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Consumer Brand Engagement in Social Media: Conceptualization, Scale Development and Validation
Abstract
In the last three decades, an influential research stream has emerged which highlights the dynamics of focal consumer/brand relationships. Specifically, more recently the ‘consumer brand engagement’ (CBE) concept has been postulated to more comprehensively reflect the nature of consumers' particular interactive brand relationships, relative to traditional concepts, including ‘involvement.’ However, despite the growing scholarly interest regarding the undertaking of marketing research addressing ‘engagement,’ studies have been predominantly exploratory in nature, thus generating a lack of empirical research in this area to date. By developing and validating a CBE scale in specific social media settings, we address this identified literature gap. Specifically, we conceptualize CBE as a consumer's positively valenced brand-related cognitive, emotional and behavioral activity during or related to focal consumer/brand interactions. We derive three CBE dimensions, including cognitive processing, affection, and activation. Within three different social media contexts, we employ exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to develop a reliable, 10-item CBE scale, which we proceed to validate within a nomological net of conceptual relationships and a rival model. The findings suggest that while consumer brand ‘involvement’ acts as a CBE antecedent, consumer ‘self-brand connection’ and ‘brand usage intent’ represent key CBE consequences, thus providing a platform for further research in this emerging area. We conclude with an overview of key managerial and scholarly implications arising from this research.
... Consumer brand engagement, hereinafter referred to as CBE, is a psychological condition of consumers that shows their passion for a brand as a result of the strength of the relationship between consumers and the brand (Brodie et al., 2011). As a result of the psychological process, of course CBE involves various activities such as cognitive and emotional within the framework of consumer behavior in relation to the strong interaction between consumers and brands (Hollebeek et al., 2014). As a dynamic process, CBE requires consumers to actively participate in activities carried out by a brand, including interaction with brand content, providing positive brand reviews, sharing experiences and contributing to the brand community (Brodie et al., 2011;Hollebeek, 2012;Hollebeek et al., 2014;Sadiq et al., 2023). ...
... As a result of the psychological process, of course CBE involves various activities such as cognitive and emotional within the framework of consumer behavior in relation to the strong interaction between consumers and brands (Hollebeek et al., 2014). As a dynamic process, CBE requires consumers to actively participate in activities carried out by a brand, including interaction with brand content, providing positive brand reviews, sharing experiences and contributing to the brand community (Brodie et al., 2011;Hollebeek, 2012;Hollebeek et al., 2014;Sadiq et al., 2023). To measure CBE, a measurement scale has been developed that is formed by dimensions including brand participation, brand identification, and adoption of brand values (Hollebeek et al., 2014). ...
... As a dynamic process, CBE requires consumers to actively participate in activities carried out by a brand, including interaction with brand content, providing positive brand reviews, sharing experiences and contributing to the brand community (Brodie et al., 2011;Hollebeek, 2012;Hollebeek et al., 2014;Sadiq et al., 2023). To measure CBE, a measurement scale has been developed that is formed by dimensions including brand participation, brand identification, and adoption of brand values (Hollebeek et al., 2014). ...
The relationship between social media marketing, brand engagement, brand family, and brand loyalty are multifaceted and complex. Social media platforms have become pivotal in shaping consumer-brand interactions, influencing brand loyalty. This research examines the pattern of relationships between the above variables, using a total of 183 respondents. The analysis using PLS revealed several interesting findings regarding the relationships among the variables. Social media marketing has a positive impact on both brand engagement and brand familiarity, but it does not affect customer loyalty. Meanwhile, brand engagement and brand familiarity have a positive impact on customer loyalty. On the other hand, there is no direct influence of SMM on customer loyalty.
... This may be the result of customer engagement and frequency of exposure with social media. Customer engagement can define as customers' active participation and interaction with advertisement on social media interface, where frequency is the number of times the brand posts and updates and reaches to same customer (Hollebeek et al., 2014;Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). These factors not only enhance brand overall visibility but also develop a deeper connection between target customers and how they perceive the products in the advertisement, eventually influencing purchasing decisions. ...
... For this to take place it is especially important that marketing strategies should be designed in a way that persistently able to engage and attributes of engagement on social media is the interactions between products and possible consumers including likes, comments, shares, and direct messages. Frequency, on the other hand, describes the pace with which companies publish and change their materials (Hollebeek et al., 2014;Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). ...
... Engagement : The concept of customer engagement for social media marketing is a complex interaction that encompasses multifaceted processes of advertisement to communicate message to the customer and seek responses. According to Hollebeek et al. (2014) consumer engagement as a psychological state characterized by anticipation, passion, and active participation in brand interactions. Satisfied customers with high satisfaction level are more likely to spread to increase level of engagement and spread good word-of-mouth (Dessart et al., 2015). ...
The study investigates how social media marketing impacts consumers' purchase intentions and whether such relationship could be moderated by various social factors. Social media marketing effect are determined through likes, comments, sharing, interaction time with users, response time, and emerged as a major determinant of purchase intentions. Nevertheless, the effect of engagement on purchase intentions may not be homogeneous and may be moderated by contextual factors, in current study perspective; social factors such as peer influence, family influence, and cultural background. It is hypothesized that increasing levels of social media exposure and engagement generally lead to strong purchase intentions; however, the strength and direction of an effect like this are contingent upon the moderating influence of peer, family, and cultural factors. Around 300 questionnaires were distributed among individuals between the ages of 20 and 25 years with literacy rate of at least twelve grades were selected through random sampling. The analysis showed that the moderators have positive significant influence on customer purchase intentions.
... Digital marketing serves as the catalyst for initiating, fostering, and nurturing consumer engagement [20]. Through various online channels like social media, websites, mobile apps, and email campaigns, digital marketing endeavors to establish connections, create compelling content, and offer interactive experiences tailored to the preferences of the target audience [21]. ...
... Similarly, M Abou-Shouk and Soliman [38] found the mediating role of CE in the relationship between gamification adoption intention and brand awareness as well as loyalty. In another study, Hollebeek, Glynn, and Brodie [21] investigated CE's mediating function, revealing its mediation between brand involvement and self-brand connection as well as brand usage intent within social media domains. However, there is a gap in exploring CE's potential as a mediator in the relationship between digital marketing facets (specifically, interactivity, ubiquity, credibility) and brand loyalty. ...
This study examines how digital marketing characteristics—namely interactivity, ubiquity, and credibility—affect green consumer brand engagement and loyalty in Nigeria’s five-star hotel industry. This study advances relationship marketing and social exchange theory by demonstrating how interactivity, ubiquity, and credibility in digital marketing foster green consumer brand engagement, ultimately boosting brand loyalty. The analysis, based on responses from 304 hotel guests, reveals a strong positive relationship between each digital marketing element and green consumer brand engagement, which subsequently enhances brand loyalty. Our findings demonstrate that green consumer brand engagement serves as a mediator between digital marketing characteristics and brand loyalty, emphasizing that engagement with environmental values plays a crucial role in fostering loyalty in the luxury hotel sector. These insights inform digital marketing strategies aimed at maximizing sustainable consumer engagement, providing a foundation for loyalty-driven practices within hospitality.
... For instance, the digital revolution provided a powerful tool to boost this transformation in the "traditional" consumer-brand relationship, forcing brands to chase consumers on the Internet and social media (Vernuccio et al., 2015). In addition, those new types of relationships reformed the bases for a new company and marketing goals that emerged in the 2010s, such as consumer-brand engagement (Brodie et al., 2011;Hollebeek et al., 2014;Rossi, 2016Rossi, , 2017Sestino et al., 2023) and brand love (Vernuccio et al., 2015). ...
... Companies are always looking for new strategies to engage their customers to achieve higher customer loyalty as earning loyalty is easier with the proper level of consumer engagement (Khan et al., 2022). Moreover, creating brand loyalty has become more complex and sensitive over time, considering the easier ways consumers may switch from one brand to another thanks to digital technologies (Hollebeek et al., 2014;Rather et al., 2022a). Brand loyalty is not only about repeating purchases from the same brand as "real" loyalty is expressed by the everlasting preference for a specific brand compared to its competitors' value propositions (e.g., Aggarwal, 2004;Rather et al., 2022d;Vernuccio et al., 2015). ...
There has been a significant growth in the service sector in recent years. In addition to the growth in the service sector, the critical role played by services in the development of the manufacturing sector may signal that many manufacturing businesses are moving toward providing quality and efficient services. One of the critical points of delivering a quality and effective service is to create loyal customers, provide engagement, and make innovation because while other sectors are more product innovation-based, service works process-based. Creating brand loyalty and consumer engagement and being an innovator enable retaining existing customers, protecting companies against competitors, and contributing to their financial values. On the other hand, creating brand loyalty has become more complex and sensitive. For this reason, it is crucial to examine the issue in terms of services and different service sectors. In this part of the book, service trends, brand co-creation, service brand innovation, and customer–brand relationships in tourism are evaluated, and examples of business practices are discussed.
... The more time consumers spend in metaverse retailing, the stickier they are thought to be in this context (Hollebeek et al., 2014;So et al., 2024), which in turn fortifies the effect of their perceived social presence of others in this environment (Francescato et al., 2006). Consumers' increased attachment to metaverse retailing will make them more familiar with these environments, leading to more positive evaluations and attitudes toward it . ...
... Second, we also attained empirical support for the proposed moderating effects. Based on these results, we recommend metaverse retailers to cultivate consumers' stickiness on their platforms (e.g., by stimulating their enduring cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement that sees consumers' extensive personal resource investments in their interactions with brands in the metaverse (Hollebeek et al., 2019(Hollebeek et al., , 2014. Moreover, the accompaniment of friends in metaverse retailing can be stimulated by designing interactive, communal, and/or shared metaverse retailing interfaces and formats (Arya et al., 2024), including through interactive, communal, and/or shared metaverse retailing interfaces. ...
