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Management Research Review

Antecedents of relationship between customer and organization developed


through social networking sites
Fedric Kujur, Saumya Singh,
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Fedric Kujur, Saumya Singh, (2018) "Antecedents of relationship between customer and organization
developed through social networking sites", Management Research Review, https://doi.org/10.1108/
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Social
Antecedents of relationship networking
between customer and sites

organization developed through


social networking sites
Fedric Kujur and Saumya Singh Received 15 July 2017
Revised 14 December 2017
Department of Management Studies, 3 April 2018
Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad, Dhanbad, India Accepted 4 June 2018
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Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to propose a theoretical model of how content-related factors, social
factors and perceptual factors influence consumer engagement in brand social networking sites (SNSs) pages
and further how consumer engagement behavior influences the customer–organization relationship.
Design/methodology/approach – This study used an online and offline questionnaire to conduct
empirical research and collected and analyzed data of 430 samples by using the structural equation modeling
approach.
Findings – The result showed that all three factors, i.e. content-related factors, social factors and perceptual
factors, had positive influence on consumer engagement. Further, the result also showed a positive influence
of consumer engagement on the customer–organization relationship. Another important thing the study
found was that social media users mostly engage in consuming the content and contributing.
Research limitations/implications – This study has considered one popular SNS: Facebook. As the
usage purpose and features of different SNSs vary, the future research should be directed by taking other
popular SNSs, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, to gain a broader insight of consumer engagement on other
brand SNS pages. Further, the present study has stressed on the exploring the quality of customer–
organization relationship as the major outcome of consumer engagement on brand SNS pages. Therefore, the
future study should be directed toward measuring the relationship between consumer engagement and other
important outcomes, such as brand advocacy behaviors, positive word-of-mouth behaviors and brand loyalty.
Practical implications – This paper suggests strategies for consumer engagement through SNSs,
especially Facebook advertisements. First, the study has identified content-related factors, social factors and
perceptual factors which will help the managers to set strategies for engaging new and prospective
consumers on brand SNS pages. Second, it also describes how the online activities of consumers on brand SNS
pages strengthen the relationship between customer and organizations. This conception will definitely help
marketing managers to develop quality relationship with their existing and new customers.
Originality/value – The novelty of this study is that it attempts to explore the combined effect of content-
related factors, social factors and perceptual factors on consumer engagement and also explores the nature
and specific types of engagement behavior on brand SNS pages.
Keywords Social networking sites, Consumer engagement, Other management related topics
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Social networking sites (SNSs) have emerged as an indispensable communication tool for
people to stay connected. It provides a suitable platform where social media users can create
online communities, share information, ideas, personal messages and other contents (Chua Management Research Review
and Banerjee, 2015; Ashley and Tuten, 2015). There is a sharp increase in the popularity of © Emerald Publishing Limited
2040-8269
the SNSs such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Googleþ. The consistent DOI 10.1108/MRR-07-2017-0218
MRR increase in the use of social media has influenced to the business organizations worldwide as
most of their existing and prospective customers are connected to the social media (Dimitriu
and Guesalaga, 2017). With the help of social media, business organizations connect
themselves with their customers through virtual networks and online communities as a part
of social media marketing strategy. Technology facilitates the dissemination of the
information across the world without any boundary and content constraints. Through
SNSs, people share their feelings and experiences frequently, which help the businesses to
develop their strategy (Makri and Schlegelmilch, 2017; Scuotto et al., 2017).
The growing popularity of SNSs among people has lead corporates to establish their
social media presence and continuously pursue engaging their potential customers to
maintain a friendly relationship with them. Organizations create their own brand pages on
various social media platforms to get connected with potential customers and receive their
opinions in the form of likes, comments and shares, indicating the popularity among the
customers (Schivinski et al., 2016; Kujur and Singh, 2017). SNSs have globally influenced
communications, interactions and relationships for personal, business and organizational
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reasons (Mangold and Faulds, 2009; Clark et al., 2017). This has resulted in more brands to
embrace the new media as another way to engage their consumers even at a personal level
through virtual brand communities, especially SNSs. Consumer engagement in SNSs draws
much attention of scholars and practitioners as it facilitates a new way of engaging with
consumers through faster and spontaneous interactions between brands and consumers and
also among consumers themselves (Sashi, 2012; Malciute, 2012; Ashley and Tuten, 2015;
Dimitriu and Guesalaga, 2017; Harrigan et al., 2017; Makri and Schlegelmilch, 2017).
Engaged customers play a crucial role in viral marketing activity by providing referrals and
recommendations for specific products, services and/or brands to others and help in the
development of new product/service (Henderson, 2015). As per the social media marketing
industry report, most of the business firms mainly focus on the ways to engage the audience
with social media and fix it as their topmost priority (Stelzner, 2015).
However, limited studies have given focus on the antecedents, the process and the
consequences of consumer engagement with corporate SNS communications (Men and Tsai,
2013; Gummerus et al., 2012). This has aroused a great degree of research interest into the
antecedents and outcomes of social media engagement (Figure 1). The recent special issues in

