UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
________________

Le Minh Hoang Long

CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT IN A FACEBOOK
BRAND COMMUNITY:
A study of Airline consumers in Vietnam
ID: 22130038
MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honors)

SUPERVISOR: DR. NGUYEN THI MAI TRANG

Ho Chi Minh City, Year 2016


Acknowledgement
Firstly, I would like to express my gratefulness to my supervisor Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Trang
for her professional guidance, intensive support, valuable suggestions, instructions and
encouragement during the time of doing my research.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to ISB Professors Committee for their valuable
time as the members of the proposal examination committee. Their comments and
meaningful suggestions were contributed significantly for my completion of this research.
My sincere thanks are given to all of my teachers at International Business School –
University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City for their teaching and guidance during my master
course.

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Customer engagement ................................................................................................ 10
Customer engagement in brand community .............................................................. 12
Perceived relationship benefits of customer engagement in brand communities ...... 12
Relationship outcomes of customer engagement in brand communities ................... 14
Proposal model and hypotheses ................................................................................. 16
2.7.1.

Proposal model .................................................................................................... 16

2.7.2.

Hypotheses summary .......................................................................................... 17

Chapter summary ....................................................................................................... 18
Methodology ....................................................................................................... 19
Research method ........................................................................................................ 19
Research design .......................................................................................................... 19
3.2.1.

Sample ................................................................................................................. 19

3.2.2.

Measurement scale .............................................................................................. 20

Research procedure .................................................................................................... 24
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3.3.1.


5.1.2.

Measurement model ............................................................................................ 49

Managerial implications ............................................................................................. 50
5.2.1.

Customer engagement behaviors ........................................................................ 50

5.2.2.

Perceived relationship benefits.......................................................................... 51

5.2.3.

Relationship Outcomes........................................................................................ 51

Limitations and future research .................................................................................. 52
APPENDIX 1: List of in-depth interview’s participants ......................................................... 62
APPENDIX 2. Questionaire .................................................................................................... 65
APPENDIX3. CFA ………………………………………………………………………….67
APPENDIX 4. Maximum Likelihood Estimates ..................................................................... 77

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List of abbreviations
ATAG Air Transport Action Group
BC Brand Community

Table 4.6. Cronbach's alpha of new measurements ................................................................. 36
Table 4.7. Composite Reliability and Average Variance Extracted ........................................ 40
Table 4.8. Discriminant validity test .......................................................................................41
Table 4.9. Fitness of conceptualized model ............................................................................42
Table 4.10. Result of hypothesis testing ..................................................................................44
Table 4.11. Standardized regression weight of hypothesis .....................................................44

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INTRODUCTION
Research background
The globalization of competition, saturation of markets, and development of information
technology have enhanced customer awareness and created a situation where long-term
success is no longer achieved through optimized product price and qualities. Instead,
companies build their success on a long-term customer relationship by satisfying customer’s
needs and transferring customers to loyal customers. In recent years, customer engagement
has been viewed as a hot issue to build long-term customer relationship (Sashi, 2012).
Customer engagement (CE) is difined as “the engagement of customers with one another,
with a company or a brand. The initiative for engagement can be either consumer- or
company-led and the medium of engagement can be on or offline.” (Roebuck, 2012).
Customer engagement can be the variety activities as joining the brand’s fan group, take part
in brand’s contest, disscussing about products or like brand’s facebook, commenting on
website, etc. Firms that have more engagement of customer can improve customer
satisfaction and loyalty (Brodie, Ilic, Juric, & Hollebeek , 2011; Gummerus, Liljander,
Weman, & Minna, 2012).

Customer engagement (CE) generate enhanced corporate

performance, including sales growth (Neff, 2007 as cited in Brodie et al., 2011), and

In Vietnam, air service industry affected economic growth significantly. According to the
statistics of IATA by Tyler (2014) - IATA’s Director General, Vietnam’s aviation market is
forecast to be the world’s 7th fastest-growing in the period of 2013-2017, with annual growth
rates of 6.9 percent and 6.6 percent expected for international passengers (Tyler, 2014). In the
trend of transitioning and developing Vietnam’s economy, a restructuring plan of Vietnam’s
air service industry was approved by the Ministry of Transport aim to gain the 5th position in
ASEAN aviation market and raise the passengers carried by airlines achieving 3.23% of all
overall the domestics transport market share (Viet Nam Government Portal, 2015). Hence,
there is a tough competition between airlines companies from the time government
authorized the operation of private airlines as the commitment between Vietnam and WTO in
2007. Up to now, there are four major air carries in Vietnam: Vietnam Airlines (VNA),
Jetstar Pacific Airlines (JPA) and VietJet Air (VJ) and Vietnam Air Services Company
(VASCO) (Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, 2015). Customers have choices to

