Ηow trust and its new dynamics in social media affect customer churn

Abstract

Nowadays the world wide web provides great opportunities for finding, researching and purchasing product and services. However, for a customer to place an order, he/she should trust the merchant first. Trust can be described as a belief or expectation that the offer of the seller can be relied upon and a seller will not take advantage of the customer vulnerability. Trust affects any kind of relationship in which one party cannot control the actions of the other party and these actions can lead to harm for the first party. Consistent with this line of thought, trust to the vendor is a prerequisite for a purchase. Contrary to the traditional offline communication, today’s vendors use the new technological means such as the internet in an effort to reach existing or new customers. One novel construct which is employed in an incremental frequency by vendors is the creation of a brand community on social media platforms. The advent of world wide web 2.0 gave new possibilities for communication in such constructs and revolutionized their role in brand marketing. Social media-based brand communities present some characteristics that differentiate them from traditional brand communities, such as an online interaction of members, which builds a conspicuous and unique social identity and consciousness of kind, the existence of two kind of members, moderators and simple members which are not hierarchically organized, the existence of oppositional brand loyalty and of common rituals and traditions and a sense of moral responsibility to help with the integration and the retention of other members. Moreover, brand communities on social media exhibit five unique structural dimensions. They contain a unique social context, lack a clear hierarchical structure, have millions of members, present a customizable and member-specific content and storytelling and can be linked with myriad of affiliate brand communities instantly. Furthermore, the members of the brand communities can be split in two categories, namely the passive and active members. The categorization of the members in these two classes is based on two distinct criteria, the frequency of the interaction and the kind of the activities they perform in the community. The higher the number of interactions in the brand community, the more active a member is. Concerning the type of activities, a passive member utilizes available content, performs activities pertaining to content organization and interacts one on one with his/her friends, whereas an active member performs the same function with the addition of community activities, such as distributing user generated content to the whole site audience and public comment posting. The status of each member and the interrelations that develop in a social media-based brand community alter through trust creation and trust transfer the perception of the individual member for the brand. In order to understand better this influence, we need to examine the emotion that developed during each of this interaction which can also be called “relational exchange”. During each relational exchange, the participants develop two kind of emotions, global and specific ones. Global emotions are transitory, and they do not have an effect on the interaction of the individual in the long-term, whereas specific emotions are emotions leading to enduring affecting sentiments about social object, such as relationships groups and networks. Thus, in a relational exchange, actors interact and develop emotions based on its outcomes. After a positive outcome, they have an emotional uplift, whereas after a negative outcome they have an emotional down. This emotional reward or punishment is both internal, self-induced and is valuable for the participant, even if it cannot be monetary measured. Therefore, a customer will account for these emotions before making a choice to purchase a product from a vendor. Lawler (2001) suggests that emotions can differ in magnitude and in persistence based on the mode of the exchange from which they come from. According to Lawler (2001), productive exchanges, in which the actors cooperate for achieving a common goal, produce the stronger and more persistent emotion, whereas generalized exchanges, in which one individual or a member of a network or group receives unilateral benefits from a third unlinked to the exchange party, produce equally strong but far less persistent emotions. Research has shown both active and passive members of