Examining Relationships of Social Media to Customer Equity of the National Basketball Association

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role Facebook plays in the sport management context, and to understand the relationship that exists between customer equity and social media, in a professional sport league in the U.S. While it is only one of many social media platforms, Facebook has over one billion users (Facebook, 2018) and it connects people with communities and similar interest groups such that it can enhance social relationships. Sport organizations should understand how social media can influence sport fans, and this can be examined by looking at the Facebook page of the National Basketball Association (NBA), which has more fans than the Facebook pages of any other professional sport leagues. A convenient sampling method was used in the current study. After data were collected, descriptive analysis, ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis were utilized. M-Turk was employed to allow for additional data to be collected between March 6, 2018 and March 17, 2018. A total of 276 survey responses were included in the dataset and analyzed. With regard to customer equity, there was a significant difference between NBA Facebook page followers and non-followers, F (1, 274) = 31.740, p \u3c .001. The results revealed that those who follow the NBA scored significantly higher on customer equity (M = 3.67) than non-followers (M = 3.20). Further, those who follow the NBA Facebook page recognized higher relationship equity, brand equity, and value equity perspectives than non-followers. The results indicated that those who follow the NBA Facebook page scored significantly higher (M = 3.54) than non-followers (M = 3.16) on value equity. The result also revealed that there was a significant difference regarding brand equity between NBA Facebook page followers and non-followers (χ2 (1) = 42.692, p \u3c .001), with a mean rank brand equity score of 161.73 for followers and 120.89 for non-followers. In addition, there was a significant difference regarding relationship equity between NBA Facebook page followers and non-followers (χ2 (1) = 42.692, p \u3c .001), with a mean rank relationship equity score of 174.11 for followers and 111.51 for non-followers. Third, the findings revealed that customer equity drivers, such as brand equity, relationship equity, and value equity, affected the NBA’s customer equity. The analysis revealed that customer equity drivers significantly predicted the NBA’s customer equity. The results of the multiple regression analysis showed that the three customer equity drivers, including brand equity (p \u3c .001), value equity (p = .001), and relationship equity (p = .005), significantly affected customer equity. Brand equity, value equity, and relationship equity accounted for 58% of the total variances in customer equity. The standardized coefficients revealed that each customer equity driver was a significant predictor, and brand equity (β = .531) was a stronger significant predictor of customer equity than value equity (β = .216) or relationship equity (β = .211). The results of the current research can enhance relationships between consumers and sport organizations regarding the use of social media and the connections that exist between customer equity and social media in the sport management context. This study contributes to the sport management context because it offers a consumer-based customer equity concept that can reflect consumers’ perceptions toward the NBA. For example, marketers will be able to understand how to evaluate their social media content based on fans’ level of engagement in social media activities and to promote more effective marketing strategies by utilizing different approaches for Facebook page followers and non-followers of the sport organizations or teams. The findings will also benefit sport marketers’ ability to communicate more effectively with consumers through social media. The marketers will be able to see social media as a valuable relationship marketing tool that can lead to positive economic outcomes for organizations and improve consumers’ perceived value of a sport organization

Customer loyalty through social networks: Lessons from Zara on Facebook

Companies’ escalating investment in social media–—in particular, in Facebook–—has become reality. However, most firms still do not see social networks as a vehicle for cultivating and winning customer loyalty, but rather as a resource for creating brand awareness. In this article, we offer a different view. By examining fans and non-fans of the Zara brand on Facebook, we discovered that Facebook enhances the relations that increase loyalty via trust, customer satisfaction, perceived value, and commitment. Our results revealed that these relations are stronger for fans of the brand than for non-fans, and suggest that customer satisfaction is the strongest determinant of loyalty. This indicates a new opportunity for marketing managers to achieve customer loyalty: Facebook.This work is funded by National Funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciêcia e a Tecnologia)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Self-presentation, privacy and electronic word-of-mouth in social media

