Customer engagement with retail brands on Facebook : an empirical study in Ho Chi Minh City: Bachelor thesis of Business adminstration / Nguyen Ngoc Tram Anh ; Pham Huong Dien supervisor

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING THE STATE BANK OF VIET NAM

BANKING UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

NGUYEN NGOC TRAM ANH

CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT WITH RETAIL

BRANDS ON FACEBOOK : AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

IN HO CHI MINH CITY

BACHELOR THESIS

MAJOR: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

CODE: 7340101

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2019

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING THE STATE BANK OF VIET NAM

BANKING UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

NGUYEN NGOC TRAM ANH

CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT WITH RETAIL

BRANDS ON FACEBOOK : AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

IN HO CHI MINH CITY

BACHELOR THESIS

MAJOR: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

CODE: 7340101

SUPERVISOR

PHAM HUONG DIEN, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2019

1

TÓM TẮT

Trong những năm trở lại đây, việc sử dụng mạng xã hội đặc biệt là

Facebook ngày càng sôi nổi và đa dạng hơn. Ngoài mục đích để giải trí, giao tiếp thì

Facebook còn được xem là một công cụ đắc lực cho các nhà bán lẻ dùng quảng bá

và kết nối với khách hàng của họ. Với rất nhiều tính năng vượt trội, Facebook cho

phép các doanh nghiệp bán lẻ được tạo dựng riêng cho mình những trang Fanpages.

Nhưng việc thu hút được khách hàng chú ý và tham gia vào Fanpages không phải là

chuyện dễ dàng. Bài nghiên cứu này muốn kiểm tra những yếu tố nào ảnh hưởng

đến sự tham gia của khách hàng ở khu vực Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh với các trang

Fanpages của những nhà bán lẻ và mức độ tác động của chúng.

Dữ liệu chính thức của nghiên cứu được thu thập từ 305 bản khảo sát. Các

phương pháp chính được sử dụng là Thống kê mô tả, Phân tích độ tin cậy

Cronbach’s Alpha, Phân tích nhân tố khám phá EFA, Phân tích nhân tố khẳng định

CFA, Phân tích mô hình phương trình cấu trúc (SEM) với sự hỗ trợ của phần mềm

SPSS 23 và AMOS 24. Mô hình ban đầu bao gồm 5 biến độc lập là Giao tiếp ngang

hàng (PC), Nhận thức sự hữu ích (PU), Sự hưởng thụ (EN), Khả năng tương thích

(CO), Sự tín nhiệm (CR); 2 biến trung gian là Thái Độ (AT), Ý định (IN); 1 biến

phụ thuộc là Sự tham gia của khách hàng (CE). Kết quả phân tích cho thấy có 2

biến được nhận thấy là không có ảnh hưởng đến thái độ là Nhận thức sự hữu ích

(PU) và Sự hưởng thụ (EN). 3 biến còn lại là Giao tiếp ngang hàng (PC), Khả

năng tương thích (CO), Sự tín nhiệm (CR) có ảnh hưởng đến thái độ và tất cả các

biến đều tác động một cách tích cực. Cụ thể, biến Giao tiếp ngang hàng (PC) có tác

động lớn nhất đến mô hình, tiếp theo là Khả năng tương thích (CO), và cuối cùng là

Sự tín nhiệm (CR). Dựa trên những kết quả này, tác giả cũng đưa ra một số khuyến

nghị và giải pháp cụ thể cho các nhà bán lẻ.

Từ khóa: Sự tham gia của khách hàng, Truyền thông xã hội, Thái độ,

Ý định, Sự gắn kết thương hiệu của khách hàng

2

ABSTRACT

It can be seen that in recent years, the use of social networking sites such as

Facebook , Zalo, Instagram, Youtube, etc has become more popular not only

among young people but also adults over 40 and children under 18 years old.

Among those social networking sites, Facebook is considered to be the page with

the highest number of users and has been increasing continuously over the years. In

addition to entertain and to connect with friends, Facebook is also an effective tool

for retailers to advertise and connect with their customers. With many outstanding

features, Facebook allows retail firms to create their own Fanpages to introduce

products / services, events and above all to communicate with their customers.

However, attracting customers attention and participation into the Fanpages is not

easy. This paper aims to examine what factors influence customer engagement on

retailers' Fanpages and their impact magnitudes.

