Customer engagement with retail brands on facebook an empirical study in ho chi minh city

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 EMPIRI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

INTRODUCTION 14

CHAPTER 1. 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

LITERATURE REVIEW 20

CHAPTER 2. 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

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

THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 32

CHAPTER 3. 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

RESULTS 49

CHAPTER 4. 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

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

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 77 CHAPTER 5. 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

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Scale of research 36

Table 3.2 Questionnaire structure 39

Table 4.1 Gender of respondents 49

Table 4.2 Age of respondents 50

Table 4.3 Marital status of respondents 50

Table 4.4 The number of children of respondents 51

Table 4.5 Education level of respondents 51

Table 4.6 Main occupation of respondents 52

Table 4.7 Monthly income of respondents 52

Table 4.8 Monthly expenses of respondents 53

Table 4.9 The Statistical results about Facebook behaviour of respondents 54 Table 4.10 Test results of Cronbach’s Alpha 58

Table 4.11 The First Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) 60

Table 4.12 The Second Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) 62

Table 4.13 Rules for assessing the appropriateness of structural models 63

Table 4.14 Composite Reliability (CR) and Average Variance Extracted (AVE) 65

Table 4.15 Standardized Regression Weights 67

Table 4.16 Bootstrap analysis 70

Table 4.17 Regression Weights 71

Table 4.18 Test results of Research hypotheses 72

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) model 25

Figure 2.2 The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) 26

Figure 2.3 Conceptual Framework for this study 31

Figure 3.1 The Research Procedure 33

Figure 3.2 Proposed Research Model 40

Figure 4.1 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) standardization 64

Figure 4.2 Analysis results of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) 69

Figure 4.3 The adjusted research model 76

INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1

1.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH

Nowadays, social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Zalo, youtube) are revolutionizing the way customers interact with brands and companies These social media channels are interactive platforms that allow retail companies and brands to connect with everyday customers Consequently, many retail companies come up with strategies to increase this engagement through developing their own social media sites Social media provides opportunities for retailers to attract customers and purchase opportunities Customer studies show that shoppers are looking for social media to buy online in addition to simply communicate with organizations, customers can save time and have more choices when they can refer

to many brands at the same time As customers increase their engagement in social media, almost every brand has some form of presence on social media, especially Facebook Many retail companies use social media as a strategic channel to communicate with customers

Some scholars have tried to develop specific consumer brand interaction models The studies examined factors that contribute to consumer engagement on social networks with retail brands A group of four authors including Paul Harrigan, Uwana Evers, Morgan Miles and Timothy Daly (2017) have studied the topic

"Customer engagement with tourism social media brands" Ultimately, they

propose a customer engagement scale and a nomological framework for customer engagement, both of which can be applied in both tourism and non-tourism contexts This study aims to help managers of brands on social to better assess the nature of customer engagement In addition, some studies have identified how social media behaviour of consumers promotes their online and offline purchases in the retail context The research of Bianchiand Andrews(2018), under the title:

"Consumer engagement with retail firms through social media: an empirical study

in Chile", provided an understanding of the main drivers of consumer-brand

engagement that can lead to purchase intentions

In Vietnam, the speed of Internet development is fast, followed by the widespread use of social networking sites According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, by mid-2018, Vietnam has about 5 million network users, accounting for 57% of the population Among all of the social media sites, Facebook is the largest, with 2 billion active users worldwide, representing almost

40 percent of the global online population (Statista, 2017) Facebook is also the most popular social networking site in Vietnam today According to statistics, as of April 2018, 58 million Vietnamese people use Facebook, making Vietnam the top 7 countries with the largest number of Facebook users in the world In particular, there are, in Ho Chi Minh City, some 14 million users, ranking in the top 6 cities with the largest number of Facebook users in the world Limited research has evaluated the factors that influence customers to engage with retail brands and buy products and services through their social media pages, especially Fanpages Vietnamese studies are primarily related to customer reactions to social media advertising However, the author has found two related studies in Vietnam Firstly, Long Thang Van Nguyen, Rajkishore Nayak, Jerry Watkins, Phuong Ngoc Duy

Nguyen (2019) with the topic: “Drivers of social media disengagement: a study of young consumers in Vietnam”, contributes to marketing literature by providing

empirical evidence for relevant constructs driving consumer disengagement from the brand’s social media pages Secondly, Tri Dinh Dinh Le (2018) under the title :

