An integrated model of social media brand engagement

Abstract Despite the increasing use of social media sites to engage consumers, the consumer brand engagement construct is still in its infancy. This study aims to contribute to existing social media research by proposing and empirically testing a model in which social media brand involvement and social media brand communication are the main precursors and brand relationship quality is a relevant outcome of social media brand engagement. The findings show that the influence of social media brand involvement on social media brand engagement is stronger than the influence of social media brand communication. The latter is due to the co-creation of users and firms. Furthermore, interaction and attention are the most relevant components of social media brand engagement, followed by enthusiasm, identification, and absorption. Social media brand engagement is a useful tool for companies to gain competitive advantages. Thus, the findings could help firms better manage their social media tools in the context of social media communication.

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

[2]  Camiel J. Beukeboom,et al.  A stage to engage: Social media use and corporate reputation , 2015 .

[3]  J. Bowden.  Customer Engagement: A Framework for Assessing Customer-Brand Relationships: The Case of the Restaurant Industry , 2009 .

[4]  Alain Yee-Loong Chong,et al.  An updated and expanded assessment of PLS-SEM in information systems research , 2017, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[5]  Ian Lings,et al.  The influence of internal communication on employee engagement: A pilot study , 2015 .

[6]  D. Schultz,et al.  Social media's slippery slope: challenges, opportunities and future research directions , 2013 .

[7]  Marko Sarstedt,et al.  Using Partial Least Squares Path Modeling in Advertising Research: Basic Concepts and Recent Issues , 2012 .

[8]  R. Brodie,et al.  Consumer engagement in a virtual brand community: An exploratory analysis , 2013 .

[9]  Victoria L. Crittenden,et al.  We're all connected: The power of the social media ecosystem , 2011 .

[10]  R. Morgan,et al.  Customer Engagement: Exploring Customer Relationships Beyond Purchase , 2012 .

[11]  Bruno Schivinski,et al.  The impact of brand communication on brand equity through Facebook , 2015 .

[12]  P. Aurier,et al.  Identification and validation of the components of the person-object relationship , 1996 .

[13]  R. Morgan,et al.  Customer advocacy and the impact of B2B loyalty programs , 2008 .

[14]  Jacob Cohen,et al.  A power primer. , 1992, Psychological bulletin.

[15]  Marko Sarstedt,et al.  Testing measurement invariance of composites using partial least squares , 2016 .

[16]  Margee Hume,et al.  Examining the Covert Nature of Product Placement: Implications for Public Policy , 2010 .

[17]  G. Thevenot.  Blogging as a Social Media , 2007 .

[18]  P. Bentler,et al.  Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis : Conventional criteria versus new alternatives , 1999 .

[19]  Colleen M. Harmeling,et al.  Toward a theory of customer engagement marketing , 2017 .

[20]  George Anghelcev,et al.  Unintended effects of incentivizing consumers to recommend a favorite brand , 2015 .

[21]  C. Veloutsou,et al.  Consumer engagement in online brand communities: a social media perspective , 2015 .

[22]  Kevin Lane Keller,et al.  Integrating Marketing Communications: New Findings, New Lessons, and New Ideas , 2016 .

[23]  Jennifer Edson Escalas,et al.  You Are What They Eat: The Influence of Reference Groups on Consumers’ Connections to Brands , 2003 .

[24]  Mohammad Reza Habibi,et al.  The effects of social media based brand communities on brand community markers, value creation practices, brand trust and brand loyalty , 2012, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[25]  S. Fournier,et al.  The Uninvited Brand , 2010 .

[26]  Dale Miller,et al.  An integrated model of customer-brand engagement: Drivers and consequences , 2016 .

[27]  Mary Welch,et al.  Chapter 69: The evolution of the employee engagement concept: communication implications , 2011 .

[28]  James W. Peltier,et al.  Social media and consumer engagement: a review and research agenda , 2016 .

[29]  Jamie Carlson,et al.  Examining the drivers and brand performance implications of customer engagement with brands in the social media environment , 2014 .

[30]  Manuel J. Sánchez-Franco,et al.  Variance-Based Structural Equation Modeling: Guidelines for Using Partial Least Squares in Information Systems Research , 2012 .

[31]  S. Hudson,et al.  The effects of social media on emotions, brand relationship quality, and word of mouth: An empirical study of music festival attendees , 2015 .

