Sustainable customer retention through social media marketing activities using hybrid SEM-neural network approach

Abstract

Social media has changed the marketing phenomenon, as firms use social media to inform, impress, and retain the existing consumers. Social media marketing empowers business firms to generate perceived brand equity activities and build the notion among consumers to continue using the firms’ products and services. The current exploratory study aimed to examine the effects of social media marketing activities on brand equity (brand awareness and brand image) and repurchase intention of high-tech products among Chinese consumers. The study used a cross-sectional design, and the final analysis was performed on 477 valid responses that were collected through an online survey. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) analysis were performed. The obtained results revealed positive and significant effects of trendiness, interaction, and word of mouth on brand awareness. Customisation, trendiness, interaction, and word of mouth were found to positively affect brand image. Brand awareness and brand image were found to affect repurchase intention. The results of multilayer ANN analysis suggested trendiness as the most notable factor in developing brand awareness and brand image. Brand awareness was found to be an influential factor that nurtures repurchase intention. The study’s results confirmed the relevance of social media marketing activities in predicting brand equity and brand loyalty by repurchase intention. Marketing professionals need to concentrate on entertainment and customisation aspects of social media marketing that can help to achieve brand awareness and image. The limitations of study and future research opportunities are presented at the end of this article.

Role of social media marketing activities in China’s e-commerce industry: A stimulus organism response theory context

“…Similarly, previous research reported positive relationships between SMMAs and online purchase intention toward luxury brands in Korea (Kim and Ko, 2010), the Indian fashion luxury industry (Gautam and Sharma, 2017) and social media user intentions in Pakistan (Jamil et al, 2022). The third component of the S-O-R theory is consumer response (i.e., purchase/repurchase intention) (Zhu et al, 2020b;Yang et al, 2022). The consumer responses serve as the basis for the current investigation on online repurchase intention, also known as consumer online repurchase intention.…”

“…Prior studies primarily focused on SMMAs examined various concepts in diverse consumer environments. For example, the impact of SMMAs was examined on brand equity in India and Egypt (Yadav and Rahman, 2017;Ebrahim, 2020), value and brand consciousness in Malaysia (Ismail, 2017), customer equity drivers in India (Yadav and Rahman, 2018), consumer brand engagement in Hong Kong (Cheung et al, 2020), consumer brand-related activities (consuming, contributing, and creating) in China (Cheung et al, 2021) and brand image and brand awareness in China (Yang et al, 2022), and consumers' engagement intention and engagement behavior in Pakistan (Shang et al, 2022). Previous research has acknowledged the importance of SMMAs and relationship quality (commitment, trust, and satisfaction) in e-commerce (Yadav and Rahman, 2018).…”

“…Finally, this study contributes to stimulus organism response theory (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974) by validating the proposed model. Prior research primarily contributed to the S-O-R theory by investigating customer equity and loyalty in e-commerce (Yadav and Rahman, 2018), brand image, brand awareness, and repurchase intention in high tech products (Yang et al, 2022) within the context of SMMAs. Thus, we examined SMMAs, such as external environmental stimuli (SMMAs) affect consumers' mental conditions/organisms (relationship quality), thereby triggering behavioral reactions (responses) (Jacoby, 2002;Lorenzo-Romero et al, 2016).…”

“…Generally, social media gives customers a new way to learn about products and communicate with others worldwide who have had similar experiences with products and services (Yang, 2019). Thus, social media has revolutionized the dynamics of business and marketing, as organizations leverage social media to educate, attract, and retain existing customers (Yang et al, 2022).…”

“…2022.941058 a critical aspect of social commerce practices (Liang and Turban, 2011), which encompass a range of activities such as user reviews, ratings, recommendations, online forums, and e-commerce (Hajli, 2015). Prior research has primarily focused on the SMMAs in the branding context in terms of brand loyalty, brand image, brand awareness, and repurchase intentions in various consumer environments (Ismail, 2017;Cheung et al, 2020Cheung et al, , 2021Ebrahim, 2020;Yang et al, 2022) while few studies have focused on the SMMAs in the e-commerce context in terms of purchase intention, brand equity, and customer loyalty from the Indian perspective Rahman, 2017, 2018). On the other side, many researchers have emphasized the great potential of SMMAs and have urged additional research in various consumer environments (Appel et al, 2020;Dwivedi et al, 2021;Li et al, 2021;Zahay, 2021).…”