Social Media Communication and Customer Loyalty with the Mediating Role of Social Customer Relationship in Retail Chain Stores in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The main aim of this study is to investigate the impact of social media communication on customer loyalty and social customer relationship and examine the mediating role of social customer relationship between social media communication and customer loyalty. An online survey was used to gather information from followers of retail chain store Facebook pages in Sri Lanka, total of 340 respondents were invited to collect the information. The proposed model was tested using structural equation modeling, and confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the reliability and validity. The main finding of this study is that the social media communication influences consumer loyalty and social customer relationships positively, while social customer relationships partially mediate the relationship between social media communication and customer loyalty among customers of retail chain stores in Sri Lanka. Retail chains use many marketing communication tools to attract and retain their customers, they should dedicate their effort to implement social media communication as one of the marketing communication media strategy for improved customer loyalty.

Keywords:Social media communication, social customer relationship, Customer loyalty, Marketing communication strategy

DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/13-14-09

Publication date:July 31^st 2021