The influence of social media marketing activities on customer loyalty

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of perceived social media marketing activities (SMMAs) on customer loyalty via customer equity drivers (CEDs) in an e-commerce context.Design/methodology/approachThe study surveyed 371 students from a large university in India. The data were analyzed via confirmatory factor analysis and the research hypotheses were examined using SEM.FindingsThe study revealed three key findings. First, perceived SMMAs of e-commerce comprise five dimensions, namely, interactivity, informativeness, word-of-mouth, personalization and trendiness. Second, perceived SMMAs of e-commerce have significantly and positively influenced all the drivers of customer equity (CEDs). Third, the CEDs of e-commerce exhibit a significant and positive influence on customer loyalty toward the e-commerce sites.Practical implicationsThis study will help e-commerce managers to boost customer loyalty toward the e-commerce sites through perceived SMMA.Originality/valueThe study is the first to identify five dimensions of e-commerce perceived SMMA. The current study also introduces the stimulus–organism–response model as a theoretical support to connect perceived SMMAs of e-commerce to customers’ loyalty via CEDs. This is supposed to be the first study to examine the impact of perceived SMMA on customer loyalty toward the e-commerce sites via CEDs in the e-commerce industry.