As an integration of cutting-edge digital technologies, the metaverse is set to revolutionize online retailing. This study employed a well-established metaverse automotive retailing platform in China to explore the paths influencing consumers' purchase intention when shopping in the metaverse. We adopted structural equation modeling to analyze the data obtained from 348 respondents who were planning to shop for a new car in the metaverse in China. The findings showed that the perceived social presence of others positively influences consumers' purchase intention, as mediated by their metaverse identification. Moreover, consumer stickiness and the accompaniment of friends were found to positively moderate the effect of perceived social presence on metaverse identification in metaverse retailing. Likewise, product type positively moderated the effect of metaverse identification on purchase intention. Specifically, when consumers intended to purchase environmentally-friendly (vs. unfriendly) vehicles, a stronger positive impact of metaverse identification on purchase intention was observed. The results provide valuable insight for metaverse retailers.
... The "Missing You" approach in marketing means a paradigm shift that helps turn negative FOMO into positive, leading to customer satisfaction and lifetime loyalty. It aligns with affirmation strategies based on commitment, customer value creation, and customer empathy, focusing on the long-term relationship rather than the standard deterioration strategy that relies on fear and scarcity (Hollebeek et al., 2014). ...
... The "Missing You" strategy of marketing aims at shifting the narrative from negative FOMO that companies create while customers engage in other businesses to making the customer miss the company and therefore come back. Concisely, it is possible to argue that by adopting values such as authenticity, empathy, and emphasis on long-term consumer relationships, brands can respond to the customers' need to identify themselves by their underlying psychological needs and values (Fredrickson, 2001;Hollebeek et al., 2014). Besides, it helps to reduce the negative emotions associated with FOMO and works in line with sustainable and responsible marketing, which is rather important for the growth of a business based on the increased level of customer satisfaction and loyalty. ...
This study examines the challenges inherent in debt financing and proposes equity financing as a strategic solution. Issues under debt financing, including financial strain, default risk, substantial interest costs, and restrictive covenants, are analysed. Equity financing is presented as a remedy, allowing businesses to raise capital without incurring debt, reducing financial strain, and eliminating interest costs. The study emphasises equity financing's capacity to enhance financial flexibility, share risks through ownership, foster strategic partnerships, and provide resilience in economic downturns. It concludes by underscoring the need for businesses to align their financial structures with specific needs, acknowledging the trade-offs between debt and equity financing. This exploration invites future research into industry-specific analyses, macroeconomic influences, and hybrid financing models to refine financial strategies. Overall, the study advocates for a nuanced understanding of financing mechanisms to foster sustainable and resilient business practices.
... Previous studies predominantly focused on descriptive analytics or simple predictive models without delving into the intricacies of ER forecasting using advanced time series models like ARIMA. Furthermore, while some research has explored general social media metrics, there is a paucity of studies that specifically leverage ARIMA to forecast ER across multiple platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook, over an extended period (Hollebeek et al., 2014). This study fills this gap by not only applying the ARIMA model to predict ER but also by rigorously evaluating its performance through metrics like mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and symmetric mean absolute percentage error (sMAPE). ...
... It refers to the interactions that occur between a brand and its audience on social media platforms. These interactions can take various forms, such as likes, comments, shares, and mentions, and are often collectively measured using a metric known as the ER (Hollebeek et al., 2014). According to research (Trunfio and Rossi, 2021), engagement is defined as a consumer's positively brand-related cognitive, emotional, and behavioural activity during or related to focal consumer/brand interactions. ...
This study analyses social media engagement on X Company's Instagram and Facebook pages, forecasting the engagement rate (ER) using the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model based on 2 years of data. The objectives were to understand social media behaviour, develop and evaluate an ARIMA model for ER forecasting, and develop a predictive social media dashboard. Findings revealed high predictability for both Instagram and Facebook ER data, though the high mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and symmetric mean absolute percentage error (sMAPE) indicated room for improvement. Using business intelligence tools (Power BI), the study has developed an interactive dashboard for real-time insights and reliable forecasts, enhancing social media management for X Company. Continuous monitoring and adjustment of strategies based on actual ER values are recommended due to possible real-world changes.
... Social media marketing strategies are essential for businesses aiming to engage consumers and influence their purchasing behavior. One common strategy is content marketing, where businesses create engaging posts, videos, or blogs that resonate with their audience, leading to increased brand awareness and consumer trust (Hollebeek, 2020). Another approach is influencer marketing, where businesses collaborate with popular figures on platforms like Instagram or TikTok to promote products, significantly impacting consumer buying decisions through social proof (Boerman, 2020). ...
... These social media strategies directly influence consumer purchasing behavior by creating personalized, relatable, and engaging experiences. Content marketing builds brand trust, which 80% of consumers consider when making purchasing decisions (Hollebeek, 2020). Influencer marketing taps into social proof, as consumers are 71% more likely to purchase based on recommendations from trusted influencers (Boerman, 2020). ...
Purpose: The aim of the study was to analyze the impact of social media marketing on consumers in Philippines. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: The impact of social media marketing on consumers in the Philippines reveals that platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter significantly influence purchasing behavior, especially among younger audiences. Studies show that Filipino consumers are highly engaged with brands on social media, where personalized content, influencer marketing, and customer interaction drive brand loyalty and product awareness. Social media also facilitates quicker decision-making, as consumers rely on peer reviews and recommendations before making purchases. However, challenges include issues with data privacy and the oversaturation of promotional content, which can lead to consumer fatigue. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Theory of planned behavior (TPB), uses and gratifications theory (UGT) & social influence theory may be used to anchor future studies on the impact of social media marketing on consumers in Philippines. Companies should invest in analytics tools to understand consumer preferences, enabling them to create more personalized and engaging content. Policymakers should develop regulations that ensure transparency in social media advertising and influencer endorsements, particularly in areas like disclosure of paid partnerships.
... However, it has also added dynamism and complexity to CE by facilitating direct consumer-brand interactions and interactions between consumers themselves (Prentice et al., 2020;Carlson et al., 2018). Thus, social media marketing is one strategy that has transformed consumers into active participants (Hussain et al., 2022;Hollebeek et al., 2014) and co-creators of brand narratives (Bosisio, 2024;de Vries & Carlson, 2014). ...
This article used a comparative systematic review to examine the key consumer engagement (CE) strategies within the distinct DM landscapes of Nigeria and South Africa (SA). It also investigated the cultural, economic, and technological influences affecting the strategies in both countries. The study involved systematic research of Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Scopus, other internet-based data and publications, and secondary data from grey literature. Boolean string search protocols were used to address the research questions raised in the study. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to ensure rigour and comprehensiveness and to reduce publication bias. Data from twenty-five (25) primary studies (13 for Nigeria and 12 for South Africa) indicated that social media is a primary engagement tool; mobile and email marketing are also used, although not as prominent as social media. Similarities and differences in both country’s engagement strategies were examined. Additionally, the study identifies the cultural differences, economic gap, and technological divide in both countries as major factors that influence engagement. The findings provide valuable implications for marketers that aim to optimise their strategies in emerging markets. These highlight the need to implement culturally adaptive strategies, leverage mobile penetration opportunities, consider economic sensitivities, bridge the digital divide, foster technological acceptance, and adopt ethical and sustainable marketing practices.
... Businesses can share valuable content to build a loyal customer base [6]. BGC such as advertisements and branded social media posts, can influence consumer attitudes and purchase intentions [7]. ...
This paper investigates the mixed influence of brand-generated and credible user-generated content on customer behaviour response. The research involved surveying 400 people buying online, aged 18 years and over, in the Pathum Thani province, Thailand. Primary demographic data were collected between October and December 2022 and analysed employing descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling. The result of study indicated that the credibility business generated content has no significant influences on consumer behaviour response. The research also revealed that the credibility of brand generated content has significant influences on customer behavior response through positive user generated content. Consequently, businesses must prioritize the quality of their content and consider integrating user generated content into their marketing strategy for-customer engagement effectively. Keywords-Brand generated content, user generated content, customer behaviour response.
... Due to the ancillary advantages, which include reduced transaction costs, improved word-of-mouth advertising, and increased sales, this line of research focuses on the level of engagement and involvement between customers and firms. [17], predictors of customer loyalty [18], provides a promising method for predicting and explaining important consumer behaviors, [19], customer retention [20], or "cocreation" of value through interactions with the company by highly engaged consumers (Chang et al., 2021). ...
... Competence perception adopts four items from Fu et al.'s (2018) authenticity scale and three items from Strizhakova and Coulter's (2015) quality function scale, including ''you think the product is processed from local materials'' and ''you think that the packaging language of the product can be used as a sign of its characteristics and quality.'' Warmth perception utilizes six items from Khan and Lee's (2020) consumer ethnocentric scale and seven items from Hollebeek et al.'s (2014) independent brand connection scale, such as ''the product is packaged in a language designed to be friendly to you and even your country'' and ''you will recommend the product to friends and family.'' Purchase intention refers to five items from Dodds et al.'s (1991) purchase intention scale, such as ''you think buying this product is worthy of recognition.'' ...
