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Volume 2 Issue 1 2017AJM

24 Amity Journal of MarketingADMAA

IntroductionToday, companies are working overtime to gain consumer loyalty and taking steps to

promote their products through ever evolving marketing strategies. In order not to lose out on consumers, companies are increasingly embracing technology in shaping their marketing strategies. Technology is in fact one of the most effective tools in defining the marketing plans. Earlier tools of marketing are proving to be less effective in the context of the present day digital world. In order to better their chances of survival, forward looking companies are anticipating

Amity Journal of Marketing2(1), (24–35)

©2017 ADMAA

Consumer Engagement through Electronic Word of Mouth (EWOM): Exploring the Effect of Social Networking Sites

Mitra AminiAligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

AbstractCompanies that have embraced social media are getting valuable insights by ‘listening’ to the online

‘chatter’ of their customers and it is considered as a B2H (business to human) or sometimes H2H (human to human) and even consumer-to-consumer (C2C) activity. Borges (2012) stated that those businesses that use social media only as a platform for advertising and broadcasting are actually not ‘social’ as they are ignoring its real social facet and using it to re-work on old marketing strategies without leveraging on the real power of social media. He posited that a perfect ‘social’ business being managed through digital channels knows the significance of engaging with their consumers, suppliers, employees, stakeholders, partners and even competitors through online digital channels. The real social businesses appreciate the intrinsic value of credible engagement with stakeholders and deliver a unique, pleasant and memorable experience.

In today’s context most of the people are aware of Social Networking Sites (SNSs). And these SNSs have become so popular among consumers, that it is common for Internet users to have multiple accounts on SNSs such as Facebook and Twitter (Bhargava, 2015). In this study a conceptual model with five constructs viz. awareness, loyalty, tie strength, satisfaction and trust has been proposed and empirically tested. It was observed that relationship between awareness and satisfaction, satisfaction and loyalty, respectively, were statistically significant though trust and satisfaction, tie strength and satisfaction were relatively insignificant. Study findings suggest that Facebook and WhatsApp can be leveraged as better online platforms by marketers in India in comparison to LinkedIn and Twitter.

Keywords: Social Networking Sites (SNS), Online Consumer Engagement, eWOM, Social Media, India

JEL Classification: M39

Paper Classification: Research Paper

Volume 2 Issue 1 2017 AJM

25Amity Journal of Marketing ADMAA

changes and immediately adopting them rather than operate in a reactive mode. One of the major developments in the marketing domain has been adoption of social media marketing by the companies wishing to target new age customer. Nevertheless, it is in its initial stage but clever marketing strategists have already started to step into the next big marketing revolution taking place in the shape of social media marketing.

The underlying focus of social media marketing programs is to create content which attracts and encourages the consumers to share content on their social networks. The emphasis today is more on personalized marketing rather than simply offer a differentiated product. In product differentiation, the effort is to distinguish your product from the competitor’s product while personalization tries to create a unique product to offer to each consumer (Khan & Khan, 2006; Roebuck, 2012). The most practical marketing in interactive media is personalized marketing through the medium of Internet. Through the website, it’s easy to track the consumer interest and provide suggestions for future too. In case of several websites, companies not only provide information but also prioritize it on the basis of individualized preferences which ultimately help consumers to have better choices (Roebuck, 2012). The main aim of this paper was to identify factors which effect the ‘consumer engagement’ (CE) (Gruen, Osmonbekov & Czaplewskia, 2006; Higgins, & Scholer, 2009; Bowden, 2009; Weber, 2009; Kidd 2011; Chan & Li, 2010; Mollen & Wilson, 2010; Brodie, Hollebeek, Ilic, & Juric, 2011) with special reference to Social Networking Sites (SNSs) resulting in electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) in the Indian context.

Social Networking Sites: An OverviewSocial network sites started appearing in 1997 (Boyd & Ellison, 2008). The sites such as

SixDegrees.com empowered users to generate their unique profiles and list their own friends and supported users to surf their friend list; but primarily it was a popular dating site. Although this SNS attracted millions of people but in 2000 it failed and was shut down. Later, Classmate.com was launched, which enabled people to be affiliated with classmates and college mates without a profile and friend lists. During 1997 to 2001, activities gathered momentum and a large number of social networks came up which offered facilities like designing and creating of own profile and web pages. The examples of these networks were AsianAvenue, BlackPlanet, and MiGente. They helped users to identify their friends through their own profiles without any approval for those connections. Other networks too started as SNS like LineJournal in 1999 which was single directional connection with user pages where people marked others as friends to follow their journals. In the meantime, Cyworld, a South Korea based virtual world site was started in 1999. In 2001 it added the SNS features. LunarStorm was another SNS which was launched in 2000 and it included friend list, guest books, and diary pages.

