Information Technology & PeopleEnhancing customer brand experience and loyalty through enterprise microblogs:Empirical evidence from a communication framework perspectiveJun Yang, Rui Zheng, Ling Zhao, Sumeet Gupta,

Article information:To cite this document:Jun Yang, Rui Zheng, Ling Zhao, Sumeet Gupta, (2017) "Enhancing customer brand experienceand loyalty through enterprise microblogs: Empirical evidence from a communication frameworkperspective", Information Technology & People, Vol. 30 Issue: 3, pp.580-601, https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-09-2015-0219Permanent link to this document:https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-09-2015-0219

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Enhancing customer brandexperience and loyalty through

enterprise microblogsEmpirical evidence from a communication

framework perspectiveJun Yang, Rui Zheng and Ling Zhao

School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology,Wuhan, China, andSumeet Gupta

Department of Operations and Systems,Indian Institute of Management Raipur, GEC Campus, Raipur, India

AbstractPurpose – As the social media platform becomes an ever more important communication channel betweencompany and customer, companies are learning how they can best utilize social media to bettercommunicate their brands with customers. The purpose of this paper is to explore the communicationtactics adopted by the enterprise microblogs using a communication framework. Further, the authors hopeto find out how these communication tactics influence customer brand experience (BE) and subsequentlybrand loyalty.Design/methodology/approach – First, to identify the communication tactics used by enterprisemicroblogs, the authors recruited six active microblog users and listed all possible characteristicsof enterprise microblogs that could increase customers’ fondness for the brand. Second, based onthe listed 19 characteristics and existing theories, the authors pre-classified and conceptualizedthe content and style tactics categories. The authors also followed a sorting procedure to verifyour classification. Finally, based on the sorted characteristics and previous research, theauthors designed a questionnaire and 459 sets of valid data were collected from enterprisemicroblog users.Findings – The communication tactics are classified into two dimensions, namely content tactics andstyle tactics. The content tactics include content diversity, content accuracy and content timeliness, andthe style tactics include impression enhancement style and interactivity enhancement style. The resultsreveal that the communication content and style tactics significantly enhance overall customer BE andfurther brand loyalty. The study results also show that style tactics exert more influence on BE thancontent tactics.Originality/value – This paper highlights the company’s important role in company-customercommunication on social media, and categorizes the effective communication tactics used by the enterprisemicroblog within a communication framework. Companies could build brand loyalty by enhancing users’ BEusing effective communication. The communication perspective and measures of the communication tacticsin this study provide an ideal background for future research on IT-based company-customer interaction.Keywords Behaviour, Virtual community, Structural equation modelling,Computer-mediated communication (CMC), BrandsPaper type Research paper

1. IntroductionMicroblogs have gained immense popularity among various social network platforms(Zhang et al., 2015) during the recent years. Twitter’s user base, for example, grew to 645million by 2015 (Statistics Brain, 2015). Consumers are now increasingly using socialInformation Technology & People

Vol. 30 No. 3, 2017pp. 580-601© Emerald Publishing Limited0959-3845DOI 10.1108/ITP-09-2015-0219

Received 11 September 2015Revised 26 June 2016Accepted 10 July 2016

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:www.emeraldinsight.com/0959-3845.htm

This work is partially supported by grants from the National Science Foundation of China (71201062,71672065), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2016AC052).

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media for learning about brands (Newman, 2011). Knowledge Networks (2011) reportsthat 23.1 million people (up 22 percent from 2010) in the USA discovered new brands orproducts through social media, and 17.8 million (up 19 percent from 2010) were stronglyinfluenced in their purchase decisions by the contents in social media. Consumers’participation in social media has also increased their visit frequency to the stores(Rishika et al., 2013) as well as improved firms’ performance (Luo et al., 2013). The rise insocial media’s consumer base has prompted a number of companies or brands (such asStarbucks, KFC and BMW) to create their own enterprise microblog accounts fordisseminating product information to their customers (Vernuccio, 2014) as well ascommunicating with them (Zhang et al., 2015). In China also, SinaWeibo (the mostpopular microblog platform) has seen its registered user base grew to 0.3 million by2012 (iResearch, 2013). Considering such widespread adoption of microblogs, it is worthinvestigating how companies can leverage microblogs for better communicating theirbrands to their customers.

Enterprise microblog is an online brand community created by a company, whichwishes to establish relationship with its consumers and derive benefits from theinteractions amongst its consumers in the community (Aral et al., 2013). They havereceived considerable attention from researchers. Studies on enterprise microblogsfocus upon examining the factors that motivate customers to contribute knowledge tofirm-hosted brand communities (Wiertz and de Ruyter, 2007; Toubia and Stephen, 2013);exploring how companies can encourage member engagement in the brand communities(Brodie et al., 2013); and analyzing whether customer community participationinfluences a customer’s subsequent purchase behavior (Algesheimer et al., 2010; Rishikaet al., 2013). A number of studies have examined how companies can best integrate theirenterprise microblogs for developing brand communities (Laroche et al., 2012). Aralet al. (2013), for instance, proposed a research framework on business transformation forbetter applying social media in business. Similarly, Miller and Tucker (2013) attemptedto determine how healthcare firms can actively manage their social media presence onFacebook. In a different vein, Vernuccio (2014) classified the approaches forcommunicating corporate brand through social media in terms of interactivity andopenness. Zheng et al. (2015) also examined how companies could better build brandloyalty through social media sites.

Although these studies provide deeper insights into consumers’ participation andconsequences of their participation in such brand communities, some of the importantaspects of these communities need further examination. First aspect relates to theinteraction between the company and its customers. This is because consumers expectcompanies to play a different role in a company-initiated community than in aconsumer-initiated community as the company-generated content plays an importantrole in a company-initiated community (Goh et al., 2013). The second aspect relates to afirm’s communication strategy and its influence on consumer’s brand perception in thecommunity. Communication strategy is a key component of any company-customerinteractions and has a compelling influence on customer experiences and perceptions.Being an integral part of the total value of service as perceived by a customer in anyinteraction with the company (Heinonen and Strandvik, 2005), the communicationstrategies used by the enterprise microblogs are expected to influence users’ impressionof the brand.

Given this research gap, this study examines the company-consumer interaction in anenterprise microblog. Accordingly, the research questions examined in this study are as follows:

RQ1. What are the various communication strategies that enterprise microblogs canadopt to become more effective in communicating with their customers.

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RQ2. This study examines how these communication tactics influence consumers’perceptions and behaviors, such as brand experience (BE) and subsequentbrand loyalty.