In the post-pandemic era, a growing emphasis on elevating the quality of tourism consumption has been observed. This study explores how different language portfolios on product packaging can influence tourists’ perceptions and purchase intentions to promote sustainable consumption. Previous studies on tourism product strategies often addressed national identity, power perception, and stereotypes, but overlooked the fundamental role of multilingual packaging strategies for enterprises and tourists. This study focuses on sake, which combines cultural and natural attributes, as its experimental object. Sub-studies 1, 2, and 3 empirically analyzed how perceptions of competence and warmth are affected by monolingual, bilingual, and trilingual properties of language packaging, respectively, and their impact on tourists’ purchase intentions. The findings suggest that monolingual and bilingual packaging enhances tourists’ competence perception, while trilingual packaging enhances tourists’ warmth perception, thereby stimulating tourists’ positive purchase intentions. Additionally, cultural identity significantly moderates the effectiveness of multilingual packaging strategies. Understanding these dynamics can help tourism enterprises design more effective promotional activities and packaging language strategies for tourists’ preferences. It can also enhance the post-pandemic tourism industry.
... Features on Twitter facilitate the emergence and development of new discourses, including marketing campaigns. Hellebeek et al. (2014) state that in response to the rise of social media like Twitter, marketers actively incorporate social media into their strategies because it can enhance customer and user engagement. Moreover, Bate & Amrullah (2022) stated that social media is regarded as a suitable platform for self-expression because its users receive virtual support and encounter minimal boundary turbulence. ...
... The articles in this cluster also describe the theoretical foundation of some consumer responses related to SM. They conceptualized, measured, and discovered antecedents and consequences of them, such as consumer brand engagement in SM (Hollebeek et al., 2014;Brodie et al., 2013;Chu and Kim, 2011;Leckie et al., 2016;Vivek et al., 2012;Van Doorn et al., 2010;Gummerus et al., 2012;Hollebeek, 2011;Barger et al., 2016;Tsai and Men, 2013;Brodie et al., 2011;Dhaoui, 2014;Sprott et al., 2009), consumer-based brand equity (Yoo and Donthu, 2001;Keller, 1993, Christodoulides andDe Chernatony, 2010);, brand love (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006;Batra et al., 2012;Wallace et al., 2014;Albert et al., 2008;Sternberg, 1997), value creation within the brand community (Schau et al., 2009), purchase intention (Hutter et al., 2013), customer-brand relationship (De Vries and Carlson, 2014;Fournier, 1998;Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010). They also explained electronic Word-of-Mouth in online communities and investigated how consumers use EWOM information in their decision-making processes (Kozinets et al., 2010;Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004;Kudeshia and Kumar, 2017;Gruen et al., 2006;Hennig-Thurau et al., 2015). ...
In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in the study of Social Media Marketing Activities (SMMAs), particularly after 2020. A comprehensive analysis was conducted to pinpoint key themes in published research on SMMAs using cocitation analysis. The dataset comprised 346 articles with 4,866 cited references obtained from the Dimensions linked research database. These articles, all related to the keyword “social media marketing activities,” were published between 2012 and 2024. Out of these references, 332 were used for the analysis. By employing VOSviewer software, the analysis illuminated 7 fundamental knowledge themes on SMMAs: the theoretical foundation of social media and consumer responses, outcomes of SMMAs, social media as an effective marketing tool, social commerce, consumer-brand relationships through social media, brand loyalty, and customer engagement. This study thoroughly evaluated the extent to which these foundational knowledge themes are utilized in recent SMMAs research and made compelling suggestions for future investigations in this field.
... Direct brand interactions refer to customers' physical contact with a brand instead of indirect interactions through mass communication [46]. Another definition of customer brand engagement is "a consumer's positive thoughts, emotions, and actions related to a brand during or after interacting with the brand" [73]. In the context of online social media, online brand engagement can be described as "the connection, creation, and communication of a brand's story between the company and consumers (both current and potential) through the use of brand-related language, images, and meanings on the company's social media platform" [74]. ...
This study aims to validate the model on the effects of social media marketing activities on the perceived values of social media marketing activities and the effects of these perceived values on online brand engagement and, consequently, on brand loyalty. The data used in this study were collected through an online self-administered survey of 501 young social media users in Vietnam. Partial Least Squares Algorithm, Bootstrapping, PLSpredict/CVPAT, and Multi-Group Analysis methods embedded in Smart-PLS software were used to validate the measurement model and test the research hypotheses. The findings confirm that the positive effects of social media marketing activities on brand loyalty are transmitted through the perceived values of these activities and online brand engagement. These effects are more substantial for luxury brands compared to non-luxury brands. Importantly, our study offers a new approach to explaining the impact of social media marketing activities on brand loyalty by focusing on the perceived values of these activities and their effects on online brand engagement. To enhance brand loyalty, businesses should prioritize creating hedonic and utilitarian values through their social media marketing activities and use these values and online brand engagement as key performance indicators for planning and controlling their strategies.
... It creates a connection and ongoing interaction with the product, thus strengthening loyalty and reconsumption intention (Bowden, 2009). The relationship between perceived value and engagement is supported by research showing that higher perceived value leads to increased consumer engagement (Hollebeek et al., 2014). Furthermore, engaged consumers are more likely to exhibit loyalty and a stronger intention to repurchase (Harrigan et al., 2017). ...
Although there have been several studies on reconsumption intention, no specific studies investigate how perceived value can increase reconsumption intention in herbal medicine consumers. This study investigated the effect of perceived value on reconsumption intention among Indonesian herbal medicine consumers through trust and customer engagement. It involved 425 herbal medicine consumers in Indonesia with a purposive sampling technique. Data analysis employed covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM). The findings suggested that perceived value does not have a significant direct effect on reconsumption intention, yet it is mediated by customer engagement. Meanwhile, trust does not play a significant mediating role in the relationship between perceived value and reconsumtion intention. Therefore, it provides new insight into how consumer perceived value can enhance reconsumption intention through engagement and trust, which can serve as an input for herbal medicine practitioners to implement the appropriate marketing strategies.
... However, as suggested by Adamopoulou and Moussiades [3], only in the last 20 years did chatbot systems start to diffuse thanks to the advancements in the domain of computing, artificial intelligence, and the concurrent diffusion of voice assistant systems (e.g., SIRI, Google Assistant) and the growing popularity of chatbots in social media platforms. As experts also recognized [4,5], the recent diffusion of chatbots was facilitated by the possibility for companies to offer 24/7 online conversational customer services to their clients. ...
Intelligent systems, such as chatbots, are likely to strike new qualities of UX that are not covered by instruments validated for legacy human–computer interaction systems. A new validated tool to evaluate the interaction quality of chatbots is the chatBot Usability Scale (BUS) composed of 11 items in five subscales. The BUS-11 was developed mainly from a psychometric perspective, focusing on ranking people by their responses and also by comparing designs’ properties (designometric). In this article, 3186 observations (BUS-11) on 44 chatbots are used to re-evaluate the inventory looking at its factorial structure, and reliability from the psychometric and designometric perspectives. We were able to identify a simpler factor structure of the scale, as previously thought. With the new structure, the psychometric and the designometric perspectives coincide, with good to excellent reliability. Moreover, we provided standardized scores to interpret the outcomes of the scale. We conclude that BUS-11 is a reliable and universal scale, meaning that it can be used to rank people and designs, whatever the purpose of the research.
... This thesis is addressed by [89], who emphasize that influencers play a crucial role in the discovery phase of products and services, helping consumers to explore options. However, decision-making is often influenced by more complex factors such as product quality, customer experience, and brand reliability, as discussed by [90]. These authors argue that while influencers can create awareness, the final purchase decision is often influenced by additional considerations that go beyond the influencers' recommendations. ...
The consumer profile has undergone evolutions and transformations over the years due to the evolution of new generations of individuals, such as Generation Y. Social media has revolutionized the way in which consumers can search and find information about products in general, which has impacted how brands relate to their consumers. In this context, this study tries to understand how digital influencers are being used to influence Generation Y in the consumption of banking services from fintechs in Brazil via social media platforms. The specific objectives include profiling these consumers, identifying the most relevant influencers, and measuring the impact of in-fluencer marketing. The results pointed to Generation Y's preference for mobile applications and personal recommendations when making decisions to purchase financial products. Fintechs stood out for the agility and autonomy they offered, as well as for being on the forefront in leading practices , innovations, and product offerings that drive sustainability forward. The study concluded that digital influencers play a crucial role in the awareness phase, but additional factors influence Mil-lennial consumption decisions, highlighting the complexity of the decision process.
... Customer brand engagement represents a multidimensional construct that comprises a customer's cognitive, emotional, and behavioral investment in brand interactions (Hollebeek, Glynn, and Brodie 2014;Hollebeek et al. 2023). Notably, on social media, the behavioral dimension of CBE emerges as the strongest indicator of engagement, which manifests in many ways on these platforms (Dessart, Veloutsou, and Morgan-Thomas 2015), including users' reactions as "likes," "comments," and "shares" (e.g., Chwialkowska 2018; Quesenberry and Coolsen 2019). ...
This paper explores the influence of different social media platforms’ characteristics for use intensity (i.e., time spent and emotional connectedness), which in turn partially affects the development of consumers’ online brand-related activities (COBRAs). Using a U.S.-based sample of 939 adult social media users, we tested three serial mediation models using partial least squares structural equation modeling. We find that different social media characteristics lead to different levels of time spent, emotional connectedness, and, ultimately, COBRAs. We show the superiority of using profile-based (vs. content-based) platforms in fostering COBRAs, despite its negative effect on use intensity. Also, using customized (vs. broadcast) messages boosts users’ time spent on social media, thus enhancing emotional connectedness to the platform. Notably, the time spent on a platform significantly affects COBRAs via the mediation effect of emotional connectedness. We contribute by exploring the role of platforms’ characteristics in developing COBRAs while unraveling how the two dimensions of use intensity influence brand-related activities on social media.
