Customer engagement with retail brands on facebook an empirical study in ho chi minh city

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

THE STATE BANK OF VIET NAM

BANKING UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

NGUYEN NGOC TRAM ANH

CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT WITH RETAIL
BRANDS ON FACEBOOK : AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
IN HO CHI MINH CITY

BACHELOR THESIS
MAJOR: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
CODE: 7340101

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2019


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

THE STATE BANK OF VIET NAM

BANKING UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

NGUYEN NGOC TRAM ANH

CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT WITH RETAIL
BRANDS ON FACEBOOK : AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
IN HO CHI MINH CITY

BACHELOR THESIS
MAJOR: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
CODE: 7340101

SUPERVISOR
PHAM HUONG DIEN, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2019


1

TÓM TẮT
Trong những năm trở lại đây, việc sử dụng mạng xã hội đặc biệt là
Facebook ngày càng sôi nổi và đa dạng hơn. Ngồi mục đích để giải trí, giao tiếp thì
Facebook cịn được xem là một cơng cụ đắc lực cho các nhà bán lẻ dùng quảng bá
và kết nối với khách hàng của họ. Với rất nhiều tính năng vượt trội, Facebook cho
phép các doanh nghiệp bán lẻ được tạo dựng riêng cho mình những trang Fanpages.
Nhưng việc thu hút được khách hàng chú ý và tham gia vào Fanpages không phải là
chuyện dễ dàng. Bài nghiên cứu này muốn kiểm tra những yếu tố nào ảnh hưởng
đến sự tham gia của khách hàng ở khu vực Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh với các trang
Fanpages của những nhà bán lẻ và mức độ tác động của chúng.
Dữ liệu chính thức của nghiên cứu được thu thập từ 305 bản khảo sát. Các
phương pháp chính được sử dụng là Thống kê mơ tả, Phân tích độ tin cậy
Cronbach’s Alpha, Phân tích nhân tố khám phá EFA, Phân tích nhân tố khẳng định
CFA, Phân tích mơ hình phương trình cấu trúc (SEM) với sự hỗ trợ của phần mềm
SPSS 23 và AMOS 24. Mơ hình ban đầu bao gồm 5 biến độc lập là Giao tiếp ngang
hàng (PC), Nhận thức sự hữu ích (PU), Sự hưởng thụ (EN), Khả năng tương thích
(CO), Sự tín nhiệm (CR); 2 biến trung gian là Thái Độ (AT), Ý định (IN); 1 biến
phụ thuộc là Sự tham gia của khách hàng (CE). Kết quả phân tích cho thấy có 2

biến được nhận thấy là khơng có ảnh hưởng đến thái độ là Nhận thức sự hữu ích
(PU) và Sự hưởng thụ (EN). 3 biến còn lại là Giao tiếp ngang hàng (PC), Khả
năng tương thích (CO), Sự tín nhiệm (CR) có ảnh hưởng đến thái độ và tất cả các
biến đều tác động một cách tích cực. Cụ thể, biến Giao tiếp ngang hàng (PC) có tác
động lớn nhất đến mơ hình, tiếp theo là Khả năng tương thích (CO), và cuối cùng là
Sự tín nhiệm (CR). Dựa trên những kết quả này, tác giả cũng đưa ra một số khuyến
nghị và giải pháp cụ thể cho các nhà bán lẻ.
Từ khóa: Sự tham gia của khách hàng, Truyền thông xã hội, Thái độ,
Ý định, Sự gắn kết thương hiệu của khách hàng


2

ABSTRACT
It can be seen that in recent years, the use of social networking sites such as
Facebook , Zalo, Instagram, Youtube, etc has become more popular not only
among young people but also adults over 40 and children under 18 years old.
Among those social networking sites, Facebook is considered to be the page with
the highest number of users and has been increasing continuously over the years. In
addition to entertain and to connect with friends, Facebook is also an effective tool
for retailers to advertise and connect with their customers. With many outstanding
features, Facebook allows retail firms to create their own Fanpages to introduce
products / services, events and above all to communicate with their customers.
However, attracting customers attention and participation into the Fanpages is not
easy. This paper aims to examine what factors influence customer engagement on
retailers' Fanpages and their impact magnitudes.
The study was conducted in Ho Chi Minh City because this is a place with a
larger number of Facebook users and more developed than other regions in Vietnam
so there will be more opportunities to access new technology. The study's survey
subjects are Facebook users residing in Ho Chi Minh City and have had at least one

