Although there is a considerable literature on word of mouth within the online brand community context, limited empirical work has examined the topic from the relationship marketing theoretical lens. The main purpose of this study is to conceptualize the relationships among perceived relationship benefit, relationship quality and word of mouth engagement in the hospitality brand online community context. This study proposes all of the three constructs are modeled as higher-order constructs that are reflected by a multitude first-order factor. Grounded on cognitive-affective-conative theory, this study intends to examine the mediating role of relationship quality on the effect between perceived relationship benefit and word of mouth engagement. This study conjectures the development of relationship quality is critical towards bridging perceived relationship benefit and word of mouth engagement. A quantitative research approach is proposed as the most suitable research paradigm to answer the research questions and hypotheses. Theoretically, this study intends to extend the application of the hierarchical component model in examining the member-brand relationship in an online brand community context. All latent constructs employed in the study are conceptualized as the higher-order component model. From a managerial standpoint, the findings may provide hospitality brand marketers with deeper insight into developing a relationship marketing strategy within the online brand community landscape.
Ahn, J., & Back, K. J. (2017). Influence of brand relationship on customer attitude toward integrated resort brands: a cognitive, affective, and conative perspective. Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, 1-12.
Amblee, N., & Bui, T. (2011). Harnessing the influence of social proof in online shopping: The effect of electronic word of mouth on sales of digital micro products. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 16(2), 91-114.
Barreda, A. A., Bilgihan, A., & Kageyama, Y. (2015). The role of trust in creating positive word of mouth and behavioral intentions: The case of online social networks. Journal of Relationship Marketing, 14(1), 16-36.
Buttle, F., & Groeger, L. (2017). Who says what to whom in what channel? A rules theoretic perspective on word-of-mouth marketing. Journal of Marketing Management, 1-25.
Chan, Y. Y., & Ngai, E. W. (2011). Conceptualizing electronic word of mouth activity: An input-process-output perspective. Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 29(5), 488-516.
Cheung, C. M., & Thadani, D. R. (2010). The Effectiveness of Electronic Word-of-Mouth Communication: A Literature Analysis. In Bled eConference (p. 18).
Cheung, C. M., Lee, M. K., & Rabjohn, N. (2008). The impact of electronic word-of-mouth: The adoption of online opinions in online customer communities. Internet research, 18(3), 229-247.
Dane, F. C. (2010). Evaluating research: Methodology for people who need to read the research. Sage.
Duffy, A. (2015). Friends and fellow travelers: comparative influence of review sites and friends on hotel choice. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 6(2), 127-144.
Erevelles, S. (1998). The role of effect in marketing. Journal of Business Research, 42(3), 199-215.
Eyl, S. (2013). Study on Facebook engagement and interaction rates. Retrieved from http://blog.fanpagekarma.com/2013/02/13/facebook-engagement-interaction-rates/
Fletcher, G. J., Simpson, J. A., & Thomas, G. (2000). The measurement of perceived relationship quality components: A confirmatory factor analytic approach. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(3), 340-354.
Fournier, S. (1998). Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research. Journal of Consumer Research, 24(3), 343-373.
Gilchrist, A. (2016). Industry 4.0: the industrial Internet of things. Apress, New York.
Goldenberg, J., Libai, B., & Muller, E. (2001). Talk of the network: A complex systems look at the underlying process of word-of-mouth. Marketing Letters, 12(3), 211-223.
Grégoire, Y., & Fisher, R. J. (2006). The effects of relationship quality on customer retaliation. Marketing Letters, 17(1), 31-46.
Groeger, L., & Buttle, F. (2014). Word-of-mouth marketing influence on offline and online communications: Evidence from case study research. Journal of Marketing Communications, 20(1-2), 21-41.
Hair, J. F., Hult, T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2017a). A Primer on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. 2nd Edition. Thousand Oakes: Sage.
Hennig-Thurau, T., Gwinner, K. P., & Gremler, D. D. (2002). Understanding relationship marketing outcomes: an integration of relational benefits and relationship quality. Journal of service research, 4(3), 230-247.
Hennig?Thurau, T., Gwinner, K. P., Walsh, G., & Gremler, D. D. (2004). Electronic word?of?mouth via consumer?opinion platforms: What motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the Internet? Journal of Interactive Marketing, 18(1), 38-52.
Hudson, S., Roth, M. S., Madden, T. J., & Hudson, R. (2015). The effects of social media on emotions, brand relationship quality, and word of mouth: An empirical study of music festival attendees. Tourism Management, 47, 68-76.
Hussain, S., Ahmed, W., Jafar, R. M. S., Rabnawaz, A., Akhtar, H., & Jianzhou, Y. (2016). Electronic word of mouth communications and consumer's information adoption on the Internet. In Computer Communication and the Internet (ICCCI), 2016 IEEE International Conference on Computer Communic
In-Text Citation: (Ngelambong, Ariffin, Kibat, Rani, & Ahmad, 2018)
To Cite this Article: Ngelambong, A., Ariffin, H. F., Kibat, S., Rani, Z. M., & Ahmad, J. A. (2018). The Interplay between Relationship Quality, Perceived Relationship Benefit and Word of Mouth Engagement: A Hierarchical Component Model Perspective. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(15), 82–94.
Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