... Consumer brand engagement is a multifaceted concept that involves cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects experienced by consumers during their interactions with a brand. Holbeek et al. (2014) defines consumer brand engagement as a cognitive activity, emotional connection, and positive behavior exhibited by consumers when they engage with a brand. This engagement goes beyond mere transactions and reflects the embodiment of consumer behavior towards a brand or its products. ...
The current research explores how consumer brand engagement (CBE) serves as a mediator between social media marketing (SMM) and consumer- based brand equity (CBBE) within the context of luxury perfume brands. Using a quantitative approach, data was collected from 322 participants who possess substantial knowledge of luxury perfume brands and are actively involved on social media platforms. The study employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the relationships among SMM, CBE, and CBBE constructs. Through thorough analysis, the study establishes significant positive correlations between CBE and CBBE, identifying cognition, emotion, and behavior as pivotal dimensions of CBE that contribute to the formation of CBBE. Furthermore, the research confirms the impact of various SMM dimensions—including entertainment, interaction, personalization, trendiness, and word of mouth—on CBBE components such as brand loyalty, perceived quality, and brand awareness/ associations. Additionally, it validates a direct link from SMM to CBE, where compelling content enhances consumer engagement. The study also verifies a sequential relationship from SMM to CBE and subsequently to CBBE. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, emphasizing the importance of comprehending and leveraging consumer engagement and SMM dynamics to bolster brand equity in the luxury perfume sector. The study identifies limitations and suggests future research directions to guide further investigation into these relationships.
... For example, Hollebeek [11] defined customer brand engagement as "the level of a customer's cognitive, emotional and behavioral investment in specific brand interactions", and further proposed that there were three themes in the conceptualization of consumer engagement, namely "immersion", "passion", and "activation". Accordingly, user engagement in the domain of social media marketing can be defined as the level of users' cognitive, emotional, and behavioral activities involved in interacting with a brand's social media pages [23,25,26]. ...
Social media are an important approach for florists to reach consumers, and many florists have set incentives to encourage users to engage with their social media pages. However, various subjects can serve as rewards, but what is more effective for encouraging users to engage with the florists’ social media pages remains unknown. This study is intended to address this deficiency. The objectives of this study are as follows: (1) to explore the typology of the incentives used by succulent retailers to promote user engagement; (2) to compare the difference across various types of incentives in regard to the effect on promoting user engagement with succulent retailers’ social media pages. Data were gained from the succulent retailers’ empirical practices on their Facebook brand pages. As a result, 2602 Facebook posts were downloaded and analyzed via content analysis to explore the typology of the incentives applied by succulent retailers. The number of clicks on likes, comments, shares, and emojis by users was recorded as the index of user engagement with the post. The effect of various incentives on user engagement with the succulent retailers’ FB pages was analyzed via the statistical approach of MANOVA. The study results showed that the incentives applied by succulent retailers can be classified into three categories: economic incentives; social incentives; mixed incentives, which contain both economic and social values. The economic incentives included discounts, gifts, sweepstakes, and bidding, while social incentives included gratitude to customers, leaving a question mark, and inviting users to respond. The statistical results revealed that economic incentives are more likely to encourage users’ emotional engagement, while social incentives in the form of inviting users to react are more significant for encouraging users’ behavioral engagement in terms of leaving comments on posts.
... Social media engagement is described as "a consumer's positively valenced brandrelated cognitive, emotional, and behavioral activity during or related to focal consumer/ brand interactions" by Hollebeek [54]. Consumers use social media to communicate their desires for advertised things, as well as to share their joy and feelings from interactions with brands. ...
Understanding what drives sustainable consumer behavior is crucial for effective green marketing strategies. We set out to explore the mechanisms explaining the relationships between environmental attitudes, perceived environmental knowledge, and green consumption values on consumer behaviors, specifically the mediating roles of receptivity to green communication and social media engagement with environmentally friendly firms. We also investigated the moderating role of information seeking in these relationships. Data were collected through a survey of 610 Greek respondents between May and July 2024 and analyzed using IBM SPSS and AMOS version 23. Findings show significant and positive paths between green consumption values and receptivity to green communication, e-word-of-mouth intention, food behavior, and other environmental behaviors, while receptivity to green communication and social media consumers’ engagement with environmentally friendly firms has a significant and positive impact on e-word-of-mouth intention and food behavior. Findings reveal that credible and detailed communication is essential for engaging information-seeking consumers, who are more critical of green messages.
This paper addresses revisiting intention in warfare heritage tourism. Building on drivers related to the psychology of the tourists, it develops and tests a moderated mediation model accounting for self-enhancement, engagement, sense of belonging, and revisit intention. Two studies explore the relationships among these constructs, sampling tourists visiting contemporary warfare heritage sites (Cold War military installations). The results show that the sense of belonging mediates the self-enhancement–revisit intention relationship and that engagement moderates the mediation. Finally, results show that the relationships among the considered constructs do not change for tourists living in the former western or eastern blocks and for tourists born before, during, or after the Cold War era.
Purpose
The study investigates the relationship between social presence dimensions and customer brand engagement (CBE) as well as the relation between customer brand engagement and purchase intention (PI) in the fashion retail metaverse with self-efficacy moderating between CBE and PI.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were gathered by conducting an online survey ( n = 476) from young adults exposed to fashion retail metaverse platforms. The collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The findings discovered that social presence dimensions positively impact CBE, which substantially impacts the PI of young consumers in the fashion retail metaverse. The findings demonstrate that self-efficacy moderates the relationship between CBE and PI.
Research limitations/implications
This study uses cross-sectional data in the fashion retail metaverse for young consumers. Future studies can use longitudinal data in the context of other industries and demographic profiles to assess changing customer behavior.
Practical implications
This study implies that customer experiences can be enriched through social presence dimensions, helping brands adapt their offers to create more engaging and rewarding customer interactions. It offers insights for brand managers aiming to augment the relationship between CBE and PI.
Originality/value
The study uniquely explores the relationship between social presence dimensions and CBE within the fashion retail metaverse. It examines self-efficacy as a moderator between CBE and PI, providing fresh insights into consumer behavior in the fashion retail metaverse.
Purpose
This study aims to analyze memes as valuable engagement and marketing communication tools in promoting over-the-top (OTT) platforms by monitoring users' sentiments and offering insightful information about their opinions by drawing themes from viral memes.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analysis of 1,230 user interactions was conducted using NVivo software on Instagram and Twitter pages from May 2022 to July 2023. Data were collected for sentiment analysis (consumer responses), and relevant themes (consumer interactions) were drawn which created the virality of memes.
Findings
Research findings reveal relevant themes, such as relatable, informative and interest-generating, that make memes go viral over social media. The sentiment analysis results showed that the intensity and strength of the positive comments were more substantial, contributing more to the virality of memes.
Practical implications
These findings provide themes for engaging content for OTT advertisers to boost brand recognition and engagement by strategically creating meme content and implementing better marketing communication.
Originality/value
This study uses factual data to offer new perspectives on viral meme propagation. It provides evidence that OTT marketers boost brand value and customer engagement through innovative customer-centric social media analysis.
This study investigates the impact of social media on the buying behavior of Generation Z (Gen Z) consumers in Iran’s clothing market. As digital natives, Gen Z represents a significant consumer segment heavily influenced by online trends and social interactions. A quantitative methodology was employed, utilizing a cross-sectional survey design to collect data from a stratified random sample of Iranian Gen Z consumers. The survey measured various aspects of social media usage, brand engagement, and purchasing behavior. Data analysis techniques included descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, regression analysis, and structural equation modeling (SEM). Key findings reveal strong correlations between social media engagement and consumer behaviors. Increased time spent on platforms correlates with higher susceptibility to brand messaging, greater propensity to share content, and tendency towards impulse buying. Active engagement with clothing brands on social media significantly predicts actual purchase intentions. SEM analysis identified “social presence,” “perceived usefulness,” and “trust” as key mediating factors in the relationship between social media usage and purchasing decisions. This research contributes to the understanding of Gen Z consumer behavior in Iran’s clothing market by elucidating the complex interplay between social media engagement, brand interactions, and purchasing decisions. It offers valuable insights for marketers seeking to effectively engage this demographic through digital channels. The findings emphasize the importance of visual content, influencer collaborations, and addressing ethical and sustainability concerns to build trust and maintain a positive brand image.
This research aims to analyze whether sensory stimuli such as words associated with smell, touch, and taste enhance customer engagement. We conducted five A/B experiments to analyze the relationship. Experiment 1 evaluates sensory words related to smell using a handmade soap. Experiments 2 and 3, which were related to touch with two different books, and experiments 4 and 5, which were related to the sense of taste with ice cream and artisan bread. In version A of the experiments, the content integrated sensory words related to smell, touch, and taste. In version B, the content included words related to other characteristics of the product that were not related to sensory aspects. The findings show that sensory words increase customer engagement. Analysis of consumer engagement metrics revealed significant improvements in the percentage of people interacting with contents, for example, with increases ranging from 15.3 to 21.5 points across experiments. These findings underscore the efficacy of sensory words in capturing consumer attention and fostering deeper levels of customer engagement.
This study explored the mechanisms and contexts through which consumer brand involvement can influence brand advocacy. A moderated mediation model was empirically tested with a random sample of 387 Chinese consumers in Hong Kong. The results indicated that consumer brand involvement exerts a direct impact on brand advocacy and an indirect influence through a positive interaction between relation motivational orientation and affective brand commitment, and task motivational orientation and normative brand commitment. The findings contribute to the brand advocacy and customer brand engagement literature. This study also makes a theoretical contribution to the involvement – commitment model. Practical implications of the findings are discussed.
