Antecedents of participation in online brand communities and their purchasing behavior consequences

This study intends to fill some gaps in knowledge about online communities and their influence on consumers’ purchase decisions. A review of the extant literature on online brand communities reveals that most prior studies have focused on identifying the factors associated with joining and participating in online communities. However, limited studies examine the implications of participation in online brand communities in terms of consumer behaviors, such as brand liking and intention to purchase the brand. In addition, these few studies have either focused on the influence of operational elements of the online community on purchase intention or on the influence of community members’ characteristics regarding purchase intention. Therefore, this study aims to provide an integrated framework for operational and user characteristics’ antecedents associated with consumers’ participation in online brand communities and their effect on purchase decisions. Structural equation modeling was used to test the conceptual model. Data were collected via a survey of the Facebook pages of 282 members of Egyptian telecommunication companies. The findings provide insights into how these antecedents should be managed to enhance participation in virtual telecommunication communities.     

‘I'm like you,you're like me,we make a great brand community!’ Similarity and children's brand community participation.

Moving beyond a common brand interest, homophily is employed to understand the impact of characteristic similarity between child members of a brand community on attitudes toward the brand community and community participation desire. Three experimental studies were undertaken, assessing member similarity, respect, and member deviance with relation to brand community attitudes and participation desire. Results suggest greater similarity enhances children's attitudes toward the community and participation desire, explained by an increased respect towards the community. When a community member is deviant (disloyal), respect, and subsequently attitudes and participation desire, decline. By introducing homophily to child-oriented brand communities; this research contributes to the sparse literature, with results highlighting marketers should emphasize member similarity when promoting brand communities aimed at children.     

Leveraging Online Communities to Support the Brand and Develop the Community

While numerous organizations and consumers utilize interactive online marketing activities (e.g., creating discussion forums, having brainstorming sessions, and running surveys) to interact with the brand and fellow brand users, there is little research that addresses how important it is to offer community members activities based on their motivations to participate in the community. This research is an important first step at examining the degree to which marketers need to match marketing activities in online communities with community member motivations to affect brand and community outcomes. Using a longitudinal study of 256 members from 9 marketing research online communities in 3 different industries, this research finds that online communities can be used to positively influence a broad range of brand assessments, brand-supportive behaviors, and community-supportive behaviors. Furthermore, leveraging marketing activities in online communities is more complex than previously thought.     

From active participation to engagement in online communities: Analysing the mediating role of trust and commitment

The advent of new media and the internet has brought social media to the fore of all brand communications. Marketers are looking at leveraging social media and all its capabilities to their advantage so as to build and manage customer relationships while also co-creating brand experiences. Online communities are one of the most preferred choices of marketers, from among all the tools and features that social media offers. The present study aims to understand how user’s active participation in online communities is instrumental in influencing their engagement with the community. The above relationship is tested on a sample of 203 respondents, using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), where trust and commitment are explored as mediators. While trust is found to partially mediate the relationship between active participation and engagement, commitment acts as a full mediator. The influence of personal characteristics (membership duration, gender) is also explored as an ancillary outcome to the study.     

Consumers' Role Performance and Brand Identification: Evidence from a Survey and a Longitudinal Field Experiment

Why do some consumers evangelize brands and create value for them even without receiving any direct reward in return? How do their motivations influence their role behaviors and their identification with the company or brand? We draw on motivation theory and the in- and extra-role literature of leadership to propose a theoretical framework. We use this framework to analyze data from one cross-sectional survey conducted with members of two online brand communities and one longitudinal field experiment with consumers of one new online brand community. We first separate community members' motivations into three types of psychological needs (self-competency, self-belongingness, self-autonomy) that are fulfilled by membership in a brand community. We investigate how each of these needs influences consumers' in-role and extra-role behaviors, which in turn positively affect their brand identification and create value for the company. Our results show that self-competency motivates both in- and extra-role behaviors, self-belongingness only increases less involved in-role behaviors, and self-autonomy only affects more involved extra-role behaviors. Both role behaviors foster beneficial consumer brand identification. We discuss how these findings can inform marketers' brand community-building strategies.     