Content-related factors

Informaon seeking

Entertainment

Social Factors

Group Norms Customer-


Consumer
Engagement Organizaon
Social Identy
Relaonship
Parasocial Interacon

Perceptual Factors
Figure 1.
Perceived value
Conceptual model for
the research study Perceived credibility
various journals (e.g. Journal of Marketing Management, 2016; Journal of Services Marketing, Social
2017) are inviting call for papers and dedicated research on how social media and other networking
marketing activities create engagement (Dessart, 2017). Though research on consumer
engagement is copiously available, there are certain aspects that have been less explored.
sites
The present research work tries to focus on need for an extension of the generalizability
(Hollebeek et al., 2016), emphasis on a small set of variables (Malthouse et al., 2016) and focus
on few brands or products (Hollebeek et al., 2014). Therefore, there is a need to develop a
theoretical understanding of the engagement behavior in response to marketing practices
within a social network structure (Sashi, 2012; Dolan et al., 2016). This paper explains the role
of content-related factors, social factors and perceptual factors in facilitating engagement
behaviors within social media platforms and thus contributing a deeper recognition of
dynamic nature of engagement behavior. The model explores the processes for stimulating
positive social media engagement behaviors through the use of content-related factors, social
factors and perceptual factors. In the previous studies, the motivating factors of consumer
engagement were directed to measure only the strength of engagement that largely ignored
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the nature and types of engagement behavior with brands in SNSs. To address this literature
gap, the study has followed the consumers’ online brand-related activities (COBRA) first
introduced by Shao (2009) and later extended by Muntinga et al. (2011). The COBRA
framework is an umbrella behavioral construct that encompasses the consumer activities
relating to brand-related content on social media. The engagement activities such as
consuming, contributing and creating are crucial factors to measure the consumer
engagement behavior when visiting brand pages on SNSs.
Further, in the marketing literature, emerging aspects of social media and consumer
engagement have been theorized as important strategic imperative for attaining competitive
brand advantage and strengthening organization–customer relationships (Brodie and
Hollebeek, 2011; Dovaliene et al., 2015; Dessart, 2017). An empirical study by Tsai and Men
(2014) elaborates the behavioral dimensions of engagement construct such as consumers’
brand-related activities in establishing consumer-brand relationships. Several literary works
have crafted the role of consumer engagement in establishing organization–customer
relationships, but a complete overview of the process and consequences of the consumer
engagement with organizations has to be authenticated (Brodie et al., 2013; Hollebeek, 2011;
Van Doorn et al., 2010; Vivek et al., 2012). Hollebeek et al. (2016) and Dessart 2017 assert on
its requirement and its validation in the context of social media. The present study is an
attempt to throw light on how social media engagement behavior can transform individual
consumer predispositions into beneficial brand outcomes.
Thus, the present study proposes a conceptual model to provide an account of the key
individual-level antecedents grouped in three factors (content-related factors, social factors
and perceptual factors) and relational outcomes of consumer engagement on brand SNS
pages. Considering consumer engagement as behavioral dimension, the study identifies
three motivational factors as antecedents and anticipates engagement behavior to lead to a
series of positive organization– customer relationship outcomes. The three factors are brand
trust, satisfaction and commitment.

2. Literature review
2.1 Consumer engagement behavior via social media
In recent times, the use of social media has led to the rapid emergence of customer
engagement and has increased attention in both practice and research. Customer
engagement refers to the emotional connection between a customer and a brand which is
subjected to the level of consumer’s involvement in products’ purchase, interaction done on
MRR social media, intimacy between the consumers with the brand and influence over a period
(Safko and Brake, 2009). Brodie et al. (2013) defines consumer engagement as a
multidimensional concept consisting of cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions and
involves interactive experiences between consumers and the brand and/or other members of
the virtual brand community. Further, Hollebeek et al. (2014) defined consumer engagement
as “a consumer’s positively valence brand-related cognitive, emotional and behavioral
activity during or related to focal consumer/brand interactions”. Vivek et al. (2012) define
consumer engagement as “the intensity of an individual’s participation in and connection
with an organization’s offerings and organizational activities, which either the customer or
the organization initiate”. Harrigan et al. (2017) also state in their study that customer
engagement is characterized by repeated interactions between a customer and an
organization that strengthens the emotional, psychological or physical investment a
customer has in the brand and the organization. These definitions suggest two things about
consumer engagement, first is the importance of multidimensionality and second is the
relational exchange nature of the construct. Both constitute behavioral manifestations that
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have a brand or firm focus resulting from motivational drivers (Dessart et al., 2015; Hsieh
and Chang, 2016).
Online engagement orientation can be ascertained when consumers are motivated to go
online and spend time surfing. Researchers have argued that to understand the consumer
engagement behavior, it is necessary to understand their motivations for going online (Kunz
et al., 2011; Brodie et al., 2013; Makri and Schlegelmilch, 2017). Social media is the prevalent
mode through which customers engage with a brand or organization. Business are
recognizing the need to connect with their current and potential customers in social media
environment (Dolan et al., 2016; Harrigan et al., 2017). The studies have revealed that with
the widespread adoption of mobile phones and the explosion of the internet, the consumers
have increased the use of SNSs to connect with others (Luarn et al., 2015; Clark et al., 2016).
Companies are creating online brand communities and corporate SNS pages on social media
platforms to increase their credibility and trust by discussing the products or services online
which reaches to wide audiences. With the application of social exchange theory in the
context of consumer-brand engagement, some scholars have opined that consumer
engagement involves a series of interactions which are interdependent and contingent on the
firm and consumers involved (Cropanzano and Mitchell, 2005; Harrigan et al., 2017). Due to
this, the consumers develop a sense of commitment to engage in brand-related activities
which transcend beyond the involvement concept (Hollebeek et al., 2014; Hsieh and Chang,
2016). This also enables consumers to share their experience with the brand, integrate it in
their expressions and, to some extent, signify the brand as part of themselves (Hammedi
et al., 2015).
Some research have shown also state that engagement with SNS pages – including those
of a brand – gradually leads to the development of meaningful relationships (Tsai and Men,
2013; Hollebeek et al., 2016; Dessart, 2017). For example, communicating with consumers on
corporate SNS pages through wall posts (anecdotes, status, photos, videos, info graphs, etc.)
enables active interactions with the brand and help them to express their likes and dislikes
and sharing content with their social connections. Corporate brand pages are becoming
more popular on SNSs as it is being increasingly followed by the users. Pereira, et al. (2014)
gives five reasons for brand pages being popular among users. They are:
(1) willingness to become consumer of the company;
(2) interests in knowing discounts and promotions;
(3) telling others that he likes or supports the brand;
(4) getting first-hand information about the brand; and Social
(5) having access to the exclusive contents of the brand. networking
sites
Interestingly, the social media technology has been successful in enabling brands to be
popular through higher levels of interaction between the customer and the brand and
e-word-of-mouth (WOM) by the dynamic marketing agencies among social media users
(Chu and Sung, 2015; Lei et al., 2017; Gensler et al., 2013). This interactive communication
channels also provide various opportunities for improving brand meaning and collaborative
product innovation and play a mechanism for value co-creation, thereby enhancing the
perception of consumer engagement online with corporate SNS pages (Gensler et al., 2013;
Sawhney et al., 2005). Given the above explanations, it becomes essential to identify some
critical factors that might influence how consumers engage with a brand via social media.
Drawing from the cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions of consumer
engagement, various studies have been conducted on users’ motivations to engage with the
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brand using social media websites. Felix et al. (2017) reveal in their study that consumer
engagement is dependent on customer needs, motives and goals, which in essence define the
rules of their participation. The important motivational factors are entertainment,
information seeking, sociality, social status enhancement, trust and conformity (Chang and
Zhu, 2012; Lien and Cao, 2014). Tsai and Men (2013) included two new factors for consumer
engagement, i.e. social media dependency and parasocial interaction. Others scholars have
focused their studies on identifying driving factors for brand post popularity in corporate
SNS page (De Vries et al., 2012; Cvijikj and Michahelles, 2013). They used media type factors
such as vividness and interactivity. Content type factors such as information, entertainment
and remuneration for measuring brand posts popularity were also identified. Some scholars
conducted their study on the antecedent of consumer engagement by taking social factors
(social influence, community identifications, social identity and social support) (Tsai and
Men, 2013; Kaewkitipong et al., 2016; Luarn et al., 2015) and perceptual factors (reward,
perceived value, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) (Kaewkitipong et al., 2016;
Luarn et al., 2015). Based on the extensive literature review, three important factors, namely,
content-related factors, social factors and perceptual factors, have been considered as
antecedents in this study.
However, few studies have shown that the multi-dimensional construct of consumer
engagement such as cognitive and emotion make it difficult to measure consumer’s level of
engagement as it is directed to measure only the strength of engagement, while ignoring the
nature and specific types of engagement behaviors with brands in SNSs (Zheng et al., 2015;
Oh et al., 2017). Therefore, the present study has focused on contribution of customer
engagement in behavioral manifestation. Behavioral manifestation explains about the
extent to which customers engage in different online behaviors and/or about the relationship
between customer behavioral engagement and other proximal constructs (Bolton, 2011; Van
Doorn et al., 2010). Muntinga et al. (2011) defines three specific types of engagement
behaviors, namely, consuming, contributing and creating, which define the consumers’ level
of engagement with different activities while visiting brand pages on SNSs. This type of
consumer engagement is directly related to the emergence of new media and all the new
ways in which customers can interact with firms, including purchase and non-purchase
behavior (Libai, 2011). So far, there are few empirical studies on customer engagement
behaviors, in general, and particularly in social media, although customer engagement has
been recognized as a key research priority of the Marketing Science Institute (Bolton, 2011;
Tsai and Men, 2013; Tsai and Men, 2014).
MRR 2.2 Antecedent for consumer engagement behavior
2.2.1 Content-related factor. The uses and gratifications theory has been quite fruitful in
explaining users’ motivations and concerns for continuing use of social media technology.
This theory has two assumptions:
(1) The media users are very active and make motivated choices on the basis of
previous experiences with the media.
(2) The selection and the use of media are purposive and motivated and people take
the initiative in selecting and using the communication vehicles to satisfy felt
needs and desires (Lim and Ting, 2012; Kujur and Singh, 2017).

