Critical review of the e-loyalty literature: a purchase-centred framework

Over the last few years, the concept of online loyalty has been examined extensively in the literature, and it remains a topic of constant inquiry for both academics and marketing managers. The tremendous development of the Internet for both marketing and e-commerce settings, in conjunction with the growing desire of consumers to purchase online, has promoted two main outcomes: (a) increasing numbers of Business-to-Customer companies running businesses online and (b) the development of a variety of different e-loyalty research models. However, current research lacks a systematic review of the literature that provides a general conceptual framework on e-loyalty, which would help managers to understand their customers better, to take advantage of industry-related factors, and to improve their service quality. The present study is an attempt to critically synthesize results from multiple empirical studies on e-loyalty. Our findings illustrate that 62 instruments for measuring e-loyalty are currently in use, influenced predominantly by Zeithaml et al. (J Marketing. 1996;60(2):31-46) and Oliver (1997; Satisfaction: a behavioral perspective on the consumer. New York: McGraw Hill). Additionally, we propose a new general conceptual framework, which leads to antecedents dividing e-loyalty on the basis of the action of purchase into pre-purchase, during-purchase and after-purchase factors. To conclude, a number of managerial implementations are suggested in order to help marketing managers increase their customers’ e-loyalty by making crucial changes in each purchase stage

Exploring the commercial value of social networks: enhancing consumers’ brand experience through Facebook pages

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors which impact upon the consumers’ willingness to utilise company Facebook pages and e-word-of mouth by proposing and testing a conceptual framework which is inspired by theories in marketing and information systems fields. The authors believe that only by applying both theories will provide a more complete understanding of the relationship between brand experience and Facebook. The research model attempts to illustrate the factors according to customers’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and their impact on brand experience, brand Facebook page loyalty and e-word-of-mouth (E-WOM). Design/methodology/approach – The authors adopted an online survey method for data collection. The subjects the authors used were Facebook users. The data were collected in Taiwan over spring 2011. The authors then used the structural equation model to analyse the data collected. Findings – The findings suggest that users are influenced by the technical characterises of a brand Facebook page, such as ease of use and usefulness, which might be combated by attempting to reduce customer effort when accessing Facebook pages. The authors conclude that customer effort influenced brand experience and consequently loyalty to brand Facebook pages and E-WOM. Research limitations/implications – The limitations of this study relate to the investigation of consumer perspectives in a specific geographical context and time frame. Originality/value – The study’s contributions are both theoretical and practical, as it offers new insights into brand experience attitudes in an online environment and useful insights to companies willing to market themselves on Facebook. Keywords Marketing, Facebook, Virtual community, Extrinsic motivations, Intrinsic motivations Paper type Research pape

The impact of brand communication on brand equity through Facebook

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to fill the gap in the discussion of the ways in which firm-created and user-generated social media brand communication impacts consumer-based brand equity metrics through Facebook. Design/methodology/approach: We evaluated 302 data sets that were generated through a standardized online-survey to investigate the impact of firm-created and user-generated social media brand communication on brand awareness/associations, perceived quality, and brand loyalty across 60 brands within three different industries: non-alcoholic beverages, clothing, and mobile network providers. We applied structural equation modeling techniques (SEM) to investigate the effects of social media brand communication on consumers’ perception of brand equity metrics, as well as in an examination of industry-specific differences. Findings: The results of our empirical studies showed that both firm-created and user-generated social media brand communication influence brand awareness/associations; whereas, user-generated social media brand communication had a positive impact on brand loyalty and perceived brand quality. Additionally, there are significant differences between the industries being investigated. Originality/value: This article is pioneering in that it exposes the effects of two different types of social media brand communication (i.e., firm-created and user-generated social media communication) on consumer-based brand equity metrics, a topic of relevance for both marketers and scholars in the era of social media. Additionally, it differentiates the effects of social media brand communication across industries, which indicate that practitioners should implement social media strategies according to industry specifics to lever consumer-based brand equity metrics

Investigating the effect of social media marketing on brand loyalty with the mediating role of trust and brand equity(Case study: Bank Mellat Isfahan branches)

