scholarly journals Examining Drivers of Brand Community Engagement: The Moderation of Product, Brand and Consumer Characteristics

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 4672
Author(s):  
Jintang Wang ◽  
Junyun Liao ◽  
Shiyong Zheng ◽  
Biqing Li
Keyword(s):  
Community Engagement ◽  
Information Value ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Product Complexity ◽  
Online Brand Communities ◽  
Social Motivations ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
The Impact

Numerous firms operate online brand communities (OBCs) in order to build a close consumer–brand relationship. To succeed in realizing this aim, firms must first sustain members’ brand community engagement. While prior studies have examined a series of drivers of brand community engagement, most of them focused on psychological and social motivations. Limited information is available about the role of product, brand and consumer characteristics in driving brand community engagement. Building on the uses and gratifications (UG) theory, the authors investigate the moderation of product complexity, brand symbolism, and extraversion in the relationship between brand community gratification and brand community engagement. With the collaboration of an online shopping site, 462 validated survey responses were collected to test our hypotheses. The results indicate that product complexity positively moderates the impact of information value on brand community engagement and brand symbolism positively moderates the effect of social value on brand community engagement. Finally, the results show that extraversion positively interacts with social value in enhancing brand community engagement. This study advances the understanding of brand community engagement.

scholarly journals Consumer Engagement in Online Brand Communities: Community Values, Brand Symbolism and Social Strategies

10.28945/4536 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 065-090
Author(s):  
Haili Pan
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Community Engagement ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Consumer Engagement ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
Online Brand Communities ◽  
Online Brand Community ◽  
Symbolic Value ◽  
The Relationship

Aim/Purpose: This study examines the kind of community value companies should provide when strengthening the relationship between customers and brands through the establishment of an online brand community, and how this kind of community value promotes customers’ sense of community engagement and willingness to spread brand reputation. The paper also discusses how an enterprise’s brand symbolism affects the relationship between community value and customers’ engagement in online brand community. This study explored the important role of brand symbolism in the establishment of an online brand community. Background: Many companies want to create online brand communities to strengthen their relationships with consumers as well as to provide better service and value to consumers, for example, Huawei’s Huafen community (club.huawei.com), Apple’s support community (support.apple.com/zh-cn), and Samsung’s Galaxy community (samsungmembers.cn). However, these brand communities may have different interests and consumer engagement about the kind of community value to offer to their customers. Methodology: This study uses data collection from questionnaire surveys to design a quantitative research method. An online questionnaire survey of mobile phone users in China was conducted to collect data on social value, cognitive value, brand symbolism, customer community engagement, and brand recommendation. The brands of mobile phone include Apple, Huawei, Samsung, OPPO, VIVO, MI, and Meizu. The researcher purchased a sample service of WJX, an online survey company (www.wjx.cn), and WJX company distributed the questionnaire to research participants. The WJX company randomly selected 240 subjects from their sample database and then sent the questionnaire link to research participants’ mobile phones. Among the 240 research participants, the researcher excluded participants who lacked online brand community experience or had invalid data to qualify for data collection. After the researcher excluded participants who did not qualify for data collection, only 203 qualified questionnaire surveys advanced to the data collection and analysis phase, which was the questionnaire recovery rate of 84.58%. For the model analysis and hypotheses testing, the researcher used statistical software IBM SPSS Statistics and AMOS 21 and Smartpls3. Contribution: This study deepens the body of literature knowledge by combining online brand community value and brand symbolic value to explore issues that companies should consider when establishing an online brand community for their products and services. This study confirms that brands with high symbolic value establish communities and strengthen social values in the online brand community rather than reducing brand symbolism. Online brand community involves a horizontal interaction (peer interaction) among peers, which can have an effect on the symbolic value of brand (social distance). Findings: First, online brand community value (both cognitive and social value) has a positive impact on customer community engagement. Second, customer community engagement has a positive impact on customers’ brand recommend intention. Third, the customer community engagement is a mediator between the online brand community value and the customer brand recommend intention. Most importantly, fourth, the symbolic value of the brand controls the relationship between community value and customer community engagement. For brands with high symbolic value, the community value should emphasize cognitive value rather than social value. For brands with a low symbolic value, the community provides cognitive or social value, which is not affected by the symbolism of the brand. Recommendations for Practitioners: Practitioners can share best practices with the corporate sectors. Brand owners can work with researchers to explore the characteristics of their online brand communities. On this basis, brand owners and researchers can jointly build and manage online brand communities. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers can explore different perspectives and factors of brand symbolism that involve brand owners when establishing an online brand community to advance consumer engagement, community value, and brand symbolism. Impact on Society: Online brand community is relevant for brand owners to establish brand symbolism, community value, and customer engagement. Readers of this paper can gain an understanding that cognitive and social values are two important drivers of individual participation in online brand communities. The discussion of these two factors can give readers and brand owners the perception to gain more understanding on social and behavior activities in online brand communities. Future Research: Practitioners and researchers could follow-up in the future with a study to provide more understanding and updated research information from different perspectives of research samples and hypotheses on online brand community.