Purpose
Applying the Innovation Resistance Theory, this study aims to examine the effects of contextual and trait stressors on consumer engagement and wellbeing in the context of service robots.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 560 users who interacted with a service robot at a library and a museum. The data were analyzed using Smart PLS 4.0.
Findings
The findings show the significant negative effects of perceived intrusion on consumer engagement and wellbeing. In addition, technology anxiety exhibited a significant positive effect on consumer engagement and wellbeing, whereas consumer engagement predicted wellbeing. Moreover, the findings highlight the importance of consumer engagement as a key mediator between the stressors and wellbeing.
Practical implications
The findings equip service managers with the necessary information to effectively integrate service robots in an inclusive manner that resonates with consumer engagement and wellbeing.
Originality/value
This research uses field data to empirically validate the effects of contextual and trait stressors on consumer resistance to service robots.
Although much is known about general consumer–brand relationship (CBR) research and CBRs in the tourism and hospitality context, recent literature reviews have pointed out numerous angles of CBR research. However, this research has yet to focus on the tourism and hospitality context. Also, these recent literature reviews have offered several bibliometric insights. However, theoretical, contextual and methodological considerations are still underexplored. Therefore, this chapter aims to explore CBR research in general and the CBR in tourism and hospitality to introduce a theories, contexts, and methods (TCM) framework to establish an agenda for future research. We conducted a literature search for CBR research that appears in the Web of Science (WOS) database. After screening, we selected 416 journal articles for bibliometric and content analysis to identify the emerging intellectual structures and to build a TCM framework to guide future research directions. The findings are discussed in detail, including those on publication trends, top contributing journals, intellectual structures, and the TCM framework. Bibliographic coupling presents four knowledge clusters: (1) commitment, (2) satisfaction, (3) loyalty, and (4) trust. Finally, this chapter offers bibliometric-driven content analyses as methodological contributions and the CBR in tourism and hospitality as a context-specific direction for future research. This chapter provides practitioners with a summary of the extent of CBR research, specifically focusing on tourism and hospitality, to tailor their brand management strategies.
Social media develops relationships between tourists and brands through different communication websites. Tourist interaction with brands in online social media destination brand communities (SMDBCs) may influence tourist behavior and travel decision-making. The use of online SMDBCs and tourists’ relationships with brand destinations are important topics to explore in the digital era. This review of extant literature explores how destination brand authenticity, destination brand engagement, destination brand love, and online SMDBCs are antecedents to tourist behavior, such as destination brand choice, visit/revisit, and word-of-mouth (WOM)/electronic WOM (eWOM). This review and proposed theoretical framework clarify the relationship between tourists and brand destinations in online SMDBCs in the existing corpus, with implications for future research and practice.
This study aims to investigate brand passion, a core concept in customer-brand relationships, from the perspective of chatbot experiences. In particular, it seeks to explain how perceived risk and trust of chatbots can enhance the customer experience and, consequently, increase brand passion. Data were collected from 253 French students, and the model was tested using SmartPLS. The results indicate that risk has a negative effect on experience, while trust has a positive effect on experience. Furthermore, experience has a positive impact on brand passion. The study provides valuable theoretical and managerial implications.
Based on stimuli-organism-response (S-O-R) theory, the present study tests a theoretical framework that examines the interface among social media interaction (SMI), customer brand engagement (CBE), emotional brand attachment (EBA), word of mouth (WOM), and brand relationship quality (BRQ) in luxury hotel brand setting. This chapter recruits data from a sample of 305 hotel customers utilizing partial least-squares structural equation modeling. The findings revealed that SMI has positive effects on CBE, EBA, and BRQ. Second, results exposed that CBE generates a positive influence on EBA, WOM, and BRQ. Finally, results identified that the association between SMI and EBA, SMI and WOM, and SMI and BRQ is mediated by CBE with hotel brands. This chapter contributes to hospitality/marketing literature on social media, CBE, and consumer behavior. This chapter informs practical recommendations for hotel social media marketers on how to stimulate CBE through the proper adoption of social media interactions.
Customer brand engagement has been acknowledged as a significant stimulus of determining brand loyalty. Especially in the hospitality industry, the association of tourists is significant when optimal services are provided in branded hotels. The purpose of this research is to sequentially test the relationship between brand interactivity, brand involvement, brand orientation, consumer brand engagement, and brand loyalty. Furthermore, the association between relationship quality and brand image is also estimated as a mediator. The data was collected from 374 tourists residing in branded hotels in the northern areas of Pakistan. The data was collected by deploying nonprobability sampling technique through structured questionnaire. The data was collected from 374 users. For the estimation of causal relationship among constructs, structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was deployed using partial least-square approach. The results reported strong causal association among the theoretically knitted constructs. Future research studies can extend the study’s framework and empirical test it in different cultural contexts.
This chapter develops and investigates a theoretical model of consumer brand engagement (CBE) and consumer brand co-creation (CBC) within the tourism industry. Because of the limitations in the existing literature, this chapter examines various consequences of consumers’ psychological (affective and cognitive) engagement: CBC and consumer–brand relationship strength (CBRS) with the tourism/destination brands. Employing partial least-squares structural equation modeling, this chapter evaluates data from tourists. The findings uncovered that psychological-based affective and cognitive engagement positively affects CBC and CBRS. Results revealed that CBC positively affects CBRS. This chapter extends existing knowledge on CBE and CBC and imparts important insights for the tourism practitioners and policymakers in developing psychological CBE and consequent CBC/CBRS with destination brands.
The hospitality and tourism industry is a highly competitive market, and brands must differentiate themselves from their competitors to attract and retain customers. One way to achieve this is by establishing a solid consumer-brand relationship. Research in consumer-brand relationships has been widely advanced, with different types of concepts better explaining a humanized relationship between consumers and their brands. This chapter attempted to identify the major consequences of consumer-brand relationships (i.e., brand attachment, brand love, brand passion, brand happiness, brand reputation, brand trust, brand commitment, satisfaction, brand involvement, firm initiatives, and performance). Depending on the study’s conceptual framework and the applied context, many of these constructs were identified as vital consequences or mediators of the consumer-brand relationship.
This study investigates how augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) can improve service quality to achieve customer engagement by inducing reality congruence. The study explores the relevance of the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model and the cognitive-conative-affective framework. A conceptual model is proposed, and hypotheses are developed to test the model. We gathered data from 400 e-commerce users and utilized partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to examine the data. It included incorporating second-order constructs to capture the underlying dimensions of customer engagement. The empirical findings indicate that reality congruence enhances service quality and facilitates customer engagement through traits. The study demonstrates that reality congruence strengthens trust and commitment, leading to customer engagement. Based on these findings, reality congruence (AR &VR) is crucial for e-commerce service providers to foster customer engagement. The practical implications of this study suggest that e-commerce service providers and integrative technology designers must actively engage customers in a digitally connected and intensely competitive era.
Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in customer-facing settings are growing rapidly. The general shift toward robot- and AI-powered services prompts a reshaping of customer engagement, bringing machines into engagement conceptualizations. In this paper, we build on service research around engagement and AI, incorporating computer science, and socio-technical systems perspective to conceptualize human-machine engagement (HME), offering a typology and nomological network of antecedents and consequences. Through three empirical studies, we develop a typology of four distinct forms of HME (informative, experimenting, praising, apprehensive), which differ in valence and intensity, underpinned by both emotional (excitement) and cognitive (concern, advocacy) drivers. We offer empirical evidence which reveals how these HME forms lead to different cognitive and personality-related outcomes for other users (perceived value of HME, perceived risk, affinity with HME) and service providers (willingness to implement in services, perceived value of HME). We also reveal how outcomes for service providers vary with the presence and absence of competitor pressure. Our findings broaden the scope of engagement research to include non-human actors and suggest both strategic and tactical guidance to service providers currently using and/or seeking to use generative AI (GenAI) in services alongside an agenda to direct future studies on HME
The marketing landscape has intensely changed with the rise of digital platforms and social media. Social media influencer marketing was found by many previous studies to be a significant factor in shaping consumer buying behavior. This explanatory study investigates the impact of influencer marketing including para-social relationships, unpaid collaborations, and influencer trustworthiness on Lebanese consumers buying behavior. A quantitative analysis was employed using data collected through a questionnaire from a sample of 250 respondents. The findings revealed that para-social relationships and unpaid collaborations have a positive impact on Lebanese consumer buying behavior. The study contributes significantly by providing insights into the Lebanese market. By applying the Stimulus-Organism-Response Theory and Social Learning Theory, the study enriches the theoretical understanding of influencer marketing. Practically, it offers actionable strategies for marketers, emphasizing the importance of influencer marketing in driving consumer buying behavior in Lebanon.
Purpose
This paper aims to delineate the nature of the costs associated with the diffusion of brand posts. Since cost is an essential component of customer lifetime value, this research also aims to identify factors that impact consumer engagement (CE) with brand posts.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conceptualize marginal cost of CE as the ratio of a unit change in cost for a unit change in CE – this ratio is conceptualized for a paid brand post compared to an organic brand post. The authors present a theoretically grounded simulation method that analyzes the relative impact of several factors that influence CE with brand posts. By using an agent-based simulation model, the method presented in this paper helps explain the relative impact of four factors on CE with brand posts on social media.
