Unpacking the effect of social media marketing on value co-creation behavior: The mediating role of brand trust and brand love

Abstract

in the digital era, social media marketing (smm) has emerged as a powerful tool in the digital era, transforming the way brands interact with consumers. brands increasingly leverage smm strategies to strengthen customer relationships, enhance engagement, and drive purchasing behaviors. therefore, this research on "unpacking the effect of social media marketing on value co-creation: the mediating role of brand trust and brand love" aims to explore how smm impacts customer behavior, particularly in terms of co-creating brand value. by applying the stimulus-organism-response (sor) framework, we examine how smm serves as a stimulus that shapes brand trust (bt) and brand love (bl), ultimately affecting value co-creation (vcc) behavior. this research employs a quantitative research approach, with data collected via an online survey targeting social media users who actively engage with fashion brand-related content. a sample of 255 respondents was analyzed using structural equation modeling (sem) to test the proposed hypotheses. the findings enrich our understanding of the smm’s influence on vcc behavior with the mediating role of bt and bl, offering valuable insights for businesses to refine their smm strategies.