The impact of external social and internal personal forces on consumers’ brand community engagement on Facebook

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 409-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carina Simon ◽  
Tim Oliver Brexendorf ◽  
Martin Fassnacht
Keyword(s):  
Community Engagement ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Consumer Engagement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
Online Brand Communities ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Consumer engagement has been designated as an approach to describing online interactions that more comprehensively reflects the nature of consumers’ interactive relationships in online brand communities. This paper aims to explore consumers’ brand community engagement in the context of Facebook brand pages. This research puts forth the hypothesis that consumers’ brand community engagement on Facebook is dependent upon two overarching themes: external social forces and internal personal forces. Design/methodology/approach Based on social impact theory, social identity theory and social exchange theory, a conceptual research model is developed and empirically tested through structural equation modelling using cross-sectional data of 460 Facebook brand fans. Findings The empirical results suggest that internal personal forces primarily positively influence brand community engagement, while external social forces can even impact consumers’ brand community engagement negatively. Research limitations/implications Future research should test and validate the proposed model for specific categories and brands. Practical implications This paper offers help to online brand marketers to trigger meaningful engagement of consumers in a brand community on Facebook. Originality/value This paper examines the consumer engagement construct from a behavioural perspective in a defined social media context and highlights the peculiarities of online brand communities on Facebook that distinguish them from traditional brand communities. The research uses a strong theoretical foundation to develop a model that investigates the prevalent variables that influence consumers’ brand community engagement on Facebook.

Brand community motives and their impact on brand community engagement: variations between diverse audiences

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matti Haverila ◽  
Caitlin McLaughlin ◽  
Kai Christian Haverila ◽  
Julio Viskovics
Keyword(s):  
Community Engagement ◽  
North American ◽  
Population Sample ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Sample Population ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Student Sample ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to compare two different sample populations (student and general) to determine the impact of brand community motives on brand community engagement.Design/methodology/approachTwo samples were drawn for the purpose of the current research. The first sample was drawn among the members of various brand communities from a general North American population sample (N = 503). The second sample was drawn purely from students, belonging to a variety of brand communities, from a middle-sized Canadian university (N = 195). Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to analyse the strength, significance and effect sizes of the relationships between brand community motive and engagement constructs.FindingsThe findings indicate that the impact of brand community motives varied by sample population. The information and entertainment motives were significantly related to brand community engagement in both sample populations with roughly equal effect sizes. The social integration motive was again significantly related to the brand community engagement construct in the student sample population – but not for the general North American general population sample. Further, the self-discovery motive and status enhancement motives were significantly related to brand community engagement in the North American sample, but not for the student sample. This indicates significant differences between the two sample populations.Originality/valueThe results of the current research demonstrate that student populations are significantly different from the general population regarding their motives towards brand communities. This indicates that brand community managers need to be aware of the motives of different brand community members and also that they need to exercise caution about utilizing purely student data to make decisions about brand community management.

