Demystifying ‘brand usage engagement’ in social networking contexts: Conceptualisation, scale development & validation

Abstract

Organisations are increasingly seeking consumer participation/engagement with their brands. Despite significant practitioner interest, scholarly inquiry into the brand engagement (i.e., BE) concept has transpired only relatively recently, resulting in a limited understanding of the concept, and its measurement to-date. Employing an integrative deductive/inductive approach, this thesis addresses this literature gap by developing a measurement instrument for the BE sub-concept of 'brand usage engagement' (i.e., BUE). Study 1 reports on a literature review and preliminary qualitative research (cf. Chapters 2-3) conducted to explore/define BUE, and develop an initial BUE item pool. BUE is defined as "a consumer's level of positively valenced cognitive, emotional and behavioural brand-related activity during, and/or related to, focal consumer/brand usage occasions." Three BUE dimensions, including cognitive processing, affection and activation are also developed. Further, an introduction to engagement in social networking settings, as explored in this thesis, is also provided. In study 2, a preliminary pool of 69 BUE items was subjected to further analysis/item screening procedures employing consumers/managers, and academic experts; which generated a reduced set of 39 items for further investigation. Next, a sample of 194 students from a large New Zealand university was asked to rate their usage engagement with the Facebook.com brand on these items. Using exploratory factor analysis, the item pool was further reduced to a set of 12 items measured along three factors, which was shown to exhibit adequate reliability (cf. Chapter 4). In study 3, using the reduced scale and a new sample of 554 New Zealand-based consumers who reported using the Twitter.com brand, a series of exploratory/confirmatory factor analyses served to confirm the three-factor/12-item BUE scale (cf. Chapter 5). Employing a new sample of 556 New Zealand-based consumers, and adopting the LinkedIn.com brand, the confirmatory factor-analytic procedures reported in study 4 suggested the additional removal of two items, thus generating a final 10-item BUE scale. Exploring the nature of focal BUE conceptual relationships, study 4 also facilitated the undertaking of initial model validation assessments (cf. Chapter 6). The thesis concludes with an overview of research limitations/implications (cf. Chapter 7).