The next wave of SNSs emerged after 2001 and were more related to business than chatter box or dating purpose like Ryze.com but they didn’t become popular. Ultimately, other social networks like Tribe.net, LinkedIn and Friendster started. These were more of use to professionals. Among these social networks, LinkedIn is the most powerful business service and Friendster is a significant social network. Overall, the most popular SNSs that are more into the business, culture and research are Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook. The popularity of MySpace grew rapidly due to rumors that Friendster would soon be charging their users. The initial aim of Facebook was to attract college networks. But in 2004, Facebook started supporting other groups and eventually it expanded from catering to college groups to everyone. There is no dependable data regarding the exact number of SNSs users but the number of users has been ever increasing. According to Chaffey (2016), there are in all 3.419 billion Internet users as on April 2016 of which 2.307 billion use social media quite actively. Undoubtedly, the growing reach and popularity of social media is



helping marketers find newer innovative ways of marketing their products and services. The huge popularity of SNSs has also forced the marketers to invest on them and increasingly “mine” social media for valuable insights into how customers are using their products and services as also use it as a channel to advertise and promote their offerings as also themselves (Boyd & Ellison, 2008, Jhih-Syuan Lin & Peña, 2011; Saxena & Khanna, 2013).

Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) and Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM)Researchers such as OReilly & Marx (2011) have emphasized on the necessity of distinguishing

Word of Mouth (WOM) from Word-of-Mouth Marketing (WOMM) as it encompasses intentional influencing of C2C exchanges by employing marketing techniques (Kozinets,Valck, Wojnicki, Wilner, 2010). It is also known as “buzz marketing, viral marketing, social media marketing and guerilla marketing” (Brown & Reingen,1987; Diorio, 2001; Christophe & Lilien, 2001; Dellarocas, 2003; Hennis-Thurau, Qwinner, Walsh, & Gremler, 2004; Baker & Green, 2005; Fong & Burton, 2006; Bruyn & Lilien, 2008; Steffes & Burgee, 2009). Word of Mouth Marketing Association described it, as enabling people to talk about your products and services. It is also viewed as art and science of encouraging mutually beneficial C2C and consumer-to-marketer (C2M) communications (WOMMA, 2008). In this definition, word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) becomes a common term, which includes tactics such as so-called viral or buzz marketing. WOMM is not just about enabling conversations between your consumers, but encourages these conversations by embedding them in overall marketing strategy of the business (WOMMA, 2008).

With rapid development of Internet, electronic word of mouth has gradually evolved from traditional WOM (Dellarocas, 2003; Hennis-Thurau, Qwinner, Walsh, & Gremler, 2004; Baker & Green, 2005; Fong & Burton, 2006; Bruyn & Lilien, 2008; Steffes & Burgee, 2009). Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) can be considered as a variant of WOM with slight difference when considered in the context of online social channels and is manifested in the form of a product review, emails and discussion forums. It plays a pivotal role in the manner in which consumers interact with each other on online platforms (Brown, Broderick, & Lee, 2007). Social networks are a great opportunity for online consumers for exchanging their information with their network of friends, family (Petrescu & Korgaonkar, 2011) even their personal opinions and experiences about businesses, brands, products, and even services (Ong, 2011; Colvin, 2013). Social Networking Sites (SNSs) represent a perfect tool for eWOM where consumers freely ‘create’ and ‘distribute’ information related to brands over social networks with friends and other associates.

Online Consumer Engagement Consumer engagement is a new term within online marketing context therefore, it has to be

established as a benchmark as to how online consumer engagement will effect branding and marketing. Marketers believe that online consumer engagement can build relationship among consumers and companies as well have a positive impact on brand loyalty, advertising of brand, brand identification and sale (Gruen, Osmonbekov & Czaplewskia, 2006; Rappaport, 2007; Higgins, & Scholer, 2009; Bowden, 2009; Weber, 2009; Kidd 2011; Chan & Li, 2010; Mollen & Wilson, 2010; Brodie, Hollebeek, Ilic, & Juric, 2011; Reitz, 2012). Online consumer engagement can be initiated by social media like Facebook or via a website. According to Jakste and Kuvykaite (2012), for companies which are making efforts to build their brands and develop competitive advantage, online consumer engagement is playing a significant role. Social media provides marketers innumerable opportunities to reach out to consumers and engage the consumer by actively communicating with them, offering attractive content that is constantly updated. Consumer articulation in social media will be more active if the online consumer engagement is



successful and can lead to improvement in attributes of a brand and convert consumers into loyal and who would like to be brand advocates.