Abstract The purpose of the present research is to investigate the impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty with the mediating role of trust and equity of the brand in Isfahan Bank Mellat branches. This research is applicable in terms of purpose, and correlative in terms of research method, and required data have been collected by using questionnaire and survey method. The statistical population of this research is the clients of Isfahan Bank Mellat branches. 384 acceptable samples were collected by simple random sampling method. Four social media marketing questionnaires with 11 questions, brand trust with 10 questions, brand special value with 16 questions, and brand loyalty with 15 questions were used as data collection tools. Data analysis was done using structural equation modeling and PLS software, and the research results show that social media marketing has an effect on brand loyalty with the mediating role of trust and brand equity. That is, if the bank tries to create content in the virtual space through which attracts the attention on those platforms and encourage the readers to share it among social media,, the loyalty of the bank's customers will improve. The bank should spread its advertisements through the virtual space and attract the attention of the audience, as a result, trust in the brand will improve. Extended Abstract Introduction Today, a large number of users with different goals have joined virtual social networks and engage in various activities (Barreto, 2014). Organizations, either small or large, have entered social media and are slowly trying to discover its benefits (Bakeri, 2020). They have used Twitter, created fan pages on Facebook, posted videos on YouTube, and perhaps even created websites in the late 20th century (Zhang & Liu, 2021). Organizations today feel that the Social media are and will be a means of business (Naeem, 2021). The main goal of social media marketing is to create a business based on customer orientation and the credibility of a company in order to develop and manage work (Kim, 2012). No one can claim that there are only advantages and benefits in the field of social media marketing. Rather, in social media marketing, like all aspects of life, there are advantages and disadvantages together and side by side (Rosen, 2013). However, in our country, social networks have not been able to find their desired place in people's lives, and after all, culture creating in this field has not been done, and producers of products and services cannot make proper use of these networks. This issue has become the main problem in creating trust and loyalty of customers to the brand in social networks. In e-commerce, trust is considered the most important success factor. It should be said that according to previous studies, the recommendations of acquaintances and online opinions of consumers (word of mouth advertising) are the most reliable type of advertising in the world and the most important source of information for purchasing decisions. Many researchers consider the power of the internet as a social structure in creating and increasing brand trust and loyalty. It is argued that brand community in social networks increases brand loyalty through increasing brand trust. By increasing the capabilities of social networks, trust in the brand and then loyalty to the brand increases; therefore, brand trust plays a mediating role. According to the mentioned materials, the main problem of the research is whether social media marketing has an effect on brand loyalty with the mediating role of trust and special value of the brand in Bank Mellat branches of Isfahan. Theoretical framework A social network is a social structure made up of groups - generally individual or organizational - which are connected by one or more types of dependencies. Social networks in the context of a complex information society depict the effective functioning of the network (convergence) and with a more detailed look, society is a combination of multiple networks: inter-organizational networks, intra-organizational networks, personal networks, computer networks, and furthermore, cross-border networks and information flows through these highways (Zhang & Liu, 2021). Brand equity has been defined in different ways for different purposes. But so far, no common consensus has been reached. The concept of brand equity has been the subject of a large number of studies, has been examined from different perspectives, and is often described as the value that a brand gives to a product (Rezaeian, M., Asgar, 2021; Shams Lahroudi, 2018) According to Aker, brand loyalty is one of the foundations of brand equity, and many factors play a role in creating this loyalty, one of the main of which is the experience of using the brand (Song, 2012). Oliver defines brand loyalty as a consumer's strong commitment to purchase or reuse a brand regularly in the future. Fukuyama (1995) defines brand trust as: an expectation that arises from inside of an orderly, honest community with cooperative behaviors based on commonly shared norms, on the part of community members. He believes that the industrial revolution has played a significant role in the importance of trusting the brand to recognize and understand business behaviors such as marketing. Mirzaee Azandariani and Arya (2022) conducted a research titled investigating the impact of the characteristics of second-hand goods platforms on brand loyalty intentions with the mediating role of customer satisfaction (the study of Divar and Sheipour platform in Iran). Research findings showed that ease of use has a positive and indirect effect on brand loyalty intentions with a mediating role of customer satisfaction, perceived usefulness has a positive and indirect effect on brand loyalty intentions with a mediating role of customer satisfaction, and the entertainment aspect has a positive and indirect effect on Brand loyalty intentions with the mediating role of customer satisfaction, and the sense of belonging to a community has a positive and indirect effect on the intention of brand loyalty with the mediating role of customer satisfaction, and seller credibility has a positive and indirect effect on the intention of loyalty to the brand whit a mediating role of customer satisfaction, and the recognition of a third party has a positive and indirect effect on the intentions of brand loyalty with the mediating role of customer satisfaction. Farzin et al. (2020) conducted a study with the aim of investigating the effect of brand equity from the consumer's point of view on brand satisfaction and loyalty in the wood and paper industries of Mazandaran province. The results of the research showed that there is a positive and significant effect between the dimensions of brand equity and consumer satisfaction (except for employee behavior and brand awareness) and brand loyalty (except for ideal self-concept and brand identity) and also between consumer satisfaction and brand loyalty is a positive and significant effect. Research methodology The research method is descriptive-correlative in nature and applicable in terms of purpose. The statistical population of this research is the clients of Isfahan Bank Mellat branches and simple random sampling method was used and 384 acceptable samples were collected. In order to collect data related to the variables, four social media marketing questionnaires were used with 11 questions, brand trust with 10 questions, brand equity with 16 questions, and brand loyalty with 15 questions; and based on a 5-point Likert scale (completely agree to completely disagree).   Research findings Structural equations and PLS were used to investigate the research hypothesis and data analysis, and the results showed that social media marketing has an effect on brand loyalty with the mediating role of trust and brand equity in Isfahan Bank Mellat branches. Social media marketing has an effect on brand loyalty in Isfahan Bank Mellat branches. Social media marketing has an effect on brand trust in Isfahan Bank Mellat branches. Social media marketing has an effect on brand equity in Isfahan Bank Mellat branches. Brand trust has an effect on brand loyalty in Isfahan Bank Mellat branches. Brand equity has an effect on brand loyalty in Isfahan Bank Mellat branches. Social media marketing has an effect on brand loyalty with the mediating role of brand trust in Isfahan Bank Mellat branches. Social media marketing has an effect on brand loyalty with the mediating role of brand value in Isfahan Bank Mellat branches. All factor loading coefficients are greater than 0.4, which shows that this model is suitable. Conclusion The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty with the mediating role of trust and brand value in Isfahan Mellat Bank branches. The results of this research corresponds with the results of research findings of Frzin et al. (2020); Shirkhodaei (2017); Imran Khan et al. (2017). If the bank tries to create content in cyber space through which can attract the attention of the audience on those platforms and encourage readers to share it among social media, the loyalty of the bank's customers as a result, will improve. The bank should spread its advertisements through the virtual space and attract the attention of the audience, as a result, trust in the brand will improve. According to the present research, it is suggested that the bank employees have sufficient knowledge and information about the services to provide to the customers. The employees solve the problems faced by the customers regarding the services in the best way; follow up and respond to the requests of the customers regarding the services quickly and in different ways such as phone, email, etc.; provide a platform so that customers can fully use the bank's services anywhere and at any time of the day or night; and by improving the level of value and the mental image of the brand of services and the quality level of relations with customers, provide the possibility of strengthening customer satisfaction, which ultimately leads to customer loyalty