With the application of this theory, Cvijikj and Michahelles (2013) have tried to explain the
goals and motivations of individuals for engagement with different forms of content. Prior
studies reveal that the consumption of entertaining and informative content is considered to
be essential factors for participating in corporate SNS pages (Chang and Hsu, 2016; Dolan
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et al., 2016; Lei et al., 2017; De Vries et al., 2017; Tanttu, 2017). Even Muntinga et al. (2011)
report that entrainment and information seeking drive online engagement over brand-
related activities in the form of consumption, creation and contribution. Moreover, Cvijikj
and Michahelles (2013) and Tsai and Men (2013) describe how corporates create their own
brand pages on SNSs to communicate informative and entertaining posts to the social media
users to drive active interactions between consumer and brand, and among consumers
themselves, leading to higher engagement. Thus, the proposed hypotheses are:
H1a. Information seeking influences consumers’ interaction with media contents and
thus makes them engaged in brand SNS pages.
H1b. Entertainment influences consumers’ interaction with media contents and thus
makes them engaged in in brand SNS pages.
2.2.2 Social factors. Social factors determine the changes in the behavior and actions
produced by social influence. Social influence theory proposed by Fulk et al. (1987) asserts
that the decision-making of a manager is influenced by his superiors and co-workers. The
process of social influence affects individual’s attitude toward communication media and the
use of media behavior.
It also states that the determination of one’s attitude and behavior is dependent on the
information provided in a social context (Fulk and Steinfield, 1990), and hence, their
decision-making is purely subjective and influenced by other people (Fulk and Boyd, 1991).
On the basis of this theory, the conclusion can be drawn that the usage and the engagement
behavior of the consumers in SNSs are also influenced by the social factors, which
ultimately engage the consumers online. Even social media literature supports this approach
of social influence (Palka et al., 2009; Luarn et al., 2015; Maryam et al., 2015). Therefore, the
present study has considered three important variables, namely, group norms, social
identity and parasocial interactions.
Group norm is very similar to the term “internalization” as suggested by Kelman (1958).
Internalization refers to the acceptance of a decision of one’s value which is in conformity
with the value of the other group members. Thus, if a user feels that he shares the same type
of values or goals with other members in SNSs, he is said to be influenced by the group norm
(Cheung et al., 2011; Eisenbeiss et al., 2012). Group norm is a very influential motive for
consumers to use SNSs and spend more time in surfing the media contents (Wang et al.,
2011; Chan et al., 2014). For example, in Facebook, a person can be influenced by his peer
group to like a particular brand page so as to follow that brand in his social networking
news feed. Thus, the group norm may even act as the motivating factor for the consumer’s Social
online engagement in SNSs. Thus, the proposed hypothesis is: networking
H2a. Group norms influence consumers’ interaction with media contents and thus make sites
them engaged in in brand SNS pages.
Social identity refers to the intergroup behaviors by which media users identify themselves
on the basis of group status, preferences, habit, etc. in a group. This typical behavior also
includes the identification of emotional and evaluative significance in the group (Cheung
et al., 2011; Eisenbeiss et al., 2012). Social media users can feel the sense of belongingness in
online community when they consider themselves as active members of the group.
According to Tsai and Men (2013), the process of identifying oneself with brand SNS
community is interdependent with consumer-brand engagement. Brand communities such
as brand SNS pages help consumers to socialize themselves not only with a brand
representative but also with other users who share similar brand preferences. This process
leads to various activities such as liking the brand or corporate SNS page to get useful and
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entertaining information, to read reviews of community members and to comment or give