"Influence of WOM and content type on online engagement in consumption communities: The information flow from discussion forums to Facebook" examined

the impact of word-of-mouth types, WOM valence, content types and discussion topics of user posts on online engagement in two channels of a consumption community

With a large number of Facebook users, retail brands in Ho Chi Minh City can attract millions of customers to join their Fanpages However, little is known about what motivates customers to engage with brands and to buy products and services through social media in general and Facebook in particular In spite of the

explosive popularity of Facebook, there is limited research that examines the drivers

of customer-brand engagement in this site A better understanding of customer engagement through this social media site is needed While many studies focus on consumer social media behaviour and how consumers engage and purchase via internet channels like the company's website, limited research has assessed what factors influence customers’ engagement with retail brands through Facebook

Therefore, the author chooses the topic: "Customer engagement with retail brands

on Facebook: An empirical study in Ho Chi Minh City" has a great implication in

theory and reality

1.2 OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The thesis aims to identify the determinants of customer engagement and proposes solutions to attract customer engagement to retail brands’s Fanpages in Ho Chi Minh City Therefore, this research is pivoted on the following objectives:

- To identify factors that affect the customer engagement with retail brands through Fanpages in Ho Chi Minh City

- To measure the impact of above factors on the customer engagement with retail brands through Fanpages in Ho Chi Minh City

- To propose solutions for retail brands to improve customer engagement on Facebook in Ho Chi Minh City

To gain the goals of the study, the following questions need to be answered :

- Question 1: What are the determinants of customer engagement with retail brands through Facebook in Ho Chi Minh City?

- Question 2: How do these factors influence the customer engagement with retail brands through Facebook in Ho Chi Minh City?

- Question 3: Which solutions are to attract customer engagement with retail brands via Facebook in Ho Chi Minh City?

1.3 SUBJECTS AND SCOPES OF THE STUDY

Subjects of the Research

Subjects of the Research are customer engagement with retail brands

through Facebook in Ho Chi Minh City and factors that affect the customer engagement with retail brands through Facebook in Ho Chi Minh City

Scopes of the Study

In terms of the space: the survey is conducted within Ho Chi Minh City As mentioned above, Ho Chi Minh City is the largest, most developed city in Vietnam and has the highest number of Facebook users in Vietnam Moreover, the author is living in Ho Chi Minh City, because of limited time and budget, the author decided

to focus on surveying and researching in this area only

In terms of the time: The data was collected from the beginning of November 2019 to the end of December 2019

1.4 THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The study combines two qualitative and quantitative methods

Qualitative method

The author applies qualitative methods to build scales and research models through the reference and inheritance of previous theories and related research Through synthesizing the results of the previous relevant studies, the author use the survey tool Google form to create e-survey questionairs and sent them directly to Mesenger of Facebook user living in Ho Chi Minh City to collect data for analysis

Quantitative method

The techniques used to analyze the relationship and the impact of factors on customer engagement are Descriptive analysis, Cronbach’s Alpha, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) through SPSS software version 23 and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through AMOS software version 24

1.5 CONTRIBUTIONS OF RESEARCH

Academic significance

In terms of theory, the thesis has systematized the theoretical basis as well

as previous studies related to the influence level of factors on the customer engagement with retail brands through Facebookin the most recent time The thesis has considered the impact of factors on the attitude of customer engagement with retail brands through Facebookin Ho Chi Minh City The thesis has identified the appropriate model by considering the characteristics of Vietnam in general and Ho Chi Minh City in particular to assess the influence level of factors on the attitude of customer engagement with retail brands through Facebook

Practical significance

In terms of practice, the thesis has proposed solutions and recommendations

for policies to improve user engagement with retailers Since then, retailers will

have more strategies to attract customers

of the study about the customer engagement with retail brands through Facebookin

Ho Chi Minh City

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the author presents definitions related to customer engagement as well as synthesizes theoretical perspectives and previous researches about the factors affecting the customer engagement with retail brands through Facebook

CHAPTER 3: THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter indicates the contents about the research design, methods of sampling and data collection, as well as establishing the research model and making hypothesis about the relationship between variables

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS

This chapter analyzes the empirical results of factors affecting the customer engagement Quantitative analysis is used to describe survey samples, analyze relationships between variables as well as test hypotheses Finally, the research discuss and review the research results

CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS This final chapter summarizes the research content, from which a number of solutions will be proposed to improve customer engagement with retail brands through Facebookin Ho Chi Minh City

CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 1

In the first chapter, the thesis has stated the necessity of the topic as well as specifically defined objectives, objects and scopes of the research In addition, a number of new contributions of the thesis towards the customer engagement are also clearly shown in this chapter

LITERATURE REVIEW CHAPTER 2

2.1 IMPORTANT CONCEPTS

2.1.1 Customer engagement

Brand engagement can be as simple as a mention on social media or an email being opened, while others class the act of buying a product or service as the only sign of engagement (Mindi Chahal, 2016)

Digiday, an online trade magazine for online media founded in 2008 by Nick Friese, reached out to agency and brand execs, asking them for their definition of engagement The results provide some of the definition of “brand

engagement”: Engagement is the discovery and exchange of shared values and

interests (Linda Boff, global executive director of digital, advertising and design,

2012) Another definition is that for our marketing campaigns, engagement may mean likes, or shares or comments But then for our educational series, views may

be the engagement Similarly, a study in Spain by Mario Castellanos-Verdugo et al (2014) also showed that customer engagement on Fanpages consits of one or more activities such as like, sharing, commenting Customer-brand engagement has become an important concept for research in the marketing and retailing literature (Brodie et al., 2011; France et al., 2016; Graffigna and Gambetti, 2015; Hollebeek, 2011)

Customer engagement with retail brands social media as behavioural manifestations that lead customers to continue communicating with retail firms and thereby resulting in purchase intentions By engaging with retail brands through social media, customers can add value to these brands by generating content, becoming advocates or by influencing other customers’ purchase behaviour through electronic word of mouth (Bruhn et al., 2012; Kozinets et al., 2010)

In general, brand engagement is all about connecting and creating closer relationships between retailers and customers Retailers can be attracted by creating compelling ideas and useful content that people want to share In this study, the

concept of "customer engagement" is the most important This is the concept and also the main research purpose of the author The metrics continue to solidify over time, and there is no one answer to all programs (Scott Gulbransen, director of social business strategy, H&R Block, 2012)

2.1.2 Intention

Intentions have been defined in The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as the amount of effort one is willing to exert to attain a goal (Ajzen, 1991), "behavioural plans that enable attainment of a behavioural goal" (Ajzen, 1996), or simply "proximal goals" (Bandura, 1997) In The Theory of Reasoned Action, intention is influenced by people's attitude toward performing the behaviour and the subjective norm However, the level of perceived control is believed to be influential on people's behavioural intention along with their attitude and subjective norms, according to The Theory of Planned Behaviour Not surprisingly, in most studies, intention is driven by attitudes to a greater extent than by subjective norms (Eagly, Chaiken, 1993)

Intention is a mental state that represents a commitment to carrying out an action or actions in the future Intention involves mental activities such as planning and forethought (Bratman,1987) An intentional action is a function to accomplish a desired goal and is based on the belief that the course of action will satisfy a desire (Malle, Bertram, Joshua, 1997)

In essence, intentions can be conceived of as goal states in the expectancy value tradition that are the result of a conscious process that takes time, requires some deliberation, and focuses on consequences (Loewenstein, Weber, Hsee and Welch, 2001)

Psychological research suggests that understanding intentions of others may

be a prerequisite for a higher-level understanding of other people's minds or theory

of mind (Blakemore,Decety, 2001) Understanding intention is thought to be pivotal

in understanding social contexts in numerous ways (Feinfield, Kristin, Patti,

Eleanor, Frances, Flavell, John, 1999), especially in the context of e-commerce today

Many studies have demonstrated that intention has a great influence on behaviour, especially here is the brand engagement behaviour of customer Therefore, intention is considered as one of the important concepts that should be considered in this study

2.1.3 Attitude

In psychology, attitude is a psychological construct, a mental and emotional entity that inheres in, or characterizes a person (Richard, 2016).They are complex and are an acquired state through experiences It is an individual's predisposed state

of mind regarding a value and it is precipitated through a responsive expression towards a person, place, thing, or event which in turn influences the individual's thought and action Attitude can be formed from a person's past and present (Allport, Gordon, 1935)

Adcording to Jung and Carl G (1971), attitudes very often come in pairs, one conscious and the other unconscious, as follow:

