Formation path of customer engagement in virtual brand community based on back propagation neural network algorithm

摘要

The formation path of customer engagement in a virtual brand community (VBC) with customer engagement, which explores the customers' non-transactional behaviours, has become increasingly popular in the marketing field. In this study, we introduced an approach that integrates structural equation modelling and back propagation artificial neural network to identify the motivating factors (e.g., interactivity, information quality, and convenience) that influence the perceived information and social values of a VBC and customer engagement. The results show that when perceived value plays a mediating role in the influence of interactivity and information quality on customer engagement, interactivity is associated positively with customer engagement in the VBC. This study aims to provide meaningful insights into companies' utilisation of brand fan pages.