Purpose: Focusing on electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in the context of social media communications, the study explores the nature of eWOM and the key drivers of this consumer-generated brand communication. Design/methodology/approach: The study employs inductive qualitative design, and the data has been collected via 22 semi-structured interviews with individuals who follow brands on Facebook. Findings: Building on interview data, the paper advances a conception of eWOM in the social media context and highlights that eWOM consists of a broad range of brand-related communications, which include such activities as consuming, commenting, posting, and forwarding information. The study also uncovers two major antecedents of eWOM, which are one’s concern for self-presentation and privacy. Research limitations/implications: Further research could examine additional drivers of brand-related eWOM in the context of Facebook brand pages, and investigate eWOM in other social media platforms. Practical implications: The findings have two important implications for brand management. Firstly, considering the importance of self-presentation, brands are advised to develop an in-depth understanding of the types of self-image pursued by their target audience. Secondly, given the concerns about privacy on social media, brands may carefully consider and manage the levels of privacy that should apply when communicating with their followers. Originality/value: The novel insights centre on the individual differences in eWOM activity, and the importance of one’s perceptions of self-image and privacy in explaining these differences. It seems that the propensity to engage in eWOM and the form that this communication takes are the reflections of one’s self-presentation and privacy preferences

Cultivating the brand-customer relationship in Facebook fan pages: a study of fast- fashion industry

Purpose: The study is to examine determinants of continuous brand-customer relationship via company-hosted SNSs (social networking sites). Factors that influence fans to continue using fast-fashion brands' Facebook fan pages and to maintain the brand-customer relationship are firstly discussed. Subsequently, predictors of fans' engagement and affective commitment to a fast-fashion brand are examined with aim to explore key elements which nurture brand-customer relationship via brands' SNSs. Design/methodology/approach: Quantitative research was conducted and structural equation modeling was used, to test the hypotheses on a sample of 202 fast-fashion Facebook fan-page users in Taiwan. Findings: Results demonstrate that engagement, affective commitment and continued intention to use are predominantly influenced by, in turn, social interaction tie, content value and affective commitment. Research limitations/implications: The study is limited because it investigated the fast-fashion fan page users in on Asian country, so the findings cannot be generalised to other contexts. Practical implications: Our findings suggest fan page managers' initiation and involvement in conversations, frequent responses, listening to fans' opinions, and improving fans' experiential value may facilitate them to engage in the brand's activities at a higher level. Originality/value: Findings of this integrated model suggest managerial guidelines for brand managers in this industry regarding how to maintain the brand-customer relationship through social media strategy and they contribute to theory building in continuance intention of SNSs

The impact of online interaction brand equity dimensions for hospitality

Brand equity arose as a key concept in marketing, it’s influenced by every marketing decision and communication has a great impact on customer’s perception and lastly the number of consumers that buys the product or service from brands. That is why communication is widely studied and also their impacts on the brand’s value, the brand equity. Nowadays, online communication has a tremendous impact on a communication plan for any company and is turning origin of value creation, from brand to the consumer. Giving to them the ability to influence other consumers and to do it even more accurately and efficiently than brands. The service industry really took a punch on this switch. Services are now in scrutiny like never. Part of the experience is now the evaluation of the service and dedicated new platforms are appearing in the market and constituting communities around types of services. One of them is the hospitality sector. The stay on a hotel or hostel is now evaluated for a great amount of evaluation points and it affects the moment of purchasing when deciding for a hotel and after when communicating with others. Through the study of two platforms that affect hotels, it’s possible to understand from what extend this impact is real and what the most affected dimensions by this interaction. A hypothesis testing was conducted and conclude that this impact is real and can affect brand equity for hospitality businesses in every dimension, some more than others and depending on the used platform.A brand equity tornou-se um conceito importante em marketing, é influenciada e impactada por cada decisão de marketing e a comunicação tem um grande impacto na perceção do cliente e, finalmente, no número de consumidores compram. É por isso que a comunicação é amplamente estudada, assim como os seus impactos no valor da marca. Atualmente, a comunicação online tem um impacto tremendo num plano de comunicação de qualquer empresa e está a alterar a origem da criação de valor, da marca para o consumidor, dando aos consumidores a capacidade de influenciar outros consumidores e de o fazê-lo com mais eficiência que as marcas. Nesta mudança os serviços foram os mais afetados. Estão agora sob um escrutínio nunca visto, parte da experiência está agora na avaliação do serviço e novas plataformas surgem constituindo comunidades em torno destes negócios. Uma delas é a hospitalidade. A estadia num hotel ou "hostel" é agora avaliada por uma vasta quantidade de pontos de avaliação, afetando o momento da compra e pós-compra quando comunica a sua estadia às comunidades "online". Através do estudo de duas principais plataformas que afetam hotéis e "hostels", é possível entender a dimensão desse impacto, a sua representação na "brand equity" e quais são as dimensões mais impactadas. Um teste de hipóteses foi conduzido e concluiu que este impacto é real e pode afetar o valor da marca para o setor da hospitalidade em todas as dimensões da "brand equity", algumas mais do que outras e variando conforme a plataforma utilizada

