虚拟社区成员强化动机对品牌选择行为的作用机理

网络社交媒介的涌现导致企业越来越趋向于以虚拟品牌社区的方式进行产品营销,并试图通过这种方式将企业品牌形象深植到消费者心中,进而形成较高的品牌忠诚度。鉴于此,可基于社会网络、品牌社区等理论,构建社会强化动机、网络中心度及虚拟品牌社区成员品牌选择行为之间关系的理论模型,进而通过设计问卷对虚拟社区成员进行调研,检验社会强化动机对虚拟品牌社区成员品牌忠诚度的作用机理,探究网络中心度在虚拟品牌社区强化动机与品牌选择行为之间的中介作用。研究发现,社会强化动机能有效提高虚拟社区成员的程度中心度和中介中心度;虚拟社区成员的程度中心度和中介中心度越高,社会强化动机越强,其对虚拟社区的归属感越强;成员的社区归属感越强,越倾向于保护自己的品牌并抵制竞争品牌。由此可见,企业为更好地进行虚拟品牌社区管理,需要注重对成员社会强化动机的激发,鼓励成员参与社区活动;需要重点关注网络中心度高的成员,激发其信息分享热情;需要致力于虚拟品牌社区建设,不断增强成员归属感。

The Influencing Mechanism of Strengthening Motivation of Virtual Community Members on Brand Choice Behavior

With the emergence of social media on the Internet,more and more enterprises tend to use the virtual brand community to carry out product marketing,want to deeply embed the corporate brand image in the hearts of consumers through this way,and then form a strong brand loyalty. Based on the theory of social network and brand community,the authors construct the theoretical model of the relationship among social reinforcement motivation,network centrality and brand choice behavior of virtual brand communitymembers. On this basis,378 virtual community members were investigated by designing a questionnaire to test the influencing mechanism of social reinforcement motivation on brand loyalty of virtual brand community members,and to explore the intermediary role of network centrality between reinforcement motivation and brand choice behavior of virtual brand community members. The results show that social reinforcement motivation can effectively improve the degree centrality and intermediary centrality of virtual community members;the higher the degree centrality and intermediary centrality of virtual community members,the stronger the social reinforcement motivation,and the stronger the sense of belonging to virtual community members;the stronger the sense of belonging of virtual community members,the more inclined to protect their own brands and resist competitive brands. To better manage virtual brand community members,first,related enterprises should pay more attention to strengthening motivation of virtual community members,and encourage them to participate in social activities;second,they should pay more attention to people with higher centralitysocial network,and energize them to share the information;and third,they should pay more attention to community construction,and continuously improve the members’ sense of belonging.