Findings
The authors explain four factors that influence the diffusion of CE with a brand post – promotion-related (i.e. whether it is paid vs organic), network-related, user-related and active periods. The authors also show that the effectiveness of paid posts vs organic posts attributed to a better audience assembled by the seeding algorithms dissipates after the initial stages of diffusion. These findings indicate that paid posts are effective vs organic posts in large part due to higher exposure than due to the efficiency of the algorithms to assemble nodes that are likely to engage with the post.
Research limitations/implications
An agent-based model details the impact of several factors that influence the effectiveness of paid and organic posts and presents methods to analyze the impact of these factors that have implications for theory.
Practical implications
The authors address the difficulty in ascertaining the effectiveness of paid posts by proposing a metric – marginal cost of engagement, defined as the incremental cost incurred by the marketer in earning one additional unit of CE. Since the costs incurred on paid and organic posts differ only on variable components, the marginal cost of engagement presents a way to benchmark paid posts against organic posts, which is very useful for managers in ascertaining the amount to spend on paid posts on social media.
Originality/value
There is little prior research on the costs involved in the diffusion of brand posts on social media. Identifying specific factors that impact costs is valuable for theory and practice.
Purpose
To investigate the impact of cognition, emotion and other factors on positive customer engagement behaviors and to identify the differential formation processes and dynamic changes in these behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
We used cognitive appraisals and coping theory as well as justice theory, to analyze comment data from the Xiaomi Community with natural language processing and binary logistic regression.
Findings
Our results indicate that cognition and emotion are unnecessary for positive customer engagement. Users expressing different cognitions and emotions exhibit varied positive engagement behaviors. The behavioral dimension was the most frequently combined, followed by the affective and cognitive dimensions. Managers should adopt material or spiritual incentives to encourage users with positive emotions and cognition to become loyal. Additionally, addressing comments with distributive justice cognition can promote positive customer engagement.
Originality/value
This study clarifies the complex interplay between cognition, emotion and customer engagement behaviors, providing actionable insights for brand managers to foster customer loyalty and positive customer engagement.
Digital transformation has led to a shift towards online shopping, making it imperative for companies to provide customers with a quality online experience. However, existing sustainability research still provides limited insight into brand experience in marketing practice. Hence, this study examined the relationship between online tourist experience and brand love through the mechanism of relationship quality in the context of online tourism shopping in Vietnam. The research process surveyed 231 local tourists and selected 224 people with valid answer sheets. Results showed that the online tourist experience significantly impacts customer relationship quality, which leads to brand love. However, sustainability has a negative effect on the direct relationship with brand love. This finding suggests that including customers in the sustainability process and affording them a pleasurable online shopping experience may be an excellent way to enhance customer relationship quality and brand love. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Customer engagement has become a critical component of business success in the digital age. Challenges to this commitment include creating personalized experiences, building trust, and using data to anticipate customer needs. Our study aims to analyze the impact of social media analytics on online customer engagement assessment. We propose an analysis model integrating key dimensions of customer engagement, such as interaction, satisfaction and social influence. The expected results of this study are to provide a solid analysis model to assess customer engagement on social media and practical recommendations to improve the marketing strategies of companies on social media.
Goodness-of-fit (GOF) indexes provide "rules of thumb"—recommended cutoff values for assessing fit in structural equation modeling. Hu and Bentler (1999) proposed a more rigorous approach to evaluating decision rules based on GOF indexes and, on this basis, proposed new and more stringent cutoff values for many indexes. This article discusses potential problems underlying the hypothesis-testing rationale of their research, which is more appropriate to testing statistical significance than evaluating GOF. Many of their misspecified models resulted in a fit that should have been deemed acceptable according to even their new, more demanding criteria. Hence, rejection of these acceptable-misspecified models should have constituted a Type 1 error (incorrect rejection of an "acceptable" model), leading to the seemingly paradoxical results whereby the probability of correctly rejecting misspecified models decreased substantially with increasing N. In contrast to the application of cutoff values to evaluate each solution in isolation, all the GOF indexes were more effective at identifying differences in misspecification based on nested models. Whereas Hu and Bentler (1999) offered cautions about the use of GOF indexes, current practice seems to have incorporated their new guidelines without sufficient attention to the limitations noted by Hu and Bentler (1999).
In this article, we attempt to distinguish between the properties of moderator and mediator variables at a number of levels. First, we seek to make theorists and researchers aware of the importance of not using the terms moderator and mediator interchangeably by carefully elaborating, both conceptually and strategically, the many ways in which moderators and mediators differ. We then go beyond this largely pedagogical function and delineate the conceptual and strategic implications of making use of such distinctions with regard to a wide range of phenomena, including control and stress, attitudes, and personality traits. We also provide a specific compendium of analytic procedures appropriate for making the most effective use of the moderator and mediator distinction, both separately and in terms of a broader causal system that includes both moderators and mediators. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Using qualitative studies involving executives and customers, this study explores the nature and scope of customer engagement (CE), which is a vital component of relationship marketing. We define CE as the intensity of an individual's participation in and connection with an organization's offerings and/or organizational activities, which either the customer or the organization initiate. We argue that it is composed of cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social elements. Finally, we offer a model of CE, in which the participation and involvement of current or potential customers serve as antecedents of CE, while value, trust, affective commitment, word of mouth, loyalty, and brand community involvement are potential consequences.
Customer engagement (CE) is a key research priority of the Marketing Science Institute (MSI) due to its importance to marketers, the need for more research-based knowledge on CE, the potential for achieving critical insights, and the extent to which the study of CE can benefit from collaboration between practitioners and academics (MSI 2010). Although many organizations consider CE important, this term has different meanings for different people. Hence, Brodie et al.'s (2011) conceptualization of CE provides a welcome framework for scholarly research on CE that can contribute to business practice. This commentary amplifies on how CE research can generate managerial insights; it is based on conversations with executives in some of the top marketing organizations in the world, as well as with marketing scholars. These conversations have identified three broad research questions.
Since the introductory article for what has become known as the “service-dominant (S-D) logic of marketing,” “Evolving to
a New Dominant Logic for Marketing,” was published in the Journal of Marketing (Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2004a)), there
has been considerable discussion and elaboration of its specifics. This article highlights and clarifies the salient issues
associated with S-D logic and updates the original foundational premises (FPs) and adds an FP. Directions for future work
are also discussed.
KeywordsService-dominant logic-New-dominant logic-Service
Instead of offering products or services alone, increasingly, firms and their partners are offering consumption systems. Consumption systems are offerings characterized by a significant product and service subsystem, as well as a pattern of consumption in which consumption occurs in multiple episodes over time. The authors develop a theoretical model for conceptualizing satisfaction with consumption systems and empirically test it using longitudinal data from 5206 automobile owners. Results show that an intertemporal examination of attribute-level performance, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions can improve an understanding of their relationships because these relationships change as the consumption of the product unfolds. For example, on the basis of their salience, attribute weights in determining satisfaction shift over time. Furthermore, the crossover effect of product and service satisfaction in determining intentions toward the manufacturer and the service provider is asymmetric, and this asymmetry reverses over time. Service satisfaction initially has a much larger impact in determining intentions toward the manufacturer, but later, product satisfaction is more influential in generating intentions toward the service provider and manufacturer. The results show that there is no direct link between satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Rather, satisfaction affects behavioral intentions in the future through a dual-mediation route.
The branding literature has long recognized the power of storytelling to provide meaning to the brand and practitioners have used storytelling to enhance consumers’ connections with brands. The premise of brand storytelling has been that the story and its content, production, and distribution are the brand owner’s realm and the consumer primarily a listener. The emergence of social media has changed the consumers’ role in storytelling from that of a passive listener to a more active participant. Our paper uses the metaphor of improvisation (improv) theater to show that in social media, brand owners do not tell brand stories alone but co-create brand performances in collaboration with the consumers. The first and foremost contribution of such a conceptualization is that it offers a semantic framework that resolves issues in storytelling , demonstrates the necessity of co-creation in storytelling, and identifies the core of an inspiring story. The improv theater metaphor also helps identify the following three propositions relevant for branding in social media: (i) the process of improvisation is more important than the output, (ii) managing brands is about keeping the brand performance alive, and (iii) understanding the audience and its roles is the prerequisite for a successful brand performance.
The conceptualization of the Personal Involvement Inventory was a context-free measure applicable to involvement with products, with advertisements, and with purchase situations. The empirical work to develop this measure was mainly validated with respect to product categories. This paper extends the construct validation of the PII to involvement with advertisements and also demonstrates that the PII may be reliably reduced from twenty items to ten items. There is some indication the revised PII may then be broken into two subscales representing a cognitive and affective grouping.
This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.
Service-dominant (S-D) logic can function as a strategic business logic that portrays creating superior value in conjunction with—rather than for—customers as a source of competitive advantage for organizations. From this perspective, strategy is about making choices in terms of how to best facilitate and enhance value cocreation for mutual and long-term betterment. While the literature has pointed out the managerial merits of cocreating value, less is known about the organizational capabilities necessary to execute S-D logic in practice. This article devises an S-D orientation, specified as a portfolio of six strategic capabilities, namely individuated, relational, ethical, empowered, developmental, and concerted interaction capability. In combination, these six strategic capabilities constitute a cocreation capability. The authors develop the conceptual model of S-D orientation through (a) an in-depth literature review and (b) input from 21 expert academics. Conceptualizing S-D orientation provides a foundation for bridging S-D logic and strategy research with a more general framework, and for guiding much-needed empirical research that will inform managers. From a managerial point of view, S-D orientation provides a holistic approach to align the organization with its value network partners. The article also sets out an agenda for future research.
