Motivational factors, customer engagement and loyalty in the mobile instant messaging environment : moderating effect of application usage

Abstract

Mobile instant messaging (MIM) applications have changed the communication style in society. MIM providers have been known to bypass traditional operator networks to deliver services, forcing operators to rethink customer trends and behaviours in engaging with mobile services. Despite the extensive literature on the technology adoption of MIM, few studies focus on the factors driving ongoing customer engagement. First, this study assessed and validated specific gratifications obtained from using MIM applications by applying the uses and gratifications theory. Second, the research investigation attempted to understand the relationship between motivational factors and customer engagement, in addition to the association between customer engagement and customer loyalty for existing subscribers of WhatsApp in South Africa. Third, the study investigated whether application usage moderates the relationship between customer engagement and constructs of utilitarian, hedonic and social motivation. Purposive sampling was utilised in this quantitative study to obtain responses from an online survey. The study revealed that utilitarian and hedonic motivation impacts customer engagement positively, which in turn impacts loyalty. Results indicated that social motivation in using WhatsApp bore no relationship to customer engagement. Furthermore, this study found that medium application usage moderates the link between customer engagement and both utilitarian and hedonic motivation.