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.     

Understanding drivers and outcomes of lurking vs. posting engagement behaviours in social media-based brand communities

ABSTRACT

Social media-based brand communities (SMBBC) are ideal tools to develop Consumer Engagement (CE). Yet, brands do not fully understand whether members are really loyally engaged with the brand and uncertainties remain regarding SMBBC return on investment. Therefore, our aim is to understand what drives CE within SMBBC, to relate it to different CE behaviours and to study its impact on brand loyalty. Data from 213 Facebook users was analysed using PLS-SEM. The study concludes that the drivers for passive/lurking and active/posting behaviours differ and vary according to brand type, with the former revealing a stronger positive association with brand loyalty than the latter. This study also provides valuable insights into CE literature and to brands holding SMBBC, helping them to successfully develop social media strategies.     

How to inspire users in virtual travel communities: The effect of activity novelty on users’ willingness to co-create

Virtual travel community managers tend to incorporate a degree of novelty within activity design to foster interaction between users. Little is known of how users respond to these novel activities. Based on customer inspiration theory, this research investigated the mechanisms of activity novelty on users' willingness to co-create and the moderating effect of user regulatory focus and activity goal attainability. Results of three scenario-based experiments revealed that activity novelty positively influenced users’ willingness to co-create via user inspiration. Promotion-focused users were more inspired by novel activities and in turn had a higher willingness to co-create than those were prevention-focused. When activity goal attainability was high (vs. low), the positive effect of activity novelty on inspiration was attenuated. We present the theoretical and practical implications of activity design within virtual travel communities.     

Virtual travel community members’ stickiness behaviour: How and when it develops

This paper aims to investigate simultaneously the influence of relational and personal factors on virtual travel community (VTC) members’ stickiness behavior. Thus, this study adds to limited research on the drivers and boundary conditions of VTC members’ stickiness behavior which is crucial for building thriving communities. With the increasingly fierce competition in the online travel market, enhancing VTCs site stickiness becomes timely and more important to avoid consumers switching easily to competitive websites. 431 online survey responses were obtained from the Where Are You Now (WAYN) VTC and analyzed using SEM. Results show trust plays a stronger role than commitment in strengthening members’ site stickiness. Contrary to conventional wisdom, site stickiness is stronger for male travelers and is weaker for high-income travelers but is not affected by age. The results contribute to SOR theory by shedding more light on how VTC members’ stickiness behavior develops and when it is stronger/weaker for a specific travel group. The findings also provide practical insights to assist VTC operators in vitalizing and cultivating members’ site stickiness and in allocating resources adequately.     

Exploring online comments from a strategic marketing stance to reduce wildlife crime

Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is an omnipresent global threat to ecological, social, and economic systems. Marketing expertise can aid in the mitigation and reduction of crime against wildlife using a variety of mechanisms. This paper focuses on how social media usage relates to the framing of conservation appeals. By studying the content of existing blogs, articles, white papers, and other online postings, we extract relevant themes and concepts. Conducting an unguided semantic analysis of our data, we analyzed messaging appeal strategies and the underlying social or informational frameworks they employ. Using literature on advertising appeal types and contrasting social/emotional with knowledge-based/informational messaging strategies, we identified how wildlife crime prevention content employs these rhetorical framing mechanisms. Through the lens of social learning theory, our study proposes messaging strategies as a framework for understanding online content. Crimes against wildlife are creating increasingly severe ecological, economic, and social damage within international political and social communities; individuals learn from and engage with online content, therefore appropriate framing mechanisms can aid marketers in designing effective prevention appeals.     

Tourism and employment in the Gambia

In addition to providing formal wage labor in hotels, airports, and the service infrastructure, tourism is said to provide possibilities for independent indigenous enterprise in handicrafts, entertainment, transport, through which the Gambians may, in effect, economically “lift themselves up by their bootstraps.” Such is the theory. This paper analyzes the actual employment possibilities in The Gambia provided by its recent tourism investment. From the findings of an economic survey the author concludes that hopes of economic development being catalyzed by tourism are unfounded and misleading. This conclusion is supported by a structural analysis and a characterization of the tourist industry in The Gambia by an investigation into the economic forces at work in the country, and by direct observations made by informants and the author concerning the impact tourism has made in spheres non-economic: the moral, the social, and the family.     

Reporting issues challenging the National Roads Authority of Papua New Guinea: the case for using local indigenous mechanisms

For many years, considerable resources have been expended on the National Roads Authority of Papua New Guinea to help build up and maintain the road assets for the economic and social development of Papua New Guinea. Evidence from the audit reports of the auditor-general of Papua New Guinea suggests that there appears room to improve the reporting and accountability of this authority through local indigenous mechanisms. The paper is an important warning for donor organizations about opportunism and how to prevent it (and worse).     

虚拟社区的概念、特征与营销启示探析

笔者在对虚拟社区的概念、特征进行回顾总结的基础上,对虚拟社区的概念进行界定并从营销视角对企业经营虚拟社区提出建议,认为虚拟社区的发展需要在提升信息技术、提高顾客需求满足、明确服务产品功能定位以及支持顾客的互动交流等多方面做出努力,以吸引并维持顾客的参与,扩大企业服务产品的消费群体,进而增强企业的竞争力。     

“I like to conserve the forest,but I also like the cash”. Socioeconomic factors influencing the motivation to be engaged in the Mexican Payment for Environmental Services Programme

Two of the main motives for people to be engaged in the Mexican Payment for Environmental Services (PES) programme are forest conservation and the income received from the programme. We explore the socioeconomic conditions that support choosing these motives. We used data from a 2012 nationwide survey, processed through logit models. Significant factors influencing the desire to conserve as a motive were family welfare improvement, land use change intention, and training. Those affecting income as a motive were formal education, indigenous people participation and training. Finally, factors related to both conservation and income, as a motive, were formal education, training, PES influence in water management, and land boundary conflicts. Income and conservation are not mutually exclusive motives for engagement in the programme, given that in developing countries income from PES may reduce the socioeconomic pressures triggering land use change, and has a role in conservation efforts, already present in many rural communities.