ارتباط شکاف بین رسانه های اجتماعی و وفاداری به برند رفتاری Bridging the gap between social media and behavioral brand loyalty

1. INTRODUCTION In the past decade, companies have devoted considerable effort to the management of social media in order to provide interactive communications between users, build stronger relationships with them, and eventually drive brand loyalty. A key construct in this management is social media engagement (SocME), defined as a consumer’s behavioral manifestations that have a social media focus, beyond purchase, resulting from motivational drivers (Dolan et al., 2015; van Doorn et al. 2010). Consumers’ brand engagement in the social media context reflects several actions (e.g., sharing, contributing, socializing, advocating, and co-creating) that motivate consumers for the brand-related use of social media (Brodie et al., 2013; Hall-Phillips, et al., 2016; Muntinga et al., 2011). These actions represent behavioral components of SocME (Dolan et al., 2015) and are considered as gradual involvement with brand-related content on social media, ranging from the initial action of consumption (e.g., reading, viewing, and watching) to the advanced actions of contribution (e.g., rating, commenting, and interacting) and creation (e.g., posting, writing, and uploading; Muntinga et al., 2011). Therefore, SocME is a key factor in turning consumers into content-creators. Despite the advances that have been made regarding SocME, at least three important concerns with previous research limit our understanding. First, a review of the relevant literature reveals that there is no commonly acknowledged conceptualization of SocME. Among scholars, divergent conceptualizations of SocME exist, as SocME has been viewed as a cognitive appraisal, an affective attachment, a behavioral response, or a combination of them (Baldus et al., 2015; Hall-Phillips et al., 2016; Hollebeek et al., 2014; Lim et al., 2015; Schivinski et al., 2016). Because of this diversity, the conceptualization of SocME is an area in need of conceptual clarity and refinement. Second, another significant gap in the literature concerns the relationship between brand-related SocME and behavioral brand loyalty. Although past research suggests brand-related SocME enhances behavioral brand loyalty (Brodie et al., 2013), evidence for this relationship has been produced primarily for the impact of brand-related SocME on consumer conative loyalty (also called loyalty intentions: Calder et al., 2009; Hollebeek, et al., 2014; Jahn and Kunz, 2012; Lim et al., 2015). The relationship between brand-related SocME and consumer behavioral loyalty toward a brand still remains unclear.