HOW AND WHEN CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT UNDERLIES THE LINK BETWEEN FAMILY OWNERSHIP AND FIRM PERFORMANCE: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Abstract

With the rapid proliferation of social media, two-way interactions between customers and firms are increased in the past decade. This interactive communication helps firms increase customer engagement. For this reason, social media-driven customer engagement and firm performance have received academics' attention. However, the existing studies substantially focus on customers, and very little is known about firms' related factors (antecedents). Therefore, this study was designed to explain the missed relations from the firm focus. This study aims to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework of customer engagement that includes antecedents (firm’s governance characteristics), consequences (firm performance), and moderators (family strategic emphasis and social media usage intensity). To explain the new relations, five theoretical propositions have been proposed. The study offers theoretical contributions that also help practitioners. The proposed new conceptual model expands the customer engagement literature. Furthermore, family firms can also get a competitive advantage over rivals by emphasizing their characteristics in their communication strategy.