For examining these research questions, we adopt the buyer-seller interaction processesframework as proposed by Sheth (1976). We then use this framework for examining theinfluence of communication strategies on BE and brand loyalty.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we review the existingliterature on communication framework, BE and brand loyalty. Then in Section 3, weconceptualize the content and style communication tactics adopted in enterprisemicroblogs and present our research hypotheses. The methodology and results of dataanalysis are presented in Section 4. In Section 5, we summarize the key findings and theirimplications, as well as the contributions of this study. Finally, we present limitationsand conclusions of this study in Section 6.

2. Literature reviewWe review the literature on company-consumer interaction as well as on the influence ofthese interactions on a consumers’ BE and brand loyalty. Sheth’s (1976) communicationframework and its wide application in company-customer communication in differentscenarios provide the basis for examining company-consumer interactions.

2.1 Communication frameworkA number of studies in behavioral science highlight the importance of communication ininter-personal relationships, which has led researchers to examine the elements ofcommunication and study how they affect interaction outcomes. Sheth (1976) proposed aconceptual framework of buyer-seller interaction processes, which indicates that whetheror not the interaction leads to satisfaction depends on two components of communication,namely, communication content and style. Communication content involves theinformation exchanged between the buyer and the seller, whereas communication stylerefers to “the format, ritual or mannerism which the buyer or seller used in theinteraction” (Sheth, 1976, pp. 382-383).

Many research studies on company-customer communication or interaction havebeen conducted based on this framework, including both offline and online cases.Williams and Spiro (1985) found that the three communication styles (task-oriented,interaction-oriented and self-oriented), as proposed by Sheth’s (1976), positively affectsales outcome. In particular, task-oriented and interaction-oriented styles are moreeffective than the self-oriented styles. Instead of investigating the direct influence ofcommunication style, Van Dolen et al. (2007) found that the communication style used byan advisor or employee in an online commercial chat mediates the influence oftechnology attributes and group characteristics on consumer satisfaction toward thechat, as well as influences further proactive behaviors. Köhler et al. (2011) focused on theinteraction between online agents and customers, and found that different types ofcommunication content and styles initiate a new customer’s adjustment process. Theirstudy indicates how computer-mediated personas communicating with customers caninfluence firm-level performance. Verhagen et al. (2014) also found that thecommunication style used by virtual customer service agents mediates their influenceon customers’ perceived social presence. Among recent studies, Kim et al. (2015) examinethe influence of media type and content orientation on consumers’ response to thebrand’s Facebook platform, and report that the photo-type and interaction-orientedcontent could secure better consumer response.

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Thewide application of this framework indicates that the content and style elements capturethe essential components of communication that occur in various contexts (such as offline vsonline) and among different actors (such as inter-personal, online agent and customer, brandand customers). Since companies use enterprise microblogs for posting persuasive messagesand for disseminating information about their products or services and brands to customers,the content and style of such microblogs should influence their customers’ relationship with thebrand. Because Sheth’s (1976) content and style dimensions are based on the offline buyer-sellerinteraction, they need to be adapted to the context of this study, which deals with online buyer-seller interaction. We will discuss the conceptualization and operationalization of thecommunication tactics commonly used by enterprise microblogs in Subsection 3.1.

2.2 BE and brand loyaltyBE is defined as “subjective, internal customer responses (sensations, feelings and cognitions)and behavioral responses evoked by different brand-related stimuli that are part of a brand’sdesign and identity, packaging, communications and environments” (Brakus et al., 2009, p. 53).It is different from other brand-related concepts, such as brand engagement and brandattachment (Brakus et al., 2009; Hollebeek, 2011). BE is a customer’s response to brand-relatedstimuli, whereas brand engagement includes more proactive cognitions, emotions andbehavior (Hollebeek, 2011). Also, unlike brand engagement and brand involvement, BE doesnot presume the existence of any motivational state (Brakus et al., 2009). Moreover, BE is notan emotional relationship, even though it includes an emotional response. Thus, it is differentfrom concepts that highlight the emotional connection between customer and brand, such asbrand attachment (Thomson et al., 2005; Brakus et al., 2009).

BE is a multidimensional concept. Brakus et al. (2009) identify four dimensions of BE:sensory BE, affective BE, behavioral BE and intellectual BE. Sensory BE refers to customer’sperception of the brand through his/her senses. In online interactions, such experiences areprimarily perceived through sight and sound. Affective BE refers to a customer’s emotionalresponse stimulated by the brand. Behavioral BE refers to user changes (lifestyle changes orbehavior changes), actions (e.g. purchase, interaction), or bodily experiences stimulated by thebrand. Finally, intellectual BE refers to the stimulation of a user’s curiosity and problemsolving intentions by the brand. Brakus et al. (2009) also develop and validate a scale tomeasure BE, which has been adopted in a number of studies. Given the appropriateness oftheir scale, we adopt the four dimensions of BE as proposed by Brakus et al. (2009).

A number of studies analyze the benefits of a customer’s BE to the firm in variouscontexts. A positive customer BE results in a better customer-brand relationship and in-turncustomer satisfaction and loyalty (Brakus et al., 2009). Iglesias et al. (2011) also report thatBE positively influences brand loyalty, and this influence is mediated by customers’affective commitment in case of three product categories, namely, cars, laptops and trainers.In a survey of global automotive products, Şahin et al. (2012) found that BE lead to a higherbrand relationship quality, as well as improved brand satisfaction, trust and loyalty. In caseof service organizations also, BE has a significant positive influence on brand personality,brand satisfaction and brand loyalty (Nysveen et al., 2013). Even for online brands, such assearch engines and websites, BE exerts a positive influence on brand familiarity,satisfaction, trust and usage intention (Ha and Perks, 2005; Morgan-Thomas and Veloutsou,2013). Thus, these studies amply demonstrate that BE has a significant positive influence onbrand loyalty, regardless of the context. However, the BEs examined in these studies are allinduced through direct consumption or contact with the product/service (includingbrand-related stimuli during shopping). In the context of enterprise microblogs, there isno direct shopping or consumption. Therefore, further investigation is required regardingthe influence of company-customer interaction using enterprise microblogs on customers’BE and loyalty.

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Many studies also explore how to improve customer BE. Traditional studies usuallyfocus on utilitarian product attributes (such as the product function) that facilitate direct BE(Brakus et al., 2009). However, customers also experience a brand through otherbrand-related stimuli, typically initiated by the company (Meyer and Schwager, 2007;Brakus et al., 2009). Such stimuli may relate to the brand design and identity, marketingcommunication strategies, or the environment in which a brand is marketed and sold(Brakus et al., 2009; Şahin et al., 2012). Enterprise microblogs are an important channel for acompany not only to communicate their brand or product information (Rohm andKaltcheva, 2013), but also to deliver brand image and brand personality (Goh et al., 2013).Hence, the communication content and style, as embedded in the postings on an enterprisemicroblog, are major brand-related stimuli which can influence users’ BE.

