Consumers' Online Brand-Related Activities on Facebook as a Competitive E-Commerce Channel

Abstract

The theme of online brand building is relevant and valuable to understand due to its constantly evolving nature and potential to increase brand competitiveness or e-commerce. This includes the issue of consumers' online brand-related activities, motives and impacts on the brand, which require adaptable research. Our motivation is to confirm recent exploratory findings and advance knowledge in the field. The aim of the study was therefore to assess the significance of the effects of trajectories of selected motivations and consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs) and subsequently assess the significance of the effects of the trajectories of these activities against the impact on the brand in the form of word of mouth. We conducted the research on Facebook in Slovakia using a questionnaire with 401 valid responses. We used Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Partial Least Square-Path Modeling to assess the results. This investigation resulted in the identification of statistically significant motive trajectories and COBRAs (5 out of 12 trajectories of effects) and subsequently COBRAs and the impact on the brand in the form of word of mouth (3 out of 3 trajectories of effects). These findings in our research setting verified the exploratory findings of Piehler et al. (2019) and thus serve as the next level of understanding for this issue. The findings improve future brand building strategies and competitiveness on social networks through better informed managerial or e-commerce decisions. This is one of the first confirmatory studies, and the limitations and future research opportunities are discussed in the conclusion.