opinions. As the community members share similar preferences toward a particular brand,
they tend to develop a group attitude, follow norms of the group and sustain the dynamics of
the group, which is possible through active participation in community interactions and
activities. Thus, the proposed hypothesis is:
H2b. Social identity influences consumers’ interaction with media contents and thus
makes them engaged in in brand SNS pages.
Parasocial interaction is the interaction between a media character (artificial or human) and
the media user. This kind of interactions is called parasocial because it involves user’s
illusion of having an intimate and personal relationship with media character, and it
does not involve reciprocal as the media figure does not really participate in the
interaction and his/her behavior is not directly related to the user (Ferdig, 2008).
Parasocial interaction is a social factor, as parasocial relationships emerge primarily
between group members and a media character who share same interests and beliefs
with similar character and background. According to Tsiotsou (2015), parasocial
interaction plays also active role in the media character and helps in group
identification with it. Prior studies on parasocial interactions have mostly focused on
the relationship dimension with traditional media (Horton and Richard Wohl, 1956;
Russell and Stern, 2006), whereas the application of parasocial interactions on
consumer-brand engagement has been ignored even in the era of social media (Tsai and
Men, 2013). Labrecque (2014) conducted a study on the parasocial relationship between
consumers and brands and found its strong influence on the brand loyalty and
willingness to reveal personal information to brand. Further, few studies report that
compared to traditional media, social media communication is the best platform to
promote parasocial interactions because it gives an open platform for the users to
observe how brand representatives interact with other fans and followers and become
familiar with the projected character of the representative through wall posts (Chung
and Cho, 2017; Tsai and Men, 2013). As this process entails a high level of interaction
and openness in their communication with brands on social media, the parasocial
interaction leads to a stronger relationship with brand and eWOM (Labrecque, 2014).
As the parasocial interactions drive active and involved relationship with social media
personality, it should lead to consumer engagement with brand SNS pages. Thus, the
proposed hypothesis is:
MRR H2c. Parasocial interactions influence consumers’ interaction with media contents and
thus make them engaged in in brand SNS pages.
2.2.3 Perceptual factors. From the literature, a study has also found the perceptual factors to
be affecting consumer engagement. Perceptual factors are considered as an indicator of both
subjective and objective norms of different perceptual attributes (Luarn et al., 2015).
Perception is a process which includes exposure, attention, selection and interpretation of
the stimuli (Morschett et al., 2005). Interpretation, which is last of perception, helps in giving
meaning to a stimulus in the form of experience, memory and expectations drawn by people
(Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). Similarly, in the field of social media, the adoption and the
usage of SNSs mainly depend upon how consumers perceive SNSs. Some studies show that
consumers’ perception toward SNSs depends/changes due to two factors: usefulness and
preferences (Bhattacherjee and Sanford, 2006). Likewise, when the social media users come
across brands on brand SNS pages directly or through friend’s recommendations, and
receive useful and entertaining information about the brand, then they gradually develop
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right perceptions about the brand. Further, this process enhances users’ perceived value and
perceived credibility. Therefore, the present study has considered the perceived value and
perceived credibility for measuring the influence of consumer engagement.
Perceived value refers to customers’ overall evaluation of a product, service or
information, which is based on perceptual judgment between benefit and cost. For
understanding users’ behavior such as building positive attitude or enhancing shopping
behavior of the users, perceived value plays an important role (De Matos and Rossi, 2008).
When consumers realize that a product or information has high perceived value, it exerts a
strong influence to interact with it (Kim et al., 2012) and also influences them to disseminate
positive WOM (Ozok and Wei, 2010). The regular wall posts on the brand SNS pages makes
it easier for users to evaluate its worth by consuming the brand contents and initiating
interactions with the brand to avail more information regarding its perceived value. Thus,
this study suggests that high perceived value acts as the motivating factor for consumer
engagement in SNSs. Thus, the proposed hypothesis is:
H3a. Perceived value influences consumers’ interaction with media contents and thus
makes them engaged in in brand SNS pages.
Perceived credibility refers to the quality of being convincing or believable emanating from a
source of information, which is very crucial for sharing and WOM activities of brand
engagement on SNSs. The perceived credibility of information given by brand SNS
representatives and fellow users on brand SNS pages plays an essential role in establishing
trusting relationships with consumers. According to Metzger et al. (2003), the level of
perceived credibility depends on the source of information, quality of information and the
communication medium. To strengthen the perceived credibility of the consumers,
corporates are creating their brand pages and letting consumer participation to give their
valuable opinions and offer corrections so as to develop good perceptions of the brand SNS
pages as a credible source of information (Chu and Kim, 2011). Tsai and Men (2013) reveal
that the SNS users are turning more to brand SNS pages than company official websites.
The information provided by a brand representative on SNS pages and the subsequent
comments shared by fellow users become a credible source of information and thus attract
more interactions between consumer and brand as also among consumers themselves. In
view of this, we propose that:
H3b. Perceived value influences consumers’ interaction with media contents and thus
makes them engaged in in brand SNS pages.
2.3 Organization–customer relationship Social
The base of business survival is the consumer. Therefore, establishing a good relationship networking
with the consumers for any business organizations is essential. The strategies for building
and maintaining quality relationships with the consumers have garnered much attention
sites
from customer relations practitioners and theorists during the past decades (Kent and
Taylor, 2002). The concept of organization–customer relationships is one of the major
outcomes of customer relations. Currently, firms are applying customer relationship
management to satisfy customer needs, create services, strengthen the interaction with
customers and develop customer-oriented strategy and skills to maintain a competitive
advantage. According to Egan (2011), the concept of relationship building has become a
global concern in many industries around the world. The core ideal relationship building
involves long-term collaborations in which both the parties actively participate and take
benefits (Gummesson, 1999). Ferrand and McCarthy (2008) rightly points out that the
relationship arises through the interactions between both parties and involves mutual
exchanges serving the goals of all involved. As such, every interaction between each
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customer and the organization serves to build relationships. From the past decade,
interactions through social media have gained popularity among business organizations so
as to work collaboratively with customers to meet shared goals through communication,
feedback and engagement. Further, the previous literature shows that quality of the
relationship is measured or evaluated in terms of reciprocity, trust, credibility, mutual
legitimacy, openness and long-term commitment (Grunig et al., 1992; Ledingham and
Bruning, 1998). Later, Hon and Grunig (1999), by using interpersonal relationship theories,
identified six widely adopted relationship parameters: trust, control mutuality, satisfaction,
commitment, exchange relationship and communal relationship. Among these parameters,
trust, satisfaction and commitment have been already acknowledged and considered as a
measure of quality relationship (Ulaga and Eggert, 2006; Brodie et al., 2011; Gummerus et al.,
2012; Men and Tsai, 2014; Dessart et al., 2015). Therefore, in the present study, these three
parameters have been selected to measure the relationship quality between the
organizations and customers.

