Social media marketing and brand loyalty: exploring interrelationships through symmetrical and asymmetrical modeling

Purpose: This study aims to examine the interrelationships between social media marketing activities, self-brand connections, brand equity, trust and loyalty. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 402 valid responses were collected from Amazon MTurk, and the data were subjected to partial least squares structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Findings: Findings indicate that social media marketing activities strongly and positively influence self-brand connection, brand equity and brand trust. Moreover, brand loyalty was strongly and positively influenced by self-brand connection, brand equity and brand trust. Moreover, the findings from fsQCA indicate that three causal paths lead to a high level of brand loyalty, and one causal path determines a low level of brand loyalty. Originality/value: This research extends current knowledge by bridging the literature between social media marketing activities and branding using self-brand connections. Additionally, this study uses the strength of two complimentary methods – symmetrical and asymmetrical modeling – to uncover how social media marketing activities bridge customer-brand relationships.