Research Gap and Contribution of the Study‘Consumer engagement’ is relatively a new term in the context of online marketing. Even

though ‘engagement’ has been studied in different disciplines but not as specific concept in online marketing, hence, there is a pressing need for research in this area. The dearth of academic literature in the context of developing economies like India is all the more acute. There are a few studies related to consumer engagement in the context of countries like USA and UK (Vivek, 2009; Chu, 2009; Reitz, 2012; Alkhateeb, Moussa & Ali, 2012) but the researcher could not locate any significant work focusing on India. There are studies for instance on consumer loyalty, CRM, customer relationship, consumer retention but not specifically related to ‘consumer engagement’ and ‘online consumer engagement’. In the existing researches which largely are US and UK centric, researchers primarily focused on university students but the present research attempts to cover not only students but also other occupational groups in different cities in India. These aspects make the present study unique.

Objectives of the StudyIn the light of the above research gap, the present study had the following objectives:

Objective 1: To study consumer usage patterns of Social Networking Sites (SNSs).

Objective 2: To study factors which effect the ‘consumer engagement’ (CE) in the context of Social Networking Sites (SNSs) leading to spread of electronic word of mouth (e-WOM).

Conceptual framework and hypothesesFollowing types of variables have been considered in the present study:

Satisfaction

Satisfaction is an important construct which encourages the consumers to articulate on social network sites. Consumers respond to the products and services, when they have higher levels of satisfaction which results in loyalty, intention to re-purchase, WOM referrals, profits, market share and return on investments (Bowden, 2009).

Awareness

Awareness is being conscious of and having knowledge about the focus of engagement. While the consumer is engaged, thinks about her involvement with the focus of engagement. The higher the engagement, higher is the extent to which consumer concentrates on her interactions with the focus of engagement. A more heavily engaged consumer is more interested in getting information and knowledge regarding the focus of engagement (Vivek, 2009). Engagement won’t happen without satisfaction and if the consumer is not satisfied he/ she won’t get engaged and has no interest to gain information and knowledge regarding the focus of engagement.

H1: The level of awareness in users of SNSs has a positive and significant effect on consumer satisfaction resulting in CE through positive eWOM.



Trust

According to Eid (2011) and Cyr (2008), satisfaction and trust are central precursors for the success of the online vendors and they are different across the cultures despite the level of country development. Shiau and Chau (2015) stated trust and satisfaction have significantly positive effect on the purchase intention of the online group. Flavián, Guinalíu and Gurrea (2006) found that website’s trust and satisfaction equally affect e-loyalty. They also found that user trust was somewhat dependent on degree of consumer website satisfaction. This is indicative of the fact that the degree of trust is directly dependent on the capacity of a business to satisfy the needs of its consumers.

H2: The level of trust in users of SNSs has a positive and significant effect on consumer satisfaction resulting in CE through positive eWOM.

Tie Strength

According to Richins (1987), the strong social ties increase the likelihood of negative word of mouth when a consumer experiences post-purchase dissatisfaction. Takada and Jain’s (1991) study supported Richins in cross-cultural context and found that as an outcome negative WOM was more likely to happen in group members due to post purchase dissatisfaction. They also posited that there was impact of tie strength on negative WOM. Therefore, the same principle applies in case of positive WOM. It is expected that extremely satisfied consumers would share their positive feeling regarding product/service with those who are closer to him/her (Wirtz & Chew, 2002). Also, they found WOM that is generated owing to strong ties is more potent and extreme in its valence than WOM which is a result of the consumer’s satisfaction evaluations in settings where weak ties exist.

H3: The nature of tie strength in users of SNSs has a positive and significant effect on consumer satisfaction resulting in CE through positive eWOM.

