Abstract:

Purpose - While brand equity is widely recognized as one of the most important areas of strategic marketing, it is a rather new and complex research topic in social media context. Hitherto, there is no acknowledged concept of social media brand equity or unified approach of its estimation. The purpose of this study is to suggest a conceptualization of social media brand equity (SMBE) through analysis of the main challenges and drivers of extant explorations in the related areas. Methodology – Out of 225 revised scholarly papers about social media and brand valuation, there are scant number of studies that propose a model for SMBE measurement. Based on the literature review a theoretical proposal is elaborated to understand the concept of SMBE. Findings - Results show that consumer-related factors have a significant impact on SMBE building due to the active involvement of users in the value co-creation process, which is facilitated by numerous social media inherent features. Therefore, customer-based brand equity (CBBE) may be the initial platform for elaboration of the SMBE concept and subsequent development of its measurement scale. Conclusion - Conceptualization of SMBE contributes to the development of the reasonable assessment model available for scholars and practitioners for the brand valuation of social media firms.

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