Customer engagement behaviour on social media platforms: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Customer engagement behaviours (CEB) on social media have the potential to strengthen relationships between firms and customers. However, there have been no systematic attempts to review the antecedents of CEB on social media despite wide recognition of its importance. Using a systematic literature review method, we provide an in-depth analysis of the extant empirical literature on CEB in relation to social media platforms. Results indicate that there are five key antecedent causes and these are identified in the literature as: (1) social links; (2) ownership-value; (3) search for information; (4) involvement; and (5) functionality. These represent the key antecedents of engagement for firms using social media. Our review is the first to bring together an in-depth secondary data analysis of the antecedents of CEB in social media platforms. We subsequently identify three epistemological tensions within the corpus, and suggest directions for future research in order to advance the understanding of CEB in relation to social media.