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Daugherty et al. (2013) found a positive relationship between UGC with attitude and consumer behavior about
specific brands. Moreover, Ozuem et al. (2016) indicated that UGC acts as a mediator in the customer decision-
making process, with a level of credibility above and beyond that of a traditional marketing communication
campaign. Besides, Christodoulides et al. (2012) found that consumer views of co-creation, community, and self-
concept favor UGC participation, which positively affects consumer-based brand equity. Perceived quality is also
achievable through UGC because family and friends are more likely to trust content from someone they know (Liu
et al., 2015). Hence, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H2b: A positive evaluation of user-generated social media brand communication positively and significantly
influences perceived quality.

2.5.3 Brand Awareness and Perceived Quality

According to Su (2016), brand awareness affects perceived quality. Similarly, Zheng et al. (2017) recognized a
favorable link between brand awareness/association and perceived brand quality. Consumer awareness and brand
association are the first steps in creating customer-based brand equity. It affects the consumers' impression of brand
quality and their attitude towards the brand if they are familiar with it. Furthermore, Schnurr et al. (2017) found that
customer perception of a product's attractiveness and perceived quality exist for familiar products and the opposite
for unfamiliar products. Similarly, according to Park et al. (2019), brand familiarity moderates the association
between substantive servicescape and good sentiment, having a more substantial effect on individuals with low
familiarity than on people with high familiarity. Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H3: Brand awareness has a positive and significant effect on perceived quality.

2.3 RESEARCH FRAMEWORK

Figure 1: Research framework for impact of brand communication on brand equity
through social media

Figure 1 depicts the conceptual framework of this study. In this study, firm-created and user-generated social media
communications have positive and significant impact on brand equity including brand awareness and perceived quality. This
framework is adopted from Schivinski and Dabrowski (2015).

⬛ 3.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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