2.3 Summary and critique of the literatureThe existing literature amply illustrates the usefulness of Sheth’s (1976) communicationframework in examining the content and style tactics applied in company-customercommunication processes in different situations and can very well be extended to thecompany-customer interaction in the enterprise microblog platform. Moreover, BE is acustomer’s response to brand-related stimuli, and customers can go through BE undervarious kinds of stimuli including that from brand-related microblog posts. Furthermore,good BE can enhance brand loyalty in different contexts. However, none of the studies haveexamined the effectiveness of communication tactics adopted by companies that useenterprise microblogs for communicating BE to their customers. This study first categorizesthe successful communication tactics used by enterprise microblogs based on Sheth’s (1976)communication framework, and then, empirically tests how these communication tactics caninfluence users’ BE, and in-turn brand loyalty.

3. Research model and hypothesis3.1 Communication tactics used by enterprise microblogsPrevious studies do not indicate any specific tactics utilized by enterprise microblogs forenhancing their customers’ BE. To identify and classify these tactics, we recruited sixactive enterprise microblog users to list all the possible characteristics of enterprisemicroblogs that could increase customers’ fondness of the brands. We asked respondentsto select and refine their listed characteristics that could represent the communicationcontent and style tactics. Finally we obtained 19 characteristics as shown in Table AI.These characteristics were then classified based on previous research and theories(Sheth, 1976; Norton, 1978; Daft and Lengel, 1986; Liu and Shrum, 2002; Lan and Sie, 2010;Rohm and Kaltcheva, 2013). We thus identified five communication tactics, which could beclassified within the framework proposed by Sheth (1976). These include three contenttactics (namely, content diversity, content timeliness and content accuracy), whichrepresent characteristics of content on enterprise microblogs and two style tactics(impression enhancement style and interactivity enhancement style), according to Sheth’s(1976) conceptualization.

Content diversity refers to the variety related to the source, topics and richness in media,in the content posted on enterprise microblogs. According to the media richness theory(Daft and Lengel, 1986; Lan and Sie, 2010), content richness refers to variety in language andmedia type. Here, the content diversity tactic not only involves variety in media type(such as photos, audio or video), but also variety in source and topics (such as company’sproduct information, re-tweets from celebrities or CEOs, and re-broadcasted news fromother media). At the same time, different micro-topics are initiated frequently to captureattention and induce customer participation.

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Content accuracy refers to accuracy, reliability, clarity and ease of understanding of theinformation (Lan and Sie, 2010). For enterprise microblog followers, usability of the contentis usually one of the major motivators of their subsequent decisions. Accuracy andtimeliness are the basic criteria for evaluating such usability (Preece, 2007). Therefore usersemphasize that the information delivered by enterprise microblogs should be reliable,concise and accurate. This tactic can reduce ambiguity in the communication (Daft andLengel, 1986).

Content timeliness refers to the timeliness and freshness of the information delivered tocustomers (Rohm and Kaltcheva, 2013), such as “promotional information, informationrelated to current festivals, latest news events, and trending topics.” Acquiring such timelyinformation and content is an important motivator for people to interact with brands viasocial media (Rohm and Kaltcheva, 2013).

Impression enhancement refers to building an image and leaving a good impressionabout the communicator during communication. Impression leaving is one of thecommunication styles identified by Norton (1978). Examples of impression enhancementinclude providing funny stories and pictorial information (Keller and Block, 1997), usinghumorous language, and communicating in a more anthropomorphic ways – such as usinghuman representatives, personal pronouns and verbs in an imperative form (Aggarwal andMcGill, 2012). An impression enhancement communication style is supposed to fulfill users’requirements for pleasure when they use enterprise microblogs. As enterprise microblogplatform is a kind of hedonic information system, where users focus on the “fun” aspect ofsystem usage (van der Heijden, 2004) and the perceived enjoyment becomes an importantdriver for their acceptance of and participation in the system (Zhao and Lu, 2012).

Interactivity enhancement aims to induce responses from the other party and buildrelationships among participants. Liu and Shrum (2002) define interactivity as “the degree towhich two or more communication parties can act on each other, on the communicationmedium,and on the messages and the degree to which such influences are synchronized” (p. 54). In thisstudy, the interactivity enhancement style refers to a more proactive communication style usedby enterprise microblogs that aims to enhance customers’ perception of interactivity during thecommunication process. This tactic could be achieved by several means, such as facilitatingcustomer engagement in a more conversational way (Vernuccio, 2014) (such as inducing fans’discussion with interrogative sentences); providing features for participation (such as chattingtools on microblog platform); and encouraging interaction amongst customers (Zhao and Lu,2012) (such as providing rewards to those who forward the messages).

Finally, in order to validate our classification, we followed the sorting procedure asdescribed by Moore and Benbasat (1991). Ten scholars, familiar with enterprise microblogs,were invited as judges to sort the 19 characteristics into the classified categoriesindependently. The judges were also asked to provide a brief explanation for theirclassification. The panellists reached a consensus on the final classification after threerounds of sorting. The definitions of the five communication tactics and the characteristicscategorized into each tactic are presented in Table AII.

Based on the forgoing discussion, the research model for this study is presented inFigure 1. We assume all these communication tactics positively affect customers’ BE, whichin turn leads to brand loyalty. We provide a detailed justification of our hypotheses in thefollowing subsection.

3.2 Hypotheses developmentThe content diversity tactic can induce a better customer BE for several reasons. First, morediverse and richer content tends to change users’ attitude toward the contact medium and in-turninfluence their perception of the technology-mediated customer experience (Froehle and Roth,2004). According to Froehle and Roth’s (2004) work, information richness (such as the type of

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channel, different discussion topics) influences customers’ perceived service experience and theirintention to accept the service provider. Second, diverse content and changing settings ofenterprise microblog pages can enhance users’ visual aesthetic perception of the platform, whichis a kind of sensory experience that can influence a consumer’s attitude toward and usage of thesystem (Perdue, 2002; Tractinsky et al., 2006). Besides, diverse content can induce a customer’saffective response. Research on web interface design has revealed that the level of visualcomplexity of a website, in terms of visual diversity and visual richness, positively influences auser’s feeling of arousal (Deng and Poole, 2010), which reflects the intensity of a user’s affectiveresponse (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974; Foxall, 1997). Finally, customers can learn more aboutthe brand if various media types are used in the content. Studies on multimedia technologieshave shown that the use of multiple sensory cues can enhance learning performance andexperience (Moreno andMayer, 2002). Jiang and Benbasat (2007) also found that the presentationof a product became more attractive and informative when more multimedia features are used.Hence, we hypothesize:

H1. Content diversity positively affects customer BE.