scholarly journals The Links Between Social Motivational Engagements, Brand Community Commitment and Repurchase Intention Across Online Brand Communities

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
Ramūnas Časas ◽  
Tomas Palaima ◽  
Lasha Mironidze
Keyword(s):  
Online Community ◽  
Repurchase Intention ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Repurchase Intentions ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
Online Brand Communities ◽  
Online Brand Community ◽  
Social Motivations ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Community Commitment

The study focuses on the relationships between social motivational engagements, brand community commitment and repurchase intentions across marketer-generated and customer-generated online brand communities. The current study demonstrates that online brand community commitment mediates the effects of all the six motivational engagements (self-expression, connecting, helping, like-minded discussions, seeking assistance, and validation) on repurchase intention. The type of online brand community does not moderate any relationships between social motivational engagements and brand community commitment as expected. However, the current study demonstrates that the moderator affects the link between brand community commitment and repurchase intention indicating moderated mediation. In other words, the relationship between the two constructs becomes stronger in the marketer-generated online brand community. Consequently, the type of online brand community affects the links between the six social motivations and repurchase intention. Specifically, the effects of the six motivations on repurchase intention become stronger in the marketer-generated online community.

Sponsorship image transfer theory in virtual brand communities

2018 ◽  
Vol 118 (6) ◽  
pp. 1287-1302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Alonso Dos Santos ◽  
Francisco Rejón Guardia ◽  
Ferran Calabuig Moreno
Keyword(s):  
Positive Impact ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Purchase Intentions ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
Online Brand Communities ◽  
Online Brand Community ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the influences and efficiency of a sports sponsorship in an online brand community. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted through interviews with 609 social network users of a Spanish first league soccer team. The partial least squares (PLS) methodology was applied with a posteriori segmentation (PLS prediction-oriented segmentation (POS)). Findings The attitude toward the sponsor helps to assess the efficiency of sponsorships between companies. This variable is particularly relevant for evaluating sponsorship efficiency in online brand communities. Improving trust and assessing the sense of membership directly improves attitudes toward the team and the sponsored brands. The attitude toward the sponsor has a direct and positive impact on the purchase intentions. The use of a posteriori segmentation with the PLS–POS technique helps discriminate between groups. Research limitations/implications Among the limitations encountered, further study would require using a sample of various sports disciplines and cultures. Practical implications Specific actions and communication strategies are defined for each segment and in general to adapt communication strategies that improve identification with virtual brand communities. The study has revealed involvement-related differences resulting from the impact that engagement with the sponsored team may have on the assessed relationships. Originality/value The study of the effects of sponsorship and the use of a posteriori variables user segmentation in an online brand community are used.

Leveraging marketer-generated appeals in online brand communities

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Welf H. Weiger ◽  
Hauke A. Wetzel ◽  
Maik Hammerschmidt
Keyword(s):  
Brand Equity ◽  
User Behavior ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
Online Brand Communities ◽  
Matched Data ◽  
Entertainment Value ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The proliferation of online brand communities has shifted control over brands from firms to consumers. Demonstrating how marketers can stimulate consumers to use these opportunities and engage with the brand in such communities, the purpose of this paper is to address the effectiveness of normative and utilitarian appeals commonly employed in practice for enhancing engagement intensity and brand equity in turn. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents two studies at an individual user level. The first study builds on matched data on marketing actions, user behavior, and user perceptions from a Facebook brand community. The second study uses an experiment with members of a firm-hosted online brand community. The authors employ seemingly unrelated regressions while controlling for self-selection. Findings Marketer-generated appeals have a positive effect on brand equity that is mediated by engagement intensity. However, the strength of these effects depends highly on community, user, and relationship characteristics. Practical implications Generally speaking, marketer-generated appeals are effective tools for marketers to build brand equity through enhanced user engagement. However, their effectiveness can be improved when managers use a targeted approach. To offer precise managerial guidance, this paper shows how entertainment value, content consumption asymmetry (e.g. whether a user prefers user-generated content over marketer-generated content), and membership duration increase or lower the impact of appeals in building the brand through engagement intensity. Originality/value The authors provide evidence that appeals designed to drive user engagement in online brand communities are effective tools for boosting brand equity.

