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Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Engagement on Facebook: An

Attachment Theory Perspective

Article  in  Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing · December 2018

DOI: 10.1108/JRIM-04-2018-0059

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Jo Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing

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Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Engagement on
Facebook: An Attachment Theory Perspective
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Journal: Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing
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Manuscript ID JRIM-04-2018-0059.R1

Manuscript Type: Research Paper

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brand, Facebook, social media advertising, social networking sites,
Keywords:
consumer generated advertising
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http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jrim
Page 1 of 36 Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing

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3 ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT ON
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FACEBOOK: AN ATTACHMENT THEORY PERSPECTIVE
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8 ABSTRACT
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10 Purpose: Marketing researchers have usually studied consumers’ attachment to brands from an
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11 emotional bonding perspective. However, the purpose of this study is to show that attachment to
12 objects is not only limited to bonding. Thus, we conceptualised the attachment theory from two
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perspectives: bonding-based and identity-based attachment. Also, the study further seek to identify
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the elements of each component and examine how these elements drive customer engagement on
16 a brand’s Facebook page while assessing some consumer related outcomes of customer
17 engagement on Facebook.
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19 Design/methodology/approach: Using an online survey, we examined antecedents of customer
engagement on Facebook and the outcomes of engagement behaviours among 649 respondents.
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21 SEM was used in analysing the data.
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Findings: The results of the study show that consumers’ attachment to a brand drives them to
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24 engage the brand on the brand’s Facebook page. The results also show that the consumer
25 engagement of brands on Facebook results in positive consumer generated advertising as well as
26 consumer involvement.
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28 Practical implications: Managerially, the attachment theory provides value for marketers in terms
29 of evaluating customer-brand relationships and how such a relationship can yield positive results.
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31 Originality/value: This study expands how the attachment theory has been conceptualised and
32 applied in the marketing literature. The study shows that brand attachment is as a combination of
33 consumer's identification and bonding with a certain brand.
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Keywords: brand, Facebook, social media advertising, social networking sites, consumer
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38 generated advertising
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42 Introduction
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The concept of engagement has received much attention from many scholars. For instance, many
45 researchers have studied the concept of engagement in sociology, political science, educational
46 psychology, organisational behaviour and, in recent times, in the marketing discipline (e.g., see
47 Barger et al., 2016; Chahal and Rani, 2017; Triantafillidou and Siomkos, 2018; Kosiba, et al.,
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48 2018a; Hollebeek et al., 2018). The emergence and the exponential growth of social technologies
49 like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn has made it possible to understand this concept through the
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electronic ties that individuals choose to have with brands (Noë et al., 2016), as it presents an
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52 opportunity for many firms and marketers to engage their customers. Amongst the social
53 technological platforms, Facebook in particular has transformed the media landscape (Chester et
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54 al., 2010; Ángeles Oviedo-García et al., 2014). Facebook is the most widely used social network
55 site worldwide, with about 2 billion active users globally (Facebook Newsroom, 2017). Many
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 Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing Page 2 of 36

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3 firms have therefore created brand fan pages on Facebook where they engage with their customers.
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For example, 85% of Fortune 500 companies use Facebook (Barnes and Pavao, 2018). Research
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6 has shown that as of 2017, there were more than 65 million firms that were active on Facebook,
7 and over 2.5 billion comments were made every month on the Facebook Pages of these firms
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8 (Kaplan, 2017). For consumer brands, the main purposes of utilising Facebook are to engage with
9 customers, advertise special offers, and/or deliver an opportunity for consumers to have social
10 interactions with other consumers and friends (Ng, 2013; Kabadayi and Price, 2014).). These
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activities have catapulted researchers’ interest in consumers’ customer engagement on Facebook
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13 (see Triantafillidou and Siomkos, 2018).
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According to Putnam (1995), individuals’ need for bonding drive them to engage in community
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activities. This has implications for digital engagement as many consumers look for opportunities
17 to connect emotionally with their favourite brands (Dessart et al., 2015), leading to the formation
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18 of online brand communities. Some studies have found a relationship between Facebook users’
19 level of usage and formation of identity, and engagement in civil society activities (Ji et al., 2010;
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20 Valenzuela et al., 2009). Following from these, we argue that consumers’ engagement with brands
21 on Facebook can be explained with the attachment theory. That is, for a consumer to engage a
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brand on Facebook, that consumer should have a sense of attachment to the brand. In the marketing
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24 literature, the attachment theory has been used to understand consumers’ attachment to an object
25 of interest (see Wallendorf and Arnould, 1988). It has also been used partially to understand how
26 consumers bond with some brands (Malär et al., 2011; Frasquet et al., 2017). However, Harper et
27 al. (2007) posited that people’s attachment to an online community is not limited to bonding but
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28 includes identity attachment. In this case, we argue that two forms of attachment - bonding-based
29 attachment and identity-based attachment - drive consumers’ engagement with brands on their
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Facebook fan pages.
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32 The outcome of customer engagement has received much attention from researchers in the
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marketing discipline. Previous studies have identified enhanced customer experience, customer
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35 satisfaction, brand loyalty, customer participation, superior expected bottom-line performance

36 results, and electronic word-of-mouth (eWoM) as outcomes of customer engagement (Brodie et
al., 2013; Hollebeek et al., 2017; Kosiba et al., 2018b). In this study, we identified customer
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38 participation in brand building and consumer generated advertising as some of the outcomes of
39 customer engagement on a brand’s Facebook fan page. Our argument is premised on the idea that
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40 customer engagement on social media constitutes a “moment of truth” and this moment of truth
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informs the customer’s disposition towards the brand and their “degree of activeness” (Demangeot
43 and Broderick, 2016). Furthermore, the interactive features of social media platforms like
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44 Facebook enable customers’ interactions with firms and create contents that are vital for value
45 creation (Lomborg and Bechmann, 2012). Facebook also enables customers to often suggest how
46 these brands can be improved and take part in decision-making, thus empowering consumers to be
47 active participants in brand building. The aim of this study is therefore to examine the relationship
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between attachment (identity and bonding) and customer engagement on Facebook. We ascertain
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the elements of identity-based and bonding-based attachment that facilitate customer engagement
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51 on Facebook. This study also seeks to ascertain the outcome of this engagement with respect to
52 consumers’ actions.
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54 Our study contributes to the application of the attachment theory in marketing, identifying the
55 elements of identity and bonding base-attachment that drive customer engagement on Facebook.
56 This study also examines the mediating role of the elements of customer engagement in affecting
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