Customer Engagement and Sharing Behaviors–Model Inventory

Abstract

The Customer Engagement and Sharing Behaviors–Model (Taylor et al., 2023) is a psychological instrument developed to analyze the complex relationship between consumer involvement and content dissemination within online brand communities (OBCs), specifically focusing on Facebook brand pages in the United States. The central hypothesis tested by this model was the existence of a negative quadratic nonlinear relationship, suggesting that excessive levels of Customer Engagement (CE) might eventually lead to a decline in Sharing Behavior Intention (SBI).

The items comprising this measurement model were adapted from established scales in the literature (Carlson et al., 2019; Jahn and Kunz, 2012; So et al., 2016; and Labrecque, 2014). The resulting 23-item scale was administered to a sample of Facebook OBC users, and the subsequent study provided comprehensive evidence regarding its robust factor structure, reliability, and validity across multiple dimensions.

Keywords

Customer Engagement, Online Brand Communities, Perceived Innovativeness, Perceived Interactivity, Sharing Behavior Intention, Social Media, Brand Names, Consumer Attitudes, Consumer Behavior, Creativity, Digital Marketing, Consumer Measures, Behavioral Intention, Online Community.

Authors

Taylor, Alex, Carlson, Jamie, Liao, Yi-Chuan, Rahman, Mohammad M.

Purpose

The primary purpose of this measurement model is twofold: first, to comprehensively assess the multifaceted effects of customer engagement and sharing behaviors in digital contexts; and second, to specifically investigate a potential negative quadratic nonlinear relationship between increasing levels of customer engagement (CE) and the resultant sharing behavior intention (SBI) among consumers active within online brand communities (OBCs).

This focus on the curvilinear relationship suggests that engagement is beneficial up to a point, after which consumer fatigue or over-exposure may lead to a reduction in their willingness to share brand-related content. The model provides a validated framework for digital marketers to measure and manage engagement levels effectively.

Construct

The Customer Engagement and Sharing Behaviors–Model Inventory is a multi-dimensional scale that measures four primary constructs and five sub-constructs related to consumer interaction within digital platforms. The total measure includes 23 items.

The constructs measured are:

• Perceived Innovativeness: A measure of how new, unique, and different the OBC content or experience is perceived to be by the user.
• Perceived Interactivity: The extent to which users feel they can easily communicate and receive responses from the brand within the OBC environment.
• Customer Engagement (CE): This is measured through five distinct sub-dimensions:
  • Enthusiasm (Emotional connection and passion).
  • Attention (Focus and cognitive effort directed toward the brand content).
  • Absorption (A state of deep immersion or ‘flow’ when interacting with the OBC).
  • Interaction (Active participation and membership).
  • Identification (The degree to which the user feels a personal connection to the brand community).
• Sharing Behavior Intention (SBI): The consumer’s stated likelihood of distributing, liking, or commenting on the brand’s OBC content in the future.

Validity

The validation process for the scale provided strong evidence supporting its psychometric rigor across multiple dimensions.

Content Validity: Initial analysis indicated that one specific item loaded below the desired threshold of 0.70 (with a value of 0.66). Although this item was initially considered for deletion and a hierarchical regression model was re-run to confirm that the overall hypotheses remained unchanged, the item was ultimately retained in the final instrument to ensure comprehensive content coverage and representation of the intended domain.

Convergent and Discriminant Validity: Convergent validity was confirmed as all Average Variances Extracted (AVE) exceeded the recommended threshold of 0.50 (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988; Fornell & Larcker, 1981). Furthermore, strong evidence of discriminant validity was established, given that the Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio of Correlations (HTMT) values were consistently below the conservative benchmark of 0.90 (Henseler et al., 2015).

Reliability

The reliability of the Customer Engagement and Sharing Behaviors–Model was verified through established statistical measures focused on internal consistency. Both Cronbach’s alpha and Composite Reliability (CR) values for all constructs surpassed the generally accepted academic threshold of 0.70 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981; Hair et al., 2006; Netemeyer et al., 2003), confirming that the scale items consistently measure their respective latent constructs.

