Research On The Relationship Between Online Social Support And Customer Engagement Behavior

The emergence of network platform and new media improves the ability of customers to search brand information,and reduces the cost of communication between customers and enterprises,and customers themselves.They can contribute to value creation of enterprises via customer engagement behaviors,such as online word of mouth,recommendation and taking part in brand activities.Empirical studies have suggested that as an extra-role customer behavior,customer engagement behavior can help corporates improve financial performance,create reputation and promote growth.Therefore,research on driving factors of customer engagement behavior has become a popular field.This thesis systematically reviewed relevant studies on online social support,customer psychological ownership,customer engagement behavior and customer involvement,and divided online social support into two dimensions: informational support and emotional support.In addition,based on the theory of customer psychological ownership,a concept model of the impact of online social support on customer engagement behavior was built.Empirical research was conducted on virtual brand community users and 290 valid questionnaires were collected through online survey.Data analysis and hypothesis test were carried out using SPSS20.0 and AMOS20.0 statistical analysis software.The results showed that:(1)Informational support and emotional support had a significant positive influence on customer psychological ownership.(2)Informational support and emotional support had a significant positive influence on customer engagement behavior.(3)Customer psychological ownership had a significant positive impact on customer engagement behavior.(4)Customer psychological ownership played a partial mediating role in the influence of informational support on customer engagement behavior and a complete mediating role in the influence of emotional support on customer engagement behavior.(5)Customer involvement not only significantly moderated the relationship between informational support and customer psychological ownership,but also moderated the indirect effect of informational support on customer engagement behavior by customer psychological ownership.However,the moderating effect of customer involvement on the relationship between emotional support and customer psychological ownership was not significant.This thesis expanded the application of psychological ownership theory in marketing field,and put forward a new perspective to explain the relationship between online social support and customer engagement behavior,which had certain theoretical implications.Meanwhile,based on the empirical research results,it also provided a theoretical basis for enterprise managers to formulate marketing strategies.