Customer Social Media Brand Engagement, Word Of Mouth And Purchase Intention: The Moderating Role Of Trust

ABSTRACT The study examined the effect of customer social media brand engagement on word of mouth and purchase intention as well as explored the moderating effect of brand trust in such a relationship. The study employed an explanatory design using quantitative research approach to explain the cause and effect of the dimensions of customer social media brand engagement on word of mouth and purchase intention. Self-administered questionnaires and online survey tool, Google forms, were employed in collecting data, targeting customers who engage with fashion brands on social media. The study employed 350 respondents for the study out of which 322 responses were received. Amos version 21.0 was used for testing the relationship among the constructs using structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. The study revealed that vigor, co-creation, and consumption had a substantial effect on consumer word-of-mouth behaviour whereas dedication, co -creation, and consumption affected consumer purchase intention, suggesting that, the dimensions of customer social media brand engagement have different significant effects on the consumer’s behavioural intentions. Absorption did not have any effect on either word of mouth or purchase intention. Again the study found that, when trust was introduced as a moderator, there was a high possibility that consumers who were dedicated to engagement developed a purchase intention. However, trust moderated the relationship between vigor, co-creation, dedication and consumption on word of mouth and vigor, co-creation, dedication and consumption on purchase intention. The study contributes to new knowledge regarding the addition of two more dimensions (thus co-creation and consumption) which measure customer social media brand engagement and its individual effects on consumer’s word of mouth and purchase intention. Again, absorption has no effect on word of mouth and purchase intention.