Does Social Media Influence Business Performance? The Impact of Relational Benefits on Repurchase Intention and WOM

Abstract

: Social media offer companies an unprecedented tool to establish and develop relationships with customers and to interact with them. So, the brand-customer relationships can be enhanced through Social media, which are able to deliver different kinds of benefits, namely monetary savings, recognition, social interaction, entertainment and exploration. Thus, the present study seeks to investigate the effects of social media\u2019s benefits\u2014specifically, its relational benefits\u2014derived from membership of and participation in brand pages in Social media. This study analyses their impact on the intention to repurchase the product/service and also the willingness to recommend the brand to other consumers. Data were collected through a quantitative study using an online survey, which recruited Italian respondents and providing data analysis via structural equation modelling. Findings show that only social and exploration benefits affect both the intention to repurchase and the willingness to widespread WOM, while monetary, recognition and entertainment benefits show no influence on the dependent variables. Such results offer a contribution, since they provide insights on a highly relevant phenomenon such as Social media across different-industries and different Social media