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choose airlines when traveling in domestic routes. This competition leads to the result that
airline companies must find the effective ways to attract and retain customers.
As per the statistics by Moore Online Development Solutions Corporation, Vietnam has
the population of 90.73 million with 39% internet users. 40% internet users use online brand
website to make purchasing decision (Moore Corporation, 2015a). Therefore, the
understanding on role of social media affecting to the Vietnam airline industry becomes
important than ever. Besides, social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, or
LinkedIn are playing more important roles in business. According to Chui, Manyika, Bughin,
Dobbs, Roxburgh, Sarrazin, and Westergren (2012) there are 70% companies advocated
social media technologies to transform businesses and improve organizational performance.
The application of social media affects the ways company and in particular airlines company
doing business.
In the report of We are social (2015) facebook is reviewed to become the world largest

generally have the deep understanding in customer engagement and the

important of customer engagement in achiving bussiness growth. Customer engagement
create the deep connections with customers that drive purchase decisions, interaction with
firms (Forrester Consulting as cited in Sashi, 2012). A customer's engagement in a brand
community results in a number of outcomes for firms’ growth, including the customer's
continuing participation in the community, satisfaction, increased trust in, commitment and
loyalty (Wirtz et al., 2013; Brodie et al., 2011). The advent of Web 2.0 and in particular the
social network sites (like My space, Facebook, Google plus) in recent years have led to an
explosion of interest in customer engagement. Attracted by a great amount of users,
companies have created brand communities in social media. With the abilities to creating the
interaction among individuals and firms in brand communities, social media can use to better
serve customer and meet the needs .Therefore, the establishment of company’s social
network sites in the recent years presented an opportunity to built close relationship with
customer by enhancing the customer engagement to brand community.
In the view of airline industry, intergrating the bussiness with the social media will be the
new trend of bussiness (Leung et al., 2013). Airline companies can use social media to build
relationships and create greater interaction with customers, listen to what their customers are
saying and to respond in real-time, facilitate engagement with its customers and increase
awareness about the brand (Kahonge, 2013). Recently, many airline companies have created
facebook page for to give information, launch promotion, feedback and respond to
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customers’ complains and sell tickets. The airline industry is also reported to be one of the
leading sectors in deploying Facebook for customer care (Kollau, 2015). Hence, customer
engagement to airline brand communities on facebook has entered the lexicon of airline
managers as well as proposed an interested topic for researches.
With present situation of Vietnam’s dynamic and rapidly growing aviation market, airline
companies seek for an efficiency way to support business growth and compete with others.

airlines sector in developing and transitioning countries such as Vietnam. Until recently, there
is only the research of Pham and Tran (2014) axamines the customer engagement in
Vietnam’s tourism facebook brand page.
Therefore, we have the reason to examine the customer engagement in Vietnam’s airlines
facebook brand community and delivering the practical implications for airline company’s
managers to gain customer satisfaction and loyalty through customer engagement.
Research objectives
The overall objective of this study is to examine the effect of customer engagement
behavior on customer commitment, customer word of mouth and customer satisfaction and
mediating through perceived benefits. Specifically, it investigates:
-The relationship between Customer Engagement behavior and Social benefit
-The relationship between Customer Engagement behavior and Entertainment benefit
-The relationship between Customer Engagement behavior and Economic benefit
-The relationship between Social benefit and Customer Brand Page Commitment
-The relationship between Social benefit and Customer Word of Mouth
-The relationship between Social benefit and Customer Brand Page Commitment
-The relationship between Entertainment benefit and Brand Page Commitment
-The relationship between Entertainment benefit and Customer Word of Mouth
-The relationship between Entertainment benefit and Satisfaction
-The relationship between Economic benefit and Brand Page Commitment
-The relationship between Economic benefit and Customer Word of Mouth
-The relationship between Economic benefit and Satisfaction

