| Abstract [eng] |
Relevance of the topic and problem. Many business enterprises are facing difficulties, not just to preserve existing customers, but also how to attract new ones. During the restless period, when the world is facing pandemic, companies are trying to adapt to the needs of consumers that the final result would bring benefits to both - the company and the customer. A number of studies have revealed that consumer behavior is constantly changing, so the main challenge businesses facing – how to achieve potential consumers. Social networks are the main source of attracting consumers whose popularity has grown worldwide. Therefore, businesses, trademarks and their communities have to move their own communication to the social space, which quickly spreads relevant information on topics that consumers notice much faster than conventional marketing channels. Research is constantly seeking to clarify and identify what most forces consumers to engage with communities of brands on social networks. Therefore, factors of consumer engagement in specific brands or communities pose a number of challenges for researchers, which they try to analyze across different consumer segments and objects. Due to the different opinions of researchers on the topic of consumer engagement, different research work lead to different results, so this study formulates the scientific problem as follows: what factors determine the engagement of consumers in brand communities in social networks? The object of the project. Factors determining consumer engagement in brand communities on social networks. The purpose of the project. The theoretical and empirically substantiate the factors determining the engagement of consumers in brand communities on social networks. Project objectives. 1. to substantiate the relevance and problems of research on consumer engagement in brand communities in social networks; 2. to perform a theoretical analysis of the factors determining the engagement of consumers in brand communities in social networks; 3. to create a conceptual model of the factors determining the engagement of consumers in brand communities in social networks; 4. to develop a methodology for the empirical research of consumer determinants' engagement in brand communities in social networks; 5. to provide recommendations and directions for further research after empirically examining the model of factors determining the engagement of consumers in brand communities in social networks. Research methods. The analysis of scientific literature; quantitative research method - online survey; statistical data analysis with IMB SPSS Statistics 25 software. The main results of the project. After studying the scientific literature, the conceptual model was prepared of determinants of consumer engagement in brand networks on social networks, consisting of two main blocks and a controlling factor. The first block consists of factors related to consumers and brands, the second block consists of consumer involvement behaviors that may be active or passive. The control factor determines the overall social network type, which can influence consumer engagement in brand communities on social networks. A non-random selection was chosen for the study, during which 283 respondents' answers were selected for analysis, who have identified at least one specific brand or brand community. The results of the empirical study revealed that active consumer engagement is significantly influenced by factors related to consumers, such as feelings of rejoicing, social identity, consumer motives, and passive engagement – trust and commitment, social identity and consumer motives. Factors analyzed from a brand perspective have the greatest impact on active engagement, social benefits and identification, financial and non-financial incentives, and passive engagement on social benefits and identification, information quality, financial and non-financial incentives. The results of the study revealed that consumer engagement behavior does not depend on the choice of social network type. Summarizing the results of the empirical study, it was found that passive consumer behavior is more dominant among consumers on social networks than active. |