a social media-based brand community can develop affectionate emotions toward the brand by transforming the generalized exchanges in which they interact with other members to productive ones (Sashi, 2012). This, in turn, will increase trust toward the brand through trust transfer. Trust transfer can occur through three different channels to a customer-member of a social media-based brand community: 1) from offline to online content, 2) from other members of social media-based brand community, and 3) from the community as a whole. All kinds of trust transfer increase brand trust and brand loyalty. Given the crucial role of trust in the completion of a purchase, a higher level of trust entails a higher number of purchases (or repeat purchases) and consequently, a higher revenue for the vendor. Given that brand loyalty is essentially linked to the ability of the vendor to retain the customer. A higher level of trust is expected to lead to a higher brand loyalty and higher customer retention. Note that when we speak for an online setting on a social media platform, trust transfer is a little more complicated and is affected by three additional factors, 1) institutional based trust, which refers to the security an individual feels about a situation because of safety nets, guarantees and other structures, 2) the social presence of the website, which refers in the type of signals transmitted in a communication medium (the more the social design features, the bigger the social presence and the easier for an individual to form a trustworthy relationship, as the perceived social distance is short) and 3) affect generalization that characterizes a phenomenon in which affect towards one attitude can spread to other related attitudes. Members of a brand community are characterized not only by their level of participation, but also by other individual characteristics, such as the personal goals they have for entering to a relational exchange, the individual orientation they present during their communications, the level of feedback and reciprocity they exhibit during their relational exchanges and the level of involvement they have with the brand. Involvement as a notion is close to the concept of participation, but the two terms do not represent the same element. The level of involvement of an individual is characterized by what we call customer engagement. Customer engagement can be defined as activities that foster interaction which strengthen the psychological and physical investment a customer has with the brand. The online environment of a social media-based brand community makes this definition highly relevant as the customer participation is easier online and the mere existence of brand community facilitates a knowledge exchange process, while, at the same time, the increasing number of interactions between participants demands a higher personal investment from the members. Involvement creates a sense of ongoing psychological commitment to the brand by focusing the clients’ thoughts, feelings and underlined behaviors on it. Involvement is very important for bond formation with the brand as its existence leads to stronger and more emotional bonds. This happens as individuals who exhibit such a high level of attachment and commitment can pass from a generalized commitment to a productive exchange in their interaction with the brand and everyone associated with it. Thus, customer engagement lead to both transactional and emotional bonds. Customers who develop only transactional bonds can be transformed to loyal customers during a long-term relationship with the vendor, whereas customers who develops strong emotional bonds can be turned into fans during a long-term relationship with the vendor. This happens as the former category of individuals develop what we call calculative commitment to the brand, which is characterized by a more rational and economic-based reliance on the brand, whereas the latter class of individuals develops what we call affective commitment, which is characterized as the more emotional-based relationship and affection the individual has for the brand. Trust, personal interaction and reciprocity are affecting directly the formation of affectionate bonds, while trust affects indirectly calculative commitment by the shaping of the perceived switching costs. This bond formation is very important as we assume that, in conjunction with trust, can affect and diminish the possibility of a customer to churn. By churn, we refer to the annual turnover of the market base of a vendor, which in a contractual setting represent the disengagement from the contract and in a non-contractual setting is characterized by the lack of repeat purchases from the vendor. The notion of churn is very important for businesses as research (Seo, Ranganathan, & Babad, 2008; Siber, 1997) has shown that the cost of acquiring a new customer can greatly exceed the cost of maintaining the customer base.