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Research scope
The sample of this study targets to the facebook users who became a fan of an airline
company’s fan page (by click “like the fan page).
Three airline companies operating in Vietnam domestic routes are implemented the


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LITERATURE REVIEW
In order to achieve these objectives this study, this part presents a discussion of customer
engagement behaviors, brand community, customer engagement in brand community,
perceived relationship benefit of customer engagement in brand community, customer
satisfaction, customer loyalty and the relationship of those constructs. This is followed by the
development of hypotheses and the construction of a conceptual model.
Brand Community (BC)
Muniz and O’Guinn (2001, p. 412) defined that “A brand community as specialized,
non­geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relationships
among admires of a brand. It is specialized because at its center is a branded good or service.
Like other communities, it is marked by shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a
sense of moral responsibility.”

A brand community is a collective of people with a shared

interest in a specific brand, creating a subculture around the brand with its own values, myths,
hierarchy, rituals and vocabulary (Cova & Pace, 2006 as cited in Pham & Tran, 2014).
Studies show that customers joining in a brand community become more loyalty and enhance
the relationship (Gummerus et al., 2012).
Furthermore, McAlexander, Schouten, and Koenig, (2002) showed four crucial
relationships in a brand community: between the customer and the brand, between the
customer and the firm, between the customer and the product in use, and among fellow
customers. Woisetschlager, Hartleb, and Blut. (2008) found two reasons for consumer
participation in brand communities: community satisfaction and degree of consumer
influence within the community. In addition, brand communities give the potential of
improving the relationship between the consumers and the brand (Sicilia & Palazón, 2008).

thus the following: a) behavioral perspective – concerned with the behavioral aspects of
customer engagement and

customers’ activities, most often beyond purchase; b)

psychological (cognitive and affective) perspective - investigating customers’ cognitive and
affective processes which are antecedents to engagement or to interaction with brands; c)
multidimensional perspective - unifying different dimensions of customer engagement and
proposing multidimensional approach; d) social perspective - investigating the social and
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network component of the phenomenon (van Doorn et al., 2010; Mollen & Wilson, 2010;
Brodie et al., 2011; Gambetti, Graffigna & Biraghi, 2012).
. This stream of behavioral perspective studies on customer engagement (Sashi, 2012;
Gummerus et al., 2012; Javornik & Mandelli, 2012; Ahuja & Medury, 2010;) bases the
research on the definition elaborated by Van Doorn et al. (2010). These studies investigate
consumers’ activities such as word-of-mouth, recommendations, repeat purchases, social
media activities, community participation, interactions with brands and similar. Such
approach is often favored by practitioners as it can lead to quantification and measurement of
consumers’ activities in their interactions with brands. The engagement of customers to the
online brand community reflects in activities as clicking “like”, commenting, using brand
applications… Thus, this analysis adopts a behavioral perspective of customer engagement
because it places attention to customer’s activities and highlights the active role of them.
When it comes to the behavioral perspective, customer engagement (CE) is defined as
"behaviors [that] go beyond transactions, and may be specifically defined as a customer's
behavioral manifestations that have a brand or firm focus, beyond purchase, resulting from
motivational drivers" (van Doorn et al., 2010, p. 254). It reflects “consumers' interactive
experience within online brand communities, and value co-creation among community
participants” (Brodie et al., 2011, p. 105). Customer engagement behaviors (CBEs) consist