The study was conducted in Ho Chi Minh City because this is a place with a

larger number of Facebook users and more developed than other regions in Vietnam

so there will be more opportunities to access new technology. The study's survey

subjects are Facebook users residing in Ho Chi Minh City and have had at least one

interaction on a Fanpage of a certain retail brand. The research methods used to test

the model are qualitative and quantitative methods. First, the author applies

qualitative methods to build scales and research models through the reference and

inheritance of previous theories and related research. In this study, the author

mainly inherited the research model of the two authors, Constanza Bianchi and

Lynda Andrew (2017) with the title: "Consumer engagement with retail firms

through social media: An empirical study in Chile". At the same time, based on a

combination of The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) model proposed by Fishbein

& Ajen (1975) and The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1989), the

author has some adjustments to fit the research goals and the context in Ho Chi

Minh City. In particular, the object that the author wants to study is customer

engagement behaviour and based on The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), the

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intention will lead to behaviour. Therefore, the author replaced the dependent

variable Intention to purchase in the model of Bianchi and Andrew (2017) into the

variable Customer engagement.

The original model consisted of 5 independent variables: Perceived

usefulness (PU), Compatibility (CO), Enjoyment (EN), Credibility (CR), Peer

communication (PC); 2 mediator variables are Attitude (AT), Intention (IN); one

dependent variable is Consumers engagement (CE). Specifically, the scale of

Perceived usefulness (PU), Compatibility (CO), Enjoyment (EN), Credibility (CR),

Peer communication (PC) was inherited from the study of Constanza Bianchi,

Lynda Andrew (2017) but with the adjustment of the words to suit the user in Ho

Chi Minh City. The scale of Consumers engagement (CE) is inherited from the

results of a group of four authors including Paul Harrigan, Uwana Evers, Morgan

Miles and Timothy Daly (2017) with the title " Customer engagement with tourism

social media brands".

Based on the theoretical references and inheritance, the author made

hypotheses about the relationship between variables. A total of 7 hypotheses have

been proposed: All five independent variables Perceived usefulness (PU),

Compatibility (CO), Enjoyment (EN), Credibility (CR), Peer communication (PC)

are all assumed to have a positive effect on Attitude (AT); the 6th hypothesis is that

Attitude (AT) has a positive influence Intention (IN); the final hypotheses is that

Intention (IN) will positively impact Consumers engagement (CE) behaviour.

After developing the scales for important variables and formulating the

hypotheses, the preliminary questionnaire will be based on the research objectives

and scales mentioned, and will be pre-tested with a sample of 20 people, resulting in

small changes in the expression to improve meaning. After the preliminary survey,

the final versions will be sent to the survey participants, including 3 parts: Part 1 is

the general information section, Part 2 is the statistical information section, Part 3 is

to examine the factors. The research uses Likert scale at 5 levels: (1) Strongly

disagree, (2) Disagree, (3) Neutral, (4) Agree and (5) Strongly agree. To collect

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data, research using Google form tools to create e-surveys and send them to the

Mesgenger of users on Facebook. After one month, 323 survey samples were

completed but 18 samples did not meet the requirements of the study. After that, the

author kept 305 cases for data analysis.

Next, the main quantitative methods used to analyze the data in this study

are Descriptive analysis to summarize features of a collection of information;

Cronbach’s Alpha to assess the reliability of the scale used to measure concepts;

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to discover how many major factors are

included in the total number of variables; Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to

confirm the univariate, multivariate, convergent and discriminant values of the

scale, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to assess unobservable 'latent'

constructs with the support of SPSS version 23 and AMOS version 24 software.

The survey results show that the proportion of female respondents is higher

than that of men with average age around 28 years old. Most of the respondents are

single (never married), have no children and are at university level (bachelor). Most

of them are students who earn 5 to 10 million per month. They spend on average 3-

5 million vnd per month. Most of the respondents chose Facebook as social

networking site used the most. All of the respondents had previously participated at

least once with a retail Fanpages. However, most of them only occasionally interact,

engage with Fanpages.

Based on the results of the data analysis, out of all 5 independent variables

used in the model, 2 variables found to have no effect on the Attitude (AT) are

Perceived usefulness (PU) and Enjoyment (EN). Inferred, there are two rejected

hypotheses, the 3rd and 5th hypotheses of 2 variables Perceived usefulness (PU)

and Enjoyment (EN). This unanticipated finding implies that Fanpages can be

perceived to make it easier for users to find information, trade faster, but do not

necessarily lead to a positive attitude towards engagement with retail brands.

Besides, this result also shows that the enjoyment is not an important factor

affecting the attitude towards engaging with retail brands. Although in many

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previous studies on attitudes, enjoyment has an important influence, especially

attitudes toward media use. But for this study, it is clear that enjoyment is not

enough to create a positive attitude towards engaging with retail brands through

Fanpages.

