Engaging with Brands Online: A Study of Consumer Online Brand Related Activities on Tik Tok as a Part of Brand E-commerce

Research background: This research primarily delves into the domain of social media engagement, focusing on the consumer's Online Brand-Related Activities (COBRAs) as a part of e-commerce ecosystem on platforms like TikTok. It aims to comprehend the key motivators for consumers' escalating levels of engagement, such as the need for information, desire for entertainment, social interaction, and remuneration, while examining how these activities influence brand awareness, referrals, purchase intent, and customer loyalty in the form of Word of mouth. TikTok, with its unique short video content format, high user engagement, and potential for content virality, provides a suitable landscape for studying these engagement behaviors. Purpose of the article: The study evaluates the interplay between specific motivations, COBRAs, and their influence on e-commerce branding, particularly word of mouth, using TikTok within the Slovak market as a model. Methods: Our approach combined Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) to study attitudes related to e-commerce brand activities on TikTok. Metrics such as Average Variance Extracted (AVE), Composite Reliability (CR), and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) were crucial for latent variable analysis. The Partial Least Square - Path Modeling (PLS PM) method further delineated relationships. Findings & Value added: Our results affirm five hypotheses, particularly noting the impact of information and entertainment motives on e-commerce COBRA content consumption on TikTok. The remuneration motive consistently influenced all COBRA and e-commerce relationships. A significant connection was identified between content consumption and word of mouth for online shopping brands. Differences from earlier studies possibly arise from TikTok's distinct nature, expanding our insights into e-commerce user behavior on the platform.