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With the incredible growth of mobile communication technology and then smartphones, all kinds of mobile applications have spread in all aspects of human life (Purcell, Entner, and Henderson 2010 & Kim, Lin, & Sung, 2013). The growth of mobile applications has helped marketers enjoy “branded apps”. Marketers use these applications as a communication platform between the consumer and the brand because consumer interaction with branded apps leads to a more favorable attitude towards the brand. (Garg and Telang, 2013).
In the last decade, branded apps, along with other technologies in the digital age such as the Internet of Things, virtual reality have provided exciting opportunities for marketers (Wang, 2020). Also, social media has infiltrated everyday life and has led to a paradigm shift in the way people communicate and interact (Li, Yang, Zhang, & Zhang, 2019).
With the ubiquity of powerful mobile devices and high-speed wireless network infrastructure, the boundaries between a web and its mobile version are blurring, and most social media have become mobile-based (Humphreys, 2013; Molinillo, Aguilar-Illescas, Anaya- Sánchez, & Liébana-Cabanillas, 2021). Accordingly, the number of people using branded social media apps on their mobile phones has increased rapidly. These applications are software based on mobile devices (such as smartphones or tablets) with location-based services that enable people to continuously interact with others over wireless networks (Li, et al., 2019; Pang, & Ruan, 2023).
Such branded apps are very popular all over the world. Instagram, Wechat, TikTok and Weibo are among the popular media (Zhang, Xu, & Ye, 2022). TikTok is available in more than 150 countries by 2023, has more than 1 billion users, and has been downloaded more than 210 million times in the U.S. alone. Instagram is another social media that has at least 1.318 billion users worldwide until January 2023. (datareportal.com, 2023). There is heavy competition among these branded apps, and social media brand loyalty and continued use intent are critical for these apps. However, less research has been done specifically on branded apps in the context of social media.
The role of various factors such as customer value, brand features and marketing communication features are considered in behavioral intention (Bauer et al., 2008; Kwon et al., 2007McDonald & Stavros, 2007). Customer equity, which is one of the key factors in today's business marketing, is recognized as an effective factor in customer loyalty and behavioral intention (Ramaseshan et al., 2013).
To better understand and manage customers or users' behavioral intentions, it is necessary to know the effect of customer equity on it. According to Rust et al. (2000), customer equity framework includes three main drivers of value equity, brand equity and relationship equity. In this research, the effect of these factors is discussed on the behavioral intention of the users of Instagram app in a public university in Tehran. In addition, in this research, the role of brand loyalty factor is also considered as a mediator. Therefore, the present research pursues the following objectives:
1- Investigating the effect of customer equity drivers on behavioral intention
2- Investigating the effect of customer equity drivers on brand loyalty
3- Investigating the effect of brand loyalty on behavioral intention
4- Investigating the effect of customer equity drivers on behavioral intention indirectly through brand loyalty