interaction on a Fanpage of a certain retail brand. The research methods used to test
the model are qualitative and quantitative methods. First, the author applies
qualitative methods to build scales and research models through the reference and
inheritance of previous theories and related research. In this study, the author
mainly inherited the research model of the two authors, Constanza Bianchi and
Lynda Andrew (2017) with the title: "Consumer engagement with retail firms
through social media: An empirical study in Chile". At the same time, based on a
combination of The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) model proposed by Fishbein
& Ajen (1975) and The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1989), the
author has some adjustments to fit the research goals and the context in Ho Chi
Minh City. In particular, the object that the author wants to study is customer
engagement behaviour and based on The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), the


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intention will lead to behaviour. Therefore, the author replaced the dependent
variable Intention to purchase in the model of Bianchi and Andrew (2017) into the
variable Customer engagement.
The original model consisted of 5 independent variables: Perceived
usefulness (PU), Compatibility (CO), Enjoyment (EN), Credibility (CR), Peer
communication (PC); 2 mediator variables are Attitude (AT), Intention (IN); one
dependent variable is Consumers engagement (CE). Specifically, the scale of
Perceived usefulness (PU), Compatibility (CO), Enjoyment (EN), Credibility (CR),
Peer communication (PC) was inherited from the study of Constanza Bianchi,
Lynda Andrew (2017) but with the adjustment of the words to suit the user in Ho
Chi Minh City. The scale of Consumers engagement (CE) is inherited from the
results of a group of four authors including Paul Harrigan, Uwana Evers, Morgan
Miles and Timothy Daly (2017) with the title " Customer engagement with tourism
social media brands".

Based on the theoretical references and inheritance, the author made
hypotheses about the relationship between variables. A total of 7 hypotheses have
been proposed: All five independent variables Perceived usefulness (PU),
Compatibility (CO), Enjoyment (EN), Credibility (CR), Peer communication (PC)
are all assumed to have a positive effect on Attitude (AT); the 6th hypothesis is that
Attitude (AT) has a positive influence Intention (IN); the final hypotheses is that
Intention (IN) will positively impact Consumers engagement (CE) behaviour.
After developing the scales for important variables and formulating the
hypotheses, the preliminary questionnaire will be based on the research objectives
and scales mentioned, and will be pre-tested with a sample of 20 people, resulting in
small changes in the expression to improve meaning. After the preliminary survey,
the final versions will be sent to the survey participants, including 3 parts: Part 1 is
the general information section, Part 2 is the statistical information section, Part 3 is
to examine the factors. The research uses Likert scale at 5 levels: (1) Strongly
disagree, (2) Disagree, (3) Neutral, (4) Agree and (5) Strongly agree. To collect


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data, research using Google form tools to create e-surveys and send them to the
Mesgenger of users on Facebook. After one month, 323 survey samples were
completed but 18 samples did not meet the requirements of the study. After that, the
author kept 305 cases for data analysis.
Next, the main quantitative methods used to analyze the data in this study
are Descriptive analysis to summarize features of a collection of information;
Cronbach’s Alpha to assess the reliability of the scale used to measure concepts;
Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to discover how many major factors are
included in the total number of variables; Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to
confirm the univariate, multivariate, convergent and discriminant values of the
scale, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to assess unobservable 'latent'

constructs with the support of SPSS version 23 and AMOS version 24 software.
The survey results show that the proportion of female respondents is higher
than that of men with average age around 28 years old. Most of the respondents are
single (never married), have no children and are at university level (bachelor). Most
of them are students who earn 5 to 10 million per month. They spend on average 35 million vnd per month. Most of the respondents chose Facebook as social
networking site used the most. All of the respondents had previously participated at
least once with a retail Fanpages. However, most of them only occasionally interact,
engage with Fanpages.
Based on the results of the data analysis, out of all 5 independent variables
used in the model, 2 variables found to have no effect on the Attitude (AT) are
Perceived usefulness (PU) and Enjoyment (EN). Inferred, there are two rejected
hypotheses, the 3rd and 5th hypotheses of 2 variables Perceived usefulness (PU)
and Enjoyment (EN). This unanticipated finding implies that Fanpages can be
perceived to make it easier for users to find information, trade faster, but do not
necessarily lead to a positive attitude towards engagement with retail brands.
Besides, this result also shows that the enjoyment is not an important factor
affecting the attitude towards engaging with retail brands. Although in many