Consciousness and the unconscious

Extraversion and introversion

Rational and irrational attitudes

Individual and social attitudes

The attitude of a person is determined by psychological factors like ideas, values, beliefs, perception, etc All these have a complex role in determining a person's attitude(Maio & Olson, 1998) Attitude is “a latent disposition or tendency

to respond with some degree of favorableness or favorableness to a psychological object” (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010), which refers to the positive or negative evaluation of the outcome associated with performing a given behaviour Hung et al.(2016) demonstrated that attitude was the most important determinant for the purchasing intention Therefore, understanding the concept of "attitude" is

extremely important for this study because this is one of the factors that are thought

to greatly influence customer engagement behaviour

2.1.4 Facebook marketing

According to bigcommerce, a company dedicated to helping brands create the best commercial platform on the market, Facebookmarketing is the practice of promoting a brand and maintaining its presence on Facebook Facebook marketing refers to both organic free postings/interactions, and paid, or "boosted" posts Drawing more than 1.4 billion users every month, Facebookis one of the most important mediums for generating brand awareness and interacting with customers

Facebookis a consumer-oriented network (Palmer and Koenig-Lewis, 2009) Because Facebookis consumer-oriented, this affects the way that users perceive Facebookand the ethical standards that they demand from the service

A previous study from 2009 shows that more than half of Facebook users have clicked on a company’s Facebookpage, and that 16 percent of them had sent a message to a company (Palmer and Koenig-Lewis, 2009)

In this research, the author chooses to study customer engagement behaviour

on retailers's Fanpages Thus, understanding marketing on Facebookis an extremely important platform

2.2 THEORETICAL MODELS

2.2.1 The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)

The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) was developed by Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen as an improvement over Information Integration theory (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) suggests that a person’s behaviour is determined by their intention to perform the behaviour and that this intention is, in turn, a function of their attitude toward the behaviour and subjective norms (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) TRA aims to explain the relationship between attitudes and behaviours within human action It is mainly used to predict how individuals will behave based on their pre-existing attitudes and behavioural

intentions An individual's decision to engage in a particular behaviour is based on the outcomes the individual expects will come as a result of performing the behaviour (wikipedia).Additionally, behaviour is determined by an intention to perform such behaviour because people, in general, behave as they intend to do, within the available context and time (Constanza Bianchi, 2017)

The best predictor of behaviour is intention or instrumentality (belief that the behaviour will lead to the intended outcome) Instrumentality is determined by three things: their attitude toward the specific behaviour, their subjective norms, and their perceived behavioural control The more favorable the attitude and the subjective norms and the greater the perceived control, the stronger the person’s intention to perform the behaviour (Barry G Silverman, Samuel Lim, 2016)

TRA is based on the premise that individuals make logical, reasoned decisions to engage in specific behaviours by evaluating the information available

to them The performance of a behaviour is determined by the individual’s intention

to engage in it (influenced by the value the individual places on the behaviour, the ease with which it can be performed and the views of significant others) and the perception that the behaviour is within his/her control (Sarah Ryan, Alison Carr, 2010)

According to TRA, if people evaluate the suggested behaviour as positive (attitude) and if they think others want them to perform the behaviour (subjective norm), this results in a higher intention (motivation) and they are more likely to perform the behaviour However, results of some studies gesture to a limitation of this theory: behavioural intention does not always lead to actual behaviour (Matthew J Mimiaga, Steven A Safren, 2009)

The main purpose of TRA is to understand an individual's voluntary behaviour by examining the basic motivation for taking an action Although the attitude and subjective norms have an impact on the intention to behaviour , TRA did not mention a number of environmental factors and circumstances that

contribute to limiting behaviour such as income and natural disasters In the retail sector, the same product and the buyers' perception of the product, but the factors of content, presentation, etc actually contribute to the customers's engaging behaviour

TRA is most successful when applied to behaviours that are under an individual’s voluntary control If behaviours are not fully under voluntary control, even though individuals may be highly motivated by their own attitudes and subjective norms, they may not actually perform the behaviour due to intervening environmental conditions (Keiba L Shaw, 2016)

2.2.2 The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is an information systems theory that models how users come to accept and use a technology Based on The Theory of Reasoned Action, Davis ( 1989 ) developed The Technology Acceptance Model which deals more specifically with the prediction of the acceptability of an information system The purpose of this model is to predict the acceptability of a tool and to identify the modifications which must be brought to the system in order

to make it acceptable to users (wikipedia)