Many scholars across various academic disciplines are investigating the following questions: What do individuals know or believe about an organization? How does a focal organization (and/or other interested entity) develop, use, and/or change this information? and How do individuals respond to what they know or believe about an organization? Cross-disciplinary research that centers on these questions is desirable and could be enhanced if researchers identify and develop consistent terminology for framing these questions. The authors work toward that end by identifying four central “viewpoints” of an organization and proposing labels to represent each of these viewpoints: identity, intended image, construed image, and reputation.
Because extant literature on the service logic of marketing is dominated by a metaphorical view of value co-creation, the roles of both service providers and customers remain analytically unspecified, without a theoretically sound foundation for value creation or co-creation. This article analyzes value creation and co-creation in services by analytically defining the roles of the customer and the firm, as well as the scope, locus, and nature of value and value creation. Value creation refers to customers’ creation of value-in-use; co-creation is a function of interaction. Both the firm’s and the customer’s actions can be categorized by spheres (provider, joint, customer), and their interactions are either direct or indirect, leading to different forms of value creation and co-creation. This conceptualization of value creation spheres extends knowledge about how value-in-use emerges and how value creation can be managed; it also emphasizes the pivotal role of direct interactions for value co-creation opportunities.
The authors surveyed exploratory factor analysis (EFA) practices in three organizational journals from 1985 to 1999 to investigate purposes for conducting EFA and to update and extend Ford, MacCallum, and Tait’s (1986) review. Ford et al. surveyed the same journals from 1975 to 1984, concluding that researchers often applied EFA poorly (e.g., relying too heavily on principal components analysis [PCA], eigenvalues greater than 1 to choose the number of factors, and orthogonal rotations). Fabrigar, Wegener, MacCallum, and Strahan (1999) reached a similar conclusion based on a much smaller sample of studies. This review of 371 studies shows reason for greater optimism. The tendency to use multiple number-of-factors criteria and oblique rotations has increased somewhat. Most important, the authors find that researchers tend to make better decisions when EFA plays a more consequential role in the research. They stress the importance of careful and thoughtful analysis, including decisions about whether and how EFA should be used.
Brand engagement in self-concept (BESC) is a generalized view of brands in relation to the self, with consumers varying in their tendency to include important brands as part of their self-concepts. The authors develop an eight-item scale to measure BESC and demonstrate that it captures a consumer's general engagement with brands. This scale successfully predicts consumers' differential attention to, memory of, and preference for their favorite brands. Brand engagement in self-concept is also related to differential brand loyalty, with high-BESC consumers being less price and time sensitive regarding their favorite brands than low-BESC consumers. The authors discuss the usefulness of this construct for marketing research.
This research explores the effectiveness of interactive advertising on a new medium platform. Like the presence in industry and the media themselves, the academic research stream is fairly new. Our research seeks to isolate the key feature of interactivity from confounding factors and to begin to tease apart those situations for which interactivity might be highly desirable from those situations for which traditional advertising vehicles may be sufficient or superior. We find that the traditional linear advertising format of conventional ads is actually better than interactive advertising for certain kinds of consumers and for certain kinds of ads. In particular, we find that a cognitive matching of the system properties (being predominately visual or verbal) and the consumer segment needs (preferring their information to be presented in a visual or verbal manner) appears to be critical. More research should be conducted before substantial expenditures are devoted to advertising on these interactive media. These new means of communicating with customers are indeed exciting, but they must be demonstrated to be effective on consumer engagement and persuasion.
Consumers may act on the spur of the moment, driven by fun and curiosity, or be goal-oriented, task-focused utilitarians. This study investigates the effects of consumers’ hedonic and utilitarian orientation online on price consciousness, frequency of purchase, purchased amount, intention to re-patronize a Web site and expertise with the Internet. It specifically considers purchasing, not mere browsing, basing on data collected on customers of one of the largest Italian online retailers for electronics. The data show significant differences between hedonic and utilitarian orientation online with regard to past purchase frequency, the amount purchased and the intention to re-patronize the Web site in the future. The findings suggest that utilitarianism is strongly present online, and is valuable, thus utilitarian consumers should not be neglected, but hedonism is even more profitable, impacting on the number of items purchased and the intention to come back to the Web site. No differences are found in the level of price consciousness or in the degree of expertise with the Internet.
This article reports the development and validation of a parsimonious, generalizable scale that measures the hedonic and utilitarian dimensions of consumer attitudes toward product categories and different brands within categories. The hedonic/utilitarian (HED/UT) scale includes ten semantic differential response items, five of which refer to the hedonic dimension and five of which refer to the utilitarian dimension of consumer attitudes. The authors conducted six studies to establish the unidimensionality, reliability, and validity of the two HED/UT subscales. In reaching the final scale, the authors also develop and implement a unique process of paring down a psychometrically sound but otherwise too large set of items. Nomological validity is established by replacing a typical, one-dimensional attitude toward the brand measure with the hedonic and utilitarian dimensions in a central route processing model. Results suggest that the hedonic and utilitarian constructs are two distinct dimensions of brand attitude and are reliably and validly measured by the HED/UT scale.
Customers can interact with and create value for firms in a variety of ways. This article proposes that assessing the value of customers based solely upon their transactions with a firm may not be sufficient, and valuing this engagement correctly is crucial in avoiding undervaluation and overvaluation of customers. We propose four components of a customer’s engagement value (CEV) with a firm. The first component is customer lifetime value (the customer’s purchase behavior), the second is customer referral value (as it relates to incentivized referral of new customers), the third is customer influencer value (which includes the customer’s behavior to influence other customers, that is increasing acquisition, retention, and share of wallet through word of mouth of existing customers as well as prospects), and the fourth is customer knowledge value (the value added to the firm by feedback from the customer). CEV provides a comprehensive framework that can ultimately lead to more efficient marketing strategies that enable higher long-term contribution from the customer. Metrics to measure CEV, future research propositions regarding relationships between the four components of CEV are proposed and marketing strategies that can leverage these relationships suggested.
This paper aims to establish a conceptual understanding of customer engagement. Drawing from management, marketing, applied psychology literature and marketing practitioners' views, an initial working definition of customer engagement was formed. Customer engagement describes the level of a customer's various "presence" in their relationship with the organisation. The presences include physical presence, emotional presence and cognitive presence. Customer engagement is conceived as a higher-order construct which consists of four components, namely, vigor, dedication, absorption, and interaction. Given the intangible nature of services and that a degree of customer- provider social interaction is typically required in delivery of services, we contend the construct has high relevance in service industries. Eight related marketing constructs were identified and compared to customer engagement. Key reasons for devoting research attention to customer engagement are also discussed.
In this article, we discuss the state of the art of models for customer engagement and the problems that are inherent to calibrating and implementing these models. The authors first provide an overview of the data available for customer analytics and discuss recent developments. Next, the authors discuss the models used for studying customer engagement, where they distinguish the following stages: customer acquisition, customer development, and customer retention. Finally, they discuss several organizational issues of analytics for customer engagement, which constitute barriers for introducing analytics for customer engagement.
This article develops and discusses the concept of customer engagement behaviors (CEB), which we define as the customers’ behavioral manifestation toward a brand or firm, beyond purchase, resulting from motivational drivers. CEBs include a vast array of behaviors including word-of-mouth (WOM) activity, recommendations, helping other customers, blogging, writing reviews, and even engaging in legal action. The authors develop a conceptual model of the antecedents and consequences—customer, firm, and societal—of CEBs. The authors suggest that firms can manage CEBs by taking a more integrative and comprehensive approach that acknowledges their evolution and impact over time.
In a study of telecommunications services, the authors examine the effects of customer satisfaction, affective com- mitment, and calculative commitment on retention. The study further examines the potential for situational and reactional trigger conditions to moderate the satisfaction-retention relationship. The results support consistent effects of customer satisfaction, calculative commitment, and prior churn on retention. Prior churn also moderates the satisfaction-retention relationship. The results have implications for both customer relationship managers and researchers who use satisfaction surveys to predict behavior.
Brand experience is conceptualized as sensations, feelings, cognitions, and behavioral responses evoked by brand-related stimuli that are part of a brand's design and identity, packaging, communications, and environments. The authors distinguish several experience dimensions and construct a brand experience scale that includes four dimensions: sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioral. In six studies, the authors show that the scale is reliable, valid, and distinct from other brand measures, including brand evaluations, brand involvement, brand attachment, customer delight, and brand personality. Moreover, brand experience affects consumer satisfaction and loyalty directly and indirectly through brand personality associations.
Marketing managers are being required to demonstrate the profitability of their marketing actions down to the level of their individual customers and on an ongoing basis. At the same time, customers expect firms to increasingly customize their products and services to meet their demands. Firms still need to produce superior products, sell smarter, and understand the markets as a whole, but the ability of firms to orient themselves to interact successfully with their individual customers will differentiate them in the future. Advances in technology have resulted in increasing opportunities for interactions between firms and customers, between customers, and between firms. An interaction orientation reflects a firm's ability to interact with its individual customers and to take advantage of information obtained from them through successive interactions to achieve profitable customer relationships. First, the authors identify the components of interaction orientation: (1) customer concept, (2) interaction response capacity, (3) customer empowerment, and (4) customer value management. Second, they relate interaction orientation to both customer-level and aggregate-level performance measures. Third, they identify the antecedents of interaction orientation. Fourth, they examine the moderating effects of customer-initiated contacts and competitive intensity on the interaction orientation–performance linkage. The results are based on a survey of top marketing managers. The commonly held view that customer-based relational performance is related to customer-based profit performance is not supported. However, both customer-based relational performance and customer-based profit performance affect aggregate business-level performance positively. Interaction orientation is a phenomenon observed in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer firms. The extent of customer-initiated contacts moderates the interaction orientation–performance relationship.