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previous studies on attitudes, enjoyment has an important influence, especially
attitudes toward media use. But for this study, it is clear that enjoyment is not
enough to create a positive attitude towards engaging with retail brands through
Fanpages.
On the contrary, the remaining 3 variables are Peer Communication (PC),
Compatibility (CO), Credibility (CR) that affect Attitude (AT) to participation and
all variables influence a positive way. Specifically, the variable Peer
Communication (PC) has the greatest impact on the model, followed by
Compatibility (CO), and finally Credibility (CR). Based on these results, the author

also gives some recommendations and specific solutions for retailers on Facebook
to improve the attitude towards interaction on Fanpages. In particular, the author
notes that retailers should focus more on creating an environment of communication
between customers and customers, while focusing on understanding the needs and
personal characteristics of potentials customer groups in parallel with building trust,
creating credibility to help customers stay longer with the brand.
In the future, researchers can carry out a similar study using samples drawn
from

more

representative

populations,

considering

exploring

additional

demographic or fish factors. Other actors may play an executive role to explain
consumer brand cohesion behaviour. Researchers can also study customer
engagement on other social networking sites like Google, Youtube, Twitter and
Instagram.
Key words: Customer engagement, Social Media, Attitude, Intention,
Customer Participation


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DECLARATION OF AUTHENTICITY
This thesis is the author's own research, the research results are honest, in
which there is no previously published content or the content done by others except
the citations cited full source in the thesis.

Ho Chi Minh City, November 2019

Nguyen Ngoc Tram Anh


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Firstly, I would like to express my sincerest and deepest thankfulness to
Ms.Pham Huong Dien, Ph.D for her guidance and patience in giving me valuable
recommendations during my study period. I am really happy and fortunate to carry
out this study under her supervision.
Secondly, I would like to send my profound gratitude to all of the lecturers
in Business Administration Department and also in Office of Academic Affairs
during a period of studying for a Bachelor Degree at Banking University of
Vietnam.
Lastly, I would like to thank my family for their support during my study
and during my life. Without whose encouragement and sacrifice, I would not have
finished this thesis, so I express my special love and gratitude to them.

Ho Chi Minh City, November 2019

Nguyen Ngoc Tram Anh

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TÓM TẮT ................................................................................................................ 1
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. 2
DECLARATION OF AUTHENTICITY .............................................................. 6
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...................................................................................... 7
TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................... 8
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .............................................................................. 11
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................ 12
LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................. 13
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................ 14
1.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH..........................................................14
1.2 OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ..........................................16
1.3 SUBJECTS AND SCOPES OF THE STUDY ...............................................17
1.4 THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................17
1.5 CONTRIBUTIONS OF RESEARCH ............................................................18
1.6 THESIS STRUCTURE ..................................................................................18
CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 1 ....................................................................... 19
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................ 20
2.1 IMPORTANT CONCEPTS ............................................................................20
2.1.1 Customer engagement ...........................................................................20
2.1.2 Intention ................................................................................................21
2.1.3 Attitude ..................................................................................................22
2.1.4 Facebook marketing ..............................................................................23
2.2 THEORETICAL MODELS ...........................................................................23


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2.2.1 The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)................................................23
2.2.2 The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) .........................................25
2.3 PREVIOUS EMPIRICAL STUDIES .............................................................27
2.4 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR THIS STUDY ..................................30
CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 2 ....................................................................... 31
CHAPTER 3. THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...................................... 32
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN ....................................................................................32
3.1.1 The research procedure .........................................................................32
3.1.2 Subjects of the Survey ...........................................................................33
3.1.3 Sampling Methods.................................................................................34
3.1.4 Scale of research design ........................................................................34
3.1.5 The questionnaire design .......................................................................38
3.1.6 Research Model .....................................................................................39
3.2 RESEARCH HYPOTHESE ..........................................................................40
3.3 DATA ANALYSIS METHODS ....................................................................46
CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 3 ....................................................................... 48
CHAPTER 4. RESULTS ...................................................................................... 49
4.1 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS........................................................................49
4.1.2 Demographic information of respondents .............................................49
4.1.3 Information about Facebook behaviour of respondents ........................53
4.2 RELIABILITY OF THE SCALE - CRONBACH’S ALPHA .......................55
4.3 EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (EFA) ..........................................59
4.4 CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (CFA) .......................................63
4.5 TESTING THE RESEARCH HYPOTHESE .................................................68


