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

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of continuous brand-customer relationship via company-hosted social networking sites (SNSs). Factors that influence fans to continue using fast-fashion brands’ Facebook fan pages and to maintain the brand-customer relationship are discussed first. Subsequently, the predictors of fans’ engagement and affective commitment to a fast-fashion brand are examined with the aim to explore the key elements that nurture the brand-customer relationship via brands’ SNSs.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative research was conducted and the structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses on a sample of 202 fast-fashion Facebook fan page users in Taiwan.

Findings

The 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 an Asian country, so the findings cannot be generalised to other contexts.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that 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

The 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 how they contribute to theory building in continuance intention of SNSs.

Citation

Chang, S.-W. and Fan, S.-H. (2017), "Cultivating the brand-customer relationship in Facebook fan pages: A study of fast-fashion industry", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 45 No. 3, pp. 253-270. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-05-2016-0076