The Effects of Consumer Social Media Marketing Experiences on Brand Affect and Brand Equity

A limited number of studies have shown that social media marketing activities positively contribute to brand performance. In this chapter, therefore, a conceptual framework elucidating how consumer social media marketing experiences lead to more favorable brand affect, and in turn, enhanced brand equity is proposed. Importantly, perceived social media marketing activities are identified as a key moderator influencing the effects of consumer social media marketing experiences on brand equity. Repeated measures ANOVA and regression analyses were conducted to test the proposed model in a study consisting of three phases. The results provide support for (a) the main effects of consumer social media marketing experiences on brand affect and brand equity, (b) the mediating effect of brand affect, and (c) the moderating effect of perceived social media marketing activities. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications of the research findings, and recommendations for future studies.

Understanding the Use of Social Media for Employer Branding

Employer branding applies marketing tools to promote an organisation as an employer to current and potential employees. The importance of strategic alignment between parts of the business has been highlighted in literature: marketing and human resource activities are no exception. On the contrary, the alignment of customer brand and employer brand is equally important to marketers and human resource managers. This chapter frames the creation and communication of the employer brand as a “strong communication system”. A framework for assessment of the system's strength is introduced and a practical application of this framework is demonstrated in two case studies. The conflict between the traditional top-down one-way marketing communication flow and bottom-up bi-directional communication on social media is highlighted and the impact of this apparent conflict on the system strength is discussed. Social media appears to change the way in which employer brand is created, communicated and perceived and this chapter aims in aiding the understating of this changes.

Social Network Analysis Visualization

The social network surge has become a mainstream subject of academic study in a myriad of disciplines. This chapter posits the social network literature by highlighting the terminologies of social networks and details the types of tools and methodologies used in prior studies. The list is supplemented by identifying the research gaps for future research of interest to both academics and practitioners. Additionally, the case of Facebook is used to study the elements of a social network analysis. This chapter also highlights past validated models with regards to social networks which are deemed significant for online social network studies. Furthermore, this chapter seeks to enlighten our knowledge on social network analysis and tap into the social network capabilities.

A Continuance Model for Optimized Participation in Virtual Communities

The social commerce wave has opened up vast opportunities in emerging markets through virtual communities' participation. This chapter investigates the constructs and theories from the social psychology perspective looking into the intention and behaviour prospect by extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and integrating the Social Support Theory (SST) to purport a continuance model for virtual communities' optimized participation in Malaysia. The model uncovers that the emotional and informational constructs of the SST and constructs of the TPB as well as perceived value optimizes participation. This chapter also establishes a continuance model and illustrates how theory from the social psychology literature positions the constructs of SST, TPB and perceived value in enhancing the participation of virtual communities. The SEM-PLS method used to analyse the data shows that the intention and behaviour of the virtual communities determine users' participation level. Furthermore, this chapter seeks to enlighten our knowledge on virtual communities and tap into the social commerce capabilities.

Understanding Customers' Behaviour through Web Data Mining Models

Companies have realized that the customer knowledge contained in web marketing database represent one of the main key to forecast business performance in today's competitive landscape. Appropriate web data mining models are one the best supporting approach to make different marketing decision. Analysing and understanding in advance customers' behaviour can represent the main corporation's strength in planning marketing forecasting. This research want to demonstrate as predictive web data mining models are accurate patterns in predicting marketing performance compared to traditional statistical methods in global business. In addition, particular attention is paid on the identification of the main marketing drivers performed by potential customers before purchasing a given service online. Finally, the criteria based on the loss functions confirm the high predictive power of the web data mining models in detecting the probability of customer conversion.

On the Relationship between Online Social Support and Users' ontinuance Intention

This chapter discusses the online social support in the context of social networking sites (SNSs). The pervasive adoption of social networking sites has profound influence on society and enables a new way to provide social support. Social support has been considered a key social value that online users can obtain from social networking sites. Research has shown that social support may reduce stress and promote well-being among diverse populations. Despite its significance to society, the online social support in the context of SNSs has been surprisingly under-investigated. Some fundamental questions—such as (1) What are the dimensions of online social support on SNSs? and (2) How does online social support influence other factors such as the users' satisfaction and continuance intention to SNSs?—have not been answered. This chapter attempts to answer those questions. Specifically, this chapter aims to first identify the definitional dimensions of online social support on SNSs through an extensive review of the literature. Second, this chapter uses these dimensions to model online social support and test its effects on other SNS factors: user satisfaction and continuance intention. Eventually, the results support all proposed hypotheses. The theoretical contributions and managerial implications of the results are discussed at the end of this chapter. 1

Value Co-Creation, Social Media, and Marketing 3.0

The aim of this chapter is to analyze a new concept value co-creation-that has emerged in the context of marketing and business management research. In today's market environment, companies are continually pressured to innovate in order to attract and maintain consumer loyalty and gain and sustain competitive advantage in the market. First, this chapter identifies factors and variables that are leveraged to determine value co-creation in firms. Second, this chapter examines how the development of information and communication technologies-in particular, the Internet and social media networks-has become the main engine of the co-creation activity in a Marketing 3.0 context. Third, this chapter discusses the consequences and benefits of implementing such concepts on the achievement of competitive advantages for firms.

Intellectual Property Rights and Social Media

Issues related to intellectual property rights in the Web 2.0 environment are rarely discussed. This chapter investigates the issues surrounding copyright in the digital era, which the market is increasingly using social media. The chapter describes the legal risks confronting people on using content in the digital era and examines the issues in this area. Valuable discussion will be generated for all users of digital content. The chapter investigates copyrights in the digital era through a case study, gathering data through interviews conducted in the UK. Research findings show lack of knowledge and instruction in the use of digital content and information produced through social media is the main reason for emerging conflict in this area. Knowledge about IPRs, and specifically copyrights in e-learning, needs to be provided for people. One of the issues that must be addressed by the use of Web 2.0 to learners is a full explanation of copyright laws. This will prevent content generated in this environment from infringing copyright.

Online Sport Brand Communities

Organizations have reached the point where they need to change their strategies in order to create value with customers. This is the modern marketing logic. It has mainly come about because consumers have been empowered to exert influence on companies. In this chapter we argue that a different perspective about consumer care has emerged through social media; consumers are no longer passive information users but are now active content creators who can be part of value creation in the marketplace. Therefore, this chapter analyses the opportunities that sport organizations can generate by co-creation of value through social media. The findings of this chapter create a picture of how virtual communities support co-creation of value for sports organizations.

Customer Attitudes towards Internet Banking and Social Media on Internet Banking in the UK

Internet banking, a cost saving and productive service delivery channel, has become a new focus of banks along with developments in information and communication technology (ICT). The advancements of ICT may help improve customer satisfaction and influence customer attitudes towards Internet banking, especially on the issue of security. This chapter investigates the attitudes of customers in the UK towards Internet banking by conducting 25 in-depth interviews with various documents to supplement our analysis. Results indicate that security is the most important factor affecting Internet banking adoption in the UK. Furthermore, motivated by the growing importance of social media, this chapter also discusses the role of social media on Internet banking and provides some suggestions on how banks can leverage social media to enhance the adoption rate of Internet banking. The detailed results along with discussions, implications, and limitation are discussed at the end of this chapter.