[32]  Sharon E. Beatty,et al.  A Generalized Multidimensional Scale for Measuring Customer Engagement , 2014 .

[33]  Benedikt Jahn,et al.  How to Transform Consumers into Fans of Your Brand , 2012 .

[34]  Jollean K. Sinclaire,et al.  Adoption of social networking sites: an exploratory adaptive structuration perspective for global organizations , 2011, Inf. Technol. Manag..

[35]  L. Hollebeek.  Demystifying customer brand engagement: Exploring the loyalty nexus , 2011 .

[36]  Mary W. Sullivan,et al.  The Measurement and Determinants of Brand Equity: A Financial Approach , 1993 .

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

[38]  M. Bruhn,et al.  Are social media replacing traditional media in terms of brand equity creation , 2012 .

[39]  Kerk F. Kee,et al.  Being Immersed in Social Networking Environment: Facebook Groups, Uses and Gratifications, and Social Outcomes , 2009, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[40]  Peter H. Bloch,et al.  After the New Wears Off: The Temporal Context of Product Involvement , 1986 .

[41]  R. Brodie,et al.  Customer Engagement , 2011 .

[42]  Billy Bai,et al.  Hotel social media marketing: a study on message strategy and its effectiveness , 2017 .

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

[44]  Kevin Kam Fung So,et al.  Customer Engagement With Tourism Brands , 2014 .

[45]  C. W. Park,et al.  Consumer Response to Television Commercials: The Impact of Involvement and Background Music on Brand Attitude Formation: , 1986 .

[46]  A. Dwivedi.  A higher-order model of consumer brand engagement and its impact on loyalty intentions , 2015 .

[47]  Robin A. Coulter,et al.  Rethinking the Origins of Involvement and Brand Commitment: Insights from Postsocialist Central Europe , 2003 .

[48]  Antonio L. Leal-Rodríguez,et al.  Impact of Organizational Culture Values on Organizational Agility , 2017 .

[49]  C. W. Park,et al.  Brand Attachment and Brand Attitude Strength: Conceptual and Empirical Differentiation of Two Critical Brand Equity Drivers , 2010 .

[50]  Jörg Henseler,et al.  Consistent Partial Least Squares Path Modeling , 2015, MIS Q..

[51]  Stephen L. Vargo,et al.  The evolving brand logic: a service-dominant logic perspective , 2009 .

[52]  Lerzan Aksoy,et al.  Undervalued or Overvalued Customers: Capturing Total Customer Engagement Value , 2010 .

[53]  Marko Sarstedt,et al.  PLS-SEM: Indeed a Silver Bullet , 2011 .

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

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

[56]  Shintaro Okazaki,et al.  Social media and international advertising: Theoretical challenges and future directions , 2013 .

[57]  Eugene D. Jaffe,et al.  Ethical Dimensioins of Advertising Executions , 1998 .

[58]  A. Herrmann,et al.  The Social Influence of Brand Community: Evidence from European Car Clubs , 2005 .

[59]  Geoffrey S. Hubona,et al.  Using PLS path modeling in new technology research: updated guidelines , 2016, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[60]  D. Merunka,et al.  Brand passion: Antecedents and consequences , 2013 .

[61]  Ebru Uzunoglu,et al.  Brand communication through digital influencers: Leveraging blogger engagement , 2014, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[62]  Katherine N. Lemon,et al.  Customer Engagement Behavior: Theoretical Foundations and Research Directions , 2010 .

[63]  Morgan P. Miles,et al.  Customer engagement with tourism social media brands , 2017 .

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

[65]  R. Bagozzi,et al.  On the evaluation of structural equation models , 1988 .

[66]  Edward E. Rigdon,et al.  On Comparing Results from CB-SEM and PLS-SEM: Five Perspectives and Five Recommendations , 2017 .

[67]  Marko Sarstedt,et al.  Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM): An emerging tool in business research , 2014 .

[68]  Laurence Dessart,et al.  Consumer engagement in online brand communities , 2015 .

[69]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. , 2003, The Journal of applied psychology.

[70]  Wynne W. Chin.  How to Write Up and Report PLS Analyses , 2010 .

[71]  A. A. Mitchell,et al.  Involvement: a Potentially Important Mediator of Consumer Behavior , 1979 .