Davis develops technology acceptance model to determine factors that influence the acceptance of technology Two most important individual beliefs about using information technology are perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived

Figure 2.1 The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) model

Source: Fishbein & Ajzen (1975)

ease of use (PEOU) that are able to explain individual’s intention to use the technology Davis concluded that perceived usefulness was the strongest predictor

to one’s intention to use an information technology (Angela Lee Siew Hoong, Lip Sam Thi and Mei-Hua Lin, 2017)

TAM has been the subject of numerous studies in the field of information systems for nearly two decades and has been supported by a number of studies TAM suggests that when users are introduced to a new technology, their decisions about how and when they will use it are determined by assessing their beliefs, attitudes, and intentions (Davis, 1989)

A number of meta-analyzes of the TAM have proved that it is a valid, robust and powerful learning model Lederer, Maupin, Sena and Zhuang (2000) have documented more than 15 published studies examining the existing relationships between ease of use awareness, perceived usefulness, and attitude towards use and use Apply information technology for a period of 10 years (from 1989) to 1999) The results of these studies support the use of TAM as a model to predict or explain the use of different technologies (Moreno Cegarra, J L., Cegarra Navarro, J G., & Córdoba Pachón, J R., 2014)

TAM is a theoretical model used in different contexts to help understand and explain the use of information technology (King and He, 2006)

Actual System Use

Figure 2.2 The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

Source: Davis (1989 )

2.3 PREVIOUS EMPIRICAL STUDIES

Factors affecting purchases through social networks, especially the Facebook, are always a hot topic that attracts the attention of researchers Among them are a number of studies focusing on the brand engagement of customers on Facebook Through the previous literature, there were many different views related

to the research on this issue and the factors affecting brand engagement of customers

Bianchi, C And Andrews, L (2018), under the title: "Consumer engagement with retail firms through social media: an empirical study in Chile" (

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol 46 No 4, pp 385) This study draws on the theory of reasoned action and The Technology Acceptance Model to develop a model of consumer-brand social media engagement and purchase intentions The findings provide an understanding of the main drivers

364-of consumer-brand engagement that can lead to purchase intentions Results show that consumers’ attitudes toward engaging with retail brands through Facebookare influenced by peer communication, compatibility and credibility, and that attitude has a strong influence on intentions toward this behaviour Furthermore, there is a strong relationship between intentions to engage and the likelihood of purchasing through a retail brand’s Facebookpage

A group of four authors including Paul Harrigan, Uwana Evers, Morgan

Miles and Timothy Daly (2017) have studied the topic "Customer engagement with tourism social media brands" (Tourism Management, 59, 597–609) They replicate

previous relevent structural model, and test their alternative model, to predict the behavioural intention of loyalty from engagement, and to test customer involvement

as an antecedent to engagement Ultimately, they propose a customer engagement scale and a nomological framework for customer engagement, both of which can be applied in both tourism and non-tourism contexts This study aim to help managers

of tourism brands on social to better assess the nature of customer engagement The research model includes five latent factors of CE structural model with behavioural

intention of loyalty: interaction, absorption, enthusiasm, identification, attention; one mediator variable: customer engagement; one dependent variable: behavioural intention of loyalty They found there to be three dimensions of customer engagement: Absorption, Identification and Interaction

Sim, M And Plewa, C (2017) with the topic: "Customer engagement with

a service provider and context: an empirical examination" (Journal of Service

Theory and Practice, Vol 27 No 4, pp 854-876) This study takes another view to consider customer engagement with multiple focal objects (service provider and context) Engagement with the service provider can drive engagement with the context In turn, engagement with the service provider can be stimulated through the use of engagement platforms that enable customer-to-service provider interactions The results show limited effects of customer-to-customer engagement platforms on engagement with the context though The results are consistent across gender and student grade levels; some differences arise between international and domestic students

Lin, S., Yang, S., Ma, M And Huang, J (2018) under the title: "Value creation on social media: Examining the relationship between brand engagement and display advertising effectiveness for Chinese hotels" (International Journal of

co-Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol 30 No 4, pp 2153-2174) The paper aims to identify two forms of brand engagement via social media platforms – consumer-initiated engagement and firm-initiated engagement – and to examine their effects on hotels’ display advertising effectiveness The findings of the study indicate that both forms of brand engagement on social media network sites positively influence display advertising effectiveness Moreover, for a strong brand, consumer-initiated engagement is more influential in increasing display advertising effectiveness; however, for a weak brand, firm-initiated engagement gains more clicks and conversions from advertiSEMents