Factor Analysis

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): A CFA was conducted on the four-construct Customer Engagement model to assess the fit of the measurement structure to the empirical data. The results demonstrated a good overall model fit, evidenced by favorable fit indices (χ²/d.f. = 1,292.46/224, RMSEA = 0.10, CFI = 0.98, IFI = 0.98, RFI = 0.98). All items, with the exception of one, loaded significantly onto their designated latent construct, exhibiting satisfactory lambda values exceeding 0.70.

Common Method Variance (CMV): Harman’s single-factor test was employed to assess potential CMV bias. The results of the single-factor model (χ² = 2009.49 with 230 degrees of freedom) showed a significantly worse fit compared to the hypothesized four-construct model (McFarlin and Sweeney, 1992). This collective evidence strongly suggested that common method variance was not a significant concern for the scale’s measurement integrity.

Instrument

Test Type: Original

Format: All items are rated on a 7-point Likert scale, typically ranging from 1 (“strongly disagree”) to 7 (“strongly agree”).

Language Available: English

Population Group: Human; Male; Female

Age Group: Adulthood (18 years and older)

Population Details:

• Location: United States
• Respondents: Social Media Users (specifically, users of Facebook Online Brand Communities)
• Mean Age: 39.34 Years

Test Methodology: Test Validity, Content Validity, Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity, Test Reliability, Internal Consistency, Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Measurement Model.

Keywords

Customer Engagement, Online Brand Communities, Perceived Innovativeness, Perceived Interactivity, Sharing Behavior Intention, Social Media, Consumer Measures, Curvilinear Relationships, Digital Marketing.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

Affiliation Email addresses:

• Taylor, Alex

  • Affiliation: University of Newcastle, Newcastle Business School
  • Email: [email protected]

• Carlson, Jamie

  • Affiliation: University of Newcastle, Newcastle Business School
  • Email: [email protected]

• Liao, Yi-Chuan

  • Affiliation: National Dong Hwa University in Hualien, Department of Business Administration
  • Email: [email protected]

• Rahman, Mohammad M.

  • Affiliation: Shippensburg University, John L. Grove College of Business, Department of Management/Marketing/Entrepreneurship
  • Email: No data is Available

Correspondence Address:

Liao, Yi-Chuan: National Dong Hwa University in Hualien, Department of Business Administration, Hualien, Taiwan, Province of China, [email protected]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: May use for Research/Teaching

Fee: No

Test Year: 2023

Reference’s

Taylor, A., Carlson, J., Liao, Y.-C., & Rahman, M. M. (2023). Customer engagement and sharing behaviors: Toward a contingent curvilinear perspective. Journal of Business Research, 154, Article 113284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.08.048

Items of the Customer Engagement and Sharing Behaviors–Model Inventory

This measure includes 23 items.

Constructs: Perceived Innovativeness; Perceived Interactivity; Customer Engagement (Enthusiasm; Attention; Absorption; Interaction; Identification); Sharing behavior intention.

Perceived Innovativeness (Carlson, et al., 2019)

• The online brand community (OBC) content is highly innovative compared with others that I have seen.

• The OBC delivers an innovative experience.

• The OBC offered a unique experience for customers that is different from those that other OBCs offer.

Perceived Interactivity (Jahn and Kunz, 2012)

• I can get answers from the brand on this OBC.

• I can interact easily with the brand on this OBC.

• I can communicate effectively with the brand on this OBC.

Customer Engagement (So et al., 2016)

Enthusiasm

• I love this OBC.

• I am enthusiastic about this OBC.

• I am passionate about this OBC.

Attention

• I pay a lot of attention to anything on this OBC.

• Anything related to this brand on the OBC grabs my attention.

• I like to learn more about this brand through the OBC.

Absorption

• When interacting with the OBC intensely, I feel happy.

• When interacting with the OBC, it is difficult to detach myself.

• When I am interacting with the OBC, I forget everything else around me.

Interaction

• I am an interacting member of this OBC community.

• I am an active member of this OBC community.

• I am a participating user of this OBC community.

Identification

• When someone criticizes this brand on the OBC, it feels like a personal insult.

• I am very interested in what others think about this OBC.

SBI (Labrecque, 2014)

• I will share this brand’s OBC content in the future.

• I intend to “like” this brand’s OBC content.

• I will comment on this brand’s OBC content in the future.

Note. All items are rated on a 7-point Likert scale (ranging from 1 “strongly disagree” to 7 “strongly agree”). Sharing Behavior Intention = SBI