The role of social shopping and self-brand connection on emotional engagement : an online shopping context

Abstract

The study investigates whether social shopping and self-brand connection predicts emotional engagement when customer shop online. Customer engagement has emerged as an important avenue for marketers to build long term relationships with customers as a mechanism for sustainable competitive advantage. However, although academics and practitioners are aware of the importance of customer engagement, most remain focused on behavioural components of engagement with limited focus on emotional engagement. The study proposes a that social theories provide an avenue to investigate customer engagement, specifically emotional engagement by investigating social shopping and self-brand connection and whether it predicts emotional engagement. A quantitative study was conducted via the survey method and questionnaires were distributed to collect data. Multiple regression analysis was carried out to determine whether social shopping and self-brand connection predicts emotional engagement. The research confirmed that self-brand connection is a predictor of emotional engagement, and that the relationship is strengthened when taking into consider gender. However, social shopping was found not to be a predictor of emotional engagement. Implications for theory and practitioners are provided in the context of the literature review.