[72]  Daniel Heinrich,et al.  Consumer Brand Relationships Research: A Bibliometric Citation Meta-Analysis , 2015 .

[73]  James W. Peltier,et al.  Omni-channel marketing, integrated marketing communications and consumer engagement: A research agenda , 2017 .

[74]  L. Men,et al.  Motivations and Antecedents of Consumer Engagement With Brand Pages on Social Networking Sites , 2013 .

[75]  S. Fournier,et al.  Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research , 1998 .

[76]  Teresa Correa,et al.  Who interacts on the Web?: The intersection of users' personality and social media use , 2010, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[77]  F. Bronner,et al.  Brand relationship quality and its value for personal contact. , 2007 .

[78]  Joseph F. Hair,et al.  Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM): An emerging tool in business research , 2014 .

[79]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  Specifying Formative Constructs in Information Systems Research , 2007, MIS Q..

[80]  C. W. Park,et al.  The Ties That Bind: Measuring the Strength of Consumers’ Emotional Attachments to Brands , 2005 .

[81]  H. Wilson,et al.  Engagement, telepresence and interactivity in online consumer experience: Reconciling scholastic and managerial perspectives , 2010 .

[82]  Lixuan Zhang,et al.  Drivers and Outcomes of Brand Relationship Quality in the Context of Online Social Networks , 2013, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[83]  P. M. Podsakoff,et al.  Self-Reports in Organizational Research: Problems and Prospects , 1986 .

[84]  E. Jaakkola,et al.  The Role of Customer Engagement Behavior in Value Co-Creation , 2014 .

[85]  J. Henseler.  Bridging Design and Behavioral Research With Variance-Based Structural Equation Modeling , 2017 .

[86]  V. Kumar,et al.  Customer engagement: the construct, antecedents, and consequences , 2016, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

[87]  J. Zaichkowsky.  Measuring the Involvement Construct , 1985 .

[88]  Guendalina Graffigna,et al.  The Concept of Engagement: A Systematic Analysis of the Ongoing Marketing Debate , 2010 .

[89]  Richard L. Celsi,et al.  The Role of Involvement in Attention and Comprehension Processes , 1988 .

[90]  Wynne W. Chin,et al.  The case of partial least squares (PLS) path modeling in managerial accounting research , 2017 .

[91]  Shih-Ping Jeng,et al.  The influences of airline brand credibility on consumer purchase intentions , 2016 .

[92]  Edward E. Rigdon,et al.  Choosing PLS path modeling as analytical method in European management research: A realist perspective , 2016 .

[93]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  A Practical Guide To Factorial Validity Using PLS-Graph: Tutorial And Annotated Example , 2005, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[94]  R. M. Cain.  Embedded Advertising on Television: Disclosure, Deception, and Free Speech Rights , 2011 .

[95]  Naveen Donthu,et al.  An examination of selected marketing mix elements and brand equity , 2000 .

[96]  S. Czellár,et al.  The Importance of a General Measure of Brand Engagement on Market Behavior: Development and Validation of a Scale , 2009 .

[97]  Sanne Kruikemeier,et al.  Consumer responses to promoted tweets sent by brands and political parties , 2016, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[98]  Youn-Kyung Kim,et al.  The role of social network websites in the consumer–brand relationship , 2014 .

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

[100]  J. Zaichkowsky.  The Personal Involvement Inventory: Reduction, Revision, and Application to Advertising , 1994 .

[101]  Roberto Chierici,et al.  Social vs traditional media communication: brand origin associations strike a chord , 2017 .

[102]  Caslav Koprivica,et al.  The concept of engagement , 2020, Filozofija i drustvo.

[103]  Tenko Raykov,et al.  Thanks Coefficient Alpha, We Still Need You! , 2019, Educational and psychological measurement.

[104]  Joseph F. Hair,et al.  Estimation issues with PLS and CBSEM: Where the bias lies! ☆ , 2016 .

[105]  Doori Song,et al.  When brand-related UGC induces effectiveness on social media: the role of content sponsorship and content type , 2018, Electronic Word of Mouth as a Promotional Technique.

[106]  Martin Wetzels,et al.  Hierarchical latent variable models in PLS-SEM: guidelines for using reflective-formative type models , 2012 .