Shampy Kamboj

Examining branding co-creation in brand communities on social media: Applying the paradigm of Stimulus-Organism-Response

Abstract This paper examines the antecedents of branding co-creation that include social networking sites’(SNSs) participation motivations,customer participation, brand trust and brand loyalty in social media brand communities by applying the “Stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm”. The survey method was used to gather data from 407 social media users. Data were analysed using structural equation modeling techniques. The findings reveal that SNSs’ participation motivations positively influence customer participation, which in turn significantly affects brand trust and brand loyalty. Consequently, both brand trust and brand loyalty positively influence branding co-creation in brand communities on social media. Furthermore, brand trust contributes as a mediator between customer participation and brand loyalty on social media brand communities. Although studies on relationships examined through the lens of the Stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm are popular, to the authors’ surprise there is scant literature examining the relationships between SNSs’ participation motivations, customer participation in social media brand communities, brand trust, brand loyalty and branding co-creation.

Marketing capabilities and firm performance: literature review and future research agenda

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to broaden the body of knowledge on marketing capabilities (MC) and firm performance (FP) by presenting a systematic review of literature along with providing a path for future research agenda. Design/methodology/approach - – In total, 101 empirical research papers from 51 different journals of online databases were selected systematically. The papers were reviewed thoroughly and summarized under strategic, functional and operational marketing capability classifications. Findings - – The paper depicts a research field that is immature and developing quickly. The results found were diverse in terms of publication trend, industries and countries studied in reviewed articles. Product, price, promotion and distribution found as majorly studied measures of MC with mainly positive and significant impact on FP. In identified 38 different measures of FP, highly used were market share, customer satisfaction, sales growth, profitability and ROI. The findings also present the summary of different internal and contextual factors driving MC. In addition, from the review some of the research gaps also found that helps scholars in future research. Research limitations/implications - – The review was guided by considering peer review journals with inclusion criteria that have restricted the findings. This paper will be utilitarian for both academicians and managers. Originality/value - – This is the first paper that demonstrates a systematic review of literature on MC and FP for the period 1987-2014. The study also addresses gaps in this field and represent them in the form of research inquiries for further probe.

Co-creation in hotel service innovation using smart phone apps: an empirical study

Purpose The purpose of this study is to extend and revise the basic technology-based service (TBS) adoption model in luxury hotels in India using smart phone apps, and to analyse the impact of the guests’ innovativeness, willingness to co-create, need for interaction and involvement on their adoption intention towards co-creatively developed new services. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through online and field surveys from luxury hotel guests, resulting into 229 valid responses. A data analysis was done by applying the confirmatory factor analysis along with structure equation modelling. Findings The findings of this study indicate that both guests’ innovativeness and need for interaction with service staff significantly affect their involvement. A guest’s willingness to co-create acts as a partial mediator between his/her innovativeness and intention to adopt co-creatively developed new services. Research limitations/implications Use of smart phone apps by hotel guests to co-create new services and their intentions to adopt such services have been examined in the context of luxury hotels in India only and thereby limits generalization of results to other industry and country contexts. Practical implications The findings of this study would look to guide policy planners and hotel managers for implementing technology application in the co-creative hotel service innovation. Originality/value The need for interaction and customer involvement have been added as two supportive variables to the basic TBS model to analyse the adoption intention of luxury hotel guests. This is a new addition to existing literature, as majority of empirical studies in this field are from industries other than hospitality and with differing contexts.

Understanding customer participation in online brand communities: Literature review and future research agenda

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic review of customer participation research specifically in online brand communities and summarize a number of basic issues as important research gaps that future research should address. Design/methodology/approach By using the content analysis method, this paper explores, analyses and presents a literature review by closely examining 113 articles published during 2001-2016, primarily from the leading marketing and management journals. Findings The findings of this review show that regardless of the plenty of studies in this area, a conceptual framework for customer participation is undetermined. This review presents a framework describing various antecedents, mediators, moderators and consequences of online brand community participation. Apart from this, various theories and models used in the reviewed articles are being depicted. The literature classification presented in this paper portrays the current trends and patterns of research in this area. This review also addresses research gaps in this area and presents them in the form of future research directions. Research/limitations/implications This review of literature carried out by the authors suggests that customer participation in online brand communities needs more focused conceptual research and the implications of this study will help researchers in this direction. Moreover, the managers can use the identified variables as a checklist to their online brand communities’ activities. Originality/value This paper is the first to provide a systematic review of customer participation in online brand community area that presents a comprehensive knowledge regarding the current state of research in this area on a single platform and provides a conceptual framework.

Measuring customer social participation in online travel communities: Scale development and validation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a scale to measure customer social participation in brand communities, specifically e-travel companies’ communities. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research has been undertaken to generate a pool of items. Based on Churchill’s (1979) scale development process, numerous reliability and validity tests have been conducted to confirm the scale structure. Data were collected through online and field surveys from the students and hotel guests who have either subscribed, liked or joined any e-travel service companies’ community brand page using any social networking site or have ever posted or considered reviews and ratings of any e-travel service companies via their official site or via a mobile app while planning their travel. Findings The findings depict nine items on a three-dimensional scale for measuring customer participation in travel brand communities created on social networking sites. Research limitations/implications The findings provide important implications for hotel and travel managers and are likely to encourage future studies in the field of social media and travel brand communities. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature by providing refinement to the distinct operationalization and conceptualization of customer online participation, specifically in social media-based travel brand communities. This paper is the first to develop a multidimensional scale of customer social participation in e-travel companies’ communities. This is a new addition to existing literature, as the majority of empirical studies in this field are from participation other than customer social participation and contexts different from e-travel companies.

