Building customer equity through trust in social networking sites in Vietnam's apparel industry
Abstract
This study intends to experimentally test the model that represents the relationships among the three kinds of customers’ perceived benefits from social networking sites (SNSs) which are practical, entertainment, and social benefits, trust in SNSs, brand trust, brand loyalty, and customer equity in the field of apparel in Vietnam market by using quantitative method. Employing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach, the projected model was successfully formulated.
The paper discovers that Vietnamese SNS users who admitted that they earned all three types of benefits during their engagement with SNSs were likely to trust these platforms. This research also detects that brand trust was indeed constructed through buyers’ trust toward SNSs. Additionally, customers’ trust in brand had been proven to promote loyalty toward the fashion brands. People that had established brand loyalty also resulted in relatively moderate chance to eventually create customer equity.
Apart from devoting to the current literature in the social network context dedicated for customers’ trust, brand loyalty and customer equity in Vietnam, this research provides practical suggestions for brands to focus more in some specific aspects of SNSs’ benefits to build a better relationship with their buyers.
Keywords: Social networking sites, consumer behavior, trust, brand trust, brand loyalty, consumer equity, relationship marketing.