Unlocking the customer engagement-brand loyalty relationship in tourism social media: The roles of brand attachment and customer trust

Abstract

Customer engagement has been recognized an essential determinant of brand loyalty. However, the psychological mechanism of customer engagement has rarely received full examination, especially in the field of tourism social media. Thus, the present study fills this research gap by exploring how brand attachment and customer trust affect the customer engagement-brand loyalty relationship. Data from 298 Taiwanese respondents revealed that customer engagement had no influence on brand loyalty. Both brand attachment and customer trust fully mediated the influence of customer engagement on brand loyalty. Specifically, the customer engagement-brand attachment-brand loyalty relationship was closer than the customer engagement-customer trust-brand loyalty relationship was. To our knowledge, this study is the first to explore the associations among customer engagement, brand attachment, customer trust, and brand loyalty in the tourism social media context. The roles of brand attachment and customer trust cannot be ignored when enhancing brand loyalty through customer engagement.