The impact of social media communication, brand loyalty, and brand preference on young generation repurchase intention: the moderating role of brand trust / Asma Abdurasak Ahmed

Researchers and brand managers have limited understanding of social media communication, brand loyalty and brand preference on customer's repurchasing intention. Retail research focusing on young generation, particularly their purchasing intention among fast-food products, is also scarce. Therefore, this research was designed to test the link between social media communication, brand loyalty, and brand preference; and the moderating effect of brand trust on the young generation's intention to repurchase fast food in Malaysia. The study analyzed a quantitative research methodology by utilizing data collected from 400 customers of fast-food restaurants in Malaysia using a convenience sampling technique. The collected data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. The empirical study findings revealed that social media communication and brand preference have a significant relationship with young generation intention to repurchase fast food in Malaysia. However, the relationship between brand loyalty and repurchase intention was not significant. Nonetheless, brand trust moderated the relationship between social media communication, brand loyalty, brand preference, and repurchase intention. These results build upon the importance of social media communication, brand preference and brand trust in strengthening young generation's repurchase intention. This conceptual model is recommended to be replicated to service or product categories for findings to be generalizable. Furthermore, this study provides practical implications for decisionmakers in the fast-food restaurants' industry towards understanding how the studied variables impacted repurchasing intention.