Relationship orientation in social media: construct and measurement

Social media has been attracting attention of marketers attempting to fully exploit its benefits. However, there is no formal construct or measurement of relationship-building activities in social media that has been theoretically developed and empirically validated. The main purpose of this paper is to conceptualize relationship orientation in social media (ROSM) and develop and empirically test the psychometric properties of the relationship orientation in social media (ROSM) measurement. By conceptualizing ROSM as multidimensional, behavioral and process-based we develop a deeper understanding of relationship-building activities in social media. An additional contribution lies in the development of a measure of ROSM, making it operational and applicable in empirical studies.