Impact of Social CRM Capabilities on Firm Performance: Examining the Mediating Role of Co-Created Customer Experience

The emergence of social media technologies have drastically changed the face of customer relationship management CRM, hence firms are incorporating social media technologies in their existing CRM systems which has led to the evolution of social CRM. This article extends capability-based perspective of traditional CRM by integrating it with social media technologies and to assess empirically their significant impact on firm performance. It also examines the mediating role of co-created customer experience. The developed hypothesis and proposed model were tested through structural equation modeling SEM. The results show that co-created customer experiences play a role of mediator between social CRM capabilities and performance outcomes. Sales/marketing centric technology resources significantly influence four dimensions and customer centric technology resources influence two dimensions of relational information processing capability. The findings also depict that there is an influence of Sales/marketing and customer centric technology resources on customer linking, market sensing and social CRM capabilities.

Impact of social media and customer-centric technology on performance outcomes: the mediating role of social CRM capabilities

With the emergence of social media technology, the concept of customer relationship management (CRM) has drastically changed, as the majority of the firms are now incorporating social media into their established CRM system, which facilitate the evolution of term social CRM. This article investigates the influence of social media and customer-centric technology on social CRM capabilities. The paper presents empirical evidence for the argument that social CRM capabilities lead to firm performance outcomes; customer-based profit performance and new product development performance. The developed hypothesis and proposed model was tested through structural equation modelling (SEM). The results show that both social media technology and customer-centric technology have a significant influence on social CRM capabilities. Similarly, these social CRM capabilities also found to have a positive effect on customer-based and product-based performance outcomes. This paper will be useful for both academicians and managers, as it presents several theoretical and practical insights.

Social media usage and firm performance: the mediating role of social capital

The emergence of various new technologies, especially social media, has led to their worldwide acceptance, as these technologies offer dual-benefit to the employees in terms of work as well as socialization and entertainment. However, the knowledge about the influence of these social media technologies on the performance of a company is limited. This study measures the influence of social media usage on firm performance, mediated by social capital. Data were collected using surveys method from a sample of 132 social media users of large IT company community members. It was found that all the three dimensions of social media usage (social use, hedonic use and cognitive use) have a positive influence on firm performance (financial and market performance). Social capital was found as a partial mediator between the relationship of social media usage and firm performance. Theoretical and managerial implications along with future research directions are also discussed.

Construction and validation of the customer social participation in brand communities scale

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to construct and validate customer social participation (CSP) scale in the context of brand communities on social media. Design/methodology/approach In this study, various tests for reliability and validity have been performed to confirm scale structure. Data were collected using survey method from the student and non-student sample. Findings The results confirm a multi-dimensional scale with nine items for measuring customer participation in social media brand communities. Research limitations/implications The results of this study present several implications for online brand communities managers and are likely to support future research in the context of social media brand communities. Originality/value This paper is the first to develop a multi-dimensional scale of customer participation in social media brand communities. This is a new addition to existing literature, as the majority of empirical studies in this field are from participation other than CSP, and contexts different from social media brand communities.

Customer co-creation and adoption intention towards newly developed services: an empirical study

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework to empirically examine and explain the antecedent factors of consumers’ adoption intention toward co-creatively developed new travel services using smart phone apps. The antecedents include consumer innovativeness, trust, degree of co-creation that results in positive adoption intention. In this study, tourists’ degree of co-creation acts as a mediator between trust and adoption intention. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through online surveys from tourists that resulted into a total of 152 valid responses. An analysis of data was done by applying the confirmatory factor analysis along with structural equation modeling. Findings The findings of this study indicate that both consumer innovativeness and trust significantly affect adoption intention directly and indirectly via degree of co-creation among tourists and e-travel service providers. Degree of co-creation acts as a mediator between the above-mentioned relationships. Research limitations/implications Use of smart phone apps by tourists’ and e-travel companies to co-create new services and tourists’ adoption intention have been examined in context of co-created service innovation that limits the generalizability of the results to other industries. A few other limitations are also discussed. Practical implications The findings of this study guides the policy planners and e-travel company managers toward application of mobile technology in consumer co-creation in context of service innovation. Originality/value Tourists’ trust in the e-travel companies and their innovativeness were found to influence their degree of co-creation, which are instrumental in developing adoption intention toward co-creative new service innovation using smart phone apps in India. This is a significant addition to the existing literature, as studies on co-creation activities aiming to co-develop new services by tourists and e-travel companies in India are scant in number. In addition to this, the newly developed conceptual model also highlights the role of degree of co-creation as a mediator between two antecedents (trust and innovativeness) and outcome (tourists’ adoption intention), which are considered as new additions to the co-creative service innovation literature.