Accuracy and timeliness tactics also enhance a customer’s BE. Information usefulness is oneof the major motivators behind consumer participation in a virtual community. Informationis useful when it is timely and accurate (Preece, 2007). Since companies communicate theirbrand through enterprise microblog, it is certain that only accurate and timely informationon such microblogs can meet customers’ expectations. Timely and accurate content alsoincreases a customer’s perceived benefits from the microblog, which has been found toaffect a customer’s overall online experience (Rose et al., 2012). In other words, contentaccuracy increases the perception of reliability of the brand, whereas content timelinesspresents an up-to-date image of the brand. Berry et al. (2006) also proposed that accurate andon-time characteristics influence customers’ valuation of service quality and their perception

H2

Contentdiversity

Contentaccuracy

Contenttimeliness

Impressionenhancement

style

Interactivityenhancement

style

H1

H3

H4

H6

H5

Sensory BE Affective BE

BehavioralBE

IntellectualBE

Brandloyalty

Brandexperience

Content tactics

Style tactics

Figure 1.Research model

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of the service experience. Finally, timely and new content also increases novelty oruncertainty of the setting in a fashion similar to content diversity, which can stimulatearousal by increasing a customer’s information reinforcement (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974;Foxall, 1997). Hence, we hypothesize:

H2. Content accuracy positively affects customer BE.

H3. Content timeliness positively affects customer BE.

Impression enhancement styles (such as using humorous language, communicating in ananthropomorphic way and providing funny stories) can influence customer BE in variousways. Humor has always been an effective way to manage impression (Wilbur andCampbell, 2011). Humorous messages are found to attract more attention, increase aconsumer’s appreciation for the source and create a positive mood (Sternthal and Craig,1973). In addition, humor is also a useful way to trigger audience thinking, as enhancedattention leads to extensive information processing (Chattopadhyay and Basu, 1990).Thus, using humorous language in microblog postings is an effective way to enhancecustomer’s affective and intellectual experience. Communicating in an anthropomorphicway is also helpful in facilitating consumers’ anthropomorphism of a brand, whichinfluences their perception of brand credibility and their relationship with the brand(Fournier, 1998). Such anthropomorphic experiences can trigger a customer’s interactionwith the brand representatives. When the brand representative on a microblog is perceivedas more human-like, customers are more likely to mimic the brand representative, thusresulting in an emotional contagion (Aggarwal and McGill, 2012). Finally, providing funnystories and pictorial information fulfills a customer’s desire for pleasure in using enterprisemicroblogs and encourages them to use the technology further. Hence, we hypothesize:

H4. Impression enhancement positively affects customer BE.

Interactivity or two-way communication between brands and customers result in improvedcustomer responses. Zhao and Lu (2012) found that a user’s perceived interactivity within amicroblogging service leads to satisfaction toward that service. Second, adding interactivityto enterprise microblogs enhances users’ perception of social cues on the platform(Wang et al., 2007), which, further induces affective responses, such as arousal or pleasure,and sometimes flow experience, which incorporates behavioral and intellectual experience(such as focused attention and curiosity) (Novak et al., 2000). In addition, Liu and Shrum(2002) proposed that interactivity is a multidimensional construct consisting of activecontrol, two-way communication and synchronicity. A more interactive communicationincreases a customer’s perceived control over the conversation, and such control perceptionfacilitates behavioral or affective involvement (Novak et al., 2000). Finally, the interactivecommunication style highlights the respect an enterprise has for its customers, which mayenhance customer fondness for the brand and encourage their participation in thecommunication. Hence, we hypothesize:

H5. Interactivity enhancement positively affects customer BE.

Brand loyalty refers to the tendency of a consumer to be loyal to a brand, which isdemonstrated by the intention to purchase the brand as a primary choice (Oliver, 1997).A number of studies have found that BE exerts a positive effect on brand loyalty in differentcontexts. A few studies have also found that customer satisfaction and loyalty depend onwhether sensory, affective and intellectual experiences are positively valued (McAlister andPessemier, 1982). Thus, loyalty can be partially attributed to a customer’s overall BE onenterprise microblogs. Hence, we hypothesize:

H6. Customer BE positively affects a customer’s loyalty to the brand.

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4. Methodology4.1 Data collection and scale validationThe study was conducted using both an online and an offline survey. The scales for theconstructs were adapted from previous studies and the sorted characteristics for the fivecommunication tactics (Table AII). Details of the measurement scales and results are providedin Table AIII. A pilot test was conducted to ensure the reliability and validity of the scale.Because the microblog users are mostly aged between 20 and 40 (iResearch, 2014), our surveyobjects were university students and young workers who often browse enterprise microblogs.We asked the respondents to specify whether they used enterprise microblogs, and if yes, thento list the enterprise microblog accounts they liked most. Only those responses wherebyrespondents used enterprise microblogs were examined further. The respondents were askedto respond to the question considering the enterprise microblogs they liked most. A total of 493responses were collected. After deleting responses with missing values, or with the same valueto all questions, and those filled out by non-enterprise microblog users, we obtained 459 validresponses. Among the respondents, 42 percent were females and 58 percent were males. This isconsistent with the gender characteristics of microblog users in China (iResearch, 2014).

We used SPSS 17.0 for principle component analysis (PCA), and SmartPLS 3.0 for assessingreliability and validity and analyzing the structural model. We used the partial least square(PLS) method because it is best suited for complex models by placing minimal constraints onthe residual distribution and sample size (Pavlou and Dimoka, 2006). The report of theassessment results of PLS models is based on the criteria in Henseler et al.’s (2009) work. UsingPCA, nine factors were extracted that together explained 70.8 percent of the variance in thedata. Cronbach’s α for all these constructs was greater than 0.7 implying that they were reliable.The variables associated with affective BE and sensory BE loaded on the same factor, which issimilar to the results of Brakus et al. (2009). Except for BBE3, there were no cross-loadings inthe data thus indicating good convergent and discriminant validity. BBE3 was deleted due toits low factor loading. The matrix of the factor loadings is displayed in Table AIV.

Results of confirmatory factor analysis using PLS are summarized in Table I.The composite reliability for each construct is greater than 0.8, implying good internalconsistency. The outer loadings of each indicator are higher than 0.7, implying goodindicator reliability. The average variance extracted (AVE) for each component is above 0.5,indicating sufficient convergent validity. In Table II, the square roots of the AVEs on thediagonal are greater than their corresponding correlation coefficients with other constructs,thus indicating discriminant validity.

