Typology of Online Brand Communities: An Examination of South Korean Automobile Online Brand Communities

The study explores how brand communities are structured and operate in the context of Korean Automobile Online Brand Communities (KAOBCs). The content analysis method was used to examine the characteristics of KAOBCs and identify the typology of the communities. The most popular search engine of South Korea, naver.com, was used to select sample KAOBCs. Our research finds that the socially-oriented community type is the most popular of the KAOBCs, followed by communication, information and business oriented communities in order. The number of community members, number of community staff, and duration of the community are the main determinants of KAOBCs.     

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.     

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.     

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。     

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。     

Creating Online Brand Personality: The Role of Personal Difference

This study explores the concept of online brand personality, creation of online brand personality, and the role of personal difference in terms of advertising effectiveness – memory and attitude. The primary research question is whether individual's matching personality to online brand creates different responses toward online brand in terms of advertising effectiveness, such as memory, attitude and behavior. The results found that: first, website structure is an important factor on subjects' attitude toward the website; second, individual's personality is an important moderator on the effects of website structure; and third, individual's personality and brand personality have a significant interaction effect on attitude and behavioral intention.     

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。     

品牌体验对品牌忠诚的影响:品牌社区的中介作用

文章以"动感地带"为测试品牌,在构建品牌体验、品牌社区和品牌忠诚三者之间概念模型的基础上,应用多元回归分析,实证研究了品牌体验、品牌社区对品牌忠诚的影响.研究发现:品牌体验对品牌社区具有显著的正向效应;品牌体验和品牌社区对品牌忠诚均具有明显的正向影响;品牌社区是品牌体验作用于品牌忠诚的中介变量,品牌体验更多的是通过品牌社影响品牌忠诚.这些研究结论为品牌忠诚影响因素的进一步研究提供了理论基础,对于企业创新品牌忠诚培育模式和策略也具有指导意义.     

人格特征对在线品牌社群信息分享意愿的影响研究——规范激励和结构保障的调节作用

以往关于尽责性和神经质人格特征对人们分享意愿影响的研究并未达成一致的结论。文章通过两个实验探讨尽责性和神经质对在线品牌社群信息分享意愿产生的影响,并且引入两个社群技术因素（规范激励与结构保障）,进一步探讨它们对上述影响的调节作用。结果发现尽责性正向影响信息分享意愿,而神经质负向影响信息分享意愿。此外,在线品牌社群提供规范激励时,相较于低尽责性,高尽责性成员的信息分享意愿会显著提高。而在线品牌社群提供结构保障时,相较于低神经质,高神经质成员的信息分享意愿会显著提高。研究结论能够帮助企业管理者更好地了解消费者在线品牌社群信息分享意愿的差异,以便针对性地对社群进行设计,促进社群成员有更多的信息分享行为。     

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。     

消费者参与品牌社群的内在动机研究

当今,品牌社群研究已成为国际品牌研究领域的一个前沿问题。然而,目前尚未有完整反映品牌社群形成机理的研究出现。为了揭示这一形成机理,文章从消费者需要角度来探究消费者参与品牌社群的动机。通过首次编制用于调查消费者参与品牌社群动机的问卷,并据此对296名消费者进行调查。然后,通过探索性和验证性因子分析得出消费者参与品牌社群动机的5因子模型,包括社交动机、休闲娱乐动机、信息动机、能力成就动机和经济利益动机。最后,对研究结论做出了讨论,并提出了后续研究方向。     

Cultural Differences in Consumer Engagement in Brand-Related SNS Groups: A Cross-Cultural Study of China and the United States

To gain a better understanding of consumer engagement in brand-related social network site (SNS) groups, this study examines how consumers engage with the brand and other members of the groups among different national cultures through the lens of brand community characteristics and collective value creation practices within brand communities. Through conducting a directed qualitative content analysis of two cases—consumer wall posts in a Facebook group and a Renren group—this study finds supporting evidence that although consumers in both groups actively shared their product use experiences, consumers in the Renren group tended to explicitly express their shared consciousness with other group members, share their product use experiences in a modest and respectful way, and actively engage in social networking, while consumers in the Facebook group tended to focus on product use sharing. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

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.     

