Consumer-Generated Reviews on Social Media and Brand Relationship Outcomes in the Fast-Food Chain Industry

Abstract

A number of studies agree on the fact that social media users tend to trust more the contents created by other users than those generated by companies' marketing departments or advertising agencies. However, little is known regarding whether social media can actually enhance brand trust and other brand relationship outcomes that are deemed critical to the hospitality marketing literature. This paper seeks to offer some important insight on this issue by examining the impact of consumer-generated reviews on social media on four main pillars of the relationship marketing paradigm, i.e., satisfaction, trust, commitment, and loyalty. The inter-relationship between brand outcomes is also examined. The findings suggest that consumer-generated reviews on social media exert a direct impact on affective brand commitment and an indirect impact on brand loyalty. However, their influence on brand satisfaction and trust appears to be insignificant. The inter-relationship between brand relationship outcomes is also corroborated.