On the contrary, the remaining 3 variables are Peer Communication (PC),

Compatibility (CO), Credibility (CR) that affect Attitude (AT) to participation and

all variables influence a positive way. Specifically, the variable Peer

Communication (PC) has the greatest impact on the model, followed by

Compatibility (CO), and finally Credibility (CR). Based on these results, the author

also gives some recommendations and specific solutions for retailers on Facebook

to improve the attitude towards interaction on Fanpages. In particular, the author

notes that retailers should focus more on creating an environment of communication

between customers and customers, while focusing on understanding the needs and

personal characteristics of potentials customer groups in parallel with building trust,

creating credibility to help customers stay longer with the brand.

In the future, researchers can carry out a similar study using samples drawn

from more representative populations, considering exploring additional

demographic or fish factors. Other actors may play an executive role to explain

consumer brand cohesion behaviour. Researchers can also study customer

engagement on other social networking sites like Google, Youtube, Twitter and

Instagram.

Key words: Customer engagement, Social Media, Attitude, Intention,

Customer Participation

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DECLARATION OF AUTHENTICITY

This thesis is the author's own research, the research results are honest, in

which there is no previously published content or the content done by others except

the citations cited full source in the thesis.

Ho Chi Minh City, November 2019

Nguyen Ngoc Tram Anh

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly, I would like to express my sincerest and deepest thankfulness to

Ms.Pham Huong Dien, Ph.D for her guidance and patience in giving me valuable

recommendations during my study period. I am really happy and fortunate to carry

out this study under her supervision.

Secondly, I would like to send my profound gratitude to all of the lecturers

in Business Administration Department and also in Office of Academic Affairs

during a period of studying for a Bachelor Degree at Banking University of

Vietnam.

Lastly, I would like to thank my family for their support during my study

and during my life. Without whose encouragement and sacrifice, I would not have

finished this thesis, so I express my special love and gratitude to them.

Ho Chi Minh City, November 2019

Nguyen Ngoc Tram Anh

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TÓM TẮT................................................................................................................1

ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................2

DECLARATION OF AUTHENTICITY..............................................................6

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT......................................................................................7

TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................8

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..............................................................................11

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................12

LIST OF FIGURES ..............................................................................................13

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................14

1.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH..........................................................14

1.2 OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS..........................................16

1.3 SUBJECTS AND SCOPES OF THE STUDY...............................................17

1.4 THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................17

1.5 CONTRIBUTIONS OF RESEARCH ............................................................18

1.6 THESIS STRUCTURE ..................................................................................18

CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 1 .......................................................................19

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................20

2.1 IMPORTANT CONCEPTS............................................................................20

2.1.1 Customer engagement...........................................................................20

2.1.2 Intention ................................................................................................21

2.1.3 Attitude..................................................................................................22

2.1.4 Facebook marketing ..............................................................................23

2.2 THEORETICAL MODELS ...........................................................................23

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2.2.1 The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)................................................23

2.2.2 The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).........................................25

2.3 PREVIOUS EMPIRICAL STUDIES.............................................................27

2.4 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR THIS STUDY..................................30

CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 2 .......................................................................31

CHAPTER 3. THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ......................................32

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN....................................................................................32

3.1.1 The research procedure .........................................................................32

3.1.2 Subjects of the Survey...........................................................................33

3.1.3 Sampling Methods.................................................................................34

3.1.4 Scale of research design ........................................................................34

3.1.5 The questionnaire design.......................................................................38

3.1.6 Research Model.....................................................................................39

3.2 RESEARCH HYPOTHESE ..........................................................................40

3.3 DATA ANALYSIS METHODS ....................................................................46

CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 3 .......................................................................48

CHAPTER 4. RESULTS......................................................................................49

4.1 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS........................................................................49

4.1.2 Demographic information of respondents.............................................49

4.1.3 Information about Facebook behaviour of respondents........................53

4.2 RELIABILITY OF THE SCALE - CRONBACH’S ALPHA .......................55

4.3 EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (EFA) ..........................................59

4.4 CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (CFA) .......................................63

4.5 TESTING THE RESEARCH HYPOTHESE.................................................68

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4.5.1 Testing the fitness of the model ...........................................................68

4.5.2 Bootstrap analysis .................................................................................69

4.5.3 Testing the research hypotheses............................................................70

4.5.4 Result discussion...................................................................................73

CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 4 .......................................................................76

CHAPTER 5. SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 77

5.1 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.............................................................77

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................................78

5.3 LIMITATIONS AND FUTTHER RESEARCH...........................................84

CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 5 .......................................................................85

REFERENCES......................................................................................................86

APPENDIX............................................................................................................91