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4.5.1 Testing the fitness of the model ...........................................................68

4.5.2 Bootstrap analysis .................................................................................69
4.5.3 Testing the research hypotheses ............................................................70
4.5.4 Result discussion ...................................................................................73
CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 4 ....................................................................... 76
CHAPTER 5. SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 77
5.1 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS .............................................................77
5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................78
5.3 LIMITATIONS AND FUTTHER RESEARCH ...........................................84
CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 5 ....................................................................... 85
REFERENCES ...................................................................................................... 86
APPENDIX ............................................................................................................ 91


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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviations
AT
CE
CFA
CO
EFA
EN
IN
PC
PU
SEM
TAM
TPB

TRA
WOM

Full meaning
Attitude
Consumers engagement
Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Compatibility
Exploratory Factor Analysis
Enjoyment
Intention
Peer communication
Perceived usefulness
Structural Equation Modeling
The Technology Acceptance Model
The Theory of Planned Behaviour
The Theory of Reasoned Action
Word-of-mouth


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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Scale of research ............................................................................36
Table 3.2 Questionnaire structure ..................................................................39
Table 4.1 Gender of respondents ...................................................................49
Table 4.2 Age of respondents ........................................................................50
Table 4.3 Marital status of respondents .........................................................50
Table 4.4 The number of children of respondents .........................................51
Table 4.5 Education level of respondents ......................................................51

Table 4.6 Main occupation of respondents ....................................................52
Table 4.7 Monthly income of respondents ....................................................52
Table 4.8 Monthly expenses of respondents ..................................................53
Table 4.9 The Statistical results about Facebook behaviour of respondents .54
Table 4.10 Test results of Cronbach’s Alpha.................................................58
Table 4.11 The First Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) .............................60
Table 4.12 The Second Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) .........................62
Table 4.13 Rules for assessing the appropriateness of structural models ......63
Table 4.14 Composite Reliability (CR) and Average Variance Extracted
(AVE) .............................................................................................................65
Table 4.15 Standardized Regression Weights ...............................................67
Table 4.16 Bootstrap analysis ........................................................................70
Table 4.17 Regression Weights .....................................................................71
Table 4.18 Test results of Research hypotheses ............................................72


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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1 The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) model ............................25
Figure 2.2 The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) ................................26
Figure 2.3 Conceptual Framework for this study ..........................................31
Figure 3.1 The Research Procedure ...............................................................33
Figure 3.2 Proposed Research Model ............................................................40
Figure 4.1 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) standardization .................64
Figure 4.2 Analysis results of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)............69
Figure 4.3 The adjusted research model ........................................................76


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CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH
Nowadays, social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Zalo,
youtube) are revolutionizing the way customers interact with brands and companies.
These social media channels are interactive platforms that allow retail companies
and brands to connect with everyday customers. Consequently, many retail
companies come up with strategies to increase this engagement through developing
their own social media sites. Social media provides opportunities for retailers to
attract customers and purchase opportunities. Customer studies show that shoppers
are looking for social media to buy online in addition to simply communicate with
organizations, customers can save time and have more choices when they can refer
to many brands at the same time. As customers increase their engagement in social
media, almost every brand has some form of presence on social media, especially
Facebook. Many retail companies use social media as a strategic channel to
communicate with customers.
Some scholars have tried to develop specific consumer brand interaction
models. The studies examined factors that contribute to consumer engagement on
social networks with retail brands. A group of four authors including Paul Harrigan,
Uwana Evers, Morgan Miles and Timothy Daly (2017) have studied the topic
"Customer engagement with tourism social media brands". Ultimately, they
propose a customer engagement scale and a nomological framework for customer
engagement, both of which can be applied in both tourism and non-tourism
contexts. This study aims to help managers of brands on social to better assess the
nature of customer engagement. In addition, some studies have identified how
social media behaviour of consumers promotes their online and offline purchases in
the retail context. The research of Bianchiand Andrews(2018), under the title:
"Consumer engagement with retail firms through social media: an empirical study
in Chile", provided an understanding of the main drivers of consumer-brand
engagement that can lead to purchase intentions.

