewal,et al.  Understanding social media effects across seller, retailer, and consumer interactions , 2013, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

[31]  Hsi-Peng Lu,et al.  Persuasive messages, popularity cohesion, and message diffusion in social media marketing , 2015 .

[32]  Janet Mancini Billson,et al.  Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research , 1989 .

[33]  Weiguo Fan,et al.  Social Presence, Trust, and Social Commerce Purchase Intention: an Empirical Research , 2016, PACIS.

[34]  Susan Spiggle.  Analysis and Interpretation of Qualitative Data in Consumer Research , 1994 .

[35]  Jason W. Osborne,et al.  Best practices in exploratory factor analysis: four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis. , 2005 .

[36]  Maeve Duggan,et al.  Social Media Update 2016 , 2016 .

[37]  D. Hoffman,et al.  Social Commerce: A Contingency Framework for Assessing Marketing Potential , 2013 .

[38]  RahmanZillur,et al.  Measuring consumer perception of social media marketing activities in e-commerce industry , 2017 .

[39]  Bruno S. Silvestre,et al.  Social Media? Get Serious! Understanding the Functional Building Blocks of Social Media , 2011 .

[40]  Subhash Sharma,et al.  Consumer Ethnocentrism: Construction and Validation of the CETSCALE: , 1987 .

[41]  F DeVellis.Robert,et al.  SCALE DEVELOPMENT Theory and Applications Third Edition , 2012 .

[42]  M. Lombard,et al.  Content Analysis in Mass Communication: Assessment and Reporting of Intercoder Reliability , 2002 .

[43]  B. D. Guillet,et al.  Investigation of Social Media Marketing: How Does the Hotel Industry in Hong Kong Perform in Marketing on Social Media Websites? , 2011 .

[44]  A. Ismail.  The influence of perceived social media marketing activities on brand loyalty: The mediation effect of brand and value consciousness , 2017 .

[45]  Zhao Huang,et al.  From e-commerce to social commerce: A close look at design features , 2013, Electron. Commer. Res. Appl..

[46]  Chee Wei Phang,et al.  Leveraging social media for electronic commerce in Asia: Research areas and opportunities , 2015, Electron. Commer. Res. Appl..

[47]  Lingli Wang,et al.  E-WOM from e-commerce websites and social media: Which will consumers adopt? , 2016, Electron. Commer. Res. Appl..

[48]  Ismail Erkan,et al.  Social media or shopping websites? The influence of eWOM on consumers’ online purchase intentions , 2018 .

[49]  Nick Hajli.  The role of social support on relationship quality and social commerce , 2014 .

[50]  Mayank Yadav.  Social Media as a Marketing Tool : Opportunities and Challenges , 2017 .

[51]  Hsiu-Fang Hsieh,et al.  Three Approaches to Qualitative Content Analysis , 2005, Qualitative health research.

[52]  Mahmood Hajli,et al.  A research framework for social commerce adoption , 2013, Inf. Manag. Comput. Secur..

[53]  David J. Faulds,et al.  Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix , 2009 .

[54]  Ajay Aluri,et al.  The Influence of Embedded Social Media Channels on Travelers’ Gratifications, Satisfaction, and Purchase Intentions , 2016 .

[55]  Hsu-Hsien Chi.  Interactive Digital Advertising vs. Virtual Brand Community , 2011 .

[56]  C. Grönroos.  Keynote paper From marketing mix to relationship marketing ‐ towards a paradigm shift in marketing , 1994 .

[57]  Ruth N. Bolton,et al.  Understanding Generation Y and their use of social media: a review and research agenda , 2013 .

[58]  Héctor San Martín,et al.  Influence of the user's psychological factors on the online purchase intention in rural tourism: integrating innovativeness to the UTAUT framework. , 2012 .

[59]  Angella J. Kim,et al.  Impacts of Luxury Fashion Brand’s Social Media Marketing on Customer Relationship and Purchase Intention , 2010 .

[60]  Angella J. Kim,et al.  Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand , 2012 .

[61]  Julian M. Sims,et al.  Social commerce: The transfer of power from sellers to buyers , 2015 .

[62]  C. MacPhail,et al.  Process guidelines for establishing Intercoder Reliability in qualitative studies , 2016 .

[63]  Efraim Turban,et al.  Introduction to the Special Issue Social Commerce: A Research Framework for Social Commerce , 2011, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[64]  Bashar S. Gammoh,et al.  Characteristics of social-media marketing strategy and customer-based brand equity outcomes: a conceptual model , 2015 .

[65]  C. Grönroos.  From Marketing Mix to Relationship Marketing , 2012 .

[66]  Mahmood Hajli,et al.  Social commerce constructs and consumer's intention to buy , 2015, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[67]  Stuart W. Shulman,et al.  Rigor and flexibility in computer-based qualitative research: Introducing the Coding Analysis Toolkit , 2008 .

[68]  Bruno Godey,et al.  Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer behavior , 2016 .

[69]  Naresh K Malhotra And Satyabhushan Dash.  Marketing Research An Applied Orientation , 2015 .

[70]  Sarah J. S. Wilner,et al.  Networked Narratives: Understanding Word-of-Mouth Marketing in Online Communities , 2009 .

[71]  Jae-On Kim,et al.  Introduction to Factor Analysis: What It Is and How To Do It , 1978 .

[72]  R. Brodie,et al.  Consumer Brand Engagement in Social Media: Conceptualization, Scale Development and Validation , 2014 .

[73]  R. Weber.  Basic Content Analysis , 1986 .

[74]  P. Verhoef,et al.  The Role of Consumer Confidence in Creating Customer Loyalty , 2014 .

[75]  Deborah C. Fowler,et al.  Social Media Marketing: Applying the Uses and Gratifications Theory in the Hotel Industry , 2016 .

[76]  Ann M. Taubenheim,et al.  Using Social Media and Internet Marketing to Reach Women with The Heart Truth , 2008 .

[77]  Olivier Toubia,et al.  Deriving Value from Social Commerce Networks , 2009 .

[78]  K. Kurasaki,et al.  Intercoder Reliability for Validating Conclusions Drawn from Open-Ended Interview Data , 2000 .