Building engagement in online brand communities: The effects of socially beneficial initiatives on collective social capital

Using social capital theory, this study investigates members' perceptions of socially beneficial initiatives on collective social capital. A total of 359 valid surveys were collected from two types of online brand communities (OBCs). The results demonstrate that high levels of empathy can lead to increased prosocial behavior. In both product and social OBCs, social trust affects affective and cognitive engagement, while reciprocity impacts affective and behavioral engagement. Moreover, our findings show that the link between prosocial behavior and reciprocity is partially mediated by social trust. This study provides several implications for the management of OBCs.     

Drivers of brand community engagement

Brand community engagement is evolving as a prominent relationship marketing variable that yields promising outcomes for the firms. Drawing upon the relevant premises of social exchange theory, this paper proposes a theoretical model portraying the role of online brand community based benefits (experience based and self-esteem based) and the community relationship investment in predicting the levels of brand community engagement.Data collected through a survey questionnaire technique from 925 members of the firm created online brand communities was employed to test the measurement and structural theory using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling respectively. The empirical results reveal that the customers’ experiential and self-esteem based benefits drive their brand community engagement. The perceived community relationship investment of the members also drives their brand community engagement positively. The sequential structural model also supported a positive impact exerted by brand community engagement on brand community commitment and brand loyalty. Additionally, it is observed that the focal brand ownership moderates the effect of community benefits and community relationship investment on brand community engagement.This study contributes to the nascent academic research on online brand communities and to the existing understanding of the brand community managers in managing customer engagement in online brand communities, thereby of profound theoretical and managerial relevance.     

The role of customer online brand experience in customers' intention to forward online company-generated content: The case of the Islamic online banking sector in Palestine

The purpose of this study is twofold: Firstly, to assess the impact of customer online brand experience (COBE) with online banking on customer's intention to forward online company-generated content (CGC). Secondly, to explore the role of online brand community engagement (OBCE) and the perceived trust of brand community page (BCP) as mediating variables between COBE and the intention to forward online CGC. This research conducted an online survey among various Islamic bank customers in Palestine who were members of online brand communities (fan pages) on Facebook. 375 valid responses were collected and results revealed that COBE exerts a dual influence on intention to forward CGC. This study is a pioneering empirical research on the role of OBCE in customers' intention to forward online CGC within the fast-growing Islamic banking industry. This study contributes to fill this research gap by assessing the effect of COBE on OBCE and intention to forward online CGC within the context of the Islamic online banking sector in Palestine. In this sense, this study is a first-of-its-kind research on the role of experience on customer engagement with regard to online brand communities of Islamic banks.     

在线品牌社群社会资本对消费者品牌幸福感的影响机制研究

文章从社会资本的视角，探讨在线品牌社群对消费者品牌幸福感的影响机制。基于680份有效问卷，运用偏最小二乘法对假设进行检验。研究结果表明：在线品牌社群社会资本会通过促进社群幸福感（社群主观幸福感、社群心理幸福感和社群社会幸福感）进而促进品牌幸福感；在社群幸福感内部，社群社会幸福感会促进社群心理幸福感，而二者都会促进社群主观幸福感；在线品牌社群访问频率在社群主观幸福感与品牌幸福感之间起到正向调节作用。研究结论丰富了在线品牌社群和品牌幸福感理论，且对品牌建设实践具有指导价值。     

Influence of consumer attitude toward online brand community on revisit intention and brand trust

This study proposes to illustrate the relationships between perceived benefits in using online brand communities, attitudes, revisit intention, and brand trust, and it also assesses the moderating role of two types of online brand communities: marketer- and consumer-created communities. The research model is tested by regression analysis using a random sample of 242 respondents. The study finds that social and informational benefits have positive impacts on attitude, which, in turn, significantly influence revisit intention and brand trust. The moderating effect of the type of online community was significant in predicting the relationship between attitude and brand trust but not between attitude and revisit intention. The study concludes the importance of managing online brand communities through managerial implications.     