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In Vietnam, the speed of Internet development is fast, followed by the
widespread use of social networking sites. According to the Ministry of Information
and Communications, by mid-2018, Vietnam has about 5 million network users,
accounting for 57% of the population. Among all of the social media sites,
Facebook is the largest, with 2 billion active users worldwide, representing almost
40 percent of the global online population (Statista, 2017). Facebook is also the
most popular social networking site in Vietnam today. According to statistics, as of
April 2018, 58 million Vietnamese people use Facebook, making Vietnam the top 7
countries with the largest number of Facebook users in the world. In particular,
there are, in Ho Chi Minh City, some 14 million users, ranking in the top 6 cities
with the largest number of Facebook users in the world. Limited research has
evaluated the factors that influence customers to engage with retail brands and buy
products and services through their social media pages, especially Fanpages.
Vietnamese studies are primarily related to customer reactions to social media
advertising. However, the author has found two related studies in Vietnam. Firstly,
Long Thang Van Nguyen, Rajkishore Nayak, Jerry Watkins, Phuong Ngoc Duy
Nguyen (2019) with the topic: “Drivers of social media disengagement: a study of
young consumers in Vietnam”, contributes to marketing literature by providing
empirical evidence for relevant constructs driving consumer disengagement from
the brand’s social media pages. Secondly, Tri Dinh Dinh Le (2018) under the title :
"Influence of WOM and content type on online engagement in consumption
communities: The information flow from discussion forums to Facebook" examined
the impact of word-of-mouth types, WOM valence, content types and discussion
topics of user posts on online engagement in two channels of a consumption
community.
With a large number of Facebook users, retail brands in Ho Chi Minh City

can attract millions of customers to join their Fanpages. However, little is known
about what motivates customers to engage with brands and to buy products and
services through social media in general and Facebook in particular. In spite of the


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explosive popularity of Facebook, there is limited research that examines the drivers
of customer-brand engagement in this site. A better understanding of customer
engagement through this social media site is needed. While many studies focus on
consumer social media behaviour and how consumers engage and purchase via
internet channels like the company's website, limited research has assessed what
factors influence customers’ engagement with retail brands through Facebook.
Therefore, the author chooses the topic: "Customer engagement with retail brands
on Facebook: An empirical study in Ho Chi Minh City" has a great implication in
theory and reality.
1.2 OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The thesis aims to identify the determinants of customer engagement and
proposes solutions to attract customer engagement to retail brands’s Fanpages in Ho
Chi Minh City. Therefore, this research is pivoted on the following objectives:
- To identify factors that affect the customer engagement with retail brands
through Fanpages in Ho Chi Minh City.
- To measure the impact of above factors on the customer engagement with
retail brands through Fanpages in Ho Chi Minh City.
- To propose solutions for retail brands to improve customer engagement on
Facebook in Ho Chi Minh City..
To gain the goals of the study, the following questions need to be answered :
- Question 1: What are the determinants of customer engagement with retail
brands through Facebook in Ho Chi Minh City?
- Question 2: How do these factors influence the customer engagement with

retail brands through Facebook in Ho Chi Minh City?
- Question 3: Which solutions are to attract customer engagement with retail
brands via Facebook in Ho Chi Minh City?


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1.3 SUBJECTS AND SCOPES OF THE STUDY
Subjects of the Research
Subjects of the Research are customer engagement with retail brands
through Facebook in Ho Chi Minh City and factors that affect the customer
engagement with retail brands through Facebook in Ho Chi Minh City.
Scopes of the Study
In terms of the space: the survey is conducted within Ho Chi Minh City. As
mentioned above, Ho Chi Minh City is the largest, most developed city in Vietnam
and has the highest number of Facebook users in Vietnam. Moreover, the author is
living in Ho Chi Minh City, because of limited time and budget, the author decided
to focus on surveying and researching in this area only.
In terms of the time: The data was collected from the beginning of
November 2019 to the end of December 2019.
1.4 THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study combines two qualitative and quantitative methods.
Qualitative method
The author applies qualitative methods to build scales and research models
through the reference and inheritance of previous theories and related research.
Through synthesizing the results of the previous relevant studies, the author use the
survey tool Google form to create e-survey questionairs and sent them directly to
Mesenger of Facebook user living in Ho Chi Minh City to collect data for analysis.
Quantitative method
The techniques used to analyze the relationship and the impact of factors on

customer engagement are Descriptive analysis, Cronbach’s Alpha, Exploratory
Factor Analysis (EFA) through SPSS software version 23 and Confirmatory Factor
Analysis (CFA), Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through AMOS software
version 24.


