Winning engaged consumers The rules of brand engagement and intention of co-creation in social commerce Saleh Bazi Newcastle University Business School, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK Alireza Hajli Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran Nick Hajli School of Management, Swansea University, Swansea, UK Mohana Shanmugam College of Computing and Informatics, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Kajang, Malaysia, and Xiaolin Lin Department of Computer Information and Decision Management, West Texas A&M University, Canyon, Texas, USA Abstract Purpose – Under the sunlight of social commerce, few concepts have blossomed like value co-creation. But when blurred strategies are implemented, the opportunity to wilt a brand is high. To avoid the miscues and the controversies, an ascendant step is to engage consumers with social commerce sites. The purpose of this paper is to propose three antecedents to engage consumers with social commerce sites, namely, social support, social commerce value and social commerce information sharing, and the effect of brand engagement on the intention of brand co-creation. Design/methodology/approach – This study used survey data from 234 Iranians with experience using social commerce sites. Variance-based structural equation modeling using the partial least squares path modeling approach was adopted to analyze the structural model. Findings – The authors found that social support, social commerce value and social commerce information sharing positively foster brand engagement. The study also revealed that brand engagement is a significant predictor of brand co-creation intention. Originality/value – The study is the first study that considers and explains brand engagement from social support theory, social commerce value theory and social commerce information exchange. Also, the study shows how consumers can be an integral part of a brand. Unlike other studies which were done in industrialized countries, this study was employed in Iran. Keywords Co-creation, Brand engagement, Information exchange, Perceived value, Social media, Social support, Social networking, Social commerce Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction Nowadays, it is essential for companies and firms to have a social media presence and to interact with existing customers and develop new potential customers. According to We Are Social (2019) statistics, there are 3.48bn active social media users worldwide, approximately 93 percent of these being active mobile social media users. Because of its popularity, social media facilitates an innovative channel for branding at the core of its customer engagement (e.g. Ahmad and Laroche, 2016; Zheng et al., 2015), thus changing business practice and service. A report issued by Marketo (2016) revealed that social media sites are among the most useful platforms to engage customers with brands at each stage of the consumer journey, which, in turn, allows for co-creation of value for the brand within customer networks. Information Technology & People Vol. 33 No. 2, 2020 pp. 456-476 © Emerald Publishing Limited 0959-3845 DOI 10.1108/ITP-09-2018-0415 Received 27 September 2018 Revised 27 May 2019 Accepted 30 May 2019 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/0959-3845.htm 456 ITP 33,2