THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SYMPATHY, USER-GENERATED CONTENT AND BRAND EQUITY: A LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

This research aims to examine how sympathy spread messages by exploring Internet user behaviors as well as UGC's role in facilitating brand equity. Thereby the study suggests the research model which can be applied in other places, other contexts, and related fields. The study's method is to systematically review, compare the relevant studies, and develop research hypotheses. The main results of the proposed model are to explore the scales and determine the relationship between sympathy, user-generated content (UGC), and brand equity. Moreover, empirical research can, based on the proposed conceptual framework, be studied for different countries or platforms such as Twitter (a blog site), Facebook, Instagram (a social network), and youtube (a content community). The proposed model provides valuable insights into the role of using sympathy in social media to encourage UGC, in turn promoting brand equity. Consequently, the marketer, the owner of the company, should be aware of the importance of using empathy in social posts