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Given the huge increase of consumer adoption of the internet and use of online platforms, especially social media networks, companies and researchers need to explore and assess the role this can bring to brands. Today, in the context of the airline industry, many consumers, passengers in our case, are part of and active in online brand communities on social media, mostly on Facebook.
This thesis aims to explore the airline online brand communities in social media and further highlight their importance by studying the engagement of passengers in these brand communities and analyzing and testing its relationship with its associated antecedents and outcomes. The multi-dimensionality (cognitive, emotional, behavioral) and duality (brand, community) of consumer engagement, mentioned in the literature, have been elaborated in this thesis, however the behavioral dimension towards brand and community is the focus of this empirical study. 
Through the results of a survey answered by 1051 followers of the Facebook page of Luxair Luxembourg Airlines, the flag carrier airline of Luxembourg, two motives that affect the engagement of passengers on social media are revealed, namely the hedonic motive and the functional motive. This study also shows that social media passenger engagement contributes to strengthening the relationship between the airline brand and its passengers by improving their brand attitude and brand loyalty. Managerial and theoretical implications are proposed accordingly as well as suggestions for future research.

Online brand communities, airline industry, consumer engagement, behavioral engagement, brand attitude, brand loyalty, social media --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Marketing

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Ephemeral content is a novice concept, it has taken social media platforms by a storm after it was first introduced by the infamous Snapchat, its full potential is yet to be accurately shaped due to the lack of academic interest that is keeping us from exploring the user altering effect possibilities that we could reach using the different tools that yield ephemeral content as a concept. 
The research topic further focuses on identifying the different motivations of the use of ephemeral content that could potentially influence social gratification. Therefore, this thesis aimed to understand the impact of these motivations on consumer engagement highlighting the mediation effect of social gratification, while taking into account the multi-dimensionality of consumer engagement as a construct, namely the cognitive, emotional and behavioral aspects. Aiming to investigate the relationships between the different variables of the research model, an online questionnaire was conducted on 125 participants. They were initially asked to recall their last interaction with ephemeral content if they had any, or how they would imagine their behavior to be in regards to the different feelings they get during the period of time when they are experiencing ephemeral content on a daily basis while knowing in the back of their heads that the content they are consuming will disappear after a certain period of time and will not likely be available for them to re-consume ever again. An in-depth quantitative analysis of the results of the questionnaire was conducted proving that indeed the motivations impact the consumer engagement with the mediating effect of social gratification. Fear of missing out, trust and immediacy appeared to be strong predictors of social gratification, this later when positive, increases the consumer engagement with the content and drives it towards the same direction. However, the study revealed that the impact of social pressure on social gratification was irrelevant and not significant due to the volume of the responses denying any kind of cognitive, emotional or behavioral effect or influence that social pressure have applied upon their decision-making process of consuming ephemeral content. However, investigating the impact of social pressure under different conditions could have given different results.
Finally, the results of the study confirmed that social gratification does not only impact the behavioral engagement but also effects the cognitive and emotional engagement of social media users and drives them towards the same direction through the use of ephemeral content. Generally speaking, the stimulation of the social gratification through the creation and/or consumption of ephemeral content does indeed result in an increase when it comes to social media users’ engagement with a particular content, type or creator.

Social media --- Ephemeral Content --- Fear of missing out --- Trust --- Immediacy --- Social pressure --- Social Gratification --- Cognitive engagement --- Emotional engagement --- Behavioral engagement --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Marketing