Η παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή εξετάζει το ρόλο της εμπιστοσύνης στο νέο περιβάλλον των κοινοτήτων εμπορικού σήματος στα μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης. Οι επιχειρήσεις χρησιμοποιούν τα νέα τεχνολογικά μέσα, όπως το διαδίκτυο, στην προσπάθεια τους να προσεγγίσουν υπάρχοντες και νέους πελάτες. Με την έλευση του παγκόσμιου ιστού 2.0 (Web 2.0) δημιουργήθηκαν οι κοινότητες εμπορικού σήματος στα μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης. Οι κοινότητες αυτές παρουσιάζουν ορισμένα χαρακτηριστικά που τις διαφοροποιούν από τις κλασσικές κοινότητες εμπορικού σήματος (διαφορετική αλληλεπίδραση μεταξύ των μελών, δική τους γλώσσα επικοινωνίας, ιστορία και παραδόσεις της κοινότητας, μέλη βοηθούν τα άλλα μέλη στην ενσωμάτωση και παραμονή τους στην κοινότητα). Επίσης, εμφανίζουν κάποια μοναδικά χαρακτηριστικά (μοναδικό περιεχόμενο, έλλειψη ιεραρχίας μεταξύ των μελών, μια βάση μελών που αριθμεί εκατομμύρια, προσαρμοσμένο περιεχόμενο ανάλογα με τα μέλη και διαφορετική αφήγηση σύμφωνα με τις προτιμήσεις του κάθε μέλους, άμεση σύνδεση με χιλιάδες άλλες σχετιζόμενες κοινότητες εμπορικού σήματος). Τα μέλη των κοινοτήτων αυτών διαχωρίζονται σε ενεργά και σε παθητικά βάση των δραστηριοτήτων που αναπτύσσουν μέσα σε αυτές τις κοινότητες. Επίσης, στις συγκεκριμένες κοινότητες εμπορικού σήματος στα μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης, τα μέλη αναπτύσσουν συναισθήματα τα οποία ενισχύουν την εμπιστοσύνη προς το προϊόν/υπηρεσία. Ακόμα τα συγκεκριμένα μέλη στις κοινότητες εμπορικού σήματος στα μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης παρουσιάζουν κάποια ατομικά χαρακτηριστικά, τα οποία επηρεάζουν την αλληλεπίδραση τους μέσα στην κοινότητα και κατ’ επέκταση και την σχέση τους με την εταιρεία που υποστηρίζει η κοινότητα. Τέτοια χαρακτηριστικά είναι όπως οι προσωπικοί στόχοι που έχουν κατά την είσοδο τους σε μια αλληλεπίδραση με άλλο μέλος/η (σχεσιακή ανταλλαγή), ο ατομικός προσανατολισμός που παρουσιάζουν κατά τη διάρκεια της επικοινωνίας τους, το επίπεδο ανταπόκρισης και αμοιβαιότητας που εκδηλώνουν κατά τη διάρκεια μια σχεσιακής ανταλλαγής αλλά και το επίπεδο συμμετοχής τους στις συγκεκριμένες κοινότητες. Η παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή δείχνει ότι τα ατομικά χαρακτηριστικά ενός ατόμου μπορούν να επηρεάσουν το επίπεδο εμπιστοσύνης προς την εταιρεία με το αντίστοιχο εμπορικό σήμα. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, ο ατομικός προσανατολισμός και οι προσωπικοί στόχοι ενός ατόμου που επιδιώκει να επιτύχει στην αλληλεπίδρασή του με την εταιρεία επηρεάζουν το επίπεδο εμπιστοσύνης προς αυτή. Επιπλέον, η ίδια η συμμετοχή στην κοινότητα εμπορικού σήματος στα μέσα κοινωνική δικτύωσης αυξάνει περαιτέρω το επίπεδο εμπιστοσύνης προς την εταιρεία. Πρόσθετες δραστηριότητες στην κοινότητα, όπως η δημοσίευση στον τοίχο της κοινότητας εμπορικού σήματος στα μέσα κοινωνική δικτύωσης, έχει μια θετική επίδραση στο επίπεδο της εμπιστοσύνης του προς την εταιρεία με το εν λόγω εμπορικό σήμα. Επιπροσθέτως, παρατηρούμε ότι σε κάθε αλληλεπίδραση που λαμβάνει χώρα στην κοινότητα εμπορικού σήματος στα μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης, εάν ένα μέλος εμφανίζει μια συμπεριφορά εμπιστοσύνης σε ένα άλλο μέλος, το τελευταίο μέλος θα ανταποδώσει περισσότερο. Αντίθετα, παρατηρείται ότι μια καινούργια αλληλεπίδραση με νέα μέλη δεν επηρεάζεται από μια προηγούμενη επιτυχημένη αλληλεπίδραση με άλλα μέλη της κοινότητας αλλά εξαρτάται περισσότερο από το εκ φύσεως επίπεδο εμπιστοσύνης που έχει το άτομο που αλληλοεπιδρά. Επιπλέον, στην παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή, διαπιστώνεται ότι η υψηλότερη εμπιστοσύνη στην εταιρεία συνδέεται με ένα αυξημένο επίπεδο αγοραστικής πίστης. Αυτή η υψηλότερη εμπιστοσύνη προέρχεται από τη συμμετοχή στην κοινότητα εμπορικού σήματος στα μέσα κοινωνική δικτύωσης. Αυτή η αύξηση της εμπιστοσύνης στην εταιρεία, λόγω της συμμετοχής στην κοινότητα εμπορικού σήματος στα μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης, φαίνεται να μειώνει την πιθανότητα ενός μέλους να σταματήσει να αγοράζει προϊόντα/υπηρεσίες από την εταιρεία με το εν λόγω εμπορικό σήμα.