The role of customer brand engagement in social media: conceptualisation, measurement, antecedents and outcomes

Abstract

Customer Brand Engagement (CBE) is an important, timely concept, particularly for service brands using interactive social media channels. This research involved elucidation of the main characteristics of CBE, development and evaluation of a social media adapted CBE measurement scale and hypothesis testing to position CBE in social media among other relationship concepts. We identified CBE as a unique concept using a repertory grid, adapted a three-dimensional organisational behaviour scale and validated the scale using questionnaire and panel data. The scale is reliable for the measurement of CBE in interactive social media contexts, incorporating physical, emotional and cognitive psychological engagement states, as demonstrated with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. We found significant effects of customer participation and brand involvement on CBE, and of CBE on brand loyalty through brand experience and satisfaction. This paper demonstrates the complexity (multidimensionality) of CBE and shows how it can be measured appropriately in interactive contexts.