4.2 Model investigationThe results of PLS analysis are presented in Figure 2. All hypotheses, except H3 weresupported by the data. Content diversity (b¼ 0.140, t¼ 3.272, p¼ 0.01), content accuracy(b¼ 0.182, t¼ 3.986, po0.01), impression enhancement style (b¼ 0.252, t¼ 4.854, po0.01)and interactivity enhancement style (b¼ 0.230, t¼ 4.546, po0.01) all had significantinfluence on BE. Further BE induced by these communication tactics also had a significantinfluence on brand loyalty (b¼ 0.689, t¼ 24.936, po0.01). The explained variances for BEand brand loyalty are 45.6 percent (R2¼ 0.456) and 47.5 percent (R2¼ 0.475), respectively.We then conducted a statistical analysis to compare the influence of each of the contenttactics and style tactics on BE (Pavlou and Dimoka, 2006). The results revealed that both theimpression and interactivity enhancement styles had a stronger influence on BE (b¼ 0.252,t¼ 4.854, po0.01; b¼ 0.230, t¼ 4.546, po0.01) than content diversity and contentaccuracy (b¼ 0.140, t¼ 3.272, p¼ 0.01; b¼ 0.182, t¼ 3.986, po0.01). We also checked theeffect size ( f 2) and predictive relevance (Q 2) of the measurement model. Results are asfollows: content diversity ( f 2¼ 0.022), content accuracy ( f 2¼ 0.037), content timeliness( f 2¼ 0.003), impression enhancement style ( f 2¼ 0.061), interactivity enhancement style

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( f 2¼ 0.054), BE (Q2¼ 0.244), brand loyalty (Q2¼ 0.355). These results indicate that thecommunication tactics at least have weak effect size at the structure level, except for contenttimeliness, and the model has a good predictive power.

Since we used a second-order measurement of BE in the model, we conducted a nomologicaltest suggested by Liu et al. (2012). The two validity indices as predictive and mediatingefficiencies are 98 percent (W90 percent) and 96.7 percent (W80 percent), indicating that oursecond-order model of BE adequately captures the intended concept, highlighting the method’sadvantage in terms of simplicity when compared with testing the first-order factors.

Finally, as all of the data were self-reported, we assessed the potential for common methodbias as specified by Liang et al. (2007). Each indicator was converted to a single-indicatorconstruct, and a latent method factor was added to the model by linking all thesingle-indicator constructs to this factor. Thus, the variance of each single-indicator constructcould be determined by its substantive construct, method factor and the random error.The results are summarized in Table III. The average substantively explained variance of theindicators is 0.704, while the average method based variance is 0.0057, which results in a ratioof 123:1. Meanwhile, most of the method factor loadings are insignificant. Thus, we canconclude that common method bias is unlikely to be a serious concern in this study.

Variable Indicators Loadings Composite reliability Cronbach’s α AVE

Content diversity DIVER1 0.788 0.849 0.764 0.585DIVER2 0.762DIVER3 0.807DIVER4 0.699

Content accuracy ACCU1 0.821 0.889 0.813 0.728ACCU2 0.880ACCU3 0.858

Content timeliness TIME1 0.826 0.863 0.762 0.677TIME2 0.831TIME3 0.810

Impression enhancement style IMPRE1 0.851 0.903 0.838 0.756IMPRE2 0.880IMPRE3 0.876

Interactivity enhancement style INTERA1 0.734 0.887 0.842 0.612INTERA2 0.782INTERA3 0.780INTERA4 0.815INTERA5 0.798

Sensory BE SBE1 0.874 0.908 0.848 0.767SBE2 0.894SBE3 0.859

Affective BE ABE1 0.908 0.911 0.853 0.773ABE2 0.855ABE3 0.873

Behavioral BE BBE1 0.919 0.908 0.798 0.832BBE2 0.905

Intellectual BE IBE1 0.808 0.866 0.767 0.682IBE2 0.821IBE3 0.848

Brand loyalty LOYAL1 0.863 0.927 0.902 0.719LOYAL2 0.866LOYAL3 0.865LOYAL4 0.852LOYAL5 0.790

Table I.Reliability and

validity analysis

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5. Discussion5.1 Key findings and contributionFrom the communication perspective, this study categorized, operationalized and validatedthe communication tactics on the enterprise microblog platform, and investigated the role ofthese tactics as a means for inducing better customer BE and enhancing brand loyalty.To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that summarizes the effectivecommunication tactics adopted by enterprise microblogs, and explores the influence ofthese communication tactics on users’ BE and brand loyalty. The five communication tactics,

ABE BBE IBE SBE ACC DIVE TIM INTE LOYA IMPR

ABE 0.879BBE 0.637 0.912IBE 0.570 0.587 0.826SBE 0.696 0.524 0.638 0.876ACC 0.399 0.422 0.429 0.492 0.853DIVE 0.373 0.344 0.384 0.407 0.398 0.765TIM 0.363 0.289 0.396 0.471 0.485 0.583 0.823INTE 0.469 0.503 0.433 0.487 0.502 0.413 0.502 0.782LOYA 0.612 0.546 0.600 0.561 0.376 0.320 0.333 0.396 0.848IMPR 0.441 0.428 0.493 0.575 0.550 0.442 0.480 0.608 0.448 0.869Notes: ACC, accuracy; DIVE, diversity; TIM, timeliness; INTE, interactivity enhancement; LOYA, brandloyalty; IMPR, impression enhancement

Table II.Correlation coefficientmatrix and AVEsquare roots

0.182***

Contentdiversity

Contentaccuracy

Contenttimeliness

Impressionenhancement

style

Interactivityenhancement

style

0.140***

0.052

0.252***

0.870***

0.689***

0.230***

0.877***

Sensory BE0.757

Affective BE0.769

BehavioralBE

0.615

IntellectualBE

0.681

Brandloyalty0.475

Brandexperience

0.456

0.784*** 0.825***

Content tactics

Style tactics

Notes: Variances explained are shown in the constructs. ***Significant at p<0.01 level

Figure 2.Results of modelinvestigation

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in terms of communication content and style tactics, are mostly found to have significantlypositive influence on BE, and a better BE further enhances brand loyalty.