Florenthal, B (2019) with the topic: "Young consumers‟ motivational drivers of brand engagement behaviour on social media sites: A synthesized U&G

and TAM framework" (Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol 13 No 3,

pp 351-391) A comprehensive operational framework is proposed to explain young consumers’ (i.e Generations Y and Z) engagement with brands on social media sites (smss) This paper aims to synthesize two motivational theories: uses and gratifications (U&G) theory and The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) After a review of a significant number of U&G and TAM studies, similarities and differences of the two theories were identified, and an integrated operational framework was developed Based on empirical findings of existing U&G and TAM studies, testable propositions were presented

While consumer engagement with social media has received much attention from practitioners and academics, a research gap exists around the “dark side” of consumer engagement in which consumers can disengage from their relationship with brand on social media This disengagement can lead ultimately to the termination of the relationship between the consumer and the brand In Vietnam, Long Thang Van Nguyen, Rajkishore Nayak, Jerry Watkins, Phuong Ngoc Duy

Nguyen (2019) with the topic: “Drivers of social media disengagement: a study of young consumers in Vietnam”, contributes to marketing literature by providing

empirical evidence for relevant constructs driving consumer disengagement from the brand’s social media pages Results reveal that perceived credibility (PC) is the main driver of social media disengagement (SMD) Moreover, perceived anonymity (PA), social media experiences (smes) and subjective norms (SN) are indirectly related to social media disengagement (SMD) via perceived credibility (PC)

Le, T (2018) under the title : "Influence of WOM and content type on online engagement in consumption communities: The information flow from discussion forums to Facebook " (Online Information Review, Vol 42 No 2, pp 161-175)

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of word-of-mouth (WOM) types, WOM valence, content types and discussion topics of user posts on online engagement in two channels of a consumption community The results indicate that the WOM types and valence have a significant impact on online engagement and

the popularity of posts on Facebookis associated with the number of views on a discussion forum The content type and discussion topic partially influence some factors of the online engagement metrics

Most customer research on social media is limited to investigating cognitive variables (e.g., perceived usefulness) as a motivation for the intention to engage in social media There is a small study examining emotional variables (e.g., enjoyment) or social variables (peer communication) (Constanza Bianchi, Lynda Andrews, 2017) Consequently, this study seeks to investigate the perceived factors, emotions and relationships that may affect attitudes and intentions In addition, there is quite little empirical research in Ho Chi Minh City, so the author wants to apply this research model to learn about customer engagement in this area

2.4 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR THIS STUDY

Through the gathered theory that is presented above, the author have created

a conceptual framework (Figure 2.3) that demonstrates how the study will be

conducted The chosen factors of importance that are related to customer engagement in this study are: Peer Communication, Compatibility, Credibility, Perceived Usefulness, Enjoyment, Attitude, Intention

CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 2

In this chapter, the thesis summarizes basic definitions and theories as well

as an overview of previous studies related to this topic There is very little research

in Vietnam on this topic and very few researches on the retail market in Ho Chi Minh City Therefore, the author also determined that the study focused on identifying and assessing the impact of these factors on customer engagement through retailers' Fanpages in Ho Chi Minh City

to engage

Intention

Customer engagement

Figure 2.3 Conceptual Framework for this study

Source: The summary of author

THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CHAPTER 3

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

3.1.1 The research procedure

With the research objectives mentioned in Chapter 1, the thesis has set up the research procedure to be carried out with the following 6 basic steps:

- Identify issues, subjects, scope and time of research related to factors affecting customer engagement with retail brands on Facebook in Ho Chi Minh City

- Refer to and understand concepts as well as relevant theoretical points of view, synthesize and review previous studies in the country and around the world related to factors affecting customer engagement with retail brands on Facebook in

Ho Chi Minh City to identify gaps of previous studies

- Inheriting and developing research assumptions, thereby establishing a research model based on those hypotheses, creating survey questionnaire

- Collect data from the questionnaire on the basis of variables in the model

- Processing, analyzing and examining the survey results based on the SPSS and AMOS software, then discussing the research results and comparing with the results from previous studies

