الفهرس 
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Abstract
Introduction
The smartphone industry is a growing sector, globally has made up revenues of 330.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2013 reached 409.1 U.S. billion dollars in 2020. Moreover, the number of smartphone users worldwide started with 1.06 billion in 2012 reaching 3.5 billion in 2020. In Egypt the number of smartphone users 27.9 million in 2019 compared to users in 2013 was 12.6 million (Statista, 2020). Thus, the number of smartphone users in Egypt increased more than twofold from 2013 to 2019.
Concerning these statistics, the smartphone sector is a rich realm to investigate what smartphone brands do to keep their current customers. Hanaysha (2018,p.4) defined customer retention as “the process of building customer loyalty toward a particular brand, thus having customers to repurchase its products or services over time”. Keeping the current customers is able to assist the brands to increase their profits almost by 25% to 95% if retain just 5% of their customers (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990), also decrease the cost due to the cost of attracting new customers more expensive than keeping the current customers (Kotler et al., 2014).
In light of the aforementioned, increasing the customers who have a high level of brand commitment improves the ability of brands to retain their current customers (Danish et al., 2015, Parawansa, 2018, Han et al., 2020). Moorman et al. (1992,p.316) identified commitment as “an enduring desire to maintain a valued relationship with the brand” this desire is created by investing in affective (Gustafsson et al., 2005, Japutra et al., 2016, Iglesias et al., 2019) and cognitive dimensions (Gounaris, 2005).
In addition to that, recently, the competition among companies is increasing rapidly in various industries around the world. Regarding the smartphone industry, in Egypt, the market share is split into six prominent brands Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi, and Realme (Statcounter, 2020). So, the main goal for these brands is keeping the current customers, and also, that is the purpose of the present research how to reinforce brand commitment to raise the retention rate of customers.
Furthermore, the present research attempts to enhance the relationship between customers who are highly committed to a brand and their desire to buy the same brand again through foster the level of engagement of those customers on social media networks. Dessart (2017,p.377) defined customer engagement as “the state that reflects consumers’ positive individual dispositions towards the community and the focal brand as expressed through varying levels of affective, cognitive and behavioral manifestations that go beyond exchange situations”.
In brief, the current research is interested in exploring the effect of customers who are highly engaged with smartphone brand pages on social media networks on the relationship between brand commitment and customer retention. Thus, the chapter is structured as follows. First, we present the main terminologies and theoretical background of the research. Second, the pilot study and research problem are presented, followed by research questions and objectives. Third, show the conceptual framework and hypotheses development. Finally, outline the significance of the research, an overview of the Egyptian smartphone market, and a thesis structure.
2. Research Problem
According to the pilot study and the literature review, the research problem mainly stems from the paucity of investigation the customer retention on the product or tangible sector and also the limited studies that have analyzed the relationship between brand commitment and customer retention have been done in the services sector (Milan et al., 2015a, Hanaysha, 2018, Parawansa, 2018, Han et al., 2020), consequently, the current study attempts to fill this gap through analyzing the relationship between brand commitment and customer retention in the tangible product sector which is the smartphone brands Market.
Another essential gap has been found in the literature review, the past studies have revealed that scholars have used customer retention in the title of the study however into the body of the study measured customer retention indirectly through loyalty, repurchase intention, and behavioral intention (Milan et al., 2015a, Adzoyi et al., 2018, Trasorras et al., 2009, Thaichon and Quach, 2015, Al‐Hawari et al., 2009) whereas the present study measures customer retention itself directly.
Moreover, scholars have focused on analyzing the affective commitment or the brand commitment as a whole variable without sub-dimensions(Nguyen et al., 2016, Ramaseshan and Stein, 2014, Iglesias et al., 2019) however the current research attempts to fill this gap through exploring the effect of two dimensions of brand commitment (affective and calculative). Also, the prior studies have interested the behavioral aspect of customer engagement with the social media networks while the current research examines the affective, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions.
Furthermore, the competitive nature of the smartphone brands market makes a curiosity about what smartphone brands such as Samsung, Apple, Huawei, and Oppo do to develop the affective and continuous commitment to retain their customers. In addition to that, to the best of the author’s knowledge, no prior study has examined the same model of the current research that seeks to measure the effect of customer engagement on social media networks as a moderating variable in the relationship between brand commitment and customer retention in the smartphone brand market. Based on the above discussion the research questions are:
3. Research Questions
RQ1: What is the relationship between the two dimensions of brand
commitment (Affective and continuance) and customer
retention on the market of smartphone brands?
RQ2: what is the moderating effect of customer engagement
(affective, cognitive and behavioral) on social media networks in
the relationship between the two dimensions of brand
commitment (affective and continuance) and customer retention
on the market of smartphone brands?
