Customer-to-customer Interaction in Online Brand Communities Influences Brand Loyalty

Abstract

With the development of Internet technology, online brand communities have increased rapidly. Through these communities, customers can interact with other customers, gain experience with products, obtain information about the products, and enhance brand loyalty. We conducted a questionnaire with 442 online brand community members to explore the internal mechanism of how customer-to-customer interaction in online brand communities influences brand loyalty. The results were as follows: (a) Customer-tocustomer interaction in online brand communities had a positive effect on brand loyalty, (b) both customers' pleasurable experience with the online community and their community identity mediated the relationship between customer-to-customer interaction and brand loyalty, and (c) community identity and pleasurable experience had a chain mediating effect in the relationship between customer-tocustomer interaction and brand loyalty. Implications of the findings are discussed.