Analysing the relationship between social media analytics practices, customer engagement, and business performance in the Indian retail industry

Social media analytics (SMA) is an emerging field and recently it has received a lot of attention from both academics and practitioners. A significant number of the research currently being conducted in SMA is conceptual. Industry experts know that social media analytics create new opportunity for companies who want to engage the customers and improve business performance. However, the relationship of SMA practices, customer engagement and business performance has not yet been investigated empirically. To effectuate the relationship among social media analytics practices, customer engagement and business performance, a large-scale survey was conducted among senior and mid-level managers as well as consultants in the Retail and IT sector India. Specifically, a structured questionnaire was administered to managers' country-wide and gathered answers from 337 respondents holding the positions such as Digital Marketing Executives/Digital Marketing Specialist/Management Consultants/Analytics Managers/CRM Managers/Marketing Director/ Engagement Managers who are dealing with the digital marketing strategy of retail organization. The questionnaire addressed issues such as how social media analytics practices help to build positive relationship with customer engagement and business performance. A Structural Equation Modelling was conducted to analyse the received empirical data. On the basis of the research findings, we can conclude that there is a significant positive relationship among SMA practices, customer engagement and business performance in the Indian IT industry.