Does facebook group engagement moderate smartphone brand preference?: An analysis using structural equation modeling

• Main Author: Guillen, Nelson B., Jr.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2018
• Subjects: Structural equation modeling; Smartphones
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5595
• Institution: De La Salle University

The purpose of this research is to investigate the moderating effect of Facebook group engagement (FGE) in smartphone brand preference. The path analytic model was used in this study, which was operationalized by identifying self-congruity (SC), functional congruity (FC), and brand preference (BP). This study had randomly selected 300 millennial respondents ages 19-29 years old using Facebook Insights for the survey poll (N=300). Confirmatory factor analysis and model testing were conducted using structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). In the overall framework, results showed that SC positively influences FC and FC positively influences BP while FGE moderates the relationship of FC and BP (with p-values 0.01). Furthermore, Blindfolding was introduced in the study. The direct linear relationship of R2 was related to the predictive relevance of overall and generation based models in Q2. Hence, cut-scores were all above 0.5 or acceptable. For the T-test, coefficients were all above 1.96 which is considered significant at 0.05 or 95% confidence level. The study suggests that marketers should strive to develop product images that are consistent with the self-concepts of their target markets whether online or offline. With this trend, they need to develop appropriate customer service training for improved engagement with Facebook groups as another social medium and a prospective sales channel.