As expected, content diversity positively influences BE. Previous studies have also revealedthat in an e-commerce website design, information richness and the visual appeal of the websiteare critical characteristics that are evaluated by customers, and such evaluations further affectcustomer’s evaluation of their relationship with the website (Froehle and Roth, 2004; Campbellet al., 2013). Content accuracy also positively influences a customer’s BE and posting reliableand accurate content can enhance customers’ positive perception of the brand (Berry et al.,2006). The two style tactics are also found to positively relate to the BE. The positive effects ofimpression enhancement show that tactics successfully applied in traditional communication,such as humor in inter-personal communication and anthropomorphism in online branding (DaSilva and Syed Alwi, 2007; Wilbur and Campbell, 2011), are also applicable to enterprisemicroblogs. Since users regard an enterprise microblog as a representative of the brand, theyhave a more positive BE when the enterprise microblog shows more human characteristics.Finally, our study further reveals that customers have a more positive BE, if they feel that the

Construct IndicatorsSubstantive factor

loadings (R1) R12Method factorloadings (R2) R22

Affective BE ABE1 0.931*** 0.867 −0.027 0.0007ABE2 0.840*** 0.706 0.016 0.0003ABE3 0.865*** 0.748 0.012 0.0001

Behavioral BE BBE1 0.890*** 0.792 0.033 0.0011BBE2 0.934*** 0.872 −0.034 0.0012

Sensory BE SBE1 0.857*** 0.734 0.021 0.0004SBE2 0.821*** 0.674 0.090*** 0.0081SBE3 0.953*** 0.908 −0.116*** 0.0135

Intellectual BE IBE1 0.691*** 0.477 0.144*** 0.0207IBE2 0.886*** 0.785 −0.082*** 0.0067IBE3 0.897*** 0.805 −0.058 0.0034

Content accuracy ACU1 0.792*** 0.627 0.036 0.0013ACU2 0.885*** 0.783 −0.006 0.0000ACU3 0.880*** 0.774 −0.028 0.0008

Content diversity DIVER1 0.659*** 0.434 0.146*** 0.0213DIVER2 0.834*** 0.696 −0.088** 0.0077DIVER3 0.893*** 0.797 −0.087** 0.0076DIVER4 0.666*** 0.444 −0.042 0.0018

Content timeliness TIME1 0.762*** 0.581 0.073*** 0.0053TIME2 0.822*** 0.676 0.010 0.0001TIME3 0.884*** 0.781 −0.082*** 0.0067

Impression enhancement style IMPRE1 0.822*** 0.676 0.041 0.0017IMPRE2 0.880*** 0.774 −0.005 0.0000IMPRE3 0.905*** 0.819 −0.034 0.0012

Interactivity enhancement style INTERA1 0.752*** 0.566 −0.022 0.0005INTERA2 0.849*** 0.721 −0.067 0.0045INTERA3 0.868*** 0.753 −0.099*** 0.0098INTERA4 0.754*** 0.569 0.063 0.0040INTERA5 0.691*** 0.477 0.123*** 0.0151

Brand loyalty LOYAL1 0.731*** 0.534 0.160*** 0.0256LOYAL2 0.847*** 0.717 0.021 0.0004LOYAL3 0.980*** 0.960 −0.144*** 0.0207LOYAL4 0.892*** 0.796 −0.044 0.0019LOYAL5 0.787*** 0.619 0.007 0.0000

Average 0.835 0.704 0.002 0.0057Note: ***, **Significant at po0.01 and po0.05 level, respectively

Table III.Common method

bias analysis

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enterprise microblog allows two-way interaction. Research into human-computer interfacedesign reveals that interactivity enhances a user’s social presence perception (Wang et al.,2007). In the context of microblogs also researchers have found that perceived interactivityincreases user satisfaction (Zhao and Lu, 2012).

Contrary to our expectation, content timeliness does not have a significant effect on BE.This result is inconsistent with that of Rohm and Kaltcheva (2013), which highlights theimportance of timely information from brands on social media. This might be becausepeople are exposed to large volumes of information from various channels every day andenterprise microblog is not the only means for obtaining the latest news. Thus, microblogusers might ignore such posts if they have already read the news elsewhere. Anotherplausible explanation is that content timeliness of an enterprise microblog is to an extenttreated as a hygiene factor by customers (Herzberg, 1964). That is, customers might not getexcited when timely and fresh contents are provided, but may feel dissatisfied if the contentis not fresh. It is quite possible that customers do have such expectations of timelinessconcerning enterprise microblogs, as microblogs are usually considered a news mediasource due to their ability to deliver latest information faster than any other traditionalmedia (Ari, 2014).

We also find that the style tactics exert greater influence on BE than the content tactics.This result is consistent with results from previous research on customer-salespersoninteraction. In addition, it is worth noting that a few studies (e.g. Williams and Spiro, 1985;Webster and Sundaram, 2009) have paid greater attention to communication style thancommunication content. Finally, the results of this study confirm the positive effects of BEon brand loyalty in the enterprise microblog context, where there is no direct consumptionor transaction in this unique context.

Based on these findings, the key contribution of our work can be summarized as follows.First, we apply the communication framework to company-customer interaction on microblogplatforms, and highlight the important role a company plays in the content it posts on socialmedia, thus extending previous research efforts that mostly focus on customers (Laroche et al.,2012; Toubia and Stephen, 2013; Zhang et al., 2015). Second, we investigate the influence ofcompany-customer interaction on users’ perception of the brand on enterprise microblogs, thusextending our understanding of users’ psychology in social media based brand communities.Users go through BE on enterprise microblog platform even without directly consuming theproducts or services. This enhances our understanding of BE in the social media context.Finally, we confirm that a better BE on enterprise microblog can enhance brand loyalty, thusadding to the literature on analyzing the impact of BE on brand loyalty in different contexts.

5.2 Implications for theory and practiceFrom a theoretical perspective, this study has a few interesting implications. First, our studyhighlights the importance of company-customer interactions on social media. In contrast toprevious studies on social media based brand communities, which pay more attentionto interaction among customers, our study sheds light on how companies can better interactwith customers via social media (Aral et al., 2013). The application of the communicationframework for investigating company-customer interactions through microblogs and theirconsequences extends previous works on company-customer interactions under serviceencounter scenarios (Grönroos, 2000; Heinonen and Strandvik, 2005). The findings in ourwork verify that what we had previously learned on inter-personal communications is alsobeneficial in this internet-based social media context. The communication perspective andthe categorized dimensions of the communication tactics provide an ideal background forfuture studies on IT-based company-customer interaction.

Second, our study provides further understanding of how companies can influencecustomers’ brand attitude through social media by investigating the stimulus of BE.

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Consistent with Brakus et al. (2009), we find that communication contents and stylesadopted by enterprise microblogs are the brand-related stimuli that can evoke BE andfurther enhance brand loyalty. Using communication tactics as antecedents of BE provide areference for future research focusing on brand building in the context of social media.

