An Empirical Study On The Relationship Among WeChat Usage,Social Capital And Customer Engagement

As one of the most popular social media,WeChat has developed into an innovative marketing platform for interaction between enterprises and consumers.Although the previous literature has investigated the influencing factors of customer engagement,the research on the impact of WeChat users’ specific behavior is relatively limited,and the indirect role of social capital is not clear.In the context of social commerce,this paper divides WeChat usage into three different types of behaviors,including seeking,sharing and liking,and explores the potential value of users’ participation behavior.Social capital can be divided into two diverse dimensions: bonding and bridging social capital.Customer engagement is measured directly and indirectly through purchase intention and electronic word-ofmouth intention.Based on social capital theory and social exchange theory,this paper constructs a theoretical model to systematically investigate the relationship among WeChat usage,social capital and customer engagement,and examine the impact of electronic word-of-mouth intention on purchase intention and the intermediary effect of social capital in the environment of WeChat.Use the questionnaire survey to collect data and carry out the empirical study.The results support:(1)seeking,sharing and liking behavior can enhance bonding and bridging social capital,and sharing behavior is more effective;(2)Both bonding and bridging social capital can positively predict electronic word-of-mouth intention and purchase intention,and bridging social capital is more effective;(3)Bonding and bridging social capital mediate the relationship between sharing or liking behavior and purchase intention,while only bridging social capital has a significant mediating effect between seeking and electronic word-ofmouth intention.This study verifies the importance of WeChat usage and social capital to young people’s customer engagement in the developing era of social commerce,contributes to the understanding of the complex influence mechanism of social capital,and expands the application scope of social capital theory and social exchange theory.The research conclusions provide corresponding suggestions for WeChat users and operators,and help enterprises carry out marketing activities based on WeChat and promote customer engagement.