在线品牌社群对企业双元创新的影响路径——资源、组织与领导的三维组态分析

在线品牌社群是企业创新的重要外部协同主体,其创新协同路径有待深入揭示。文章基于双元创新角度,运用QCA研究方法,通过294份有效问卷数据,研究了在线品牌社群的资源特质、组织结构、领导角色的组态效应对企业探索式和利用式双元创新的影响路径。研究发现：(1)在线品牌社群的自组织结构是探索式创新与利用式创新共有的必要条件;(2)探索式创新通过领导资源型和组织领导型两条等效影响路径发生作用;(3)利用式创新通过资源组织型与资源领导型两条等效影响路径发生作用。研究结论有助于拓展企业外部创新来源,从在线品牌社群的角度为两类创新范式找到差异化的影响路径,为社群运营提供策略支持。     

Antecedents of customer participation in business ecosystems: evidence of customers’ psychological ownership in Facebook

Customers can influence the health of business ecosystem through their participation. What are the determinants of customer participation at the business ecosystem level? This study addresses this question by proposing a research model integrating the organizational socialization of customers, customer participation, and psychological ownership. It proposes customers’ psychological ownership as an antecedent of their participation in the business ecosystem. No study to date has empirically examined customer participation in business ecosystems. This study tests the hypotheses based on online survey data from 397 Facebook users. The results show that psychological ownership is a significant determinant of customer participation in the business ecosystem via word-of-mouth (WOM) and boycott intention. The result of our study also indicates that customer socialization significantly affects customer participation in the individual firm, which in turn leads to an increased psychological ownership. This study (a) broadens the concept of customer participation by examining it via the business ecosystem lens and (b) highlights WOM and boycott activities as examples of customer participation at the business ecosystem level.     

在线品牌社群成员参与程度对其社群认同的影响——产品类型和品牌熟悉度的调节

文章根据互动和非互动划分社群成员参与程度的高低，通过两个实验探究了在不同产品类型和品牌熟悉度的情境下，在线品牌社群成员参与程度对其社群认同的影响差异。研究发现：对于搜索品，社群参与程度较低时，其社群认同更强；对于体验品，社群参与程度较高时，其社群认同更强。另外，对于低熟悉度品牌，产品类型的调节作用仍然存在。但对于高熟悉度品牌，无论是搜索品还是体验品，社群参与程度较高时，其社群认同更强。最后，文章为企业在线品牌社群管理提出了营销建议。     

Role of customer perceived brand ethicality in inducing engagement in online brand communities

In recent times, ethical consumerism has motivated firms to behave ethically to garner various benefits for their brands. More specifically, firms have become more conscious of consumers' perceptions of brand ethicality. Thus, recent research on this topic attempts to explore the factors that can lead to the formation of perceptions of brand ethicality and its favorable outcomes for the brand. This research contributes to the existing literature on brand ethicality by examining the role of perceived brand marketing communications in engendering perceptions of brand ethicality among consumers. Further, this research explores online brand community engagement as the outcome of perceived brand ethicality. The study's results based on the analysis of 397 responses exhibit that various elements of brand communications tend to generate favorable perceptions of brand ethicality. Such perceptions of the brand ethicality further induce an inclination towards engaging with online communities of such brands. The study offers specific implications for academicians and practitioners.     

Determinants and Outcomes of Online Brand Tribalism: Exploring Communities of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs)

Online consumption communities, involving millions of online consumers, have been created around massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs). Within these communities, players who share interest in MMORPGs convene, interact, and collaborate with fellow players and achieve game‐related outcomes. As these online social networks have been noted to augment, and perhaps supplant person‐to‐person interaction, this study focuses on the drivers of inherent interpersonal relationships, the nature of the constructed society, and resulting consumer initiatives to sustain and nurture the organization. Specifically, this research suggests that MMORPG communities transcend more facile forms of online or brand communities and demonstrate characteristics that can most aptly be construed as brand tribalism in the anthropological sense. Here, the challenge and telepresence innate in playing MMORPGs, cognitive and affective involvement associated with MMORPGs, and commitment to MMORPGs are modeled as antecedents of brand tribalism or a sense of the relationship with the brand and MMORPG community. Consequently, intent to purchase MMORPG‐related virtual products, recruitment of other MMORPG players, and word of mouth are identified as consequences of this unique consumer–brand relationship. Further analysis reveals the negatively charged emotional measure (i.e., defense of the tribe) within the tribalism instrument explains more variance in the outcome variables than the positively charged emotional measures (i.e., lineage, social, sense of community). Implications and future research directions are offered.     

