Customer Engagement in Social Media and Purchase Intentions in the Hotel Industry

Abstract

The present study attempts to investigate the effect of customer engagement in social media on purchase intentions in the hotel industry in Malaysia. Four key motives of surveillance, social interaction, sharing of information and attraction are examined as antecedents to customer engagement in social media. The questionnaires used was administered to a convenience sample of 392 hotel customers from Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, through a self‐administered questionnaire. Structural Equation Modeling is used to analyse the data and five hypotheses were tested. The findings reported that surveillance, social interaction, sharing of information and attraction have significantly influenced customer engagement in social media. Customer engagement is positively correlated to the purchase intentions. Based on the findings, customer engagement strategies should focus on more on building reputation, information quality, attractive contents, effective