2.4 Customer engagement and organization–customer relationship


In establishing an organization–customer relationship, social exchange theory plays a
crucial role as it involves two-way communications. Bortree (2011) states in his study that
higher the rate of interactions or engagement with an organization, the stronger will be the
relationship with the customers. Visual contents related to an organization on its SNS pages
draw the attention of social media users and engage them with its interactive features in the
content. The frequent and healthy exchange or interactions with content in SNS brings both
the parties closer and fosters a lasting relationship. Clavio and Walsh (2014) states that
Facebook leads to more interactive experiences with its high-quality visuals than Twitter,
which enhances effective relationship building. Consuming visual contents on corporate
SNS pages is more important than predicting users’ ability of consumption because
engagement leads to a prosocial relationship between organizations and users (Men and
Tsai, 2014). Nammir et al. (2012) also emphasized that customer engagement significantly
contributes to a constructive relationship. Although social media has been a popular
platform for the consumer engagement and relationship building, very few studies have
paid attention to the influence of consumer engagement on organization–customer
relationship building. Therefore, the present study has focused much on how consumer
engagement through consuming, creating and contributing to visual contents influences the
organization–customer relationship. Thus, we propose the following hypothesis:
MRR H4. Consumer engagement with organizations on corporate SNS pages positively
influences organization–customer relationship building.

3. Research methodology
3.1 Sample selection and data collection
As the usage rate is the highest among young adults of 18-29 years of age (Ho and Dempsey,
2010), students were considered as main respondents from different educational institutions
located in India. The respondents mainly comprised undergraduate, postgraduate and
doctoral students. Facebook was chosen as the subject of the study because it has the
maximum users in India to the tune of some 142 million out of which 69 million are active
users (Khan, 2016). Facebook is also considered as the world’s most viewed SNS with its 972
million regular users in January 2013 (Pereira et al., 2014). Therefore, the present study
considered only those respondents who are active users of Facebook, having followed at
least three brands or companies brand pages on Facebook. The collected data were screened,
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and all the miscoded and suspicious-looking data entries were removed, and finally, only
430 survey questionnaires were considered for the present study. The collected data
revealed 294 male (68.37 per cent) and 136 female (31.63 per cent) participants. The average
age of respondents was 23.5 years, with 20.93 per cent in 15-20 age group, 36.05 per cent in
21-25 age group, 29.30 per cent in 26-30 age group and 13.72 per cent in 30þ age group, these
people spent 2-3 h daily on Facebook-related activities.
The questionnaire for this study was taken from the previous literature, and items were
modified to fit the context of this study. The present study classified items of the questionnaire
on the five-point Likert scale, ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.”

3.2 Measurement model


To test our framework, the study applied a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach,
incorporating a series of qualitative and quantitative analysis. First, the study analyzed
measurement model, followed by the structural model. For the construct validity of the items,
factor analysis has been done. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted using varimax
rotation to reduce a large number of variables into a smaller set of interpretable underlying
factors. After that, the study analyzed measurement model by a maximum-likelihood
estimation procedure using AMOS version 18. To assess the model fit, chi-square ( x 2), normed
fit index (NFI), comparative fit index (CFI), root mean square residual (RMR) and root mean
square error of approximation (RMSEA) were considered in this study (Bollen, 1989). The
statistical significance of parameter estimates was measured using t-values greater than 2.
The participants answered total 39 survey questions. Exploratory factor analysis was
conducted, which resulted in eight factors explaining 88 per cent of the variance (Table I).
Two items relating to contributing in the consumer engagement section were removed as
the rate of response was very poor. Then, the measurement model fit test was done. As the
RMSEA and RMR were more than 0.05 and 0.08, respectively, the present measurement
model could not fit. Therefore, the modification fit index was used to correlate the error
terms of the latent constructs to bring the model fitness. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
supported the exploratory factor analysis. The fit of the measurement model was acceptable
( x 2 = 876.675, NFI = 0.952, CFI = 0.969, RMSEA = 0.047 and RMR = 0.027).
Hair et al. (2010) suggest that while doing CFA, convergent and discriminant validity,
which are considered as subcategories or subtypes of construct validity, should be
conducted to establish construct validity and reliability. They also suggest criteria for
acceptance of convergent and discriminant validity. They are as follows:
Factor Cronbach’s
Social
Constructs Items loading alpha CR AVE b T’ value networking
sites
Information seeking IS1 0.819 0.777 0.84 0.83 0.27 2.26
IS2 0.796
IS3 0.849
Entertainment ENT1 0.94 0.968 0.81 0.81 0.38 8.89
ENT2 0.976
ENT3 0.975
Group norms GN1 0.949 0.916 0.86 0.71 0.08 0.97
GN2 0.925
GN2
Social identity SI1 0.971 0.952 0.85 0.64 0.07 1.10
SI2 0.941
SI3 0.943
Parasocial interaction PI1 0.87 0.834 0.86 0.72 0.11 1.75
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PI2 0.904
PI3
Perceived value PV1 0.894 0.897 0.91 0.52 0.2 2.45
PV2 0.915
PV3 0.889
Perceived credibility PC1 0.947 0.918 0.87 0.76 0.28 4.13
PC2 0.904
PC3 0.88
Consuming Consuming1 0.916 0.866 0.94 0.64 0.84
Consuming 2 0.904
Contributing Contributing1 0.892 0.891 0.93 0.67 0.81
Contributing 2 0.92
Trust Trust1 0.913 0.919 0.92 0..61 0.79
Trust2 0.919
Trust3 0.877
Trust 4 0.891
Satisfaction Satisfaction1 0.943 0.861 0.889 0.77 0.67
Satisfaction 2 0.948
Satisfaction 3 0.888
Satisfaction 4 0.937
Commitment Commitment1 0.930 0.799 0.842 0.59 0.61
Commitment 2 0.921
Commitment 3 0.949
Table I.
Commitment 4 0.925 Results of factor
analysis, reliability
Notes: CR = composite reliability; AVE = average variance extracted and path analysis

