Cultivating the brand-customer relationship in Facebook fan pages: a study of fast- fashion industry

Purpose: The study is to examine determinants of continuous brand-customer relationship via company-hosted SNSs (social networking sites). Factors that influence fans to continue using fast-fashion brands' Facebook fan pages and to maintain the brand-customer relationship are firstly discussed. Subsequently, predictors of fans' engagement and affective commitment to a fast-fashion brand are examined with aim to explore key elements which nurture brand-customer relationship via brands' SNSs.
Design/methodology/approach: Quantitative research was conducted and structural equation modeling was used, to test the hypotheses on a sample of 202 fast-fashion Facebook fan-page users in Taiwan.
Findings: Results demonstrate that engagement, affective commitment and continued intention to use are predominantly influenced by, in turn, social interaction tie, content value and affective commitment.
Research limitations/implications: The study is limited because it investigated the fast-fashion fan page users in on Asian country, so the findings cannot be generalised to other contexts.
Practical implications: Our findings suggest fan page managers' initiation and involvement in conversations, frequent responses, listening to fans' opinions, and improving fans' experiential value may facilitate them to engage in the brand's activities at a higher level.
Originality/value: Findings of this integrated model suggest managerial guidelines for brand managers in this industry regarding how to maintain the brand-customer relationship through social media strategy and they contribute to theory building in continuance intention of SNSs.

This is the accepted version of the manuscript "Cultivating the brand-customer relationship in Facebook fan pages: a study of fast- fashion industry", forthcoming/published in the journal "International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management" available via the journal site at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-05-2016-0076
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