Instead of offering products or services alone, increasingly, firms and their partners are offering consumption systems. Consumption systems are offerings characterized by a significant product and service subsystem, as well as a pattern of consumption in which consumption occurs in multiple episodes over time. The authors develop a theoretical model for conceptualizing satisfaction with consumption systems and empirically test it using longitudinal data from 5206 automobile owners. Results show that an intertemporal examination of attribute-level performance, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions can improve an understanding of their relationships because these relationships change as the consumption of the product unfolds. For example, on the basis of their salience, attribute weights in determining satisfaction shift over time. Furthermore, the crossover effect of product and service satisfaction in determining intentions toward the manufacturer and the service provider is asymmetric, and this asymmetry reverses over time. Service satisfaction initially has a much larger impact in determining intentions toward the manufacturer, but later, product satisfaction is more influential in generating intentions toward the service provider and manufacturer. The results show that there is no direct link between satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Rather, satisfaction affects behavioral intentions in the future through a dual-mediation route.
The authors address the role of marketing in hypermedia computer-mediated environments (CMEs). Their approach considers hypermedia CMEs to be large-scale (i.e., national or global) networked environments, of which the World Wide Web on the Internet is the first and current global implementation. They introduce marketers to this revolutionary new medium, propose a structural model of consumer navigation behavior in a CME that incorporates the notion of flow, and examine a series of research issues and marketing implications that follow from the model.
Several issues relating to goodness of fit in structural equations are examined. The convergence and differentiation criteria, as applied by Bagozzi, are shown not to stand up under mathematical or statistical analysis. The authors argue that the choice of interpretative statistic must be based on the research objective. They demonstrate that when this is done the Fornell-Larcker testing system is internally consistent and that it conforms to the rules of correspondence for relating data to abstract variables.
The author presents a conceptual model of brand equity from the perspective of the individual consumer. Customer-based brand equity is defined as the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand. A brand is said to have positive (negative) customer-based brand equity when consumers react more (less) favorably to an element of the marketing mix for the brand than they do to the same marketing mix element when it is attributed to a fictitiously named or unnamed version of the product or service. Brand knowledge is conceptualized according to an associative network memory model in terms of two components, brand awareness and brand image (i.e., a set of brand associations). Customer-based brand equity occurs when the consumer is familiar with the brand and holds some favorable, strong, and unique brand associations in memory. Issues in building, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity are discussed, as well as areas for future research.
An expository overview of the use of Lisrel in validating marketing constructs is presented and its advantages over the “traditional approaches” are demonstrated. Lisrel's contribution in all phases of construct validation is discussed. It is shown that lisrel has much to offer in purifying the measure by testing the unidimensionality of the measurement instrument, and in cross-validation to investigate the convergent validity (within a method) and reliability, Lisrel allows a rigorous assessment of the stability of the construct and its measurement instrument, and it is a powerful methodology for assessing convergent validity across methods, discriminant validity, and nomological validity. The use of Lisrel in construct validation is empirically illustrated by the analysis of data concerning consumers' variety seeking tendency with respect to foods.
The statistical tests used in the analysis of structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error are examined. A drawback of the commonly applied chi square test, in addition to the known problems related to sample size and power, is that it may indicate an increasing correspondence between the hypothesized model and the observed data as both the measurement properties and the relationship between constructs decline. Further, and contrary to common assertion, the risk of making a Type II error can be substantial even when the sample size is large. Moreover, the present testing methods are unable to assess a model's explanatory power. To overcome these problems, the authors develop and apply a testing system based on measures of shared variance within the structural model, measurement model, and overall model.
A critical element in the evolution of a fundamental body of knowledge in marketing, as well as for improved marketing practice, is the development of better measures of the variables with which marketers work. In this article an approach is outlined by which this goal can be achieved and portions of the approach are illustrated in terms of a job satisfaction measure.
Um das Soziale Netzwerk Facebook als Untersuchungsgegenstand dieser Arbeit einzuordnen und um im Weiteren die Bedeutung für Kinder und Jugendliche und für die Soziale Arbeit herauszuarbeiten, bedarf es zunächst einer Klärung, was soziale Onlinenetzwerke überhaupt sind. Hierzu werden theoretische Grundlagen mit der Beschreibung und Abgrenzung der Begriffe Web 2.0 und Social Web geschaffen. Ziel ist es, die Merkmale und Möglichkeiten des heutigen Internets darzustellen, um darauf aufbauend eine kurze Klassifikation von Social Web- Anwendungen zu liefern, worunter die sozialen Onlinenetzwerke ausführlich beleuchtet werden.
The author presents a conceptual model of brand equity from the perspective of the individual consumer. Customer-based brand equity is defined as the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand. A brand is said to have positive (negative) customer-based brand equity when consumers react more (less) favorably to an element of the marketing mix for the brand than they do to the same marketing mix element when it is attributed to a fictitiously named or unnamed version of the product or service. Brand knowledge is conceptualized according to an associative network memory model in terms of two components, brand awareness and brand image (i. e., a set of brand associations). Customer-based brand equity occurs when the consumer is familiar with the brand and holds some favorable, strong, and unique brand associations in memory. Issues in building, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity are discussed, as well as areas for future research.
A holistic construal is presented to represent and test organizational theories, using examples from contemporary organizational theory and data from a recent study of wholesale distribution companies. The methodology provides a mechanism for linking theory construction and theory testing in organization research by explicitly representing theoretical and empirical concepts, nonobservational hypotheses, and correspondence rules. Unlike traditional methods used for construct validation and hypothesis testing, the methodology permits the researcher to model the extent of random and systematic error in measures of theoretical concepts and to control these sources of error when testing substantive hypotheses. Comparisons made between the holistic construal and traditional procedures show how the latter can lead to inaccurate conclusions about the status of a theory's constructs, hypotheses, and measures.
The number of social media posts that expose company integrity violations has increased dramatically. In response, some companies empower employees to respond to customer blogs, which requires employees to recognize the customer’s perspective. We show that Attentional Bias Modification can be used to prime employees of two global Fortune 100 companies with a self-sufficiency or empathy bias. The results indicate that narrative transportation, or the extent to which employees mentally enter the world evoked by a customer’s story, mediates the effect of attentional bias on two relevant psychological ownership dimensions: acknowledgment of responsibility and willingness to respond. Participants with a self-sufficiency bias neither acknowledge responsibility nor want to respond. However, participants primed with an empathy bias take responsibility for the customer’s case and respond to the integrity violation. We find evidence for two boundary conditions of this effect: (1) it strengthens when the employee perceives the customer’s financial vulnerability as high and (2) it weakens when the customer is impolite in the blog post.
Traditional measures of customer satisfaction have been criticized for failing to capture the depth of customer responses to service performance. This study seeks to redirect satisfaction research toward an approach that encompasses an understanding of the role of commitment, involvement, and trust in the creation of engaged and loyal customers. A conceptual framework for segmenting customer-brand relationships based on the extent to which customers are either new or repeat purchase customers of a specific service brand is proposed. The approach provides a deeper and more complete understanding of the nature of customer-brand relationships and the processes by which engagement may be developed and fostered among differing customer segments.
Marketing managers are being required to demonstrate the profitability of their marketing actions down to the level of their individual customers and on an ongoing basis. At the same time, customers expect firms to increasingly customize their products and services to meet their demands. Firms still need to produce superior products, sell smarter, and understand the markets as a whole, but the ability of firms to orient themselves to interact successfully with their individual customers will differentiate them in the future. Advances in technology have resulted in increasing opportunities for interactions between firms and customers, between customers, and between firms. An interaction orientation reflects a firm's ability to interact with its individual customers and to take advantage of information obtained from them through successive interactions to achieve profitable customer relationships. First, the authors identify the components of interaction orientation: (1) customer concept, (2) interaction response capacity, (3) customer empowerment, and (4) customer value management. Second, they relate interaction orientation to both customer-level and aggregate-level performance measures. Third, they identify the antecedents of interaction orientation. Fourth, they examine the moderating effects of customer-initiated contacts and competitive intensity on the interaction orientation-performance linkage. The results are based on a survey of top marketing managers. The commonly held view that customer-based relational performance is related to customer-based profit performance is not supported. However, both customer-based relational performance and customer-based profit performance affect aggregate business-level performance positively. Interaction orientation is a phenomenon observed in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer firms. The extent of customer-initiated contacts moderates the interaction orientation-performance relationship.
Certain aspects of model modification and evaluation are discussed, with an emphasis on some points of view that expand upon or may differ from Kaplan (1990). The usefulness of BentlerBonett indexes is reiterated. When degree of misspecification can be measured by the size of the noncentrality parameter of a x[SUP2] distribution, the comparative fit index provides a useful general index of model adequacy that does not require knowledge of sourees of misspecification. The dependence of the Lagrange Multiplier X[SUP2] statistic on both the estimated multiplier parameter and estimated constraint or parameter change is discussed. A sensitivity theorem that shows the effects of unit change in constraints on model fit is developed for model modification in structural models. Recent incomplete data methods, such as those developed by Kaplan and his collaborators, are extended to be applicable in a wider range of situations.
Over the last six decades, marketing concepts, tools, and knowledge have gone through tremendous developments. A general trend toward formalization has affected orientation and decision making and has clarified the relationship between marketing efforts and performance measures. This evolution has received strong support from concurrent revolutions in data collection and research techniques. This article outlines the formalization of the marketing discipline and proposes steps that will pave the way for future developments in marketing, toward what I call “distinguished marketing”.