Antecedents and consequences of organizational efforts on customer engagement in C2C online auction commerce environment

With the growth of Customer to Customer (C2C) auction websites, understanding customer engagement is important for both practitioners and researchers. Therefore, this article focuses on C2C auction organizations’ efforts on customer engagement. The article draws on three important antecedents to customer engagement in C2C auction commerce namely, investment in reputation and trust building efforts; ease of learning and experience; and features of online auction websites. A survey-based methodology was employed with a sample of 256. The results indicate that the antecedents positively affect customer engagement which in turn impact on behavioural intentions. The findings of the study are likely to enhance our understanding of the multiple-stage consumption process of C2C auctions where customer satisfaction is not a post consumption phenomenon and occurs in parallel with customer engagement. The findings provide valuable insights regarding factors managers should focus their attention on tailoring their approaches and content.