4. Research Objectives
RO1: To analyze the relationship between the two dimensions
commitment (Affective and continuance) and customer
retention on the market of smartphone brands.
RO2: To examine the moderating effect of customer engagement
on social media networks in the relationship between brand
commitment and customer retention on the market of
smartphone brands.
Based on the theoretical review discussed earlier and some empirical research on the relationship between brand commitment, customer retention and customer engagement as a moderating variable, we propose a conceptual model as presented in Figure (1) for empirical testing.
Figure (1): Research Conceptual Framework.
Source: Developed by the Researcher
5.2 Research Hypotheses
The present study consists of two parts. The first part analyzes the relationship between two dimensions of brand commitment (affective and continuance) and customer retention. The second part measures the moderating effect of customer engagement (affective, cognitive, and behavioral) on the relationship between brand commitment (affective and continuance) and customer retention.
H1: Brand Commitment is positively Affected Customer Retention
H1a: Affective Commitment is Positively Affected Customer Retention.
H1b: Continuance Commitment is Positively Affected Customer Retention.
H2: Customer Engagement will positively modify the Relationship between Brand Commitment and Customer Retention
H2a: Affective Engagement will positively modify the relationship
between Affective Commitment and Customer Retention
H2b: Affective Engagement will positively modify the relationship
between Continuance Commitment and Customer Retention
H2c: Cognitive Engagement will positively modify the relationship
between Affective Commitment and Customer Retention.
H2d: Cognitive Engagement will positively modify the relationship
between Continuance Commitment and Customer Retention.
H2e: Behavioral Engagement will positively modify the relationship
between Affective Commitment and Customer Retention.
H2f: Behavioral Engagement will positively modify the relationship
between Continuance Commitment and Customer Retention.
After applying the Path analysis for the direct and the indirect SEM models it’s concluded that as shown in the below table (1)
Table (1): Summary of Testing Hypotheses
Hypothesis
Number Hypothesis
Supported/
Rejected
H1 Brand Commitment is positively Affected Customer Retention Supported
H1a Affective Commitment is Positively Affected Customer Retention. Supported
H1b Continuance Commitment is Positively Affected Customer Retention. Supported
H2 Customer Engagement will positively modify the Relationship between Brand Commitment and Customer Retention Supported
H2a: Affective Engagement will positively modify the relationship between Affective Commitment and Customer Retention Supported
H2b: Affective Engagement will positively modify the relationship between Continuance Commitment and Customer Retention Supported
H2c: Cognitive Engagement will positively modify the relationship between Affective Commitment and Customer Retention. Supported
H2d: Cognitive Engagement will positively modify the relationship between Continuance Commitment and Customer Retention. Supported
H2e Behavioral Engagement will positively modify the relationship between Affective Commitment and Customer Retention. Supported
H2f Behavioral Engagement will positively modify the relationship between Continuance Commitment and Customer Retention. Supported
Source: Developed by the Researcher
6. Research Findings
Statistical analysis has revealed that there is a positive and direct correlation between brand commitment and customer retention. Moreover, there is a strong relationship between the two dimensions of brand commitment (affective and continuous) and customer retention. The correlation value of the relationship between affective commitment and customer retention equals 0.750 whereas between the continuous commitment and customer retention equals 0.575. Additionally, p-value = 0.000 < α= 0.05.
In addition to that, affective commitment is responsible for 56% of the changes in customer retention whereas 32% is due to continuous commitment. While the brand commitment with two dimensions has a positive and significant effect on customer retention with 70%.
Concerning customer engagement, there is a strong and positive relationship between affective, continuous commitment and three dimensions of customer engagement (affective, cognitive, and behavioral). Furthermore, a strong relationship between the three dimensions of customer engagement (affective, cognitive, and behavioral) and customer retention.
A correlation value of the relationship between affective engagement, cognitive engagement, and behavioral engagement and customer retention is 0.676, 0.548, 0.510 in sequence. Also, the correlation value of the relationship between affective engagement and affective commitment equals 0.623 while continuous commitment equals 0.502. in addition, there is a significant relationship between cognitive engagement and affective commitment 0.536 and continuous commitment 0.424. the behavioral engagement is positively related to affective commitment 0.539 and continuous commitment 0.434.
Regarding the moderating effect of customer engagement, the statistical analysis refers to the affective engagement is positively modifying the relationship between affective commitment and customer retention with 63%, whereas the relationship between continuous commitment and customer retention with 52%. Moreover, cognitive engagement can change the relationship between affective commitment and customer retention with 58.9% and 43.9% between continuous commitment and customer retention.
Behavioral engagement is positively changing the relationship between affective commitment and customer retention with 57.5% and 41% between continuous commitment and customer retention. The total effect of customer engagement on the relationship between brand commitment and customer retention equals 95% while without customer engagement equals 70%.