- Based on the results of analysis, discussion and propose a number of solutions for retailers on Facebook to attract customer engagement to their Fanpages

Figure 3.1 The Research Procedure

3.1.2 Subjects of the Survey

The survey subjects are Facebookusers living in Ho Chi Minh City who have previously followed at least once or knew a retail brand’s Facebookpage The reason for choosing these people is because they are people who know how to use Facebookand engage on Fanpages of retailers Although someone only engage at least once, they are still the ones who pay the most attention to the factors that influence their decision to participate in those sites Therefore, the survey results will be more reliable

The author decided that Facebookwould be the most suitable social media

platform for this study for the following reasons: statistics show that globally, this is one of the most popular site and dominate high rates worldwide, with 2 billion active users worldwide, representing almost 40 percent of the global online population (Statista, 2017); Ho Chi Minh City had about 14 million users, ranking

in the top 6 cities with the largest number of Facebookusers in the world (Ha Phuong, 2017); on the other hand, Facebook is one of the largest online shopping channels of Vietnamese people, out of all users who shop online in Ho Chi Minh,

Determining issues,

subjects, scope and

time of research

Finding definitions, relevant theoretical background and gaps of previous studies

Building research hypotheses, inheriting and establishing research models

Collecting data

from the questionnaire on

the basis of

variables in the

model

Analysing colleted data (using SPSS and AMOS software)

Discussing the research results and proposing some policies

Source: The summary of author

17% even mention that they prefer to shop on social media than e-commerce

websites in general (Hanh Nguyen, 2019)

3.1.3 Sampling Methods

Turning to sample size, for complex models such as Structural equation

modeling (SEM), the sample size needs to be at some level so that the test indicators reach the threshold and are statistically significant (Pham Loc, 2019)

According to Hair et al., “Multivariate Data Analysis”, 2010, 7th edition, p.574, the

appropriate sample size will be determined based on factor groups, namely:

- The minimum sample size is 100-number of factor groups of 5 or fewer, each group must have more than 3 observed variables

- The minimum sample size is 150-number of factor groups of 7 or fewer, each group must have more than 3 observed variables

- The minimum sample size is 500-number of large factor groups, each group must have more than 3 observed variable

In addition, to implement EFA and multivariate linear regression models, the minimum sample size is 100 and the observed/ variable ratio is usually 5: 1, ie with 1 variable requiring at least 5 observations (Nguyen Dinh Tho, 2011) Opponents of this can say that the observed/ variable ratio is from 2: 1 to 20: 1 (Velicer & Fava, 1998, followed by Nguyen Bich Lien, 2012) In this study, due to time and budget constraints, the author chose an observed/ variable ratio is 3: 1, ie for 26 observed variables, the samples collected were 78 units, but to ensure a minimum number of samples for EFA and Structural equation modeling (SEM), the sample size for this study is about 300

3.1.4 Scale of research design

As mentioned above, this study is inherited from the study of two authors Constanza Bianchi, Lynda Andrew (2017) with the title: "Consumer engagement with retail firms through social media: an empirical study in Chile" The reason is that the author noticed the similarity in the percentage of Facebook users in Chile and Ho Chi Minh City Moreover, with a limited amount of knowledge and time, it

is reasonable to inherit the researches of previous authors to apply it to the real situation in Ho Chi Minh City In this study, the majority of the scales of the variables are inherited from Constanza Bianchi, Lynda Andrew (2017) and some other authors There are a few scales edited by the author to better suit users and context in Ho Chi Minh City

Therefore, the research model of the thesis is made up of 8 independent variables: Compatibility (CO), Peperceived usefulness (PU), Credibility (CR), Enjoyment (EN), Peer communication (PC); 2 Mediator variable: Attitude (AT), Intentions to engage (IN); 1 dependent variable: Customer engagement (CE)

The research uses Likert scale at 5 levels: (1) Strongly disagree, (2) Disagree, (3) Normal, (4) Agree and (5) Strongly agree Based on the theoretical background in Chapter 2, the scale are specifically built as follow:

Table 3.1 Scale of research

Dependent variable Scale of “Consumers engagement with retail brands through Facebook(CE)” CE1 I have liked the Fanpages and/ or the

posts of at least one retail brand

5-Point Likert Scale

Harrigan, Evers, Miles

& Daly (2017) Bianchi& Andrews (2017)