From a practical perspective, this study reveals that companies can utilize theenterprise microblog platform to enhance users’ brand loyalty, provided that they realizetheir important role in inducing users’ good experience of the brand on social mediaplatforms. Thus, persons responsible for managing the enterprise’s microblog should bewell trained in organizing and disseminating content to their customers. Our studyprovides detailed suggestions for practitioners by empirically testing the effects ofdifferent communication tactics. For example, companies should increase contentdiversity to induce a good customer BE. This means that companies should add richermedia and topics to their content, and avoid posting commercial information all the time.Users might feel they have had a bad BE, if they have to waste time filtering thecommercial information posted by the company. Keeping content accurate and easy tounderstand is another suggestion for persons who are responsible for managing theenterprise microblog. The persons should check the credibility of their source, as well asthe accuracy and consistency of their content before posting. Posting wrong informationon social media not only threatens the reputation of individuals, but also brands.Furthermore, even though content timeliness has a negligible effect in our study, this doesnot mean that companies could ignore this aspect of microblog communication. As wementioned earlier, content timeliness can potentially become a hygiene factor forcustomers who are exposed to the latest information from different media outlets.

The two style tactics analyzed in this study are also important for practitioners, as they tapinto different functions of communication, which focus on impression leaving and relationshipbuilding. Companies should note that communication style is more important thancommunication content because style tactics exert a greater impact on BE. Using effective andappropriate communication styles enhance a customer’s positive perception of the brand.The impression enhancement style can impress users with the brand image or its personality,and the interactivity enhancement style shows respect for customers and highlights theenthusiasm of the company in communicating with its customers. Companies could achievesignificant benefits from combining these two style tactics in their microblog postings.

6. Limitations and conclusion6.1 LimitationsThe results of this study should be viewed in the light of its limitations. First, we onlyconsidered the communication content and style tactics that may influence a customer’s BE.However, these two aspects only cover the factors related to information dissemination.Some other factors related to information sender and receiver were ignored, such as the visualdesign of the homepage and the presence of related microblog accounts (e.g. the companyCEO’s microblog account). These factors may also influence customer brand perception.Second, though we give some possible explanation for the negligible effect of contenttimeliness, more empirical research is needed to confirm this result. Finally, further researchneeds to be conducted on other types of social media platforms, considering that the effectivecommunication tactics might be different and the same communication tactic may also exertdifferent impact on BE in other contexts.

6.2 ConclusionDue to the prevalence of applying social media technology in business, it is necessary toinvestigate how firms can better utilize social media platforms to communicate their brandsto customers. Moreover, it is important to understand the influence of such company-customer

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communication on customers’ perception of and attitude toward the brand when there is nodirect transaction on a platform. This study highlights the role of company-customercommunication on social media platform, and categorizes and validates the five contentand style communication tactics adopted by enterprise microblogs both theoretically andempirically. The results reveal that the effective communication tactics, such as providingdiverse and accurate content, posting in impression and interactivity enhancement styles canall induce better BE. We also find that a better BE induced by enterprise microblogs canfurther enhance brand loyalty. The communication perspective and measures of thecommunication tactics in this study provide an ideal background for future research onIT-based company-customer interaction.

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Appendix 1

Appendix 2

No. Characteristics

1 Act as a cartoon character when releasing messages2 Interact with fans frequently3 Post messages in text, video, etc.4 Release timely promotional information5 Release clear and reliable information6 Reply to fans’ questions or comments actively7 Post messages in anthropomorphic tone8 Induce fans’ discussion with some interrogative sentences9 Use vivid pictures to illustrate some messages10 Release holiday wishes on time11 Use humorous language in the posting12 Release concise and accurate messages13 Forward hot news in a timely manner14 Broadcast messages on public welfare activities15 Utilize the convenient chatting tools on the microblog platform16 Build up many sub-microblogs and micro-topics for the brand17 Release reliable news from authentic sources18 Provide rewards for users who forward the messages19 Forward messages from superstars or company CEO

Table AI.Communicationcharacteristics ofenterprise microblogplatform

Tactic Definition Characteristic examples

Contentdiversity

Refers to the variety of sources,topics and rich media types ofcontent posted by enterprisemicroblogs during thecommunication

Post messages in varied media types, such as text,audio and video, etc.Build up many sub-microblogs and micro-topics forthe brandForward messages from superstars or company CEO

Contentaccuracy

Posting accurate and reliableinformation that is clear and easyto understand

Release clear and reliable informationRelease concise and accurate messagesRelease reliable news from authentic sources

Contenttimeliness

Posting timely and fresh contentwhen communicating withcustomers on the microblog

Release timely promotional informationForward hot news in a timely mannerRelease holiday wishes on time

Impressionenhancementstyle

Refers to the style that aims to buildan image and leave an impression ofthe brand during communication

Act as a cartoon character when releasing messagesPost messages in anthropomorphic toneUse humorous language in the postingUse vivid pictures to illustrate some messagesBroadcast messages on public welfare activities

Interactivityenhancementstyle

Refers to a more proactivecommunication style used byenterprise microblogs, which aims toenhance customer perception ofinteractivity during communication

Interact with fans frequentlyReply to fans’ questions or comments activelyInduce fans’ discussion with some interrogativesentencesUtilize the convenient chatting tools on the microblogplatformProvide rewards for users who forward the messages

Table AII.Communication tacticsused by enterprisemicroblog

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Appendix 3

Construct Measurement Mean SD

Content diversity(Self-developed)

The enterprise microblog contains various media types (e.g. text,image, audio or video) 5.39 1.577The enterprise microblog content comes from different sources(e.g. from celebrities, enterprise CEO, or fans) 4.82 1.768The enterprise microblog content topics include variedmicro-topics 4.99 1.682The enterprise microblog has many sub-microblogs for differentproducts or market areas 4.56 1.800

Content timeliness(Self-developed and adaptedfrom Lan and Sie, 2010)

The company releases its latest promotional and productinformation on their microblog platform in a timely fashion 5.41 1.634The enterprise microblog forwards and comments on hot topics,which meets your need for news 5.14 1.634Overall, you think the enterprise microblog updates the contentsin a timely manner 5.42 1.464

Content accuracy(Self-developed and adaptedfrom Lan and Sie, 2010)

The enterprise microblogging messages are clear and easyto understand 4.93 1.677The enterprise microblog content is accurate and reliable 4.88 1.533The information sources are authentic and credible 4.90 1.472

Interactivityenhancement style(Self-developed)

You receive responses from the enterprise microblog to some ofyour comments or queries 4.51 1.663The enterprise microblog sometimes initiates an interesting topicor provides a reward to entice you to participate 4.83 1.575The enterprise microblog often interacts with its fans 4.69 1.612It is easy to chat with other fans or company staff on theenterprise microblog platform 4.75 1.566Generally, the level of interaction you perceive on the enterprisemicroblog platform is high 4.94 1.515