 Reliability = composite reliability > 0.7.


 Convergent validity = average variance extracted (AVE) > 0.5.
 Discriminant validity = square root of AVE greater than inter-construct correlations
(Table II).

3.3 Structural model


For hypotheses testing, SEM was applied using a two-step latent variable modeling
approach. Consumer engagement and customer–organization relationships in the structural
model were specified as latent variables, and content-related factors, social factors and
MRR Parameters AVE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1. Information seeking 0.83 0.91


2. Entertainment 0.81 0.26 0.9
3. Group norms 0.71 0.29 0.31 0.84
4. Social Identity 0.64 0.15 0.26 0.3 0.8
5. Parasocial interaction 0.72 0.23 0.3 0.29 0.42 0.85
6. Perceived value 0.52 0.1 0.37 0.21 0.27 0.34 0.72
7. Perceived credibility 0.76 0.16 0.19 0.23 0.18 0.15 0.33 0.87
8. Consuming 0.64 0.25 0.11 0.12 0.24 0.19 0.22 0.35 0.8
Table II. 9. Contributing 0.67 0.22 0.2 0.13 0.23 0.15 0.24 0.22 0.34 0.82
10. Trust 0.61 0.31 0.28 0.22 0.21 0.2 0.12 0.11 0.24 0.34 0.78
Convergent and 11. Satisfaction 0.77 0.18 0.1 0.05 0.28 0.19 0.14 0.1 0.07 0.26 0.27 0.88
discriminant validity 12. Commitment 0.59 0.28 0.1 0.12 0.13 0.31 0.21 0.02 0.11 0.01 0.25 0.37 0.77
and inter-construct
correlations Note: The italic value shows the square root of AVE
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perceptual factors were considered as observed variables. Apart from the chi-square
statistic ( x 2 = 944.23, p < 0.001), all fit indices indicated a good fit with the data (NFI = 0.95,
CFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.053, RMR = 0.49). Figure 2 displays the results of the structural
model analysis, including significant standardized path coefficients. All structural paths
demonstrated significant results.
The result revealed that content-related factors such as information and entertainment
were found to have a positive influence on the consumer engagement in brand SNS page.
The information showed a positive impact on consumer engagement ( b = 0.27, p < 0.05),
supporting H1a. Similarly, entertaining content also showed a positive significant influence
on the consumer engagement ( b = 0.38, p < 0.05), supporting H1b. Social factors such as
group norms, social identity and parasocial interactions were found to have a positive

Figure 2.
The path results of
the study model
influence on the consumer engagement in brand SNS page. The results for social factors on Social
consumer engagement are group norms ( b = 0.08, p < 0.05), social identity ( b = 0.07, p < networking
0.05) and parasocial interactions ( b = 0.11, p < 0.05) support H2a, H2b and H2c. Although
group norms and social identity seem to have very low impact, they play a significant role in
sites
motivating the behavior of the consumers, especially in a country like India, where the
importance of being in community is given top priority. The findings for perceptual factors
also showed a positive impact on the consumer engagement. The findings for perceptual
factors on consumer engagement are perceived value ( b = 0.2, p < 0.05) and perceived
credibility ( b = 0.28, p < 0.05) that supports the hypotheses H3a and H3b. Further,
consumer engagement also demonstrated a positive effect on the quality of customer–
organization relationships ( b = 0.2, p < 0.05), supporting H4. This implies that the social
media users, who are engaged with corporate SNS pages, feel that they share a very good
relationship with the company. Moreover, both consuming ( b = 0.84, p < 0.05) and
contributing ( b = 0.81, p < 0.05) were found be strong indicators of the consumer
engagement. This implies that the social media users’ consuming and contributing activities
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on corporate SNS pages play an essential role in building a strong relationship with the
organization in terms of trust, satisfaction and commitment. Further, the proposed
conceptual model explained a substantial amount of variance for consumers’ engagement
(R2 = 0.84) and for customer–organization relationship (R2 = 0.71).

4. Summary and conclusions


First, the main findings are summarized and discussed. Then the managerial implications of
the results are presented, followed by future research directions and limitations.