CE2 I have commented under the post of at

least one retail brand on their Fanpages

CE3 I have shared the Fanpages of at least

one retail brand on Facebook

Mediator variable Scale of “Intentions to engage with retail brands through Facebook (IN)” IN1

I plan to continue to like, share and

comment on the retail brands's

Fanpages

5-Point Likert

Scale

Bratman (1987) (Davis, 1989) (Ajzen, 1991) Bianchi & Andrews

(2017)

IN2

I was thinking of continuing to like,

share and comment on the retail

brands's Fanpages

IN3

I hope I will continue to like, share and

comment on the retail brands's

Fanpages in the future

Scale of “Attitude towards engaging with retail brands through Facebook

(AT)”

AT1

I am favorable about visiting /

participating in like, share, comment on

retail brands's Fanpages

5-Point Likert Scale

Ajzen, Albarracin (2007) Fishbein (1967) Bianchi & Andrews

(2017)

AT2

Visiting / participating in like, share,

comment on retail brands's Fanpages is

a good idea

AT3

I am positive about visiting /

participating in likes, sharing,

commenting on retail brands's Fanpages

Independent variable Scale of “Perceived usefulness (PU)”

PU1 Using retail brands’s Fanpages enables

me to accomplish tasks more quickly

5-Point Likert Scale

Venkatesh et al (2003) Bianchi & Andrews

(2017)

PU2

Using retail brands’s Fanpages enables

me to accomplish transactions more

quickly

PU3 Using retail brands’s Fanpages

increases my productivity and makes

my life easier

Scale of “Compatibility (CO)”

CO1 Using retail brands’s Fanpages is

compatible with my Facebooklifestyle

5-Point Likert Scale

Rogers (2003) Shih and Fang (2004) Taylor and Todd (1995) Bianchi & Andrews

(2017)

CO2 Using retail brands’s Fanpages fits well

with my needs when using Facebook

CO3

Using retail brands’s Fanpages is

compatible with my need of online

services

Scale of “Enjoyment (EN)”

EN1

Reading and interacting on writting

posts in retail brands's Fanpages gives

me pleasure

5-Point Likert Scale

Kang and Lee (2010) Lin and Lu (2011) Bianchi & Andrews

(2017)

EN2 Interacting with people in retail

brands's Fanpages makes me happy

EN3

Fanpages become more interesting

thanks to the interaction between

customers and between customers and

retailers

Scale of “Credibility (CR)”

CR1 I think that retail brands on

Facebookgenerally fulfill their promises

5-Point Likert Scale

Eastlick et al (2006) Gefen et al.(2003) Pavlou và Fygenson

(2006) Bianchi & Andrews

(2017)

CR2 I feel that I can trust the information on

retail brands’s Fanpages

CR3 Retail brands rarely make false claims

Scale of “Peer communication (PC)”

PC1 I talk to my Facebookfriends about the

fapages I participated in

5-Point Likert Scale

Cheung and Lee (2010) Baker and White (2010) Park et al.( 2015) Bianchi & Andrews

(2018)

PC2 My Facebookfriends encourage me to

join the Fanpages they engaged

PC3 I encourage my Facebookfriends to join

the Fanpages I participated in

PC4 I ask my Facebookfriends to participate

in the Fanpages that I participated in

Source: The summary of author

3.1.5 The questionnaire design

Based on the scale designed, the author conduct the questionnaire including

2 steps Firstly, the preliminary questionnaire will be based on the research objectives and the mentioned scale, and be pre-tested with a sample of 20 people, which resulted in minor changes in wording to some questions to improve meaning After the preliminary survey, the revised final ones will be sent to the survey participants, including 3 sections, as follow:

Part 1 is a General information section displaying the information related to Demographic information of respondents such as Name, Gender, Age, Marital status, Number of children, Highest level of education, Main occupation, Monthly income, Monthly expenses

Part 2 is Statistical information section that provides basic information about Facebook behaviour of respondents

Part 3 is a survey of Factors that affect the customer engagement with retail brands through Facebook in Ho Chi Minh City

In order to facilitate the collection and processing of data, observed variables are encoded corresponding to each influencing factor The questionnaire structure can be described briefly in Table 3.9 below (Detailed questionnaire is

presented in Appendix 1):