Impression enhancementstyle (Norton, 1978)

The enterprise always illustrates the content with vivid pictures 5.22 1.411The enterprise microblog language is humorous and amusing 5.01 1.475The enterprise microblog sometimes acts like a cartoon personand chats with others on the microblog like a good friend 5.17 1.407

Sensory BE (Brakuset al., 2009)

This brand makes a strong impression visually or on yourother senses 4.80 1.445I find this brand interesting in a sensory way 4.75 1.339This brand appeals to my senses 4.75 1.384

Affective BE (Brakuset al., 2009)

This brand induces feelings and sentiments 4.43 1.487I have strong emotions for this brand 4.64 1.522This brand is an emotional brand 4.62 1.478

Intellectual BE (Brakuset al., 2009)

I engage in a lot of thinking when I encounter this brand 4.91 1.440This brand makes me think 4.50 1.496This brand stimulates my curiosity and problem solving 4.66 1.480

Behavioral BE (Brakuset al., 2009)

I engage in interactions with the brand or the company on theenterprise’s microblog platform 4.31 1.571I engage in interactions with other fans on the enterprise’smicroblog platform 4.09 1.604I find the brand/company encourages interactions 4.67 1.474

Brand loyalty (Yoo andDonthu, 2001)

In future, I will be loyal to this brand 4.70 1.460I will buy this brand again 4.85 1.389This brand will be my first choice in the future 4.67 1.449I will not buy other brands if this brand is available at the store 4.80 1.434I will recommend this brand to others 4.90 1.440

Table AIII.Questionnaires

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Appendix 4

Factors

Item

s1

23

45

67

89

BLO

YAL3

0.855

0.200

0.140

0.044

0.049

0.070

−0.028

0.103

0.019

BLO

YAL4

0.821

0.139

0.097

0.141

0.026

0.069

0.152

0.050

0.147

BLO

YAL2

0.769

0.177

0.074

0.126

0.071

0.103

0.106

0.155

0.196

BLO

YAL5

0.741

0.188

0.125

0.125

0.048

0.085

0.077

0.139

0.010

BLO

YAL1

0.696

0.279

0.042

0.136

0.165

0.125

0.062

0.276

0.168

SBE3

0.165

0.731

0.154

0.146

0.044

0.163

0.110

0.324

−0.086

ABE2

0.253

0.701

0.129

0.024

0.145

0.104

0.085

0.081

0.318

ABE1

0.321

0.679

0.123

0.104

0.112

0.075

0.111

0.008

0.366

ABE3

0.365

0.623

0.166

0.112

0.111

0.066

0.053

0.039

0.314

SBE2

0.257

0.621

0.155

0.277

0.128

0.152

0.231

0.301

−0.026

SBE1

0.201

0.606

0.063

0.341

0.139

0.196

0.155

0.287

0.023

CINTERA3

0.098

0.086

0.744

0.221

0.151

−0.031

0.165

0.119

0.059

CINTERA2

0.122

0.073

0.743

0.141

0.089

0.112

0.277

0.088

0.027

CINTERA1

0.115

0.145

0.715

0.039

0.143

0.301

−0.093

0.111

0.073

CINTERA4

0.139

0.197

0.622

0.253

0.050

0.153

0.160

−0.018

0.278

CINTERA5

0.098

0.166

0.524

0.461

0.020

0.133

0.259

0.034

0.211

CIMPR

E3

0.151

0.132

0.228

0.727

0.122

0.197

0.156

0.138

0.085

CIMPR

E2

0.197

0.212

0.245

0.712

0.214

0.198

−0.083

0.107

0.081

CIMPR

E1

0.179

0.174

0.221

0.702

0.116

0.235

0.236

0.063

0.011

CDIVER3

0.072

0.090

0.099

0.123

0.787

0.096

0.229

−0.012

0.017

CDIVER2

0.040

0.185

0.069

0.171

0.769

−0.101

0.151

0.034

0.031

CDIVER4

0.052

0.100

0.270

−0.099

0.634

0.303

0.069

0.072

0.065

CDIVER1

0.167

−0.008

0.007

0.259

0.578

0.155

0.273

0.234

0.180

CACU

20.119

0.118

0.168

0.167

0.106

0.779

0.172

0.093

0.157

CACU

30.109

0.110

0.127

0.200

0.090

0.760

0.135

0.263

−0.014

CACU

10.140

0.203

0.150

0.227

0.089

0.692

0.162

−0.065

0.140

CTIM

E4

0.084

0.174

0.210

0.098

0.232

0.077

0.719

0.039

−0.087

CTIM

E3

0.113

0.171

0.250

0.030

0.214

0.212

0.683

−0.019

0.077

CTIM

E1

0.097

0.048

0.073

0.237

0.294

0.235

0.662

0.192

0.068

IBE2

0.203

0.291

0.142

0.072

0.113

0.129

−0.008

0.697

0.147

IBE3

0.351

0.211

0.118

0.109

0.038

0.118

0.093

0.696

0.126

IBE1

0.260

0.183

0.059

0.297

0.097

0.030

0.319

0.490

0.379

BBE2

0.235

0.237

0.248

0.112

0.075

0.212

−0.042

0.196

0.708

BBE1

0.277

0.340

0.218

0.060

0.151

0.117

0.018

0.268

0.592

Table AIV.Factor loadings

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About the authorsJun Yang is a Professor of Management Science and Engineering at the School of Management,Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. She was also a Visiting Scholar at theNew York University. Her research focuses on supply chain and marketing, supply chain and financeinterface, network optimization and network design. Her research has appeared in ManagementScience, International Journal of Production Economics, European Journal of Industrial Engineering andComputers and Operations Research.

Rui Zheng is a PhD Candidate of Management Science and Engineering. She is in the Joint PhDProgram between Huazhong University of Science and Technology and City University of Hong Kong.Her research focuses on social media marketing, social network and operation management.

Ling Zhao is an Associate Professor of Information Management at the School of Management,Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. Her research focuses on humanbehaviors in virtual community, electronic commerce, mobile commerce, information security andinformation systems. Her research has been published in International Journal of Electronic Commerce,Decision Support Systems and Computers & Education. Ling Zhao is the corresponding author and canbe contacted at: lingzhao@mail.hust.edu.cn

Sumeet Gupta is an Associate Professor of Indian Institute of Management Raipur, Raipur, India.His research focuses on operations and systems area. He has published many papers on technologyadoption, mobile commerce and electronic commerce, virtual communities and supply chain management.

For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htmOr contact us for further details: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

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