Loyalty

Anderson and Lehmann (1994) stated that higher levels of satisfaction are expected to result in greater consumer loyalty. According to Eid (2011), consumer satisfaction has a significant influence on consumer loyalty. Satisfaction has a direct impact on consumer E-loyalty (Flavián, Guinalíu & Gurrea, 2006). It has also been posited that enhanced consumer satisfaction results in greater personal loyalty (Yoon & Kim, 2000).

H4: The level of satisfaction in users of SNSs has a positive and significant effect on consumer loyalty resulting in CE through positive eWOM.

Research Model

The research model is based on thorough review of literature, particularly past empirical researches and the hypothesized relationships between various study constructs i.e. awareness, trust, tie strength, satisfaction and loyalty considered in these works (Vivek, 2009; Shu- Chuan Chu, 2009; Amy, Renee, & Reitz, 2012; Ali Alkhateeb,Wissam Moussa, Zahir Alli, 2012).

The research model for the study is presented in Fig 1.1.



Figure 1.1: Research Model

Source: Prepared by Researcher

Research Methodology

Sample and procedure

In the present study, owing to absence of a reliable sample frame, nonprobability convenience sampling i.e. chain referral sampling was employed. Chain referral sampling is akin to snowball sampling process and is useful in those studies where respondents may not be visible or hard to find (Bailey, 2008). The reason researchers are using chain referral sampling is due to the problem of social visibility of the target population. Other reason can be due to the social sensitivities surrounding the behavior in question which results in low visibility and serious problem for contacting and locating the respondents (Blernackl & Waldorf, 1981).

The sampling frame for this study included graduate, undergraduate and Ph.D. students enrolled in higher educational institutions in New Delhi and Chandigarh as also those pursuing courses such as MBA, M. Com, and Mass Communication. The researcher also obtained feedback from IT professionals working in Pune. It was decided to collect data from a sample that included at least 500 offline and 300 online patrons who are interested in using social networking sites. Later, during office editing stage, it was found that only 478 questionnaires were appropriate for further analysis thereby giving a response rate of around 60%. The data was generated through a structured questionnaire which contained 16 items in the form of statements and five multiple choice questions. Responses to all the 16 items were measured using five point Likert Scale, ranging from strongly disagree=1, to strongly agree=5. Data was collected for the period ranging from March 2015 to July 2015.

Measurement model evaluation

The statistical techniques used in this study can be categorized in two groups. The initial set of techniques was employed to refine and test the reliability and validity of research instrument by using Cronbach’s Alpha and principal component analysis (Hair et al., 2006; Khan and Adil, 2013). The second set of techniques was used to explore differences between groups by using T-test and one way ANOVA to estimate interrelated dependence relationships (Hair et al., 2006; Khan and Adil, 2013).



Fig. 1.2 Measurement Model

(Source: Prepared by Researcher)

Structural model evaluation

In general structural equation modeling (SEM) is mainly linear and cross-sectional statistical modeling technique. While factor analysis, path analysis, and regression analysis represent special cases of SEM. It is to be noted that SEM is largely confirmatory, rather than an exploratory technique (Khan and Adil, 2013). Researchers use SEM to determine whether a certain model is valid, rather than using SEM for finding a suitable model. SEM usually concentrates on latent constructs, abstract psychological variables rather than on the manifest variables. It is recognized as difficult and error prone. Also, SEM allows a single latent construct to be associated with multiple measures. (“What is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM),” n.d.) 1

1http://www2.gsu.edu/~mkteer/sem.html



Figure 1.3: Structural Model

(Source: Prepared by Researcher)

Key Findings and Conclusions of the Study

The findings of this study are presented in Table 1.1. It was observed that 90% of respondents had been using Facebook for more than two years. In fact, Faceboook emerged as the most popular SNS among the respondents of this study followed by WhatsApp (82.2%). It is interesting to note that in the stricter sense, WhatsApp is a communication application, however while conducting the pilot study most of the respondents mentioned it as being an SNS. In fact, owing to its huge popularity, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014 (Times of India, 2014).2 LinkedIn was the next popular SNS (43.9%) and Twitter had a following among 31% of the respondents.