Looking beneath the surface: how brands led to consumer engagement in social media

It is undeniable that the strong growth of social media and content generated in them is presented as a rising tide that came to stay! We are facing a change of structural nature, requiring brands to understand that shift and to adapt their strategies as they start looking at consumers as active partners, developing with them a close relationship, collaborative, deeply relational, reinforcing and strengthening the bond and an emotional connection. This fact led to an explosion of interest in consumer engagement. The opportunities presented by social media to help build close relationships with consumers seem to have attracted the increasing interest of practitioners in a wide variety of industries worldwide. Academic scholarship consumer engagement, however, has lagged practice and its theoretical foundation is relatively underdeveloped and a better understanding of the concept and their drivers is essential to develop accurate strategies. This paper seeks to address some of these issues. From the universe of brands, two popular fashion brands (Cubanas and Paez) were selected, based on RankUPT [1], a statistics website aimed at the analysis of Facebook’s activity in Portugal that makes a daily measurement of homepages, based on the number of fans. A qualitative netnographic study was conducted, through a non-interventionist observational technique, added with a collection of qualitative behavioral data which took place between March and December 2015, and also considering the use of secondary data for the descriptive analysis of the brands in question. Metrics used for measuring engagement were the most commonly used in other studies (e.g., likes, sharing, commenting), along with the de Vries, Gensler and Leeflang [2], Cvijiki and Michaheles [3], and Malhotra, Malhotra and See [4], criteria for the drivers of engagement. The results are discussed and the academic and business implications of the study are examined, in particular for branding and relationship marketing.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The motivation drivers of the fan’s engagement on Facebook

