THE INNOVATIVE ROLES OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AS A MODERATOR IN CONSUMER PERSPECTIVE MODEL FOR MALAYSIA-ORIGIN FASHION BRANDS’ BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY

Abstract

Community Engagement (CE) is investigated in this study as a moderator on whether it can innovatively strengthen the Consumer Perspective Model (CPM) or the opposite, in order to build Strong Brand Equity (SBE) for Malaysia-Origin Fashion Brands’ (MOFBs) business sustainability. CE has been stated to have significant impacts especially through electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) on sustainable advantage. CPM is a strategic brand management model adapted from Consumer-based Brand Equity (CBBE) (Keller, 1993) with Independent Variables (IVs) of Brand Awareness (BA), Brand Image (BI) and Purchase Intention (PI) to predict Dependent Variable (DV) of SBE building for MOFBs like Padini, Vinci, Polo Haus, Variante and others that have low equity to win over international rivals (IRs) such as H&M, ZARA, Mango, Uniqlo and others, due to consumers switching their brand preferences. CE provides a good eWOM platform for a consumer-brand relationship, thus, would turn commercial content moderation to financial outgrowth in its moderating effects together with Brand Loyalty (BL) as a mediating variable. The study employed a non-probability convenient sampling technique with the success response rate of 29.7% where 798 datasets were run through data screening procedures for further statistical analysis in SEM-PLS. A quantitative research method by using SPSS version 25 and SmartPLS version 3.2.8 on 6 constructs and 17 latent variables was employed too. The findings showed that Brand Loyalty has full mediating effects. CE was found to weaken the relationships between IVs and DV, thus, insignificantly affecting the innovative roles as a moderator variable. Overall, MOFBs are perceived as having low equity in the marketplace. Therefore, different consumers’ perspectives to successfully build SBE are needed. Particularly, more comprehensive and innovative roles of CE in eWOM interactivities can contribute to business sustainability.