Customer engagement with brand-related content on social media within the context of restaurant industry

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Pham, N.P., 2023. Customer engagement with brand-related content on social media within the context of restaurant industry. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

Purpose: Customer engagement has evolved to a new level with the growth of social media. Although researchers have shifted their attention to exploring customer engagement in the social media context, there is still a need of studies that empirically examined customer behaviours with brand-related content as a focal object. Based on the review of previous literature, there is a need to empirically investigate customer engagement with brand-related social media content in the restaurant industry. This study aims to measure customer engagement with brand-related content on social media based on COBRA (Consumer Online Brand – Related Activities) typologies, including Consumption, Contribution, and Creation. Furthermore, the relationship between customer engagement with brand-related content and its motivational factors (entertainment, searching for information, remuneration, social interaction, and selfpresentation), as well as outcomes (attitude toward reviews and ratings, and purchase intention), will be evaluated.

Context: The restaurant industry is considered as one of the fastest-growing service industries facing a significant level of competitiveness. Therefore, restaurant marketers must pay more attention to engaging customers to survive and grow. Vietnam has been chosen as a country for investigation because the restaurant industry has been growing rapidly in Vietnam and has the potential for further development in the future. In addition, the use of social media in Vietnam is high and has been increasing sharply. A growing number of restaurant brands are using social media as a critical resource in their marketing and branding activities in order to build and enhance customer relationships and customer engagement.

Design/ Methodology/ Approach: In the conceptual model, the COBRA was used to demonstrate the three dimensions of customer engagement with brand-related content on social media. To examine the motivations of customer engagement with brand-related content, five factors were drawn from the Uses and Gratification (U&G) theory, including entertainment, searching for information, remuneration, social interaction, and self-presentation. Moreover, two consequences of customer engagement with brand-related content were identified from the literature review. The conceptual model proposed 21 hypotheses of significant and robust relationships between the three levels of customer engagement with brand-related content on social media, five motivational factors, and two consequences.

In order to test these hypotheses, a quantitative methodology using an online questionnaire is adopted in this study. After descriptive analysis of a sample of 509 active social media users having inevitable participation in restaurant social media platforms in Vietnam, a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis using AMOS 27 statistical software is conducted to assess the model fit of the data and test the causal relationships suggested in the hypotheses.

Findings: Empirical results from this study noticed that the popularity of customer engagement activities with branded content decreased when the level of activities’ activeness decreased. Restaurant industry customers tend to be the most engaged in consuming brand-related content activities compared to contributing to and creating branded content. Regarding the relationship between customer engagement with brand-related content with the motivational factors, it is concluded that all five motivations (entertainment, searching for information, remuneration, social interaction, and self-presentation) positively influence content consumption and contribution activities. However, motivation for information searching does not affect the highest level of COBRAs (content creation), while the other four factors do. Moreover, the empirical findings from the study confirm the significant positive relationship between all three levels of content engagement, including consumption, contribution, and creation, and their consequences: attitude toward reviews and ratings and restaurant visit intention.

Practical implications: The findings from this research provide some insights into customers' behaviors on restaurantrelated social media platforms and the factors that motivate customer engagement behaviours with the content. Therefore, the restaurant managers can use these findings when creating and adjusting content strategies to get customers truly and highly engaged, and in turn, increase customers’ attitude toward the eWOM (e-Word of Mouth) and visiting intention toward the restaurant brands.

Originality/ Value: This study's theoretical contribution is in regard to extending the initial research on the construct of customer engagement with brand-related content behaviours. When examining the relationship between customer engagement with brand-related content and its motivations and consequences, this study is distinguished from previous studies by investigating all three comprehensive dimensions, including content consumption, contribution, and creation covering all online behaviours from the most passive to the most active. Furthermore, the research also contributes to knowledge of the purchase intention construct as it is known as the first study that empirically explores the impact of customer engagement behaviours with brandrelated content on customer purchase intention.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Pham, N.P.
Date:	2023
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	24 May 2023 09:40
Last Modified:	24 May 2023 09:40
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/49066