文化符号在产品品牌形象塑造中的应用

利用文化符号塑造产品品牌形象对企业的发展十分重要。利用文化符号塑造产品的品牌形象需要多角度、全方位地打造。形态文化符号可以塑造产品品牌的外在美,语言文化符号可以提升品牌的附加值,而具有文化内涵的传播媒介符号可以打造产品品牌的亲和力。     

东西方文化差异与竞争优势——挑战宝洁

我国加入WTO以来,随着全球经济一体化的快速发展,我国市场正逐步全面向外国开放,我国企业面临着越来越激烈的来自外国公司的挑战。中国日用化工品市场开放较早,但到目前为止,却没有像家电产业那样形成自己的强势品牌,可与同类跨国公司在同一层次一较高下。因此,必须对我国日化市场上的领导者宝洁公司进行分析,探讨东西方文化差异在我国日化市场竞争中起到的作用,促进我国日化企业做大做强。     

Assessing the Effect of Personal Cultural Orientation on Brand Equity and Revisit Intention: Exploring Destination Branding in Latin America

ABSTRACT

Despite a growing body of work on destination branding, there are few studies to look at culture at the individual level and examine the potential impact of personal cultural orientation on destination brand equity. Based on Social Identity Theory, this study investigates tourists' personal cultural orientation (independent vs. interdependent) and its effect on destination brand equity (destination brand image, destination brand value, and destination brand quality) and revisit intention. All data were collected in Quepos, Costa Rica, using both person-administrated and online surveys. Results of this study reveal that personal cultural orientation impacts the destination brand image, destination brand value, and destination brand quality. In addition, the destination's brand value is positively related to the revisit intention. The theoretical and practical implications, as well as the future research directions, conclude the article.     

Beyond Adoption Intention: Online Communities and Member Motivation to Contribute Longitudinally

As online communities become increasingly relevant to business, it is critical to understand how to support contributors' motivation to contribute content longitudinally. In this article, we draw on existing literature on motivation and technology characteristics to conceptualize a model of longitudinal content contribution. We view longitudinal content contribution as a recursive process of interaction between contributors, other participants, and the IT artifacts of online communities. Our study has several important theoretical contributions: first, our study argues that different types of motivation exist and we need to understand how to support contributors' autonomous motivation; second, our study adds the time dimension to content contribution; third, our study clarifies the path from content contribution to motivation; forth, our study helps explain why some rewards can be detrimental to contributors' motivation. Future studies are needed to extend our model and test the propositions from our model.     

名牌和名牌群落的社会效应

名牌和名牌群落在改进区域消费意识 ,提高居民生活质量 ,提高产地知名度 ,促进采购集约化与消费集约化 ,有益外部性等方面产生积极地社会效应。名牌和名牌群落的出现既是区域经济和社会各种因素综合作用的结果 ,同时它也给区域经济和社会的发展以重要的影响。     

网络负面谣言与品牌崇拜：品牌口碑与沟通技巧的作用

文章对网络负面谣言与消费者品牌崇拜的关系,以及品牌口碑与沟通技巧在以上关系中所起的中介与调节作用进行了实证研究。研究以广州地区211家品牌服饰企业的品牌管理者为实证研究对象,通过对问卷调查数据进行层级回归分析发现：(1)网络负面谣言不但会直接负向影响消费者对企业的品牌崇拜,而且还会通过负向影响企业的品牌口碑,继而对消费者品牌崇拜产生负面影响,品牌口碑在网络负面谣言与消费者品牌崇拜关系中起部分中介作用;(2)沟通技巧程度强的企业品牌更能抵制网络负面谣言的影响,相对于低沟通技巧的企业,高沟通技巧企业的消费者较少因为网络负面谣言而降低其对原有消费品牌的崇拜。     

虚拟社群中的品牌定位——基于用户生成内容点互信息的实证研究

互联网的迅速发展使得虚拟的品牌社群不断涌现,如何测量用户生成内容中有关品牌的定位,从而了解用户对品牌的感知情况,对于营销理论界和实务界都具有重要意义。在研究中,开拓性地使用了点互信息理论和语义分析方法,从用户生成的文本信息中挖掘用户对品牌的感知情况,并将其量化得到品牌知觉图。通过对数据的分析,了解品牌在虚拟社群的用户中感知定位与公司定位初衷的差异,并且得到相互竞争的品牌在相同的定位维度上的差异。