Use of Social Networking Sites by SMEs to Engage With Their Customers: A Developing Country Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate use of Social Networking Sites by SMEs to engage with their customers. A conceptual framework is developed that tests the relationship between customer satisfaction, customer engagement and customer loyalty. This research adopts a quantitative approach where data is collected from 336 respondents. Analysis is performed using structural equation modeling. The empirical results show that customer satisfaction has a positive influence on customer loyalty. When customer engagement was modeled directly to customer loyalty, a positive relationship was found. The multi-dimensional nature of customer engagement is also confirmed by this study. This study highlights the value of social networks for SMEs and contributes to literature by testing the research model to better understand the research topic.

Keywords:

• Customer engagement
• customer loyalty
• customer satisfaction
• Fiji
• SME
• structural equation modeling