4.1 Discussion of results


The study has ascertained three factors that contribute to consumer engagement on brand
pages of SNS. The motivation scales, namely, content-related factors, social factors and
perceptual factors, were thoroughly explained to extract the reasons behind the consumer
engagement with brand SNS pages. The study also attempted to explore the influence of
consumer engagement on customer– organization relationship. Based on the theoretical
framework, the quality of customer–organization relationship was tested with the
hypothesized relationships. The result of the examined hypothesized relationships shows
that content-related factors, social factors and perceptual factors have a positive impact on
the consumer engagement and further help in establishing a customer–organization
relationship. The study suggested that these three major factors play a major role in their
active involvement on the brand SNS pages in the Indian context. Moreover, those users
who engage themselves more in brand-related activities such as viewing images and
watching videos on brand SNS pages tend to create trust toward the company and
experience a higher level of satisfaction and develop a sense of commitment toward the
organization.
First, entertaining content was found most influential for the consumer engagement as it
was perceived to be fun, exciting, cool and flashy. Contents with some creative arts draw
instant attention that influences the users to view the contents and share it. Entertaining
content with small talk also creates an attempt to gain trust and appeals to a person’s
emotions. As the entertaining content exerts emotional appeal to the consumers’ viewing
brand-related content, it can strike their subconscious reactions which supersede their
logical and pragmatic responses to create the unbreakable bond with a brand. This process
further leads to engaging the viewers on a personal level and helps in gaining more audience
retention as compared to informational appeals. The studies of Sheth and Kim (2017),
MRR Ashley and Tuten (2015) and Luo (2002) have also found entertaining content as highly
influential in terms of engaging consumers. The companies can use a variety of entertaining
and enjoyable content (e.g. riddles and jokes, daily horoscopes, music videos of brand
endorsers and human interest stories) for advertising of their new and existing products or
services for engaging them in brand-related activities. However, the informative contents
are also liked by the users as they intend to seek maximum details about the brand and
company. Informative content evokes consumers’ desire to stay up-to-date with current
events regarding new and existing products or services details. In addition to staying
updated, people who are information-oriented take benefit of other’s knowledge and get
inspirations for product usages. Lengthy information often creates a nuisance for the users
to skip the contents. Therefore, short information may be recommended for the active
consumer engagement so that it can be liked and shared by the most users on corporate SNS
pages. Though the present study has found entertaining content highly influential than
informative content, previous studies such as those by Shi et al. (2016), Enginkaya and
Yılmaz (2014) and Park et al. (2009) have shown that informational value drives consumers
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to interact with brands through social media. The informative content is very much relevant
in the case of new products or services as it gives new knowledge to the consumers
regarding brand’s details. But once the brand becomes known to the market, the consumers
tend to have less interested in it. Further, companies can post different information, facts
and other promotional activities, offers, coupons etc. on the brand SNS page regularly to
gain attention of the users. Companies encourage the visitors to participate in the
discussions and debates on the topics that are useful to generate new insights and contents
for the company to use. This strategy raises the spirits of the consumers to speak positive
about the product.
Second, the result of the study reveals that social factors (group norms, social identity
and parasocial interactions) play a key role in consumer engagement with brand SNS pages.
The parasocial interactions have shown comparatively high influence on the consumer
engagement, as it entails an intimate relationship with a company’s SNS representative. In
India, celebrities, public figures, politicians, artists, etc. have many online followers, and
therefore, when they become a brand representative, they attract more interactions on brand
SNS pages. Therefore, companies should apply strategies to humanize and personify brands
to induce parasocial interactions by adopting the tone of a caring friend for SNS
communications in India. The findings of this study are in conformity with a similar study
conducted in China by Tsai and Men (2013), which also indicated that the respondents
perceived the moderately high level of parasocial interaction with brand SNS representative.
The result of group norms has a moderate effect on the consumer engagement as the
behavior of group members on SNS influences the individual behavior and their decision-
making. In group norms, people behave in a way as a group behaves, which is beyond
rational calculation. The group norms can be applied in SNSs to bring change in social
norms by using their brand credibility, marketing expertise, reach, access to key influencers,
etc. Behavior of an individual, which is in conformity to a group norm, is driven by feelings
of anxiety. Companies can design significant, lasting social change by influencing social
norms in the desired direction. This shift in the social norms would attract users’ attention
globally and induce large participation in the brand-related activities such as liking,
commenting and sharing. Similarly, the sense of social identity with the brand communities
on SNS pages showed a significant influence on consumer engagement. The respondents
feel a strong sense of belonging to the community having members of similar choice, leading
to stronger engagement while visiting any brand’s SNS pages. They prefer to engage in
conversations or advocacy behaviors, such as recommending the page to their friends,
rather than merely consume SNS content. The current findings have shown comparatively Social
very low feelings of identification by the respondents with brand SNS communities. networking
Therefore, the focus of marketing communications should be given more on enhancing user
identification with other members of the SNS community with whom they share similar
sites
brand preferences and product interests to cultivate community identification, which, in
turn, would boost levels of engagement. In addition, marketers must also focus on the social
needs and factors that attract the attention of the consumers such as hot topics relating to
brand, concern for strengthening social relationships and social support and information
sharing. This may help businesses to increase their brand value as it will create more social
interaction among the group and attract more likes, comments or shares and arouse the
interest of people to look into the brand posts. Hence, formation of an online community to
increase likes, comments or shares may be suggested.
Third, the result of our study endorses that the perceptual factors (e.g. perceived value
and perceived credibility) also play a crucial role in motivating people to engage with brand
SNS pages. But as the popularity of the social media is at boom, marketers must take
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advantage of the friendly environment to change the perception of the consumers. The
frequent and useful brand posts on brand pages make the users perceive that this particular
brand is valuable and credible. The increase in perceived value of a product can be the best
strategy to induce consumers on brand SNS pages because raising perceived value is better
than lowering price and settling for narrower profit margin. Therefore, companies strive to
increase their fan base on brand SNS pages by uploading different information, facts and
creative contents related to the products and themselves regularly to convince consumers
and to make them feel that their product is “worth it”. SNS is a relatively a cheaper and
convenient mode for raising the perceived value by involving people in consumer–brand
interaction and increase the reach of their brands across the world. On the other hand, the
study also aimed to explore the role of perceived credibility or source credibility as
discussed in marketing literature and its relevance to consumer engagement within SNSs.
The result suggests that brands which have a social media presence and have created their
own corporate SNS pages are perceived to be credible and trustworthy by their consumers.
The dimensions of trust and credibility such as transparency, authenticity and expertise
exert more trust in the social networking advertisements (Henderson, 2015). In addition,
SNSs is an open marketing platform where companies posts their opinion, pictures and
videos relating to brands, which create discussion threads and interactions with other
members of the group. These open discussion and interactions make consumers believe that
the brand is more credible and trustworthy, which further induces the consumers to
participate in the brand-related activities on SNS pages.
While measuring consumers’ levels of engagement, the result indicated that respondents
were found to be engaged passively with brand SNS pages. This implies consumers’ one-
way consumption pattern of the content posted on SNSs such as watching brand-related
videos, viewing brand pictures and reading product’s reviews. The present result has found
comparatively low level of participation in contributing activities such as commenting,
rating products/brands, engaging in conversations, recommending friends to like and
sharing activities, in contrast to the previous studies emphasizing that consumers are
actively and meaningfully engaged in brand-related activities (Muntinga et al., 2011).
Creating activities have a high impact on consumer engagement due to higher level of
engagement such as writing product reviews, uploading brand-related user-generated
content and writing articles or Web blogs relating to brands. However, the respondents of
the present study reflected a passive behavior towards it. It suggests to the advertisers that
they must understand the importance of not only increasing fan base on brand SNS pages
MRR but also to engage consumers actively in contributing and creating activities. Rather, they
should carefully make strategies to motivate consumers to share user-generated content,
including product reviews and product-related tips, pictures and videos. The advertisers
should conduct some contests to encourage writing articles and Web blogs relating to
brands by providing monetary incentives to consumers to get more responses from them.
The results also revealed that the deeper engagement levels gradually influence the users’
attitude, which further leads to the personal involvement and positive WOM with their
friends and relatives. In addition, the respondents who were actively engaged in
interpersonal interactions with brand SNS pages perceived a better relationship with the
company. Thus, this interpersonal interaction forms an essential part in reinforcing the
strong customer–organization relationships (Men and Tsai, 2013).