How Does Social Media Interactivity Affect Brand Loyalty?

As social media has become a prominent platform for networking, many organizations have begun to establish more than one brand community, as a set of supplements to their branded websites. Once most online brand interactions take place on social networking sites rather than branded sites, such customer-oriented interactions will become much more complicated and unpredictable. It is a real challenge for organizations to build successful customer-brand relationships through social networking sites. Hence, organizations that wish to enhance brand loyalty by running brand communities face the challenge of effectively conducting social customer relationship management (CRM) tactics. As social media users are susceptible to highly interactive features, understanding the nature of social media interactivity in brand communities is the key to building successful social CRM. The aim of the study is to investigate not only the effect of social media interactivity on community benefits, but also the effect of community benefits on brand loyalty. In addition to measuring the direct effects of social influence and media richness on brand loyalty, the study assessed the indirect effect of responsiveness on brand loyalty by means of community benefits, including knowledge gains and sense of membership. The results, based on data collected from 229 social media users who are followers of a Super Basketball League (SBL) team’s Facebook page, indicated that media richness had a strong, positive, and direct effect on brand loyalty, and that responsiveness had direct effects on their knowledge gains and their sense of membership, which in turn affected brand loyalty indirectly

Linking experience realms and experiential service brand loyalty: Determinants and outcomes for future operationalization

The concept of ‗Customer Experience‘ has evolved as an imperative area of study within the marketing discipline. Despite its importance and the positive attention this concept received during the last few years, the explanation of customer experiences have remained vague and lack a thorough theoretical foundation. This paper aims to address the gap in the literature and to facilitate better understanding of the concept of customer experience and its antecedents and consequences from the consumer perspective. The paper examines the impact of customer experience on brand loyalty via a comprehensive review of existing literature on the concept of customer experience and service brand literatures. Additionally, twelve hypotheses, which describe and explain the antecedents of customer experience and impacts upon brand loyalty within the service sector, are presented. The outcome of this paper adds novel perspective to the growing body of brand literature, particularly service brand and suggests directions for future research

Influences of e-retailer sponsored virtual community on consumer loyalty: an exploration of underlying mechanisms

