A MEDIATED MODERATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT BEHAVIOUR AND CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

Social media has continued to gain traction in marketing and business hence business firms continue to use them in in stimulating customer engagement behaviour. This study was informed by the need to explore a mediated moderation of social media customer engagement behaviour and customer loyalty in the hotel industry in Anambra State, Nigeria. the study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design and was based on a captive sample of 186 respondents. Data were analysed using the SmartPLS version 4. This study found that there is a significant positive relationship between customer vigour; dedication; and absorption, and social media interaction. It also found out that there is a strong positive relationship between social media interaction and social involvement and with customer loyalty. It was also found out that social media interaction partially mediates the relationships between the three predictor variables and the two outcome variables. The two socio-demographics enhanced the total variance extracted at social involvement (SI) and customer loyalty (CL) even as the individual moderated coefficients are not statistically significant. Importance-performance map analysis (IPMA) was also performed and this showed that social media interaction (SMI) is higher in performance than importance. Likewise, absorption (Abp.) is very low in importance and moderate in performance hence the two constructs are the most relevant for managerial actions.