Investigating the impact of social media influencers on B2B customer engagement in Kuwait

Abstract

Relationship marketing (RM) has become an increasingly important part of business marketing strategy. Its development and expansion had seen a corresponding rise in the use of social media (SM) and the contribution of SM influencers.
This study aims to explore how such influencers, especially using electronic word of mouth (eWOM), might be employed by firms to positively affect the direction or strength of customer engagement (CE) in the context of a business to business (B2B) relationship, with the goal of building long-term relationship. A quantitative approach is adopted, using a questionnaire prepared for SMEs (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises), in Kuwait. The study draws on the literature regarding SM and influencers in RM, noting that there has been little research into this in the context of SMEs customers, which this research addresses. An original contribution is made to this field of study in the form of a developed framework to systematically analyse the relationship between CE and its antecedents of customer involvement, trust, satisfaction and commitment, as they are mediated by the variables of eWOM and the expertise of the influencer used.
Study results showed that 9 of the 12 hypothesised relationships between the antecedents and the mediators were supported, while three (the influencer’s expertise with trust and with commitment, and the effects of commitment on satisfaction) were not. The results help in articulating the underlying processes by which the antecedents in the framework can affect CE for SMEs in Kuwait, and in clarifying the nature of the relationship between the different variables which the study found to exist. There is shown to be a clear linear progression linking the antecedents to each other and to CE, with the influencer’s effectiveness being strongest at the beginning of the chain. The clear and coherent structure that forms the base of this research can be used to guide the study into the research questions and provides an example of empirical and theoretical studies that may be replicated in different contexts to provide a broader understanding and to establish how far these results may be considered generalizable.

Date of Award	Oct 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Brighton
Supervisor	Hasan Gilani (Supervisor), Keith Perks (Supervisor) & Nasos Poulis (Supervisor)