4.2 Managerial implications


Our findings provide valuable managerial implications for social media marketing
strategies and help marketers globally. The study would definitely provide valuable
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inputs for marketers as identification of motivational factors for engaging consumers in


brand SNS pages is growing its importance day by day. While analyzing content-
related factors, the entertaining content was found to be most influential in terms of
engaging the social media users than information seeking need. Therefore, the
companies can use a variety of entertaining and enjoyable content (e.g. riddles and
jokes, daily horoscopes, music videos of brand endorsers and human interest stories)
for advertising new and existing products or services for drawing their valuable
attention and engaging them in brand-related activities. Nevertheless, informative
contents are also mostly liked by the users as they seek more details about the brand
and company. The informative content is very much relevant in the case of new
products or services as it gives new knowledge to the consumers regarding brand’s
details. But once the brand becomes known to all in the market, then the consumers
tend to seem less interested in it. Further, companies can post different information,
facts and other promotional activities, offers, coupons etc. on the brand SNS page
regularly to interest users, thus hoping to encourage them to participate in the
discussions and debates on the topics and perhaps generate new insights and contents
for the company to use. This strategy very often leads consumers to speak positively
about the product.
Social factors were identified to play a key role in consumer engagement with brand SNS
pages. Three constituents of social factors are group norms, social identity and parasocial
interactions. Managers involved in developing the social media strategy would find it useful
to make their strategies effective. Parasocial interactions resulted as most influential among
the social factors; if companies could humanize and personify brands to induce parasocial
interactions, the social media strategy would work well. Influence of group norms are also
important and can not be ignored. Focus on social norms draw customers attention and
accelerate brand-related activities such as likes, comments and shares. Social identity with
the brand communities on SNS pages also have a significant influence on consumer
engagement. Similar choice of the connected community leads to stronger engagement on
any brand’s SNS pages. They prefer to engage in conversations with their friends with their
recommendations or their inhibitions. Focus on these social factors would ultimately result
in enhancement of brand value.
Contribution of perceptual factors should also be given due weightage by the marketers.
Major components identified in the study of perceptual factors are perceived value and
perceived credibility, which motivate people to engage with brand SNS pages. Customers
may perceive the value and credibility of the product as they are provided on the brand Social
posts. Probably, this is the reason why companies are frequently uploading different networking
information, facts and creative contents related to the products and themselves regularly to sites
strengthen their fan base on brand SNS pages. The result demonstrates that brands having
social media presence are perceived to be credible and trustworthy. These discussion and
interactions between the company and consumers create a belief that the brand is credible
and trustworthy. Participation of consumers itself gives an inclination of their engagement
with the SNSs.
Level of engagement is yet another important issue to be taken care of by the
companies. However, the present study noticed the passive involvement of the
respondents in the brand SNS pages. The study reflected comparatively low level of
participation in contributing activities such as commenting, rating products/brands
and making recommendations, in contrast to the established studies focusing on
consumers’ active participation in brand-related activities (Muntinga et al., 2011).
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Creating activities demands higher level of engagement such as writing product


reviews and writing articles or Web blogs relating to brands. However, the study found
less involvement in this most important activity. The study recommends that managers
must focus on engaging consumers actively in contributing and creating activities
rather than merely increasing fan base on brand SNS pages. This can be stimulated by
conducting various contests to encourage writing articles and Web blogs related to
brands among the consumers. Active involvement of the customers would definitely
lead to maintain better relationship with the company.

4.3 Future research directions and limitations


There is a dearth of research on motivation factors of customer engagement behaviors, and
our study is one of the first empirical studies to identify rationale of engagement behaviors
on SNSs and to study their effect on customer organization relationships. In the future, more
studies are needed on different types of social media platforms to identify similar and other
engagement behaviors.
Outcome of the present study is helpful to provide an account of the key
individual-level antecedents grouped in three factors (content-related factors, social
factors and perceptual factors) and relational outcomes of consumer engagement on
brand SNS pages. Consumer engagement is a predisposition of behavioral
dimensions; the study identifies three motivational factors as antecedents and
anticipates engagement behavior to lead to a series of positive organization–
customer relationship outcomes. The three factors are brand trust, satisfaction and
commitment.
This study possesses some limitations that deserve further research. First of all, this
study has considered only one popular SNS: Facebook. As the usage purpose and
features of different SNSs are different, future research should be directed by taking
other popular SNSs such as Twitter and LinkedIn to gain a broader insight of consumer
engagement on other brand SNS pages. Second, the present study has stressed on the
exploring the quality of customer–organization relationship as the major outcome of
consumer engagement on brand SNS pages. Therefore, the future study should be
directed toward measuring the relationship between consumer engagement and other
important outcomes, such as brand advocacy behaviors, positive WOM behaviors and
brand loyalty.
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Corresponding author
Saumya Singh can be contacted at: saumya.ism@gmail.com

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