학위논문(석사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 사범대학 체육교육과,글로벌스포츠매니지먼트전공, 2022. 8. KIM, Kihan.Sports fans establish special and engaging relationships, both offline and online, with their favourite sports in general federation in particular. However, in relation to social media, research on the engagement of sports, fans are still limited. The aim of this study was to understand how the FIVB motivating their fans to engage on Facebook, also was to identify the FIVB Facebook content that drive the fans to interact on its official Facebook page “Volleyball World”. In addition to understand the potential relation between the Fan behavioural and the motivational drivers. Seven motives (Information, Entertainment, Personal identity, Integration and social interaction, Empowerment, Remuneration, and Brand-Love) and the social media fan engagement behavioural have been considered following the Uses and Gratifications approach. There were three elements of online engagement behaviours investigated (Consumption, Contribution, and Creation). Between October and November 2020, a web-based survey was done via Google Form online survey among volleyball fans of the International Volleyball Federation official page on Facebook, generating 310 responses. Consumption, contribution, and creation were primarily driven by Information, Empowerment and Brand love. This study adds to the emerging research in sports marketing literature on the use of social media, thereby revealing new ways for managers to reach their fan base online.스포츠 팬들은 그들이 좋아하는 스포츠와 관련하여, 특히 일반 연맹과 오프라인 및 온라인 모두에서 특별하고 매력적인 관계를 맺는다. 그러나, 소셜 미디어와 관련하여, 스포츠 참여에 대한 연구 및 팬에 대한 연구는 여전히 제한적이다. 이 연구의 목적은 팬 행동과 동기 부여 요인 간의 잠재적 관계를 이해하는 것 이외에도, FIVB가 어떻게 그들의 팬들이 페이스북에 참여하도록 동기를 부여하는지 이해하는 것이었고, 또한 공식 페이스북 페이지인 “Volleyball World”에서 팬들이 상호작용하도록 하는 FIVB 페이스 북 콘텐츠를 확인하는 것이었다. 7가지 동기(정보, 엔터테인먼트, 개인 정체성, 통합 및 사회적 상호 작용, 권한 부여, 보수, 브랜드-사랑)와 소셜 미디어 팬 참여 행동은 이용과 만족 접근법에 따라 고려되었다. 조사된 온라인 참여 행동에는 세 가지 요소(소비, 기여 및 창조)가 있었다. 2020년 10월부터 11월까지 국제배구연맹 공식 페이스북 페이지의 배구팬을 대상으로 구글 폼을 활용한 온라인 설문조사를 실시하였고, 310개의 응답을 얻었다. 소비, 기여 및 창조는 주로 정보, 권한 부여 및 브랜드 사랑에 의해 형성되었다. 이 연구는 소셜 미디어 사용에 대한 스포츠 마케팅 문헌의 최신 연구에 추가되어, 매니저들이 온라인으로 그들의 팬 층에 다가갈 수 있는 새로운 방법을 보여줄 것이다.Acknoweldgement iii Abstract v Table of Contents vii List of Tables ix List of Figures x Chapter 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Current Context 1 1.2. Research Significance 4 1.3. Research Hypothesis 5 Chapter 2. Review of Literature 7 2.1. Sport Governing Bodies' Use of Social Media 7 2.2. Antecedents of Engagement with Social Media 12 2.2.1. Uses and Gratifications of Sport Organizations' Social Media 12 2.2.2 COBRA typology and FIVB social media 24 2.2.3. Engagement with Social Media 27 2.2.4. Study Context: FIVB 34 2.2.5. Applying U&G on FIVB 40 Chapter 3. Methods 42 3.1. Sampling 44 3.2. Survey methods 45 3.3. Data type 45 3.4. Instruments (DV and IV) 46 3.5. Data analysis 46 3.6. Respondents' characteristics 47 3.7. Ethical considerations 47 Chapter 4. Results 49 4.1. Sample Description 50 4.2. Descriptive Statistics 51 4.3. Reliability Analysis 52 4.4. Hypotheses Testing 55 Chapter 5. Discussion 58 5.1. Discussion 58 5.2. Hypotheses Results 62 5.3. Conclusion 63 5.4. Limitation 67 5.5. Future Implications 68 Bibliograpgy 69 Appendix A 74 Appendix B 76 Appendix C 83 국 문 초 록 84석

Consumer engagement on facebook brand page: the multiplier effect of comments

Driving consumer engagement in Facebook brand pages has been a key concern amongbrand managers. This research aims to demonstrate whereas comments on posts can have positive or negative impact on consumer engagementN/

Factors Motivating the Customers’ SNS Brand Page Behavior: Comparison between China and Korea

Purpose – The wide spread and usage of SNS brand pages in companies has renovated the brand strategy in the new era. Embedded in an organically grown network of social ties, SNS brand pages show great differences from the ordinary online brand community. Called upon by the new research opportunities, this paper investigates the motivating factors (functional benefits, hedonic benefits, economic benefits and intrinsic benefits) influencing customers’ SNS brand page behavior (participation/commitment) in the cultural context of China and Korea, so as to provide meaningful implications to the companies’ effective use of SNS brand pages, and help global companies in their development of brand strategies for the two countries. Design/methodology/approach – In all, 407 Chinese and 384 Korean SNS brand page users were surveyed to conduct the above research agenda by structural equation modeling. Findings –prior motivating factor constructs are valid in influencing the consumers’ participation in and commitment to SNS brand pages in both countries, yet with dissimilarities in the significance and strength. Information seeking is not significantly correlated with the SNS brand page behavior in China, and convenience is found not correlate in Korea. Brand reputation in China and reward in Korea are the most influential factors of participation behavior. Interaction plays an important role in affecting commitment behavior in both countries. Participation has a positive impact on purchase intention in two countries, but only Chinese samples’ commitment has a positive impact on purchase intention