Virtual brand community engagement practices: a refined typology and model

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 204-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda D. Hollebeek ◽  
Biljana Juric ◽  
Wenyan Tang
Keyword(s):  
Community Engagement ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Component Model ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
Four Component Model ◽  
Online Brand Communities

Purpose Despite Schau et al.’s (2009) pioneering research addressing consumers’ community engagement practices, scholarly understanding of the nature and dynamics characterizing consumers’ engagement practices in virtual (online) brand communities, and their inter-relationships, is limited to date. Building on these authors’ study, this paper aims to develop a refined typology and process model of virtual brand community engagement practices (VBCEPs). Design/methodology/approach Using the netnographic methodology, the authors analyze 20 luxury handbag community members’ entries posted on the brand’s particular section of The Purse Forum. Findings The authors develop an eight-component VBCEP typology that refines Schau et al.’s (2009) four-component model of brand community engagement practices. The model comprises “greeting”, “regulating”, “assisting”, “celebrating”, “appreciating”, “empathizing”, “mingling” and “ranking”. These practices contribute to and maintain the community’s vision and identity, and strengthen shared community consciousness. Research limitations/implications A key limitation of this research lies in its findings being generated from a single, luxury virtual brand community. Future research may thus wish to validate the VBCEP typology and model across different contexts. Practical implications The authors provide strategic managerial recommendations designed to leverage virtual brand community performance, which center predominantly on the social (altruistic) and achievement-based VBCEP sub-processes. Originality/value The eight-component VBCEP typology refines Schau et al.’s four-component model of brand community engagement practices with particular applicability to virtual brand communities.

scholarly journals From Interactivity to Brand Preference: The Role of Social Comparison and Perceived Value in a Virtual Brand Community

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 625
Author(s):  
Miao Li ◽  
Ying Hua ◽  
Junxuan Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Brand Management ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Brand Preference ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Perceived Interactivity ◽  
Emotional Value ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Informational Value

The main purpose of the paper is to examine whether and how perceived interactivity in a virtual brand community affects brand preference to realize the sustainable development of the brand. In this study, we propose and empirically test a theoretical model by analyzing data collected from online brand community members in China. The study confirms that (1) perceived interactivity has a positive effect on social value, emotional value, and informational value; (2) social value, emotional value, and informational value positively influence brand preference; (3) upward social comparison positively moderates the impact of perceived interactivity on social value, while downward social comparison negatively moderates the impact of perceived interactivity on social value. This study has highlighted the role of perceived interactivity in a brand community in promoting brand preference. We believe that the findings offer reliable and important insights for research and practice of brand management.

scholarly journals The Dynamics of Value Creation in Online Brand Communities: Strategy Map Approach

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rizwan Shabbir ◽  
Chatchai Pitsaphol . ◽  
Waseem Hassan .
Keyword(s):  
Community Participation ◽  
Value Creation ◽  
Brand Loyalty ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
Online Brand Communities ◽  
Online Brand Community ◽  
The Impact

As the clout of social networking is growing, brand managers are exploring diversified marketing strategies and consumer attitudes. The current study reveals the impact of value creation practices and brand loyalty in online brand communities based on perceived benefits enjoyed by consumers. Based on quantitative research approach, a sample of 308 respondents were collected to investigate relationships among online brand community participation, value creation practices and brand loyalty. The results highlighted hedonic, learning, self-esteem and social benefits as antecedents for online brand community participation. Moreover, value creation practices are derived as essential factor for enhancing brand loyalty among online community members. The finding exhibited valuable insights about developing corporate strategies to achieve customer intimacy for long-term relationship. Managerial implications are explained by identifying value-creation practices as a mechanism for enhancing consumer engagement and relationship management.

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