part in activities on fan page (Playing games, joining contests, …) or spent money on firm’s
products Gummerus et al., 2012 ; Pham & Tran, 2014).
Perceived relationship benefits of customer engagement in brand communities
Gwinner, Gremler and Bitner (1998) emphasized that in order to create and maintain
relationships between two parties both need to feel that they gain something (as cited in
Gummerus et al., 2012). Therefore, the customer engagement behaviors may be strengthen by
satisfying the needs and gaining benefits from the behavior itself or from the overall brand
relationship.
Colgate, Buchanan-Oliver and Elmsly (2005) confirmed that customer receives
relationship benefit from internet-base relationship. Online brand communities especially on
facebook offer some kinds of benefits to customers. According to the researches of Kaplan
and Haenlein (2010) brand comminities in social media have the benefits of enabling social
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presence, avoiding uncertainty, reducing ambiguity and delevering self-presentation.
Dholakia, Bagozzi, & Pearo, (2004) found that customers can gain practical and
informational benefits by engaging in community behaviors. In another study, Wirtz et al.,
(2013) stated that online brand community increase the social benefits and functional benefits
of members.
In an article study, Gummerus et al., (2012) sum up all the theoris above and supposed
that customer engament in a online brand comunities have three perceived relationship
benefits: social benefits, entertainment benefits and economic benefits:
Social benefits are rise from the interaction between customer and company and also
customer and customer. For example, customers engage in discussions with peers, giving and
receiving help. In addition, they can be seen thanking the company for birthday bonuses and
gifts. Customers may also seek social enhancement, which derives from the need to feel
useful, recognized and needed in the community (Hars & Ou, 2002; Ho & Dempsey, 2010;
Nambisan & Baron, 2010 as cited in Gummerus et al., 2012)
Entertainment benefits are derived from relaxation and fun (Dholakia et al., 2004).

positive effects on consumers’ brand commitment. Customers joining in a fanpage have
relationship with brand through this page. Sashi (2012) demonstrated the concept of affective
commitment – a commitment in a relationship that base on emotional. He also stated that
customer engagement occurs when customers have strong emotional bonds in relational
exchanges with sellers,

customer engagement will lead to customer commitment in

engament cycle.
Word of mouth (W-O-M) is personal communication between a receiver and a source
that the receiver perceives as noncommercial (Day, 1971). WOM effectively can cause
changes in opinion and behavior, as well as drive brand awareness and excitement about a
product or services (WOMMA, 2005). Word-of-mouth tends to flow through interpersonal
channels based on shared interests, friendship, or family and people commonly use it to seek
information when they are facing with a high­risk purchase situation (Murray, 1991); A
research was drew on marketing and consumer behavior literature to formulate a conceptual
framework, empirically tested the hypotheses using data obtained from a large online
retailing store in Taiwan by Tsai and Huang (2007) stated that community building is
positively related to repurchase intention. Thereby, we believe that engagement in online
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brand communities will lead to positive behaviors of members such as word-of-mouth
behaviors (Mollen & Wilson, 2010; Chan et al., 2014).
Satisfaction is the customer’s value fulfillment response (Bloemer & Dekker, 2007). The
relationship between service satisfaction and loyalty is non-linear, meaning that in case
satisfaction increases above a certain level, customer loyalty will increase rapidly (Oliva,
Oliver, & MacMillan, 1992). Oliver (1997) assumed customer satisfaction is a judgment that
a product or service feature, or the product or service itself, provided (or is providing) a
pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfillment, including levels of under- or over

H3b Social benefit has positive impact on Customer Word of Mouth
H3c Social benefit has positive impact on Customer Brand Page Commitment
H4a Entertainment benefit has positive impact on Brand Page Commitment
H4b Entertainment benefit has positive impact on Customer Word of Mouth
H4c Entertainment benefit has positive impact on Satisfaction
H5a Economic benefit has positive impact on Brand Page Commitment
H5b Economic benefit has positive impact on Customer Word of Mouth
H5c Economic benefit has positive impact on Satisfaction
Proposal model and hypotheses
2.7.1. Proposal model
Based on the foundations of former research, the model in the study of Gummerus, et al.
(2012) is mostly suitable to our objectives as stated above. We re-applied this model as
figured out below in the Vietnam airline industry context.

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Figure 2.1. The conceptual Model
2.7.2. Hypotheses summary
H1a. Community Engagement behavior has positive impact Social benefit
H1b: Community Engagement behavior has positive impact Entertainment benefit
H1c: Community Engagement behavior has positive impact Economic benefit
H2a: Transaction Engagement behavior has positive impact Social benefit
H2b: Transaction Engagement behavior has positive impact Entertainment benefit
H2c: Transaction Engagement behavior has positive impact Economic benefit
H3a Social benefit has positive impact on Customer Brand Page Commitment
H3b Social benefit has positive impact on Customer Word of Mouth
H3c Social benefit has positive impact on Customer Brand Page Commitment
H4a Entertainment benefit has positive impact on Brand Page Commitment
H4b Entertainment benefit has positive impact on Customer Word of Mouth