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1.5 CONTRIBUTIONS OF RESEARCH
Academic significance
In terms of theory, the thesis has systematized the theoretical basis as well
as previous studies related to the influence level of factors on the customer
engagement with retail brands through Facebookin the most recent time. The thesis
has considered the impact of factors on the attitude of customer engagement with
retail brands through Facebookin Ho Chi Minh City. The thesis has identified the
appropriate model by considering the characteristics of Vietnam in general and Ho
Chi Minh City in particular to assess the influence level of factors on the attitude of
customer engagement with retail brands through Facebook .
Practical significance
In terms of practice, the thesis has proposed solutions and recommendations
for policies to improve user engagement with retailers. Since then, retailers will
have more strategies to attract customers.
1.6 THESIS STRUCTURE
The thesis consists of five chapter:
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This chapter gives an overview of the necessity, research objectives,
research questions, research scope as well as research objects and new contributions
of the study about the customer engagement with retail brands through Facebookin
Ho Chi Minh City.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the author presents definitions related to customer
engagement as well as synthesizes theoretical perspectives and previous researches
about the factors affecting the customer engagement with retail brands through
Facebook
CHAPTER 3: THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY


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This chapter indicates the contents about the research design, methods of
sampling and data collection, as well as establishing the research model and making
hypothesis about the relationship between variables.
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS
This chapter analyzes the empirical results of factors affecting the customer
engagement. Quantitative analysis is used to describe survey samples, analyze
relationships between variables as well as test hypotheses. Finally, the research
discuss and review the research results.
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This final chapter summarizes the research content, from which a number of
solutions will be proposed to improve customer engagement with retail brands
through Facebookin Ho Chi Minh City.

CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 1
In the first chapter, the thesis has stated the necessity of the topic as well as
specifically defined objectives, objects and scopes of the research. In addition, a
number of new contributions of the thesis towards the customer engagement are
also clearly shown in this chapter.


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CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 IMPORTANT CONCEPTS
2.1.1 Customer engagement
Brand engagement can be as simple as a mention on social media or an
email being opened, while others class the act of buying a product or service as the
only sign of engagement (Mindi Chahal, 2016).
Digiday, an online trade magazine for online media founded in 2008 by
Nick Friese,

reached out to agency and brand execs, asking them for their

definition of engagement. The results provide some of the definition of “brand
engagement”: Engagement is the discovery and exchange of shared values and
interests (Linda Boff, global executive director of digital, advertising and design,
2012). Another definition is that for our marketing campaigns, engagement may
mean likes, or shares or comments. But then for our educational series, views may
be the engagement. Similarly, a study in Spain by Mario Castellanos-Verdugo et al
(2014) also showed that customer engagement on Fanpages consits of one or more
activities such as like, sharing, commenting. Customer-brand engagement has
become an important concept for research in the marketing and retailing literature
(Brodie et al., 2011; France et al., 2016; Graffigna and Gambetti, 2015; Hollebeek,
2011).
Customer engagement with retail brands social media as behavioural
manifestations that lead customers to continue communicating with retail firms and
thereby resulting in purchase intentions. By engaging with retail brands through
social media, customers can add value to these brands by generating content,
becoming advocates or by influencing other customers’ purchase behaviour through
electronic word of mouth (Bruhn et al., 2012; Kozinets et al., 2010).
In general, brand engagement is all about connecting and creating closer

relationships between retailers and customers. Retailers can be attracted by creating
compelling ideas and useful content that people want to share. In this study, the


