The corporate communications executives’ interactive engagement through digital media

Abstract

Businesses are increasingly using corporate communication technologies to interact with prospective customers. Therefore, this study explores the corporate executives’ readiness to use interactive media for engagement with online users. The methodology relied on valid and reliable measures to explore the participants’ pace of technological innovation, perceived usefulness, ease of use and social influences, as these factors can have an effect on their engagement with interactive technologies. The findings supported the scales’ content validity as the structural equations modeling approach has reported a satisfactory fit for this study’s research model. The results indicated that the pace of technological innovation, perceived usefulness, ease of use of online technologies as well as social influences were significant antecedents for the marketing executives’ engagement with online users through digital media. This contribution implies that corporate communications executives ought to continuously monitor conversations in social media and review sites, and to respond to their online followers in a timely manner. In conclusion, it identifies its limitations and suggests possible research avenues to academia.