Does Size Matter? An Examination of Small and Large Web-Based Brand Communities

We investigate the causal relationship between brand community identification, brand affect, community loyalty, brand loyalty, brand evangelism, and community evangelism, developing a structural equation model set within the context of online brand communities for newly hybridized roses. The analysis considers size as a moderator for the relationships between constructs, comparing small and large web-based brand communities. Findings highlight that small communities operate differently from larger ones with regard to numerous aspects, and possess specific strengths and weaknesses. Members of small communities develop higher community loyalty; brand loyalty in small community stems more from community loyalty than from brand affect; small communities engage in word of mouth for the community more than in word of mouth for the brand. Managerial implications are addressed.     

An Explorative Study of Korean Consumer Participation in Virtual Brand Communities in Social Network Sites

ABSTRACT

The importance of virtual brand communities in social network sites has received increasing attention from both academia and industry. In surveying a sample of 333 virtual brand community members in Korean social network sites, the current study provides a baseline understanding of the antecedents and consequences of virtual brand communities. The findings here suggest that members of brand communities have six primary social and psychological motives for engaging in virtual community activities: interpersonal utility, brand loyalty, entertainment seeking, information seeking, incentive seeking, and convenience seeking. Our findings also indicate that members of consumer versus marketer-generated brand communities show both similarities and differences in terms of the extent of community participation and the levels of community commitment, satisfaction, and future intention. Our findings provide useful managerial implications for marketers who want to tap into the huge communication potential of this new marketing communication tool and medium, as they offer insight into the proactive role of consumers in today's marketplace.     

Transforming visitors into members in online brand communities: Evidence from China

Using observational learning theory, this study investigates how simply viewing posts can affect visitors' intentions to join an online brand community. The study finds that the viewing of posts leads to informational value and perceived social value, which in turn increases visitors' intentions to participate in the community. For visitors with brand ownership, both informational value and perceived social value play full mediating roles; for visitors without brand ownership, both values play partial mediating roles. In addition, for visitors with brand ownership, informational value is just as important as perceived social value in shaping their participation intentions; for those without brand ownership, perceived social value is more important than informational value. The findings enrich the brand community literature and provide implications for brand community development.     

Designing Mobile Brand Communities: Concept and Empirical Illustration

Brand communities are a commonly used marketing instrument to enhance customer attraction and retention. Well-known success stories of brand communities include brands such as Jeep®, Apple Macintosh®, or Harley Davidson®. Despite the great importance for companies to effectively manage the social facet of their products, research in this field has been rare. In literature, indications for success factors and constituting elements of communities have been found. However, seldom have viable business cases for the community operator been provided.

We propose the mobile channel to be a particularly promising media for establishing brand communities. Due to the significant and still increasing worldwide penetration of mobile devices and current always-on location sensitive mobile services, innovative community concepts bear the potential for substantial value creation, which tends to result in positive effects on customer loyalty and brand equity for the community operator.

In this article, we review selected literature to develop propositions on how concepts for mobile brand communities can be developed. Building on the 4 constituting elements of a community, which are member entities, shared interest, common space of interaction, and relation, combined with the specific characteristics of the mobile channel, which are location awareness, ubiquity, identification, and immediacy, we developed a procedure on how to design mobile brand communities according to perceived consumer value. We use the case of a mobile content provider to illustrate the suggested process. Starting from the theoretical mobile community model, we apply means–end chains to do justice to the specific brand values. In concluding, we propose a 4-step model of key mobile brand community design tasks.     

在线品牌社群成员关系如何促进品牌忠诚——基于强弱连带整合的视角

文章从强弱连带整合的视角,探讨在线品牌社群成员强关系和弱关系数量对品牌忠诚的促进机制。借鉴社会资源理论的研究框架,基于品牌社群相关理论,本文提出了研究假设,并采用偏最小二乘法进行实证检验。结果显示：弱关系数量不会增强品牌社群信息价值和社群社交价值;强关系数量则对两种社群价值都有促进作用;品牌社群信息价值只能促进持续性社群承诺,而品牌社群社交价值会促进持续性社群承诺、情感性社群承诺和规范性社群承诺;情感性社群承诺和持续性社群承诺都会促进品牌忠诚,规范性社群承诺则不能。研究结论从连带强度的视角丰富了品牌社群理论,同时对在线品牌社群建设具有指导意义。