An e-retailer sponsored virtual community (ESVC), as the backyard of an e-commerce website, provides consumers with an online platform to play with each other. Different from transactional e-commerce platform, ESVC assembles consumers together to fulfil their social needs. In recent years, with the popular of Web 2.0 information and communication technologies (ICTs), e-retailers also start to integrate social media within ESVC. This greatly increases consumers' online community participation, as social media facilitate information sharing and interactions among community members with a social flavour. Moreover, social media provide a variety of IT artefacts to visualize the interactions between consumers and e-retailer, which reshapes the relationship between e-retailer and customer as a triad model. However, in this new context, the influences of ESVC characteristics and IT artefacts on e-retailer- customer relationship were not well investigated. Some researchers have made effort to open the "black box" between ESVC with social media investment and customer loyalty, but still lack theoretical foundations. This research explores the underlying mechanisms from a new perspective, and proposes a theoretical framework based on reciprocal theory

Applying marketing’s new dominant logic for interpreting customer experiences with brands

The concept of customer experience is evolving to an imperative area of study within the marketing discipline. Despite its importance and the positive attention this concept is receiving in the literature, the explanation of customer experiences remains vague and a thorough theoretical foundation is lacking. This paper addresses the gap in the literature and to facilitate a brand-management understanding of the concept of customer experience and its antecedents and consequences. The paper examines the impact of customer experience on brand loyalty via a comprehensive review of existing literature on the concept of customer experience and service brand literatures. Additionally, twelve propositions describe and explain the antecedents of customer experience and impacts upon brand loyalty within a service-centered marketing logic. This paper contributes a novel customer-brand experience perspective and conceptual tools relevant for further theory development and for effectively managing customer-brand relationships

Social support, social capital and online community e-loyalty: an empirical study

Online communities, as an essential manifestation of online social relationships, sociality factors (including social support factors and social relationship factors, etc.) ought to facilitate the formation of community trust and community satisfaction. However, although the existing literature has explored the underlying mechanisms of online community trust and satisfaction formation, few studies implemented research from the integrated sociality perspectives. In this thesis, we integrate social capital theory and social support theory to consider social capital and social support as important antecedent social factors in forming community trust and community satisfaction, which influence users' trust and satisfaction in online communities. Community trust and satisfaction further promote community loyalty. Specifically, this thesis scrutinizes the influence of three levels of social support factors such as information support, emotional support, and human-computer network management support and three kinds of social capital such as structure, cognition, and relationship to online community trust and satisfaction. Based on the proposed research model, 430 online community users' survey data were collected through an empirical questionnaire and the research model was tested through the partial least squares structural equation model method. The results of the thesis suggest that social support factors, including information support, emotional support, and interpersonal network interaction support, and social capital factors including structural capital, relational capital, and cognitive capital significantly affect community users' loyalty not only directly but also indirectly through enhancing community users' trust and satisfaction. Thus, users' trust and satisfaction with the community are significant mediating variables.Nas comunidades online, como uma importante manifestação das relações sociais online, os fatores de socialidade (incluindo fatores de apoio social e fatores de relacionamento social) devem facilitar a formação de confiança e satisfação da comunidade. No entanto, embora a literatura existente tenha explorado os mecanismos subjacentes à formação da confiança e da satisfação da comunidade online, poucos estudos consideraram a perspectiva social de forma integrada. Nesta tese, integramos a teoria do capital social e a teoria do suporte social para considerar o capital social e o suporte social como importantes fatores sociais antecedentes na formação da confiança e satisfação da comunidade, que influenciam a confiança e a satisfação dos utilizadores em comunidades online. A confiança e a satisfação da comunidade promovem ainda mais a lealdade da comunidade. Especificamente, esta tese estuda a influência de três níveis de fatores de suporte social - suporte de informação, suporte emocional e suporte de gestão da relação homen-computador - e três tipos de capital social - estrutura, cognição e relacionamento - na confiança e satisfação da comunidade online. Com base no modelo de pesquisa proposto, 430 observações de utilizadores de comunidades online foram recolhidos através de um questionário. O modelo de pesquisa foi testado através de métodos de equação estruturais. Os resultados da tese relevam que fatores de suporte social, incluindo suporte de informação, suporte emocional e suporte de interação de rede interpessoal, e fatores de capital social, incluindo capital estrutural, capital relacional e capital cognitivo, afetam significativamente a lealdade dos utilizadores da comunidade, não apenas diretamente mas também indiretamente, aumentando a confiança e a satisfação dos utilizadores da comunidade; a confiança e a satisfação dos usuários com a comunidade são variáveis mediadoras importantes