KOREASCHOLAR

The Internet is considered as a competitive marketing instrument in advancing business-related information and real-time transaction opportunities (Kumar, 2013). Several brand managers are questioning whether the existent marketing approaches to position their brands, with the purpose to operate in a traditional and online setting, may be enhanced (Liu, 2012). The Internet is recognized as an influential instrument that has changed the manner brands conduct business and the way consumers and businesses interact (Boyland et al., 2013). The distinctive value that the Internet offers over conventional media is the capacity to interact with consumers. This permits practitioners to adjust their presentation to adapt specific consumers’ needs. Contrary to other forms of media, the Internet assists companies to create long-term relationships with its consumers as it allows a distinctive reciprocal communication. This reciprocal communication that distinguishes the latest marketing channels from conventional media is website interactivity (Wang et al., 2013). a mechanized environment the same way as a company does in a traditional environment. It includes communicating with consumers directly, generating an exclusive and individual interaction with them. As a central aspect in technology-mediated communication, Website interactivity has been identified as a critical component to create strong brands (Voorveld et al., 2013). Regardless of the significance of Website interactivity, very limited research was identified in the branding and marketing literature that investigate the influential role of interactivity on brand equity. To this date very few researchers have devoted efforts to investigate the influential impact of Website interactivity on branding constructs. Therefore, this study closes this gap with the conceptualization and the impact of the two dimensions of Website interactivity namely social interactivity and system interactivity on brand equity. Additionally, another contribution is to examine the mediating effect of brand image and brand awareness in the formation of brand equity in the online environment. The study propose a theory-based model of Website interactivity as a precursor to build online brand equity and to examine the relationships among Website interactivity, bran image, brand awareness, and brand equity in the context of branded Websites. Leaning on the fundamentals of branding literature and the Website interactivity theory, a theoretical framework is designed and seven hypotheses are examined. A two-phase analysis is considered, first a Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and then a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings show that the dimensions of Website interactivity impact significantly on the brand awareness and brand image which in turn influence online brand equity. As today limited research has been focused on studying the impact of Website interactivity as a branding instrument. In this study, the authors consider Website interactivity to be the interaction between Websites and individuals. In this sense, Website interactivity is viewed as an essential high-tech capability for building brands (Voorveld et al., 2013) as it allows a reciprocal communication with the system and other users. Current literature indicates that for a more real illustration of the dual dimensions of Website interactivity, studies devote user control as an expression of system interactivity and two-way communication as an expression of social interactivity (Wang et al., 2013). Two-way communication (social interactivity) refers to reciprocal communication between individuals. The dimension is perceived as the interaction between the users and the system (e.g. Website) (e.g. through e-mail, chat or toll-free telephone access to customer service, etc.). The user control (system interactivity) perspective is more concerned with the ability of the user to select content and guide the interaction (Lowry et al., 2006). User control is manifested when individuals are granted the opportunity to select the content and influence the communication. For instance, Web users may feel themselves as possessing user control because they have the capacity to select without restrictions (through an internal search engine).

• Albert A. Barreda(Missouri State University, USA)
• Fevzi Okumus(University of Central Florida, USA)
• Khaldoon Nusair(Sultan Qaboos University, Oman)
• Anil Bilgihan(Florida Atlantic University, USA)