User generated content and internet user's brand engagement

Abstract

User Generated Content usually referred as publicly available creative online contents, which are not necessarily created by professionals. It is a fast growing trend in many online businesses and received enormous popularity in recent years among internet users due to its creativity and flexibility. Past studies found that UGC positively affect brand equity and utility. However, it is yet to examine the effect of UGC on user's brand engagement. Taking this opportunity into account, the present study attempts to fill this gap in the literature. The objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of user generated content quality on internet user's brand engagement. Data were collected using online survey questionnaire. 242 completed questionnaires were returned and used for further analysis. Data were analyzed using AMOS software, version 21. The results reveal that design quality and technological quality positively affect emotional value whereas these two types of quality do not have any effect on functional value. On the other hand, content quality positively affects functional value, but not emotional value. Additionally, it is found that emotional value is significantly related to brand engagement whereas; functional value has no significant effect on brand engagement. It exhibits that emotional value is more crucial than functional value in building brand engagement among internet users. Managerial implications, limitations and future research directions are also discussed.