Table 1.1: Social Networking Sites and their Popularity in India

SNSs usage Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Others

F % F % F % F % F %

0 21 4.4 253 52.9 196 41.0 28 5.9 370 77.4

<1year 27 5.6 77 16.1 72 15.1 57 11.9 31 6.5

>1year 430 90.0 148 31.0 210 43.9 393 82.2 77 16.1

Total 478 100 478 100 478 100 478 100 478 100

(Source: Prepared by the researcher); Key: F= Frequency, %= Percent

Study results indicate that the relationship between Awareness Satisfaction; and Satisfaction Loyalty were statistically significant as also in the expected direction (p<0.01). However, the

relationship between Trust and Satisfaction and Tie Strength and Satisfaction were not found to be significant. Hence, out of the four hypotheses, two hypotheses were supported and two were not supported.

2http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Facebook-buys-WhatsApp-CEO-Mark-Zuckerberg-explains-why/articleshow/30714548.cms



Discussion Awareness is being conscious of and having knowledge about the focus of engagement. The

higher the engagement, higher is the extent to which consumer concentrates about her interactions with the focus of engagement. A more heavily engaged consumer is more interested in getting information and knowledge regarding the focus of engagement (Vivek, 2009). In the present study it was observed that the level of awareness in users of SNSs has a positive and significant bearing on consumer satisfaction resulting in consumer engagement through positive eWOM. Consumers respond to the products and services, when they have higher level of satisfaction which leads to consumer loyalty, intention to purchase, word of mouth recommendations, profits, market share and return on investments (Bowden, 2009). From the analysis of results, it was found that the level of satisfaction in users of SNSs has a positive and significant effect on consumer loyalty resulting in consumer engagement through positive eWOM. It was also found that consumer awareness has significant and positive relationship with consumer satisfaction. Anderson and Lehmann (1994) had posited that higher levels of satisfaction lead to enhanced consumer loyalty. It has also been posited that higher consumer satisfaction leads to greater individual loyalty (Yoon & Kim, 2000). On the other hand, according to Flavián, Guinalíu & Gurrea (2006), satisfaction has a direct impact on consumer e-loyalty. From the structural model, it is quite evident that the level of satisfaction in users of SNSs positively and significantly affects consumer loyalty ultimately resulting in consumer engagement through positive eWOM. According to Eid (2011) and Cyr (2008), trust and satisfaction are important precursors for the success of the online players. Shiau and Chau (2015) observed trust and satisfaction have significantly positive effect on the purchase intention of the online patrons. However, in the present study, no positive and significant effect of trust on consumer satisfaction emerged in the context of users of SNSs. According to Richins (1987), the strong social ties tend to increase the likelihood of consumer engaging in negative word of mouth upon experiencing post-purchase dissatisfaction. Chew & Wirtz (2001) found WOM generated owing to strong ties is more extreme. But the findings of the present study, show that there is no positive and significant effect of tie strength on consumer satisfaction for users of SNSs.

Limitations of the StudyWhile designing the study, the researcher has tried to be as methodical and scientific as

possible, but yet the present study has some limitations. This study relies on a sample comprising college students and IT professionals from three cities (New Delhi, Chandigarh, and Pune) which may not completely reflect the perceptions of the total Indian population. Further, sample may not adequately be representative of the whole country as only selected cities were covered.

Only a few SNSs were used in this research though there are many more social networks. In this research consumer engagement was considered as an overall concept though studying specific brand or product would make it more revealing. In this research only some of the social relationships and consumer engagement factors have been studied though there can be some other factors related to SNSs users which can affect consumer engagement and e-WOM through SNSs. Chain referral sampling procedure may also limit the generalizability of findings as the sample may not be adequately representative. The study generated data from selected occupational groups and the study also does not cover specific products/categories.

Directions for Future ResearchFollowing recommendations for future researchers can be of help from the point of view of

study design and can provide better insights into consumer engagement, social networking sites and electronic word of mouth.



The scales used in this study comprised items from earlier studies that were developed in the context of other countries and cultures. Even though the researcher, in the present study, did modify these scales and re-checked the validity and reliability of refined scales but still the basic scale was alien and developed in the western context. Future researchers should attempt to develop scales de-novo which may be more suitable in the Indian scenario. Collecting additional data regarding specific products or brands can be useful to have a deeper analysis of consumer engagement in SNSs. The geographical extent of the study was limited to three cities in India. India being geographically large and culturally rich country similar studies can be conducted in other cities of India which may bring a better understanding of CE and their effect on social networking sites through e-WOM.

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Author’s Profile

Mitra Amini is a Research Scholar in the Department of Business Administration, Aligarh Muslim University, India.

ajm v 2 1 2017 - amity university, noida 3.pdf · word of mouth marketing association described it,...

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