- Title
- Engaging Gen Y customers in online brand communities: a cross-national assessment
- Creator
- Carlson, Jamie; Rahman, Syed Mahmudur; Rahman, Mohammad M.; Wyllie, Jessica; Voola, Ranjit
- Relation
- International Journal of Information Management Vol. 56, Issue February 2021, no. 102252
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102252
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- Global retail brands find it vital to engage Generation Y (Gen Y) customers through firm-hosted online brand communities (OBCs) for generating actionable insights; this study advances customer engagement (CE) frameworks in this setting. First, we draw on the stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) theory to introduce OBC website quality (termed OBC-SiteQUAL), alongside brand involvement as a customer resource input, to shape an expanded quadripartite CE conceptualisation. Second, using multi-country data, we test the validity of the OBC-SiteQUAL and CE measurement models, and the theoretical framework. Results indicate that the newly conceived OBC-SiteQUAL construct, underpinned by various web-based cues related to affective elements, brand interaction and customer-to-customer interaction, positively influences CE, whereas brand involvement partially influences CE. Third, we examine how these variables translate to behavioural loyalty outcomes. Empirically, a consistent pattern across the country samples indicates that OBC-SiteQUAL can affect behavioural loyalty by enhancing CE. Thus, we reliably confirm the mediating effect of CE (O) between OBC-SiteQUAL (S) and behavioural loyalty (R). Fourth, we found that the impact of OBC-SiteQUAL and brand involvement on CE differs between younger and older Gen Y consumers. These findings inform the optimisation of precise digital content marketing activities to enhance customer-brand relationships
- Subject
- social media; site quality; brand community; customer engagement; loyalty
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1423471
- Identifier
- uon:37940
- Identifier
- ISSN:0268-4012
- Language
- eng
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