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concept of "customer engagement" is the most important. This is the concept and
also the main research purpose of the author. The metrics continue to solidify over
time, and there is no one answer to all programs (Scott Gulbransen, director of
social business strategy, H&R Block, 2012).
2.1.2 Intention
Intentions have been defined in The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and
The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as the amount of effort one is willing to
exert to attain a goal (Ajzen, 1991), "behavioural plans that enable attainment of a
behavioural goal" (Ajzen, 1996), or simply "proximal goals" (Bandura, 1997). In
The Theory of Reasoned Action, intention is influenced by people's attitude toward
performing the behaviour and the subjective norm. However, the level of perceived
control is believed to be influential on people's behavioural intention along with
their attitude and subjective norms, according to The Theory of Planned Behaviour.
Not surprisingly, in most studies, intention is driven by attitudes to a greater extent
than by subjective norms (Eagly, Chaiken, 1993).
Intention is a mental state that represents a commitment to carrying out an
action or actions in the future. Intention involves mental activities such as planning
and forethought (Bratman,1987). An intentional action is a function to accomplish a
desired goal and is based on the belief that the course of action will satisfy a desire
(Malle, Bertram, Joshua, 1997).
In essence, intentions can be conceived of as goal states in the expectancy
value tradition that are the result of a conscious process that takes time, requires
some deliberation, and focuses on consequences (Loewenstein, Weber, Hsee and
Welch, 2001).

Psychological research suggests that understanding intentions of others may
be a prerequisite for a higher-level understanding of other people's minds or theory
of mind (Blakemore,Decety, 2001). Understanding intention is thought to be pivotal
in understanding social contexts in numerous ways (Feinfield, Kristin, Patti,


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Eleanor, Frances, Flavell, John, 1999), especially in the context of e-commerce
today.
Many studies have demonstrated that intention has a great influence on
behaviour, especially here is the brand engagement behaviour of customer.
Therefore, intention is considered as one of the important concepts that should be
considered in this study.
2.1.3 Attitude
In psychology, attitude is a psychological construct, a mental and emotional
entity that inheres in, or characterizes a person (Richard, 2016).They are complex
and are an acquired state through experiences. It is an individual's predisposed state
of mind regarding a value and it is precipitated through a responsive expression
towards a person, place, thing, or event which in turn influences the individual's
thought and action. Attitude can be formed from a person's past and present
(Allport, Gordon, 1935).
Adcording to Jung and Carl G. (1971), attitudes very often come in pairs,
one conscious and the other unconscious, as follow:
Consciousness and the unconscious
Extraversion and introversion
Rational and irrational attitudes
Individual and social attitudes
The attitude of a person is determined by psychological factors like ideas,
values, beliefs, perception, etc. All these have a complex role in determining a

person's attitude(Maio & Olson, 1998). Attitude is “a latent disposition or tendency
to respond with some degree of favorableness or favorableness to a psychological
object” (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010), which refers to the positive or negative
evaluation of the outcome associated with performing a given behaviour. Hung et
al.(2016) demonstrated that attitude was the most important determinant for the
purchasing intention. Therefore, understanding the concept of "attitude" is


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extremely important for this study because this is one of the factors that are thought
to greatly influence customer engagement behaviour.
2.1.4 Facebook marketing
According to bigcommerce, a company dedicated to helping brands create
the best commercial platform on the market, Facebookmarketing is the practice of
promoting a brand and maintaining its presence on Facebook . Facebook marketing
refers to both organic free postings/interactions, and paid, or "boosted" posts.
Drawing more than 1.4 billion users every month, Facebookis one of the most
important mediums for generating brand awareness and interacting with customers.
Facebookis a consumer-oriented network (Palmer and Koenig-Lewis, 2009).
Because Facebookis consumer-oriented, this affects the way that users perceive
Facebookand the ethical standards that they demand from the service.
A previous study from 2009 shows that more than half of Facebook users
have clicked on a company’s Facebookpage, and that 16 percent of them had sent a
message to a company (Palmer and Koenig-Lewis, 2009).
In this research, the author chooses to study customer engagement behaviour
on retailers's Fanpages. Thus, understanding marketing on Facebookis an extremely
important platform.
2.2 THEORETICAL MODELS
2.2.1 The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)

The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) was developed by Martin Fishbein
and Icek Ajzen as an improvement over Information Integration theory (Fishbein &
Ajzen, 1975). The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) suggests that a person’s
behaviour is determined by their intention to perform the behaviour and that this
intention is, in turn, a function of their attitude toward the behaviour and subjective
norms (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). TRA aims to explain the relationship between
attitudes and behaviours within human action. It is mainly used to predict how
individuals will behave based on their pre-existing attitudes and behavioural